I’d just finished leading a hike at the Butner Game Lands along Falls Lake. I had 5 miles under my belt, a good day in my book, and besides, I had a boatload of chores to do at home. But the sky was a cloudless blue, the temperature was on its way into the mid-70s, and I was 15 minutes from the only place in the piedmont where I was 99 percent sure I would find the thing that, for me, means spring has truly arrived.
Category Archives: spring
From Imbolc to Equinox
Spring officially is three weeks away; is it too soon to start the countdown?
Actually, it’s a bit late.
Here’s how my spring countdown unfolds, beginning with …
Imbolc, Feb. 1. This traditional Gaelic observance marks the mid-point of winter, halfway between the winter solstice (Dec. 21) and the spring equinox (March 20).
It’s Spring, hike longer
Saturday looks rainy, but Sunday looks hiking perfect, with cloudless skies and temperatures in the 50s. Cool weather coupled with the first weekend of spring and our desire to spend more time on the trail seems like a good time for a longer hike. And by “longer” for this time of year we mean in the 4- to 7-mile range. Nothing too strenuous, but just enough to push yourself, to get you building your hiking legs for peak hiking season.
It’s spring! Here’s how to avoid crowded trails
It’s always been a goal to hike the trails less traveled. It’s a goal we’ve embraced with extra gusto over the past two years.
Quick recap: hiking was pretty popular prior to March 2020, it became the go-to source of not only outdoor recreation, but recreation of any kind after March 2020, it being deemed the only safe form of recreation in the face of a global pandemic. While hiking no longer bears that mantel, scads of folks who discovered the joy of hiking over the past two years aren’t going away. And the beginning of spring is when you really begin to notice the increased number of hikers on the the trail.