Weird weather (Friday snow in the mountains?) precedes a mellow, springlike weekend. A weekend good for so many adventures, from heeding the advice of Edgar Winter and taking a free ride to gazing into the night sky.
Coast
A satellite view of the eastern seaboard at night is startling not so much for the artificial light that illuminates the region, but for the one spot that remains dark: far eastern North Carolina. A blink here and there, but mostly darkness. One night around 11, lying on a gravel road just outside Columbia, we saw the Milky Way with nearly the clarity I’d seen it years earlier camping at 9,000 feet in the Rockies.read more
Memorial Day weekend: it may not technically be summer’s meteorological kick off (that comes at 6:34 p.m. on June 20), but it certainly kicks off the season in our psyche. And the weather should be good for kicking if off in any number of adventurous ways, including …read more
In addition to this weekend being the Great Backyard Bird Count, there are other reasons to look up.
Coast
Winter is an especially good time to check out the night sky. Skies tend to be clearer (the cold zaps the moisture from the air) and when the clouds have scattered there’s so much to see. Even more so if you happen to be stargazing at the coast, where interference from light pollution is less of an issue.read more
Selma Cyclepaths: Top fundraising team at Bike MS for seven years in a row.
Ride not one but two days at the coast for a great cause, acquaint yourself with a sport that takes stones, cozy up to the night sky atop Mount Mitchell.
Coast
This may not be something you can pull off at the last minute; for one thing, fundraising is involved. But you should definitely put this weekend’sBike MS out of New Bern on your list for 2013.read more
The view from atop Jockey's Ridge (elevation 85 feet the day this was taken).
The first summerlike weather of the year has descended, but don’t let that keep you cooped up this weekend. Beat the heat with a coastal retreat, by doing the vampire thing and coming out at night, or hitting the high — particularly high — country.read more
