Imagine living a half hour away from the National Whitewater Center.
Today, we unveil a new feature: Live Where You Play.
Periodically, I get emails from out-of-staters moving to the region who are looking for a good place to live. And by “good place,” they mean a place close to where they can play. A place with a long greenway, or good hiking trails, a nearby mountain bike network or maybe some nice Class II and III whitewater running through the backyard. Well, maybe not right through the backyard, but close. I do a little research and shoot back an email listing options. And every time I do, I think, there have to be more people out there who would love to live closer to where they play.read more
Welcome to our latest effort in our quest to build a comprehensive list of places to play in North Carolina: Mountain biking.
North Carolina, if you aren’t aware, is a hot spot for mountain biking. Last year, Outside magazine named the Pisgah National Forest one of the top five mountain biking destinations in the U.S. Singletracks.com asked its followers to name the their favorite trails in the world, and four were in the state: Tsali, the Fletcher Creek area of Mills River, Bent Creek near Asheville and Overmountain Victory Trail at Kerr Scott Reservoir near Wilkesboro.
You want an epic ride? You don’t have to go far if you live in North Carolina.
Here’s our preliminary offering of 19 places to ride that we think are pretty swell. But we want to hear what you think. Think a place on our list is overrated and should be replaced? Let us know. Have we made a glaring omission? Fill us in. Or maybe we’ve omitted a key detail about one of the places that is listed. Tell us about that as well.
We’ll update the list periodically, and so you don’t have to go searching around the site to find, it will live permanently in the left rail of our home page. Scroll down to “Mountain biking,” click and you’re in business.
And send us your thoughts. Nothing like another good excuse to ride.read more
One of the best opportunities to explore the outdoors in North Carolina is over the next six days at the the coastal Wings Over Water, now celebrating its 16th year.
Coast
Got some vacation time — or in these hard corporate times, “furlough” time — you need to burn by year’s end? Tell the boss you’re taking off for a trip to the coast. True, the water is chilly and it’s hard to get an even tan wearing a parka. But that shouldn’t affect you since you’ll be at Wings Over Water.read more
We tend to think of paddle trips as epic affairs: get out the maps, surf the internet, pick a spot, pack a lunch, load the boat and go. Whew! No wonder we don’t get out as often as we’d like: it takes a lot of work to get out on the water.
Summer is in its waning days, the temperature is having trouble getting much past 80 during the day and is slipping below 60 at night. The air is dry, the sky clear, the bugs are being kept at bay.
It’s fall hiking season. But where to hike?
If you live in one of seven major North Carolina cities, GetGoingNC has solved your dilemma. Actually, GetGoingNC and Great Outdoor Provision Co. have joined forces to solve your dilemma.read more
