Exploring by foot this weekend yields intriguing insights into a coastal island, a look at fall color where we often don’t look, and a double feature of geology and views on a unique North Carolina mountain.
Coast
We hike, in part, to explore (which is one reason the urge to go off trail can be so great). We love to see new things, love to see things that not a lot of other folks get to see. Hence, our recommendation for Saturday’s Jones Island Eco-Tour at Hammocks Beach State Park.
Our spate of great fall weekend weather continues. Amid a full lineup of ways to enjoy it, here’s what we are especially drawn to.
Coast
Make of this what you will: I go for a 5-mile run, my step-counter-dealiebob gives me credit for maybe 8,000 steps. I spend the day working in the yard, I hit my daily goal of 15,000 steps by noon. Which is to say, good aerobic exercise can come from unexpected places.
Hike in a canoe, hike in a creek, hike in the dark.
Coast
What’s the best hike when temperatures are in the 90s and the humidity isn’t far behind?
A Canoe Hike.
Like the one they’re having Sunday at Carvers Creek State Park.
And when’s the best time to have a Canoe Hike?
When the sun is easing and the temperature with it, around 6 p.m., which is when Sunday’s Canoe Hike is scheduled.
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.
What’s better than probing a cemetery on a hot summer night? Hiking the base of Pilot Mountain, perhaps? Or maybe a triathlon of the sprint variety. You’ve got options this weekend.
Coast / Coastal Plain
It’s every kid’s perfect summer night: wait until sunset, then grab a flashlight and wander through the local cemetery. A rite of youth fraught with the forbidden: sneaking out after dark, trespassing, cavorting among the dead … . No wonder it was a highlight of being a kid.