Welcome to the last weekend of winter — and the first weekend of spring!
Curiously, the winter end of the weekend, Saturday, has more of a springlike forecast (temperatures in the mid 70s, chance of rain), while Sunday is looking more late winter, with a high around 60 under crisp skies. That said, here’s a bit of what’s going on:
We love spring. It’s a time of rebirth, of action after a winter, for many, of inactivity. Warming temperatures and a natural world come back to life put us in a mind to do the same.
One way to make that happen? Become a hiker.
OK, maybe you have hiked. Maybe a friend convinced you to go for a short hike last year. Maybe you even did a New Year’s Day hike. We’re not talking about sampling the product. We’re talking about becoming an avid, hiking-boot-owning, guide-book-wielding, join-the-American-Hiking-Society hiker. A bonafide hiker.
On Sunday, we get our evenings back.
At 2 a.m., we spring ahead, setting our clocks forward by an hour and advancing sunset accordingly. Today, the sun sets at 6:19 p.m.; Sunday, it won’t go down until 7:22 p.m. And that’s just sunset; we’ll still have lingering light for another 20-25 minutes or so.
Weatherwise, this weekend appears to be a carbon copy of last weekend. Only in reverse.
Last weekend, the snow and ice hit on Sunday; this weekend it’s on Saturday (starting late Thursday, actually). And last weekend, the farther west you went — into the western Piedmont and mountains — the more winter-like it became. This weekend, it gets more wintery toward the coast.
Saturday’s GetHiking! Winter Wild hike at the R. Wayne Bailey-Caswell Game Lands near Yancyville was cold, really cold. But the brilliant blue sky more than made up for the 28-degree temperature. If I had a nickel for every time someone on the hike said, “What a beautiful day!”, I’d have a dollar thirty-five. A little sun can make up for a lot of cold.
