Category Archives: Hiking

Pre-spring fever: catch it this weekend

This weekend: Learn how to use a map and compass, learn how to play golf with a disc, learn your strengths as a hiker.

Coast

Ever wonder what happens when the battery in your GPS dies? You wouldn’t have to, nor would you care, if you were skilled in the art of orienteering. Orienteering: the ancient (pre 2000) art of wayfinding with map and compass. In fact, even if you’ve had a fully-charged GPS you’ve probably wished you knew how to to use a map and compass (the things aren’t 100 percent reliable). read more

Take the back door into Middle Prong Wilderness

Wilderness areas shouldn’t be the private domain of only the most intrepid swashbuckling types who have no compunction about pushing through where the trail disappears, about fording waist-deep streams, about scrambling through rhododendron hells ever-so-deserving of the name. They shouldn’t be their private playground and they needn’t be. Provided you know how to get in the back door. read more

This weekend: Plunge, hike, run

Make February go faster by getting out this weekend

Coast

February: on paper the shortest month, in your mind, the longest. Forced to bridge the gap between dread, post-holiday, dreary cold January and the start of spring in March, February can seem interminable. The best way to escape the February doldrums? Jump into an icy cold Atlantic Ocean. read more

A weekend afoot

Go short, go long, go fast: Those are among your options this weekend in North Carolina.

Coast

Whenever I run across someone who’s just been to Goose Creek State Park for the first time, their first comment is, “Wow! Why didn’t I know about this place?” Maybe it’s because it’s off the beaten path (it’s between Washington and Bath off a lesser traveled stretch of U.S. 264). Maybe it’s because it doesn’t have a famous landmark at it’s core (the dunes at Jockey’s Ridge State Park, Bear Island at Hammocks Beach State Park). Maybe because it doesn’t have easily accessed recreational opportunities, such as the rental canoes at Merchants Millpond State Park. read more