I was on a bike ride early Saturday, headed out of town on a route I’ve been doing about twice a week for most of the summer. A mile into the ride, settling into my groove, I noticed, with the binocular from Vortex I’d bought, a car with a kayak rack parked in a gravel pullout on the opposite side of the road. Just beyond, I noticed a narrow clearing in the lush woods leading down to an oxbow in the Eno River, a spot where the river slows pools up. I didn’t think much of it and pedaled on.
Category Archives: Hiking
GetOut! Your Nudge for Weekend Adventure
Summer called: it misses you and wants you to know it won’t be around forever — would it hurt you to pay a visit?
Did I say summer or your mother? In any event, Labor Day weekend, the ceremonial end of summer, is in three weeks and we have a most summer-friendly weekend on tap that you should get out and enjoy (before it’s too late): temperatures in the upper 80s under mostly sunny skies. Get Out and enjoy!
There’s a little Alex Honnold in you
Talking with author/climber Mark Synnott earlier this week about his new book, “The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan and the Climbing Life,” I was touched by something vaguely familiar. Vaguely, and weirdly, because the book is about one of the most audacious physical and psychological feats of our time: Honnold’s ascent of El Capitan, a 3,000-foot near-sheer rockface in Yosemite National Park — without any form of protection to save him should he slip from one of the wall’s precarious microscopic holds. What could possibly be familiar about that?
GetOut! Your Friday Nudge for Weekend Adventure
It’s been cool most of the week throughout our blogging area, and it will be cool again at least on Saturday, making this the perfect summer weekend to get in a hike.
Mount Jefferson Downhill Skateboarding Event, Saturday and Sunday, starts at 9 a.m. both days, Mount Jefferson State Natural Area, West Jefferson. Scratching your head, are you? Here’s the deal: The 1.6-mile road to the summit of 4,683-foot Mount Jefferson will be closed to vehicles both days to accommodate the mountain’s annual downhill skateboard race. Yup, youngsters on skateboards — more than 100 of ‘em — will skateboard down the mountain, dropping more than 700 vertical feet along the way. However, there will be shuttle service to the top of the mountain: park at the Lowe’s in West Jefferson and take a shuttle to the top, where you can hike the park’s 5 miles of trail. And you can check out the race as well. (FYI, one of the sponsors for the race, the Ian Tilmann Foundation, will be giving helmets to the first 100 kids who sign a pledge to wear a helmet while skateboarding.) Learn more about the race here and hiking at Mount Jefferson here.
Joyce Kilmer/Slickrock: Wilderness Defined
The trail was wilder than I remembered. Simply finding the trailhead at the overgrown intersection of trails atop the Naked Ground meadow was a challenge, keeping it was even more so less than 100 yards in. The 10 of us slowly plowed through a welter of every type of Southern Appalachian understory — from rhododendron and mountain laurel to blueberries and huckleberries, unable to even see the trail beneath our feet at times. Our only guide: the firm ground beneath. About a mile in, the real fun began.