Several years ago, when Keith Nealson was a ranger at Umstead State Park, I nearly had him talked into a canoe trip down Crabtree Creek through the park. Alas, he transferred (he’s now the superintendent of Eno River State Park) and the trip never advanced beyond talk.
Tag Archives: Hiking
Your weekend: Frightful? Delightful!
Answer the following: The weather forecast for this weekend is:
a) Frightful
b) Delightful
If you answered a), then you’ve already resigned yourself to spending the weekend indoors. Here’s a list of good books.
If you answered b), stick with us as we depart from our usual format, which is to recommend planned outdoor activities scheduled for the weekend. Organized bike rides, hikes, runs, that kind of thing. Odds are that anything scheduled throughout much of the state will be canceled should the forecast illustrated above (thanks WRAL Weather, btw) come true. No sense recommending something that likely won’t happen. Instead, some thoughts on how you, as an individual, can take advantage of the snowy cold weekend.
In 2017, don’t just set a goal, set the ‘right’ goal
The following originally ran on Jan. 1, 2012. We rerun it today with minor tweaks.
“You know,” Chris said, “there aren’t too many people who could do this.” After catching his breath, he added, “And I don’t mean people our age. I mean people, period.”
A present opened early
We like to ward off the beginning of the work-week blues with a thought about life on the outside.
Today, I get to open an early Christmas present, a present that’s been sitting under the tree for three months.
Duke Forest.
In September, I relocated my office to Durham, to a location based in part on its nearness to our new home in Hillsborough, in part based on the reasonable lease. A third perk surfaced within a few days when I realized I was within a five-minute drive of Hollow Rock Nature Park, Sandy Creek Park, and Duke’s Al Buehler Cross-Country Trail, perfect lunchtime escapes. It was a few more days before I realized I was also within five minutes of at least a half dozen access points to Duke Forest, off NC 751 and Cornwallis Road. On my first visit, to Gate 11, I was met by an asterisk:
90 Second Escape: The Virtues of Walking in the Rain
Wednesday, Hump Day. The memories of your weekend adventures are too distant to cling to, the prospects of adventure over the weekend ahead too distant to ponder. To help you over these midweek blues, every Wednesday we visually take you to 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.