Coast | Coastal Plain

Any event of athletic endurance should end with a flourish. Few end with the flourish of the Go Jump in the Lake 5K, 10K and 15 K in Boiling Springs.

The course is mostly around Spring Lake, site of a summer triathlon known for its heat. It’s not likely to be much cooler for Saturday’s GJITL 5/10/15K. However, in the spirit of flourishing finishes, this race ends with contestants eagerly fulfilling the race’s intent, and jumping into the lake. Talk about incentive!

Logistics: Saturday, Sept. 3, 8:30 a.m., Boiling Springs. $15-$35. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Sunny with a race-time high near 70.

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Looking ahead: Wilmington YMCA Sprint Triathlon, Sept. 17, Blockade Runner, Wrightsville Beach. More info by calling 910.256.2251.

Piedmont

Sometimes, what we need to motivate us to move is motivation that’s not about moving.

That logic is for the birds, you say?

It is in the case of Saturday’s Birding with Vernon at Lake Crabtree County Park in Morrisville. “Join our bird enthusiast, Vernon,” states a description of the event, “for an easy walk while looking and listening for our feathered friends. Discover different types of birds and their habitats.​“ (And get a healthy walk in, to boot.)

Logistics: Saturday, Sept. 3, 8:30 a.m., Lake Crabtree County Park, Morrisville. Free. More info here

Saturday forecast: High in the upper 60s, chance of rain.

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Looking ahead: Nature at Night, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 7-8:30 p.m., Lake Crabtree County Park, Morrisville. More info here.

Mountains

Nothing like an organized bike ride that recognizes all levels of preparedness. Been riding all season and in top form? Then the 100-mile and 100k (62 miles) options of Labor Day’s Tour d’Apple out of Hendersonville is for you. Likewise, if you’re in pretty good shape, but not that good of shape, you could try TdA’s 45-mile route. Haven’t dusted off your bike yet this summer? Perhaps you’d best be advised to do the 25-mile version.

All good options with plenty of rest stops and great scenery on this ride(s) that begin and end from Blue Ridge Community College. Sugarloaf Mountain, Bearwallow Mountain, Terry’s Gap, Pinnacle Mountain, Jump Off Rock — all some of the features you may (or may not) encounter, depending upon your route. Proceeds benefit the various charitable efforts of the Henderson Four Seasons Rotary Club.

Logistics: Monday, Sept. 5, 8 a.m. Blue Ridge Community College, Hendersonville. $55. More info here.

Monday forecast: Sunny with highs in the 70s.

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Looking ahead: Elk Knob Headwaters Community Day, Elk Knob State Park, Saturday, Sept. 10, 11 a.m.. More info here.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

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GetGoingNC.com

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Coast: Walking carrots

Need a reason to walk (beyond the fact that it’s good for you)? You’ll find three reasons in Wilmington Saturday.

Like to see how other folks live? The Downtown Lifestyle Tour takes you through the Brooklyn Arts District and other historic parts of downtown to checkout the lifestyles of the not-necessarily-rich-and-famous; rather, those who have a certain flare for urban living. Condos, townhomes, single-family homes — some of which are for sale or rent. Self guided.

More on the historical side is the Guided Architectural Walking Tour sponsored by Historic Wilmington. Start from Forest Hills Elementary and check out one of Wilmington’s first suburbs to bloom as a result of the automobile. Plan to spend an hour and a half to two hours exploring.

Finally, nature is always a good motivator for walking. Learn about Wilmington’s Hugh MacRae Park on a brief talk followed by a 1.5-mile hike.

Vital stats: Learn more about all of these opportunities starting here, at WhatsOnWilmington.com.

Saturday forecast: High of 84, sunny.

Looking ahead: CFCC Bridge-to-Bridge 4.0 Run, June 10, Cape Fear Community College, Wilmington. More info here.

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Piedmont: Canoe the Mayo

Even if you consider yourself a fairly frequent paddler, you likely haven’t paddled the Mayo River. It’s smaller, a bit off the beaten track, more susceptible to bottom-scraping due to lack of rain. Plus, where do you put in and take out?

Saturday, Mayo River State Park gives you a chance to paddle a four- to five-hour stretch of the Mayo. Canoes, PFDs, and paddles provided; you need to provide your own shuttle, water, lunch and sunscreen, and promise, under no circumstances, to wear flip-flops. Also: “Cress for and be prepared for getting wet.”

It’s free, but you must be among the first 11 callers to sign up. Specifics below.

Vital Stats: Canoe the Mayo, Saturday, 10 a.m., Mayo River State Park, Mayodan. Call 336.427.2530 to sign up. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Partly cloudy, high of 80.

Looking ahead: National Trails Day, Saturday, June 4. Find out what’s going on to celebrate our North Carolina State Park trails by going here.

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Mountains: Cycle a Century

The mountain century season is upon us, the run of warm-weather rides that challenge cyclists by taking on some of the Southern Appalachians’ more challenging routes. One of the season’s kickoff events: Tour de Cashiers.

Routes include an English century (100 miles), a metric century (64 miles) and a quarter century (25 miles). None of the rides shies from climbing: the English century gains 10,500 vertical feet along the way, the quarter century a proportionate 2,500 feet. There is no easy, just durations of difficult. The race begins and ends in Cashiers, taking in Jackson, Macon and Transylvania counties along the way.

Vital Stats: Tour de Cashiers, Saturday, 8 a.m., Cashiers. $55. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Sunny and 52 at the 8 a.m. start climbing to a high of 66.

Looking ahead: The Fletcher Flyer, June 5, Brevard. Rides of 100, 62, 50 and 31 miles. More info here.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

Like us on Facebook and get health, fitness and outdoors news throughout the day.

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The post Your Weekend: Walk Wilmington, Paddle the Piedmont, Bike the Blue Ridge appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

A 5K/10K kicks off the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, there’s a ride with lunch in the Triangle and at the Nantahala Outdoor Center they’ll be celebrating hiking and long trails. A good cross-section of sweaty fun this weekend in North Carolina.

Coast

What better way to kick off a festival than with a run? This Saturday’s Azalea 5K/10K/Fun Walk, for example, which kicks off Wilmington’s annual Azalea Festival. (Kicks off prematurely: while the race is Saturday, the festival proper doesn’t get underway until Wednesday.) The course is flat and USATF certified. It’s $35 to participate, but funds go help the Big Buddy program.

Logistics: $35, online registration ends tonight at midnight. Race begins at 8 a.m. (packet pickup is from 6:30-7:30 a.m.) More info here.

Weekend forecast: Sunny with a high of 66.

Piedmont

Eager for that first group ride of the year? It could happen Saturday on the MS Spring Fling, sponsored by Team MSFits. Both the 30- and 50-mile rides begin at the Sam’s Club in Morrisville and work their way through RTP and out to Falls Lake and Granville County and back. Lunch at the finish, provided by Carino’s Italian, Moe’s Southwest, California Pizza Kitchen and Hooters.

Logistics: $40 to ride, register here.

Weekend forecast: Sunny with a high of 66 (bring your sleeves!)

Mountains

Typically, we associate the Nantahala Outdoor Center with whitewater sports, but Friday and Saturday the NOC celebrates is location on the Appalachian Trail with the AT Founder’s Bridge Festival. “Put on your boots, bring your friends, and join us to celebrate this historic trail,” the NOC implores on its Web site. “Day hikers, long distance warriors, and outdoor enthusiasts alike are welcome to share their passion with like-minded folks. Enjoy trail-steeped speakers sharing their experiences, a vendor village staffed by industry representatives, skills clinics, as well as some great product giveaways and door prizes and live music nightly.” Among the speakers you won’t want to miss: Jennifer Pharr Davis (author, “AT Speed Record Hike,” “Becoming Odyssa”, backcountry guide Patrick Warren and Bill Walker, author of books on the AT, PCT, Camino de Santiago, among others.

Logistics: Festivities from 2 p.m. to midnight Friday, 8 a.m. ‘til late Saturday. A breakdown of the schedule here.

Weekend forecast: Rainy Friday morning but clearing in the afternoon, high of 68. Sunny and 75 on Saturday.

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Those are GGNC’s thoughts for an active weekend. Find out other ways you can get out this weekend by browsing our super calendar, a collection of events calendars from throughout the state, below.

Coast

CapeFearCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar for the Cape Fear/Wilmington/southern N.C. coast searchable by date and event name.

Coastal Guide
Comprehensive calendar including nature programs from a variety of costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs. Covers the entire coast.

Crystal Cost Tourism Authority
Comprehensive calendar focusing on the Crystal Coast. Good source for programs offered by N.C. Coastal Federation, Cape Lookout National Park, N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve and other costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs.

NCCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar including programs for the Outer Banks and Crystal Coast.

North Carolina Coast Host
Comprehensive calendar for the entire coast that lets you search for events by day, by region, by county, by city or by event (based on key word).

This Week Magazine
Primary focus is the Crystal Coast (North Carolina’s coastal midsection).

Mountains

Asheville Citizen-Times
From the main page, click on “Outdoors,” then WNC Outdoors calendar.

Blue Ridge Outdoors
Searchable calendar lets you extend your reach to events throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast (or you can just limit it to North Carolina). Also lets you search a boatload of categories, ranging from Hiking, Mountain Biking and Climbing to Trail Running, Triathlon and Road Walking.

The Mountain Times
From the main page, click on “Calendars,” then Main Events.

Todd’s Calendar

Piedmont

Charlotte

Charlotte Observer events calendar
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including Nature, Recreation, Recreation & Wellness, Running

Charlotte Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triad

GoTriad.com
Comprehensive calendar includes a Sports & Recreation category.

Piedmont Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triangle

Triangle.com
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including: Birding, Boating, Cycling, Nature, Rec & Wellness, Recreation, Running, Swimming, Tennis, Yoga.

Carolina Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Statewide

Office of Environmental Education
One calendar for the numerous Environmental Education Centers statewide.

North Carolina State Parks
Lets you search for programs at the state’s parks, recreation areas and natural areas by location, by month, by topic. To reach the calendar from the home page, click on “Education,” then “Fun & Free Programs at Parks.”

National Forests in North Carolina
From the home page, click on Carolina Connections for news updates on the state’s four national forests as well as hints on recreational opportunities and a detailed rundown of recreation areas and the amenities at each.

* * *
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GetGoingNC.com

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The post This weekend: Run, ride, hike appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Piedmont

Often when you move into new digs there’s so much going on you don’t have time to throw an open house. A couple months may pass before it dawns on you, “Oh, yeah … .”

That’s sorta the case with the East Coast Greenway Alliance. In February, the Alliance, which is spearheading an effort to create a 3,000-mile greenway from Key West, Fla., to Canada, announced it was moving its headquarters from Rhode Island to Durham. The move was seen as the Alliance’s recognition that while the greenway was progressing nicely in the Northeast (60 percent of the trail is done through New York, about 50 percent in New Jersey and a number of other states), development in the South was lagging. North Carolina, which stands to house about 390 miles of the East Coast Greenway, only has 14 percent of it complete. Thus, while it was unpacking boxes, signing a lease, getting its mail forwarded AND pushing for more greenway development in the South, an open house was delayed — until this Saturday.

And what better way to meet your new cycling neighbors than by throwing a bike ride?

The 28-mile ride will start and end in the heart of Durham, at the Diamond View lawn, next to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and across from the American Tobacco Campus. Fittingly, more than half of the ride (57 percent for you sticklers) will be on greenway (including the American Tobacco Trail and the recently completed Third Fork Creek Trail), “with the safest roads we could find for the rest,” according to ride organizers.

U.S. Rep. David Price will say a few words at 9:45 a.m. before the ride departs at 10 a.m. There are two rest stops, including one at the East Coast Greenway Alliance’s new office, and riders are expected to return at 1:20 p.m. Smaller riders can partake of the last 4.25 miles of the event with a small fry ride departing Solite Park on the ATT at 12:30.  Go here for a map of the route.

I’ll in the mix (look for a red cross bike), tweeting, shooting video, taking pictures — the whole multi-media thing. I’ll have a report on the ride next week, but really, it won’t be the same as being on the ride, which requests only a $5 donation (it’s free if you’re a member of the East Coast Greenway Alliance.) Should be fun.

For more on the ride, go here.

Photo: Saturday’s ECGA open house ride finishes on this stretch of the American Tobacco Trail heading into downtown Durham.

Coast

Meanwhile, at the coast it’s the 22nd Annual River to the Sea Bike Ride, a “casual-paced 20-mile ride” from Wilmington’s Front Street out to Wrightsville Beach Park and back using the River-to-the-Sea Route).  The ride is intended for all level of riders, it’s flat and there will be refreshments at the midpoint, in Wrightsville Beach Park. You must wear a helmet for this free ride that starts at 8:30 a.m. from Bailey Theatre Park, 12 N. Front Street in Wilmington.

More info, call 910.798.7165 or 910.256.7925

Mountains

Whenever I think of mountain rides I tend to think of long, grueling climbs up grades approaching 20 percent being pushed by lean, large-lunged cyclists. Maybe that’s why I tend not to think of mountain rides all that often. But Saturday’s ride sponsored by the Watauga Leisure Bike Club (just the name inspires comfort) is one worth giving  a thought.

The Watauga Leisure Bike Club (motto: “Biking for The Fun of It”) is, says its Web site, “an informal club consisting of cyclists of varying ages and abilities who enjoy biking and sightseeing.” They sponsor two or three rides a week, most taking two hours or less, on routes that can range from “very flat to quite hilly.”

Saturday’s ride begins at 9 a.m. and is rated “Low Intensity with higher intensity option.” It starts (and ends) from the Bethel Community Park in Sugar Grove (here’s a map.) It’s free.

For more info on the ride and the club, go here.

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* Apologies to Vanity Fare (and to you).

Those are GGNC’s thoughts for an active weekend. Find out other ways you can get out this weekend by browsing our super calendar, a collection of events calendars from throughout the state, below.

Coast

CapeFearCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar for the Cape Fear/Wilmington/southern N.C. coast searchable by date and event name.

Coastal Guide
Comprehensive calendar including nature programs from a variety of costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs. Covers the entire coast.

Crystal Cost Tourism Authority
Comprehensive calendar focusing on the Crystal Coast. Good source for programs offered by N.C. Coastal Federation, Cape Lookout National Park, N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve and other costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs.

NCCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar including programs for the Outer Banks and Crystal Coast.

North Carolina Coast Host
Comprehensive calendar for the entire coast that lets you search for events by day, by region, by county, by city or by event (based on key word).

This Week Magazine
Primary focus is the Crystal Coast (North Carolina’s coastal midsection).

Mountains

Asheville Citizen-Times
From the main page, click on “Outdoors,” then WNC Outdoors calendar.

Blue Ridge Outdoors
Searchable calendar lets you extend your reach to events throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast (or you can just limit it to North Carolina). Also lets you search a boatload of categories, ranging from Hiking, Mountain Biking and Climbing to Trail Running, Triathlon and Road Walking.

The Mountain Times
From the main page, click on “Calendars,” then Main Events.

Todd’s Calendar

Piedmont

Charlotte

Charlotte Observer events calendar
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including Nature, Recreation, Recreation & Wellness, Running

Charlotte Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triad

GoTriad.com
Comprehensive calendar includes a Sports & Recreation category.

Piedmont Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triangle

Triangle.com
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including: Birding, Boating, Cycling, Nature, Rec & Wellness, Recreation, Running, Swimming, Tennis, Yoga.

Carolina Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Statewide

Office of Environmental Education
One calendar for the numerous Environmental Education Centers statewide.

North Carolina State Parks
Lets you search for programs at the state’s parks, recreation areas and natural areas by location, by month, by topic. To reach the calendar from the home page, click on “Education,” then “Fun & Free Programs at Parks.”

National Forests in North Carolina
From the home page, click on Carolina Connections for news updates on the state’s four national forests as well as hints on recreational opportunities and a detailed rundown of recreation areas and the amenities at each.

The post Ride, ride, ride, hitch on to a ride* appeared first on GetGoing NC!.