Even if you’re a dedicated couch surfer, that springlike weather we had last week, when the temperature reached 80 in some spots, got you thinking, didn’t it? Maybe the outdoors isn’t such a bad place. Maybe I should plan to spend more time outside.
Category Archives: Hiking
GetOut! Your Nudge for Weekend Adventure
After a dang cold week we’re heading into a darn nice weekend, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures, brace yourself, reaching 60.
So if you’ve been hibernating so far this winter, now’s your chance to emerge from your den for an adventure. An adventure such as:
A Winter Wild time Hiking off-trail at Hanging Rock
I knew I’d found a kindred spirit in Jim Plant when, during my interrogation of his intimate knowledge of Hanging Rock State Park, he said, “But then, I prefer to go off-trail.” Jim and fellow Friends of the Sauratown Mountains members Regina Rollins and Sarah Werner were standing on a rock outcrop with GetHiking!’s Alison Watta and me, surveying a vast stretch of undeveloped land in the 7,000-acre state park north of the Triad.
Layer up and Get OuT
On Saturday morning’s GetHiking! hike at Umstead State Park, half the number of hikers who signed up showed up. No mystery there: it was cold.
What is a mystery is why so many hikers let a little thing like freezing temperatures keep them off the trail. As we may have mentioned (just last week, in fact), we love a winter hike: among other things, there are fewer people, fewer bugs, and it’s blissfully quiet. Yet too many people miss out because they don’t know how to dress. Let’s solve that problem here and now.
GetOut! Your Friday Nudge for Weekend Adventure
It’s looking like another one-day weekend. The forecast: Saturday: cold and dry; Sunday: cold and wet.
- Cox Mountain Hike, Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Eno River State Park, Durham. Watch the accompanying video — see the hillier sections? Those are from the Cox Mountain Trail, the very same Cox Mountain trail that’s the focus of this 4- to 5-mile hike. Learn more and sign up here.
- Hike to Tory’s Den, Saturday, 1 p.m., Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury. New to this hiking thing and not sure you can hike very far, but still want some great scenery and you want it pretty much to yourself? (Boy, you’re demandy!) You can have it all on this half-mile round-trip hike on one of the lesser-visited, but still scenically awesome, trails at Hanging Rock. Learn more and sign up here.
- Wildings: Winter Wing Watching, Saturday 10 a.m., Weymouth Woods State Natural Area, Southern Pines. Remember when “wilding” was a bad thing done by juvenile hoodlums? Well, it’s practiced differently down in Southern Pines, where this wilding also features youths (ages 6 to 10), but involves them quietly watching birds. Learn more and sigh up here.
As always, you can find more opportunities this weekend here:
- North Carolina State Parks have a variety of adventures planned for the weekend. Check those options here.
- North Carolina Environmental Education Centers has an extensive calendar of what’s happening at its affiliates; check it out here.
- You can also find more adventures right here, at GetGoingNC.com
What we’re up to
Here are highlights of what GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! are up to this weekend:
=&6=&, Saturday, 1-2:30 p.m., Great Outdoor Provision Co., Raleigh. Join our GetBackpacking! braintrust for an all-encompassing discussion of all things backpacking, from how to get started to how to drop a pound or two. Learn more and sign up here.
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