North Carolina is forecast to be rainy in the east, sunny in the west. Either way, we’ve found plenty of incentive to get out this weekend.
Coast
Normally, we don’t get excited about hundreds of thousands of temporary visitors settling in for the season at the coast. But when the season is winter and the visitors are tundra swans, snow geese and assorted ducks, it’s a different story.
After a week of cold and snow throughout much of the state, the swing continues, with unseasonably warm temperatures returning to North Carolina. Get out and warm your bones with a nice hike.
Coast
After a week of snow and cold, doesn’t it sound appealing to spend some time in a warm, muggy swamp? Sure it does, and you can, Saturday, at Goose Creek State Park near Washington (our Washington). As the event notice explains, on the Palmetto Boardwalk Hike, you’ll get to, “See the Palmetto swamp as it transitions to a saltwater marsh without getting your feet wet.” (The later in reference to the “boardwalk” portion of the clinic name.)
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.
As available sunlight goes, we hit our annual nadir on Saturday: the winter solstice, officially commencing at 12:11 p.m. The sun rises at 7:19 a.m. and sets at 5:06, with just 9 hours and 47 minutes of daylight in between. From Saturday on, gradually at first, the sun starts setting a little later every day incrementally increasing our daylight for play.
Winter is approaching, but the temperatures this weekend will be more autumnal. Perfect, in fact, for getting out and shaking the lethargy of a Thanksgiving feast. Carolina Beach State Park gives you good reason to head for the coast, there’s a rare opportunity to explore a Jordan Lake tributary in the Piedmont, and in the mountains, the trail less traveled could be the one yielding the biggest reward.