Well, bummer. I wasn’t planning on doing a Weekend Plans this week because I assumed there wasn’t going to be a weekend. Wiley Mayans! So I’m both gullible and slack. Since it appears the weekend will happen, since it isn’t the end of the world as we know it, some last-minute thoughts on how to celebrate life going on.
We were walking an off-the-beaten path trail at Lake Johnson when we came upon the … devices. They were laying along the bank, and appeared to have been carefully placed there. They were identical, each consisting of two one-liter plastic pop bottles painted gray and linked with about six inches of pvc pipe. Another piece of pvc, about two feet long and wrapped in lime green water noodle foam, was attached at the midpoint, forming a T.
Maybe you’ve been fishing, maybe you’ve kayaked — but have you fished from a kayak? Maybe you consider yourself an avid hiker. But how many times do you venture off the trail for some real exploring? Or maybe it’s time you tried the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of cycling: cyclo-cross. An array of new experiences await this weekend in North Carolina.
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
Explore the largest overwintering population of waterfowl along the East Coast at Lake Mattamuskeet, learn who your winter hiking companions are, or hike the Celo community. It’s all possible this weekend in North Carolina.
Coast
This one is well worth the price considering its a waning chance to sit in on a nature program led by one of the state’s premier naturalists. Friday and Saturday, the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences sponsors “Lake Mattamuskeet Adventure,” a chance to explore Lake Mattamuskeet and the neighboring Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, which together represent one of the largest overwintering sites for waterfowl on the East Coast. Spend day both days — 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. — learning to identify the various waterfowl, raptors and other birds that spend the season here.