Category Archives: Hiking

Too hot? Don’t sweat it

Cool off with a good book.

I have various rules of thumb for when it’s too hot to do certain things. Over 80? Too hot to hike (sweat + overnight cobweb construction + lots of body hair makes me feel like a wad of cotton candy after a mile or so). I draw the line slightly higher, at 85, for running, mainly because of the skimpy apparel involved. I’ll paddle into the low 90s, but not on open, unshaded water. I can handle 90 degrees on a mountain bike; the calculation becomes more involved on a road bike. I’ll ride up to 95 on road, maybe higher if I don’t have to stop; few things are more demoralizing than coming to a stoplight after generating an 18-mile-per-hour breeze, then losing that breeze altogether. (Sweaty fact: 109 F is 42.777 C.) read more

This weekend: Get out and enjoy (?) the heat

The forecast calls for record heat, in the Piedmont at least, this weekend. So … stock up on that dry ice they’re selling now at the Teeter.

Coast

Is there a more appropriate way to celebrate our nation’s 236th birthday than by running 3.1 miles? Probably. But it’s certainly a good way to celebrate our independence, which is no doubt what the people of Southport thought when they decided to include the Freedom Run as part of their North Carolina 4th of July Festival. And deciding to hold it five days before the Fourth of July was no doubt inspired by the desire to be able to walk again come Independence Day. read more

Don’t think you can? Meet Elizabeth and Peggy

Trail? As Elizabeth discovered, you miss out on the interesting stuff if you stick to the trail.

A couple weekends ago I set out to find two of the hardest group hikes around.

I struck gold.

On Saturday, I tapped into one of “wild & crazy” Steve G. Martin’s infamous off-trail hikes at Stone Mountain State Park. Since discovering Stone Mountain 5 years ago, Martin has been been trying to uncover every one of the 14,100-acre park’s many secrets, very few of which lie along the park’s 16.5 miles of blazed trail. Among other things, Martin has found 350 stills, “Area 15” (a fenced area that may or may not be the entrance to a secret underground military base) and numerous old homesteads previously unknown to park authorities. He has lead about 200 hikes, mostly through the Triad Hiking & Outdoors Group, mostly off-trail, most with multiple disclaimers such as “there’s a 50-50 chance we won’t make it back.” read more

This weekend: Don’t retreat, get out and beat the heat

The view from atop Jockey's Ridge (elevation 85 feet the day this was taken).

The first summerlike weather of the year has descended, but don’t let that keep you cooped up this weekend. Beat the heat with a coastal retreat, by doing the vampire thing and coming out at night, or hitting the high — particularly high — country. read more

Solitude atop the East Coast

Temperatures in the upper 60s, sunny skies, summer vacation season in full bloom. All the makings for a miserable day atop Mount Mitchell in the summertime-popular Mount Mitchell State Park. Miserable, that is, if you stuck around the snack bar, the gift shop, the newly yellow-brick-trailed path to the mountaintop observation deck and the parking lot, where an endless stream of silence-piercing motorcycles slowly, loudly lit. read more