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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Coast

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

The week after Thanksgiving, for some reason, is always a tough one to push through. Even more the reason we are so grateful that the holiday season is providing us a plethora of options to get out for what’s going to be another beautiful weekend.

Coast

December, when neighbors become a little more chatty, trees go up, houses become swathed in creative light designs. While all this excitement is in the air don’t forget to continue exploring, lest the stress of the season catch up to you.

One way to de-stress this weekend is on one of the numerous boat rides taking place at Hammocks Beach State Park. Whichever day works best for you — Friday, Saturday or Sunday — you’ll be able to enjoy a boat ride. Travel over to one of the unique islands of Hammock Beach and learn from one of the park rangers first hand what has shaped the area’s marine life, habitats and different ecosystems.

Logistics: Huggins Island History Hike, Friday, 10 a.m. to noon; Jones Island Eco-Tour, Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon; Bear Island Eco-Hike, Sunday, 10 a.m. to noon. All at Hammocks Beach State Park, Swansboro. Find out more, here.

Weekend weather: Highs in the 50s all three days, sunny on Friday, a little less sunny Saturday, downright cloudy Sunday.

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Looking ahead: Nature on the Queens, Dec. 7, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., Hammocks Beach State Park. More info, here.

Piedmont

Can a park be all things to all people? Hagan-Stone, just southeast of Greensboro, gives it a heck of a shot. And 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. The hike is an easy way to get in four miles and offers beauty everywhere along the way.

Logistics: GetHiking! / Hike NC! at Hagan-Stone Park, Saturday, 1 p.m., Hagan-Stone Park, Pleasant Garden. Find out more, here.

Saturday forecast: Partly cloudy, high of 53.

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Looking ahead: Holiday Hike and Baked Goods Jamboree, Sycamore Trail at Umstead State Park, Raleigh. Dec. 10, 10 a.m., 7.2 miles. More info, here.

Mountains

It’s a time of year where the curiosity of our young ones seems to be at its peak: they have questions and we do our best not to take the magic away! Helping with this is the Santa on the Chimney — Chimney Rock State Park that is.

Besides, haven’t you wondered as well how Santa magically gets up and down millions of chimneys around the world, all in just one night? Included in the admission to Chimney Rock you and your family can enjoy the magic of the holidays as you watch Santa practice climbing one of the world largest “chimneys,” with multiple 200-foot rappels. Live music and hot chocolate, too.

Logistics: Santa on the Chimney, Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Chimney Rock State Park, Chimney Rock. $13 for adults, $6 for kids. Find out more, here.

Sunday forecast: Partly Cloudy, high of 52.

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Looking ahead: Instant Replay: Santa on the Chimney, Dec. 10, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Find out more, here.

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

Coast

The post Your Weekend: It’s the most wonderful time of the year appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Coast / coastal plain

One of the reasons you love to head into the wild is the opportunity to see wildlife. For a lot of us, the bigger the wildlife the better. Swimmers at the coast love the opportunity to be near dolphins, scuba divers savor a shark encounter, hikers live for a bear sighting. And when it comes to exploring the Cape Lookout National Seashore, it’s the wild horses that inhabit the island that draw our attention.

This year, as part of Cape Lookout’s 50th Anniversary and the National Park Service’s Centennial celebration, the park is holding periodic Horse Sense and Survival trips. Wildlife Biologist Sue Stuska leads this outing, which provides “an exciting and enlightening glimpse into the relationships, behavior, and survival of these wild animals. Participants will gain an appreciation of all that can be gleaned while watching from a distance. They will understand how to determine an appropriate position and distance for watching that doesn’t affect the horses’ natural behaviors.”

Sounds like a great way to spend a day at the coast, a day like this Saturday.

Vital Stats: Saturday, July 9, 1:30-4:30 p.m., meeting at the Harkers Island Visitor Center. There’s a ferry fee to the island of $16 for adults, $9 for kids 11 and under. More information by calling 252.728.2250 ext. 3001, or going here, where you can also learn when additional sessions are scheduled.

Saturday forecast: High of 92, mostly sunny.

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Looking ahead: Soundside Hike, every Tuesday at 9 a.m., Jockey’s Ridge State Park. More info here.

Piedmont

We recently promoted a Bootlegger 5K, in Charlotte, and while we hate to go back to the well too often, we can’t resist promoting this Saturday’s Bootlegger in Pleasant Green, near Greensboro.

In part, that’s because of the course, following the popular high school and college 5K course at Hagan Stone Park. It’s a nice run in daylight, even better at night — especially when the day time temperature will reach into the mid-90s: by race time of 8:55, the mercury will have dipped to a not-quite-brisk-but-certainly-more-tolerable 81. A flashlight or headlamp is required of all runners. Post-race refreshments include two moonshine drink tickets for participants 21 and older.

Vital Stats: Saturday, July 9, 8:55 p.m., Hagan Stone Park, Greensboro. $43. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Race time temperature of 81 under dark skies.

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Looking ahead: Canoe the Mayo, Mayo River State Park, Saturday, Aug. 27, 10 a.m. More info here.

Mountains

Not many adventures sound more adventurous than a mountain canoe trip. Immediately, it conjures images of deftly negotiating a string of rapids and drops amid a froth of whitewater and a cacophony of whoops!

And if that’s what your friends choose to think when you tell them you took on the New River near Laurel Springs this Sunday, who are you to tamper with their perception of you as a devil-may-care, buckskin-clad paddler. In reality, though, this paddle on the New through New River State Park is one relatively placid water with great views! And, you’ll be led by a park ranger, who will offer basic canoe instruction along the way.

Vital Stats: Guided Canoe Trip, New River State Park, Wagoner Access, Sunday, July 10, 1 p.m. Free, but space is limited; 336.982.2587 to reserve a spot.

Sunday forecast: Sunny skies, high of 81.

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Looking ahead: Elk Knob Community Headwaters Day, Elk Knob State park, Todd, Saturday, Sept. 10. More info here.

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

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