Category Archives: Hiking

Weekend Quick Escape: Beating the PTO Blues

It seemed like a good idea when it first occurred to us. Based on how this past weekend went, turns out it was.

This weekend we held our first GetBackpacking! Weekend Quick Escape. The premise: fall is perhaps the best time of year to be in the backcountry. It’s also the time when us working stiffs discover we’ve plowed through our PTO (or what we referred to as “vacation” in simpler times). The challenge: cram as much adventure into the time between when the 5 o’clock whistle blows on Friday and it’s time to pick out our wardrobe for Monday. read more

GetOut! Your Friday Nudge for Weekend Adventure

We’ve got another gift-of-fall weekend coming up. There might be some rain Sunday, but at this point Saturday looks ideal, with lots of sun and temperatures in the upper 50s to upper 60s. So many ways to take advantage of weather like this, weather that won’t be around a lot longer. And as today’s video shows, there’s finally good color moving into the Piedmont. read more

Winter Wild: true adventure close to home

Maybe our maps no longer include large swaths of land marked “terra incognita” or “dragons be here,” but does that mean there are no true adventures left to be had — on Earth, at least?

Granted, there may be no more Severnaya Zemlyas (“a harsh archipelago of polar desert off the coast of Siberia, discovered in 1913 and not fully explored until 1930”), but that doesn’t mean that true adventure is dead. Make that “true adventure to you.” read more

GetOut! your friday nudge for weekend adventure

A little confession: this week’s video isn’t from this past week. It’s from a year ago, almost to the day. We share it again because it reflects the weather pattern from a year ago: rain during the week, then three days of sunshine and cold overnight temps. The perfect formula for letting loose the kind of color we hope to find in the woods on a fall weekend. The kind of color we expect you’ll find on this fall weekend. That said, some thoughts on how to best enjoy color on the weekend ahead … read more

Let the night hiking begin!

When we head down the trail, one of our goals is to head out of our lives. Not that we’re escaping ourselves — necessarily. Rather, the parts of our life — the social media babble, the job, a demanding cat — from which we need a break. Curious that we seek to escape by heading somewhere so open and exposed. Even curiouser that it’s so effective. read more