Editor’s note: Every year at this time, upon the dawn of Daylight Saving Time (it’s this Sunday, btw; remember to Spring forward), we celebrate the return of afterwork light with a tabulation of tips on how to celebrate this late-day sunlight. Most of these we’ve run before, a few are new. All, hopefully, will help you rev up your outdoor experiences.
Tag Archives: after work
DST: the gift of sunshine
Every year at this time, we get a gift: an extra hour of after-work daylight.
This time next week, after Daylight Saving Time kicks in on Sunday, the sun will set at 7:21 p.m. By month’s end, it will set at 7:36 p.m. That extra afternoon sunshine, friends, opens our evening outdoor opportunities.
After work, take a hike
Sunset today is at 8:19 p.m., with lingering light until 8:48 p.m. Come June 21—the Summer Solstice, the start of summer, the “longest” day of the year—sunset is at 8:34 p.m. Daylight starts diminishing after that, but by a quirk of Earth’s orbit, the sun continues to stay up longer until June 28, when sunset is at about 8:35, with light lingering until after 9 p.m.
That is a lot of evening daylight to play with.
This is why we’re adding more midweek, after-work hikes in our GetHiking! programs. This week, for instance, we’ve got:
- Tuesday: 3-mile hike at Brumley Family Nature Preserve in Hillsborough.
- Wednesday: 3-mile hike at Johnston Mill Nature Preserve in Chapel Hill.
- Thursday: GetOriented! Finding your Way in the Woods in Greensboro.
We started doing after-work hikes three years ago, through our GetHiking! Corporate program. Every Tuesday and Thursday, workers from IQVIA, SAS, MetLife and elsewhere head to Umstead State Park for a hike of 3 to 4 miles. It’s not so much the exercise they’re after—they could get that in their corporate gyms. Rather, it’s a vital midweek fix of being outdoors and on the trail that helps them keep it together until the weekend.
Sounds good, you say, but …
=&0=&. Summer is hot, true. The temperature typically spikes around 5 p.m., so if you’re starting at 6, the temperature is already starting to drop. Further, if you’re hiking on a wooded trail, that full canopy overhead drops the temperature by about 10 degrees. A 90-degree scorcher suddenly becomes a more manageable 80-degree hike.
=&1=&. It does tend to be …
moist
90 Second Escape: Evening Summer Paddle
90 Second Escape: Evening Paddle
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 or slide show 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.
Today’s 90-Second Escape: Evening Summer Paddle
Here’s something we hope to be doing a whole lot more of this summer: hang with us for 90 Seconds on this escape from three years ago and you’ll understand why.
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90 Second Escape: Last Call
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 or slide show 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.
Today’s 90-Second Escape: Last Call at Lake Crabtree
Daylight is entering that period were it becomes a premium for an after work escape. This evening, the sun officially sets in Raleigh at 8:11 p.m. In two weeks, it goes down at 7:45 and in a month we’ll call it a day at 7:24. Our summer evenings of adventure will soon by gone, so take advantage of them while you can.
To that end, we share 90 seconds of what it’s like at Lake Crabtree, one of the area’s most popular after work playgrounds. Enjoy, then vow to take advantage of our waning sunlight.
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