One of the best opportunities to explore the outdoors in North Carolina is over the next six days at the the coastal Wings Over Water, now celebrating its 16th year.
Coast
Got some vacation time — or in these hard corporate times, “furlough” time — you need to burn by year’s end? Tell the boss you’re taking off for a trip to the coast. True, the water is chilly and it’s hard to get an even tan wearing a parka. But that shouldn’t affect you since you’ll be at Wings Over Water.
Time was, people sought to slow things down on hiking trails. Not anymore.
In 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, the Outdoor Foundation counted 5.1 million trail runners in the United States, an increase of 1 million from just four years earlier.
Instead of lumbering through the woods like a groggy bear emerging from a winter’s nap, we’re increasingly inclined to bound down the trail like a spooked deer.
We do it to seek solitude, we do it en masse to see who’s the fastest. The Umstead 100, Salem Lake Trail Runs the various races at the National Whitewater Center and scores of other runs fill up immediately, sometimes within minutes of registration opening.
With all that trail running, we’re constantly in search of trails to run on. Hence our latest effort in our collaboration with the Great Outdoor Provision Co.: Five great trail runs in seven North Carolina cities. Those cities: Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem.
We’ve written up descriptions of each location and provided all the information you need — location, directions, route details and more — to plan and execute your trail run.
You can find the runs in one of two ways. One, since you’re already here at GetGoingNC.com, go to the bar on the left side of the home page and click “Trail Running.” A drop-down menu will appear showing you the seven markets. Click on the market of your choice and you’ll be given quick descriptions of each run. Click on a run you’re interested in and you’ll be whisked over to the Great Outdoor Provision Co. Web site where the descriptions will live. Your other option: go directly to the GOPC site.
The locations selected reflect a joint effort by GetGoingNC and Great Outdoor Provision. I come up with a preliminary list of locations, I then send that list to GOPC, which submits the recommendations to the appropriate market. There, it’s gone over by the local GOPC staff. Something to know about the people who work at Great Outdoor Provision: they aren’t exactly in it for the money. Rather, they have a passion for the outdoors and a resulting knowledge that they are only too glad to share. They get out a lot and they know their terrain better than anyone. You’re getting recommendations from the people who know the most about their locale and the best places to be outside.
Check out our list, lace up your sneakers and hit the trail.
There’s lots of outdoor adventure to be goblin’ up this last weekend of October: a spirited run in Wilmington, a haunted night hike at Jordan Lake, a hike into history in the Great Smokies.
Coast
Tis the weekend of the pumpkin run, and while they abound across the state the Trick-or-Treat Trot in downtown Wilmington rises to the top of our list. In large part, that’s because it’s in downtown Wilmington. Run your choice of race — Monster Mile, 5K or 10K — at 9 a.m., then have the rest of the day to kick around Wilmington. Hang downtown, head over to Carolina Beach State Park and do some exploring, hit the beach (the water temperature at Wrightsville Beach as of Tuesday was 71.6).
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
A little behind in ticking off your 2012 resolutions? This weekend gives you a chance to knock off a sprint tri, a mud run or a 5K.
Coast
A sprint triathlon isn’t the kind of thing you decide to do at the last minute. Unless … . Unless, for instance, you’ve had an active year but thought your season was over in September. Then, suddenly, you hear about a sprint tri this Saturday at Emerald Isle. Or unless one of your resolutions for the year was to do a sprint tri and here it is mid-October and you still haven’t done one. Or unless you don’t have plans for the weekend and a swim/bike/run at the coast sounds fun.