You’ve likely heard about all the great hikes trying to capitalize on peak fall color. But leaf peeping isn’t the only game in town.
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Rarely do we recommend a spectator activity, what with GetGoingNC being about active, adventurous living and all. But today’s recommendation is spectating that could lead to sweating.
In late July, an essay appeared in Colorado’s High Country Times bemoaning the death of backpacking. The article relied on the author’s “anecdotal evidence” and the fact that sales of “heavy” boots and massive packs are down. Heavy boots, as in the kind no one buys anymore because lightweight boots easily handle the lighter loads of today’s backpacker. Massive packs, as in the kind no one uses because we no longer cook with cast-iron skillets and enamel coffee pots. (Titanium pots and plastic French-press mugs rule!)
Backpacking, like baseball, claimed the writer, isn’t attracting younger participants because they find it boring.
Stephen Meyers, the outdoors writer for the Fort Collins Coloradoan was skeptical. A week later, he responded with a piece titled “Backpacking may be changing, but it isn’t dying.” His article relied on facts.
Like the fact the average pack size is down because we no longer carry 50 or 60 pounds into the woods (it’s more like 30).
Or the fact the 2012 Leisure Trends report counted more than 1 million backpackers between the ages of 18 and 24, comparable to the number of mountain bikers and whitewater kayakers in that age group combined.
Or the fact that the American Camper Report for 2011 reported that of the 42.5 million Americans who went camping in 2011, 10 percent were backpackers. That’s about 4.3 million people.
Unlike the High Country essayist, my anecdotal evidence suggests a keen interest in backpacking. Since launching the GetHiking! program nearly a year ago, I’ve had a steady number of hikers ask, “What about backpacking? I’d like to give that a try.”
What about backpacking? you ask.
Try your hand at canoeing at Cliffs of the Neuse State Park, walk or run or bike to support a state park in Raleigh, or learn to ride a bike in the mountains.
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We’re always on the lookout for a good, economical paddle adventure; this weekend our looking out has landed us at Cliffs of the Neuse State Park south of Goldsboro, where a ranger will lead an Introduction to Canoeing class on Sunday. The course includes boat, lifejacket, paddles and instruction, and will be conducted on the friendly waters of the park’s 11-acre, spring-fed lake. An especially great opportunity if you’ve never been in a canoe, but have given it some thought.
An intro to climbing class is less about learning how to climb than it is about learning how to fall. Or rather, how not to fall — and if you do (and you will), how to fall without bone-breaking repercussions. That’s a good thing because once you’re assured that it’s OK to fall, that you won’t break your skull should you part with the wall, your confidence — a key element of climbing — will carry you to new heights. Literally.
“I oughta be doing that with you,” the moderately overweight mom who was watching her son yelled.
“We’re starting a class in April,” Polly Eslinger yelled back. “You’re welcome to join us.”
Eslinger’s response seemed to surprise the woman: We were on Cary’s Middle Creek Park Playground at the time, six grown-ups mixed among kids cavorting on the equipment. A class in what, the woman probably wondered — playing on a playground?