forest Archives - GetGoing NC!

90 Second Escape: Light, and its many moods

JoeMiller — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 15:52:59 +0000

Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.

Today’s 90-Second Escape: Light, and its Many Moods

Think about the the highlights of your forays into the wild, the things that bubble to the top when you recount an outing to friends, and the obvious comes to mind: temperature, terrain, who you hiked with, wildlife. Your recollections of all those, though, are colored by one thing: light. Sunlight illuminating a pool on a small creek, or casting long shadows at the end of the day. A cloudless day atop a bald after a cold front has moved through, everything crystal clear for miles. A spring wildflower dancing in a light breeze, reflecting the sun it will soon lose to a leafed-out canopy.

Here’s a 90 Second salute to light and how it’s colored some of our recent adventures.

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This weekend: Play with the sun

JoeMiller — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 16:16:34 +0000

View from the Ivy Gut Trail at Goose Creek State Park.

The statewide forecast for the weekend: Sunny with highs in the low 60s, which makes this an ideal weekend for just about every outdoor adventure. We offer three options especially well-suited to the forecast.

Coast

Right now is about the time it’s comfortable — and sane — to start venturing into a coastal forest. (Between April and November, exploring coastal forests is tantamount to offering room service to any bug that sucks blood for a livelihood.) That makes it the ideal time for “The Forest of Goose Creek: Past, Present and Future” at Goose Creek State Park near Washington (North Carolina’s Washington, the pleasant one). A ranger leads you on a hike of the Ivy Gut Trail and fills you in on the natural and cultural history of this park, located along the mighty Pamlico River just before it becomes the mighty Pamlico Sound.

Logistics: Sunday, Nov. 10, 2 p.m., Goose Creek State Park, Washington (N.C.). More info: 252.923.2191.

Saturday forecast: Sunny, high of 64.

Piedmont

If you’re a cyclist but are skittish about riding in traffic (meaning encountering more than one car every couple of minutes), check out Saturday’s Climbs of Caswell Gran Fondo Cycling Challenge. (“Gran Fondo” is the hipstery way of referring to a ride.) There’s a 100-mile ride beginning at 8 a.m., a 100-K (64 miles) starting at 8 a.m. and a 10-mile family ride beginning at 10 a.m. The routes are on the friendly country roads of Caswell County, which are always scenic but especially so with fall color peaking. Also, there’s Brunswick Stew. And the ride benefits Children of Vietnam.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 9, rides starting at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon (see above). Online registration is closed; go here for additional information or call 336.421.4054.

Saturday forecast: Sunny, high of 61.

Climbing at Chimney Rock.

Mountains

Ever wanted to try rock climbing, but every time you’ve looked into it it seemed like too much of a commitment, both in time and money? Saturday’s Chimney Challenge at Chimney Rock State Park may be the opportunity you’ve been looking for. For $20 (plus the price of admission to the park), you can get up to four climbs on the park’s Vista Rock, all under the experienced eye of Fox Mountain Guides. All equipment and instruction is provided. You get to check an experience off your list and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Henderson County get your $20 fee.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 9, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Chimney Rock State Park, Chimney Rock. $20 for the climbs, plus admission ($12 for adults, $6 for 5-15 year-olds, 4 and under free). For more information or to schedule a climb, go here or call 888.284.8433; for more on the park, go here.

Saturday forecast: Sunny, high of 61.

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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
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

Great Outdoor Provision Co.
Calendar includes three weekly events for each of its seven markets: Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem. Search by market.

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.

U.S. National Wildlife Refuges
Rundown, by month, of regular activities at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service refuges in North Carolina.

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90 Second Escape: Winter’s Light

JoeMiller — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:00:13 +0000

Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.

Today’s 90-Second Escape: Winter’s Light

It can be brilliant, piercing the naked forest like a laser. It can be opaque, almost ominously so. The former making you almost forget the bitter cold, the latter driving it through your bones. Winter’s fickle lighting can make the forest cozy and inviting or gray and bleak, turning a hike from an invigorating romp to a solemn walk. It’s one of the benefits of a winter excursion: you’re never quite sure what you’ll get.

On days such as this past Sunday, at Umstead State Park, you may get both. Leave your Monday behind for a 90 second walk in the winter woods.

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Back into the backyard wild

JoeMiller — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:15:07 +0000

A couple days ago the topic around the dinner table turned to trail running. “I’m thinking about making a running trail in the back 40,” I said, referring to the strip of wild, bottomland forest wedged between our neighborhood and I-40.
“You said that two years ago,” Kate said.
I quietly hrrumped, then vowed to vindicate myself. Turns out she was wrong: I hadn’t said I was going to build such a trail two years ago. It was three.
I was reminded when I ran across a post I’d written over winter break 2009, about the joys of exploring your own backyard. The account was about our travels through this unlikely jungle in the heart of Cary. And I had indeed vowed to return with rake and mattock to clear a path. Rereading the piece I was inspired anew: that backyard journey remains one of my favorites in several years. I thought it might inspire you as well, so I’m rerunning it today.
Meanwhile, I’ll search the tool shed for my trail-clearing implements. I have a path to make.
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North Carolina, the 9th biggest state in the country with 9.2 million residents, is unusual because even if you live in one of its urban centers — Charlotte, the Triad, the Triangle, Asheville, Wilmington — there’s likely a wooded area within walking distance. Maybe not a national forest or a state park, but at least a corridor of wild that for any number of reasons has eluded development. For instance, we live in the heart of Cary (we call it Historic Cary because the houses date all the way back to the 1970s) between two malls (Cary Town Centre and Crossroads Plaza), yet we can walk out the end of our cul-de-sac along a storm drainage easement and within minutes be at the headwaters of Walnut Creek. This proximity to the wild comes in handy when you have a houseful of kids on winter break. “C’mon everyone, gear up!” I yelled early last Thursday afternoon. “We’re going exploring.”

Concrete storm drain access or child's canvas?

As Richard Louv notes in 2008’s “Last Child in the Woods,” a look at how our children are becoming increasingly detached from the outside world and the ramifications of this “nature deficit disorder,” kids, especially younger ones, instinctively would rather be outside than indoors fiddling with a joystick. It’s been my experience that whenever I issue the call to head out, the kids are quick to deploy. And so it was Thursday. This comes naturally in our house. I write about the outdoors, the kids are natural-born explorers. I know this isn’t the case in every household, however, so here’s a quick how-to on exploring your neighborhood wilderness. What to wear First, what not to wear: Anything you got for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus. Rather, wear whatever you — and more importantly the kids — don’t mind getting trashed. It’ll likely be wet out there. And muddy. Tree limbs are likely to poke holes through your sweater, briars may rip at your pant legs (oh yeah, be sure to wear long pants). And be sure to dress for the weather, taking layers for those moments when you may be standing around studying a particularly fascinating — to your 8-year-old, at least — mud hole.

A gorgeous beech cove bumps up to the back of our development.

What to take Take a daypack with the following: drinks (juice boxes or water bottles), snacks (the fun fades quickly once they start running low on fuel), a small first-aid kit (even just some Band-Aids, Neosporin and some wet wipes tossed into a Ziplock bag), the aforementioned layers (sweatshirt, hoodie, etc.), gloves, hat, camera, compass and a cell phone in case the trip goes awry. Those are mandatory. In addition, consider a field guide (birding, local flora, animal tracks), binoculars, a journal and colored pencils and a sketch pad.

Oh, deer!

Ground rules Before heading out, establish the ground rules for your expedition. These vary from expedition to expedition, but a good overall rule for any trip into the wild with kids: Never lose eyesight with others in the group. That’ll keep people from getting lost and from getting into trouble without help immediately available. Also: Enforce the No Whine Zone rule. Ardent couch potatoes may be prone to kvetching at first, but that likely will face when they discover their first computer laptop in the woods (this happened to us once; in fact, we found two). Let the kids have fun Uber alles, let the kids be kids and don’t get in the way of their fun. They’re going to get dirty, accept that from the get-go. Don’t freak if Johnny sinks into mud a foot deep (unless it looks like he’s going to keep on sinking) or if Suzy walks through the creek rather than taking the dryer rock bridge option. (Though regarding the latter, let the kids know that on a cold day you’ll be heading back early if they get excessively wet; hypothermia is no fun.) Let the kids climb trees (unless poison ivy is snaking up the trunk), let them climb on rocks. A few scrapes and bruises are signs of a successful trip into the wild. Let them explore. A kid’s imagination can go wild outdoors, especially if such an outing is a rarity.

Almost had to call in backup for extraction from this mud hole.

Use that camera Take pictures of the kids at play, for two reasons. We like to do a computer slide show that evening, our way of reliving a great day. More importantly, the next time you propose a neighborhood expedition and the kids balk, you’ll have evidence to the contrary. “Oh, yeah,” they’ll be forced to acknowledge, “I guess we did have fun, didn’t we.” Plan on an early bedtime For you and the kids. And plan on being pestered into taking a hike in the hood the next time the kids have a day off from school. For previous suggestions on what to do with the kids on winter break, go here and here.
Excerpt

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