This week, hikes and a paddle with something extra.
Coast | Coastal Plain
Exploring is great. Exploring with a party thrown in, even greater!
That’s the situation Saturday at Lumber River State Park, site of the Lumber River Day Festival 2017. There’s exploring, in the form of free canoe rides on the Lumber River. And there’s fun stuff in the form of bluegrass music, pony rides, a casting contest (for kids), miniature train rides, a bouncy house, food (including ice cream) and more.
This week’s offerings all come courtesy North Carolina State Parks, where on any given weekend (and on a lot of days throughout the week) you’ll find an array of interesting — and usually free — programs. Check out the State Parks curriculum here, and read on for suggestions on how you can live and learn in the great outdoors this weekend.
A cool bike ride in the mountains or a leisurely day on the water in the Piedmont and coastal plain: Those are but three of your options this weekend in North Carolina.
Coast
What better place to spend a muggy, 90-degree day than on a river? And not just an hour or two of the day, but at least half of it.
You can’t escape the heat and humidity, but you can work with it. Paddling on the Lumber River, for instance. Or playing and partying at the Triangle’s biggest outdoor festival. Or taking a high country hike with a National Park Service ranger.
Coast
When I first started writing about fitness and the outdoors back in the early 1990s, there were a handful of ways you could welcome the New Year in most communities. There was usually a 5K run, a bike shop sponsored a casual ride, canoe clubs held members-only paddles, there was a hike or two, and some oddball group was jumping into a local lake (and jumping right back out again). You had options for welcoming the new year, but not a lot.