My senior year in high school I went to a new school. In football, we went 0-9, in basketball, 0-18. I always wondered how our cheerleaders could muster the enthusiasm, the optimism, to encourage us to push on.
I find myself in a similar situation, facing a rainy weekend, wondering how to encourage y’all to put on a happy face and head out the door for a weekend of adventure. So … well, grab your rain gear and let’s head out! Some options …
Start your weekend Friday evening with a Friday the 13th evening wander around Lake Waccamaw, then spend what promises to be a glorious Saturday high in the mountains at the Elk Knob Headwaters Community Day, or join us in Raleigh at Umstead State Park and get hiking — with our new GetHiking! Triangle program.
Coast
Exploring a natural mystery in the dark? We’re in! Especially if it’s a chance to explore a place with as much mystery and intrigue as Lake Waccamaw. Lake Waccamaw’s Friday the 13th Park After Dark event gives you the opportunity to do a night wander in a swamp, amid plants that eat meat and around the mystery that is Lake Waccamaw, a Carolina Bay described as “one of the greatest geological mysteries of the eastern United States.” Was this (and the thousands of other bays that once dotted the eastern seaboard) the result of an alien invasion (in the form of meteorites)? Something to think about as the gloam turns to night … .
Logistics: Friday, September 13, 7 p.m. Free. Learn more about the park here.
Friday forecast: A cold front moves through, dropping the daytime high of 90 to an overnight low of 59. 30 percent chance of rain.
Piedmont
We’re going to promote ourselves this week, without reservation. Saturday marks the first hike in our new GetHiking! Triangle program (a program we hope to spread). Working with our sponsor, Great Outdoor Provision Co., our goal is two-fold. One, to get aspiring hikers out the door and into the woods. If you’ve taken a hike or two in your life and liked it but, for whatever reason, haven’t hiked more, GetHiking! Triangle is for you. We aim to take the mystery out of hiking and to expose you to some of the great trails in the Triangle and beyond. Our second goal is to take more experienced hikers who find themselves hiking the same trails week after week and expose them to the vast network of trails in the Triangle, the Piedmont and statewide.
Our first hike is Saturday at Umstead State Park. We’ll be doing the popular Company Mill Trail in a baby bear, mama bear, papa bear approach. Newcomers have the option of an out-and-back down to Crabtree Creek (2 miles), more experienced hikers can do a 4.5-mile truncated version of the trail, while folks up for a good workout can do the entire 6-mile lollipop loop. And the weather for our first hike could not be better, with WRAL calling it “A spectacular day with lots of sunshine, very comfortable temperatures and low humidity.”
You can keep tabs on our weekly hikes and other activities by joining our GetHikingTriangle! Meetup group. And if you don’t have plans for this Thursday night, we’ll be kicking off the program at Great Outdoor Provision Co.’s Cameron Village store at 6:30 p.m. We’ll talk about where we’ll be hiking this fall (with slideshow), we’ll have refreshments (including a local craft beer tasting) and everyone gets a free pair of SmartWool hiking socks!
Logistics: Saturday, Sept. 14, 8 a.m., Umstead State Park (Harrison Avenue entrance off I-40). More info here.
Saturday forecast: High of 75 (likely in the low to mid 60s at the start), sunny, low humidity.
Mountains
How do you make a mountain hike in September even better? By adding a pot luck. That’s the plan at Saturday’s Elk Knob Headwaters Community Day at Elk Knob State Park in Todd (between Boone and Jefferson), where all sorts of fun is planned between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Lunch will be served at noon (bring a dish), followed by an afternoon of music, cultural and historical displays and demonstrations, a silent auction fundraiser, raffle, interpretive programs, arts and crafts, kids games, wagon rides, hikes and food.
And don’t forget to work in a hike through a northern hardwood forest consisting primarily of sugar maple, yellow birch, American beech and yellow buckeye to the 5,520-foot summit of Elk Knob. If it’s a clear day, the view is one of the best in the state.
Logistics: Saturday, Sept. 14, 11 a.m., Elk Knob State Park, Todd. More info on the festival and the park, here.
Saturday forecast: High of 64, partly cloudy.
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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed 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
A quick sampling of what’s going on around the state this weekend.
Coast
Sometimes it takes a push from our creative side to jump-start our active side. That’s one incentive for checking out Lake Waccamaw State Park’s monthly Nature Journal Hike. Once a month, participants, with journal and pen in hand, head out with a park ranger to explore this unique park 12 miles east of Whiteville in the coastal plain. Lake Waccamaw State Park is dominated by a 9,000-acre Carolina bay, one of thousands of oval lakes that dot the middle of the eastern seaboard — or once did, for many of the shallow lakes have long-since filled in. The lake (pictured) is the subject of this month’s hike, from 3-4 p.m. on Saturday. It’s free — even the journal is included.
More info, call 910.646.4748 or visit the park Web site.
Piedmont
One of the joys of hiking woods rich in history is that you never know when you might stumble upon an historic relic — an old homestead, a roadbed that once served as a major transportation corridor, a ford that afforded passage across a stream. One of the coolest relics you could hope to stumble upon is the destination of a hike Saturday morning from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the Robinson Rock House on the grounds of the Reedy Creek Nature Center in Charlotte. The house dates back to the 1700s, when John Selwyn received a land grant from King George. The hike is three miles, the history timeless. Or something like that.
More info on the hike, here. More on Reedy Creek and the rockin’ Robinson house here.
Mountains
A visit to Elk Knob State Park is justified simply by the fact that to get there you have to take Meat Camp Road. A visit is doubly justified Saturday thanks to a Celestial Treasure Hunt. From atop Elk Knob’s 5,520-foot mountain-top clearing you’ll check out the night sky’s top constellations, from Orion and Canis Major to Taurus the Bull. Program starts at 6, ensuring darkness.
More info by calling 828.297.7261 or going here.
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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