With the weather officially dipping into Brrrr territory, to help you stay warm and moving we suggest you do the following:

Coast

Isn’t some of what makes the weather getting colder so sweet, the appreciation we have for a nice, hot meal?

Saturday, you’ll get the chance to experience just that. Help wrap up North Carolina State Parks’ 100 Year Anniversary with Goose Creek State Park’s campfire cooking program. Some of the most essential skills to survival are building a fire and using that fire to cook food, which is the aim of the program.

Logistics: Campfire Cooking, Saturday, 4 p.m.,Goose Creek State Park, Washington. Find out more, here.

Saturday Forecast: Rain early in the day, high of 69.

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Looking ahead: Winter Birding, Dec. 23, 11 a.m., Hammocks Beach State Park, Swansboro. More info, here.

Piedmont 

Tis’ the season for giving! Giving back gives a sense of gratitude, a feeling of being a part of something, of having purpose.

Feeling a little stressed? Let the pressures of this season fall to the Earth with every step, and take a breath. Join our GetHiking! Triad group for for a Gratitude Walk at Hagan Stone Park near Greensboro, and finish feeling refreshed with a positive outlook. Come out feeling taller than the trees!

Hagan Stone has a reputation for being all things to all people. You’ll get to see so much of what this park has to offer – from playgrounds and camping to fishing and general natural beauty on this hike that piggybacks on one of the most popular high school and college cross-country courses in the region.

Logistics: GetHiking! Triad Gratitude Hike at Hagan-Stone Park, Pleasant Garden. Sunday, 1:30 p.m., 3 miles. More info, here.

Sunday forecast: Bright skies and a high of 56.

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Looking ahead: Forrest Bathing/ Nature Hike, Dec. 28, 2 p.m., Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, Hillsborough. Find out more, here.

Mountains 

With temperatures dropping we finally get some exercise in one of our favorite ways, skiing the slopes.

With the most slopes open and almost all of their lifts running we recommend you find your way to Appalachian Ski Mountain! App has nine of 11 slopes open. Current conditions are nice with the weekend getting a little bit more sludgy but still skiable none-the-less.

For a sense of how winter magically happens in the Southeast, check out this video of 24 hours of snowmaking at Wisp Resort in Maryland.

Logistics: Appalachian Ski Mountain, Blowing Rock. Open 9 a.m. to Midnight. Find out more, here. Learn what other slopes are open in the region at SkiSoutheast.com.

Weekend forecast: Cloudy with a chance of rain Saturday and Sunday, with highs near 50.

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Looking ahead: Christmas Day Photo Scavenger Hunt, Grandfather Mountain State Park, Banner Elk. Dec. 25, 3 p.m. More info, here.

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The post Your weekend: Embrace the cold appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

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Come to Goose Creek State Park near Washington Sunday and discover just who these visitors are, at Waterfowl of the Pamlico. Check out the mounts (of past visitors), then “learn about the many different kinds of waterfowl that visit the area each winter. We’ll discuss migration, waterfowl biology and life cycles.”

Afterward, explore the 7 miles of trail at Goose Creek and test your newfound knowledge with a little birding.

Logistics: Sunday, Nov. 15, 2 p.m., Visitor Center at Goose Creek State Park, Washington. More info here.

Sunday forecast: Sunny, high of 58.

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Looking ahead: Two T-Day Turkey Trots: Habitat for Humanity Turkey Trot, 7 a.m., Wrightsville Beach Park; Gallop for the Gravy 5K, Wilmington Family YMCA

Piedmont

Wouldn’t you feel better venturing into the woods if you could at least read a map? And imagine the euphoria over being able to use a map and a compass to figure your way out of a jam!

That confident explorer could be you if you attend Saturday’s Basic Land Navigation at Umstead State Park in Raleigh. A short discussion will be followed by a “field exercise.” Dress for exploring off trail.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2 a.m., Umstead State Park, Raleigh. Learn more and secure a spot by dialing 919.571.4170.

Saturday forecast: Sunny, high of 59.

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Looking ahead: Camp Craggy Walk-A-Bout, a walk into history at Umstead State Park on Dec. 19. More here.

Mountains

The majority of places we explore in the mountains are on public lands, in the Nantahala National Forest, the Pisgah National Forest, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or along the Blue Ridge Parkway. But there are private and quasi-public lands that offer great exploring as well.

Saturday, you’ll have a chance to explore one of these lesser-known treasures with the Southern Appalachians Highlands Conservancy. Starting at 9 a.m., the conservancy will lead a “strenuous guided hike” up Little Sandy Mush Bald, at 5,152 feet the highest point in Madison County and is owned by the Long Branch Environmental Education Center. Learn more about the area at SummitPost.org.

The hike will be followed by a good ol’-fashioned storytelling at the Addison Farms Family Vineyard.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 14, 9 a.m., Long Branch Environmental Education Center, Madison County. $10, free for members of the Southern Appalachians Highlands Conservancy. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Sunny, high of 52.

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Looking ahead: Wintergreen Hike, every Saturday in December, South Mountains State Park. Info here.

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

The post This weekend: Find a swan, a bald, your way appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Coast

At the coast this weekend we’re looking at temperatures in the upper 40s on Saturday, possibly hitting 60 on Sunday, under mostly sunny skies. Looking a little further ahead, we see a high of 71 forecast for Wilmington on Tuesday. Is warm weather really on the horizon? If so, it might behoove you to get in a hike while the weather remains on the cool side (suppressing the bug and serpent populations) yand the sun appears to be a reliable companion.

Logistics: Lots of great hikes at the coast. We recommend the trail networks at Carolina Beach and Goose Creek state parks, the 20-mile Neusiok Trail in the Croatan National Forest mid-coast, and while this is in Virginia, it’s just barely: the extensive ditch trail network in the Great Dismal Swamp.

Weekend forecast: High in the upper 40s Saturday, near 60 Sunday (at least in the Wilmington area).

Piedmont

Two, four, six, eight,

How much snow do we anticipate?

The dart boards for our regional meteorologists have been especially ellusive this week. Tuesday’s snow overstayed its expected welcome by four hours, and it’s anybody’s guess what tonight holds in store. Tonight’s expectation has been narrowing, however: it’s more likely that we will see snow as opposed to other forms of wetness, and, again based on a forecast that presumably becomes more reliable as zero hour nears, there will be a fair amount of it (Two? Four? Six? Eight?) Couple that with forecast highs in the 30s for the next few days and whatever falls will likely stick around for a while.

Read a good book this weekend? you’re guessing. Nope, embrace a rare local opportunity to hike in the snow. The trails should be snowpacked with a minimal amount of overnight melt, meaning a good pair of hiking boots with new tread should be sufficiently grippy. If you’re concerned, swing by our favorite outfitter and pick up a pair of Yaktrax. Your biggest challenge: getting to the trailhead.

Logistics: Hard to say how North Carolina’s State Parks will fare after this storm. However, for the past two weeks they’ve done a great job of opening as quickly as possible after our numerous weather events. And, they’ve done a good job of keeping folks up on the latest at their website, NCParks.gov.

Weekend forecast: Highs in the upper 30s to 40, with rain possible Sunday.

Mountains

The mountains are getting snow, too. Between the real stuff and temperatures consistently cold enough to make snow, downhill skiing is an obvious choice. But a half foot or more of natural snowfall means cross-country skiing is a possibility. Didn’t know you could do that in North Carolina? Read on to find out everything you need to know.

Logistics: Learn everything you need to know about cross-country skiing, including where to go and where you can rent skis, at our GetGoingNC Guide to NC Cross-Country Skiing. Should you opt for the downhill variety, consult SkiSoutheast.com for regional conditions.

Weekend forecast: Saturday is your day to go, with temperatures remaining in the 30s and sunshine.

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

The post This weekend: Go with the snow appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

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The best time to hike in a swamp? Right about now, when the temperatures are keeping all the creepy, crawly, bitey critters at bay. And the best way to hike a swamp? Elevated, on a boardwalk.

Which is what they’ll be doing Saturday morning at Goose Creek State Park. The Palmetto Boardwalk isn’t long, but it exposes you to a world that otherwise would be difficult to access.  Pennywort and ferns, Dwarf Palmetto, Spanish moss hanging tinsel-like from the canopy, bald cypress, black willows and live oaks, all the flora you associate with swamps — and on a hike with a ranger who will help you make sense of this evocative ecotone.

Logistics: Saturday, Jan. 10, 10 a.m., Goose Creek State Park, Washington. More info here: 252.923.2191, more information on Goose Creek State Park, here.

Saturday forecast: Sunny with an afternoon high of 38.

Piedmont

Who doesn’t love to discover a new trail? Even better: a new trail that’s actually new.

Saturday and Sunday, our GetHiking! program will explore 6.2 miles of new trail in the Uwharrie National Forest, a northern extension of the Uwharrie National Recreation Trail, from the Jumping-Off Rock trailhead off Flint Hill Road to Pisgah Covered Bridge Road. It’s an especially intriguing stretch, topping both Little Long Mountain, which offers one of the few vistas in the Uwharries, and King Mountain, one of the highest points in the range.

One more reason to do this hike: it will be lead by Don Childrey, author of the “Uwharrie Lakes Region Trail Guide,” the second edition of which was just released. Don knows the natural and human history of the region better than just about anyone.

Logistics: GetHiking! Triangle will do this hike Sunday at 10 a.m. GetHiking! Charlotte and GetHiking! Triad will do the hike Saturday at 10 a.m. For specifics, click on the GetHiking! chapter nearest you.

Weekend forecast: Saturday, sunny with a high of 36, Sunday, cloudy with a high of 44.

Mountains

There’s a perception that just because you’re going to the mountains for a hike, it has to be a hard hike. In truth, there are lots of hikes for folks who don’t view every outing as an episode of “Survivor.”

Like Saturday’s YMCA-Woodfin hike at Bear Wallow Mountain. It’s a three-mile round trip with just a 500-foot overall elevation gain. You needn’t be a Y member, there’s even a carpool from the Y, at 40 N. Merrimon Ave. The hike is free, $5 for the carpool would be appreciated.

Bear Wallow Mountain: Jan. 10, 8:45 a.m.-3 p.m., YMCA-Woodfin, 40 N. Merrimon Ave., Asheville. Three mile round trip. 500 foot elevation gain. Easy. No need to be a Y member. Bring lunch and water. Dress accordingly. Free. $5 if carpooling. Registration required. Contact Blanca Miller at Bmoi735@gmail.com.

Logistics: Saturday, Jan. 10, 8:45 a.m.-3 p.m., Bear Wallow Mountain. Free, but pre-registration is required, by emailing Blanca Miller at Bmoi735@gmail.com.

Sunday forecast: Sunny, high of 36.

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

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Coast

Last weekend, our GetHiking! Triangle group explored Goose Creek State Park. Few had previously visited the 1,208-acre park on the north bank of the Pamlico River downstream from Little Washington. Many hadn’t even heard of the park. But all came away big fans.

Hence, our recommendation for Saturday’s Live Oak and Huckleberry Trail Hike at Goose Creek. The hike will explore two of the park’s ecosystems: a Live Oak river community and a pine woods savannah. Coastal hiking is at its best on a clear, cool late fall day, which is in the cards for Saturday (see below).

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 22, 2 p.m., Goose Creek State Park, Washington. For more info, call 252.923.2191.

Saturday forecast: Sunny skies, high of 52.

Piedmont

We’re entering the season of, ‘tis better to give than receive. What’s best, though, is to give and receive, which is what will happen if you take part in Umstead State Park’s Can You Dig It? volunteer workday. Show up with sturdy boots, work gloves, water and the will to work hard for two hours and you can help improve the quality of Umstead’s over-loved trails.

No special skills required, just the ability to take direction and, again, work hard.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 22, 9 a.m., Harrison Avenue/Reedy Creek entrance (off I-40) to Umstead State Park, Raleigh. Reservations are required, by calling 919.571.4170.

Saturday forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 52.

Mountains

Here’s a hike you probably haven’t done but should: the Appalachian Trail north of Hot Springs. The climb up Lovers Leap Ridge offers repeated views of the French Broad River and Hot Springs below. Then, the way the Carolina Mountain Club plans to hike it on Sunday, interconnecting trails will provide more intimate streamside hiking.

And there’s the apres hike in Hot Springs, one of the classic AT trail towns. Be sure to include a visit to Bluff Mountain Outfitters,  where you can score just about everything a hiker could need — and more importantly, want.

Logistics: Sunday, Nov. 23, 8:30 a.m., Appalachian Trail, Hot Springs. For specifics on meeting time and location, contact Paul Benson at 828.251.1909 or pdbenson@charter.net.

Sunday forecast: High of 55, chance of rain.

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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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