Coast

Got a kid or kids you’ve been trying to entice onto the trail, only to encounter interference — typically of the electronic kind?

• Saturday is National Kids to Parks Day, and as part of the celebration Fort Fisher State Recreation Area is conducting a nature hike on the Basin Trail. This hike is especially good for kids because:
• It involves the beach and the promise of a dip at hike’s end.
• It’s not long, about 1.5 miles total.
• It’s a cool area: you can see forever and the intriguing nature along the way will be explained by a park ranger.
• It encounters a concrete bunker from World War II. And not just any bunker, but a bunker that was inhabited for years by Robert Harrill, the “Fort Fisher Hermit,” who abandoned society in search of a simpler life.
• There’s the prospect of seeing critters.
  Let’s see Donkey Kong compete with that.

Logistics: Saturday, May 16, 10 a.m., Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, Kure Beach. Free. For more information, contact Alyssa Taylor at 910.458.5798 or alyssa.taylor@ncparks.gov.

Saturday forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 75.

Looking ahead: Friday, May 22, 8:30 a.m., Kayaking at Hammocks Beach State Park, Free. 910.326.4881

Piedmont

It’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail Month; this weekend, Eno River State Park will celebrate the fact that several miles of the MST runs through it with three hikes, two on Saturday, one on Sunday, all on particularly effective wilderness escapes through an urban area.

Saturday at 8:30 a.m., a ranger will lead a hike from the park’s Pleasant Green Access to the Eno Quarry. Highlights: a mature floodplain forest, passage through a mountain laurel thicket on a bluff overlooking the Eno, the Eno Quarry, more mountain lake than abandoned rock mine. Out-and-back distance: 3 miles. Then, at 1 p.m., they’ll hike from the Cabelands Access downstream to the Pump Station Access. Highlights: more elevation in the form of climbs and drops, often through rocky sections. Total distance: 5 miles.

Sunday at 1 p.m., they’ll hike the stretch from Pump Station downstream to the Guess Road boundary of the park. Highlights: more rocky passages, more mature floodplain forest, the old Guess Road dam and long-abandoned Durham water works. Total distance: 4.4 miles.

Logistics: Saturday, 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., Sunday, 1 p.m., Eno River State Park. Free. For information on where to meet and other details, call the park at 919.383.1686.

Weekend forecast: Mostly sunny Saturday with a high of 83, mostly cloudy Sunday with a high of 86 and a chance of Thunderstorms.

Looking ahead: Intrigued by the geology of where you hike but clueless about what it is you’re looking at? Again, along the Eno, on Saturday, May 23, there’s a Geology Hike at Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area in Hillsborough at 2 p.m., a Geology Hike at Cox Mountain in Eno River State Park at 9 a.m. More info: 919.383.1686

Mountains

Looking down at Lake James a couple weekends ago from Shortoff Mountain, we couldn’t help but think about all the great things to do below: swim, bike, run … .

Saturday, they’ll be doing all of the above, in that order, quickly, at the Lake James Triathlon. A 750-meter swim in the cool, Linville River-fed waters of Lake James; a 22-mile bike ride around the lake; a 5K trail run — what a great way to spend the day. Tend to sink in the water? There’s a duathlon as well.

Logistics: Saturday, May 16, day-of-race registration from 6-7:30 p.m., both races commence at 8 a.m. Lake James State Park, Nebo. $65 for triathlon, $55 for duathlon. More info here.

Saturday forecast: High of 84, chance of thunderstorm (but likely in the afternoon).

Looking ahead: Friday, May 22 through Sunday, May 24, is the 15th Annual Mountain Sports Festival in Asheville. Trail races, mountain bike races, standup paddleboarding, kayaking — pretty much everything you might expect at a mountain sports festival in Asheville. Read more here.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

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