Weekend trail festivals — a weekend devoted to all things trails — are great fun. Trouble is, what trail festivals there are in the area — AT Trail Days in Damascus, Va.; NC Trail Days in Elkin — are few and far between.
Until this year.
This year, as part of North Carolina’s observance of Year of the Trail, among the hundreds of Year of the Trail events are 11 weekend trail festivals. Most will follow this format:
Running a little behind this week, so, as we do on occasion, we proclaim this a DIY weekend: We provide the resources, you find your weekend adventure.
Enjoy!
Land trusts offer some of the best programs around, from the Eno River Association’s Sunday Hike Series to the Triangle Land Conservancy’s Speed Hikes.
The good news for the weekend: the heat — excessive heat — will move out. It will, however, be replaced with a little rain. So keep a close eye on the forecast, the radar and the sky before heading out. And when you do head out, here are 5 of our favorite options for the weekend.
The three-day Fourth of July weekend is upon us, and boy do we have some great — and patriotically appropriate — options!
Cannon Day, Monday, July 4, five demonstrations from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Fort Macon State Park, Atlantic Beach. What says the 4th more than the firing of one of the biggest fireworks around — a cannon! Learn about the various cannons at this installation that dates back to 1747 and efforts to protect English settlers from Spanish raiders. At the end of each demonstration, they fire a cannon1 (It’s a blank, but still … .) Work in an ocean walk during your visit. More info here.
We’re about hiking. Mostly.
This summer, though, in deference to the heat, we’re mixing in some paddling trips. Beginner-oriented, on lakes and otherwise still water, one in an area where we hike (the Three-Rivers area of Falls Lake, which abuts Day-Hike Section S of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail), one where we don’t (Saxapahaw Lake).
