Imagine living a half hour away from the National Whitewater Center.
Today, we unveil a new feature: Live Where You Play.
Periodically, I get emails from out-of-staters moving to the region who are looking for a good place to live. And by “good place,” they mean a place close to where they can play. A place with a long greenway, or good hiking trails, a nearby mountain bike network or maybe some nice Class II and III whitewater running through the backyard. Well, maybe not right through the backyard, but close. I do a little research and shoot back an email listing options. And every time I do, I think, there have to be more people out there who would love to live closer to where they play.read more
Welcome to our latest effort in our quest to build a comprehensive list of places to play in North Carolina: Mountain biking.
North Carolina, if you aren’t aware, is a hot spot for mountain biking. Last year, Outside magazine named the Pisgah National Forest one of the top five mountain biking destinations in the U.S. Singletracks.com asked its followers to name the their favorite trails in the world, and four were in the state: Tsali, the Fletcher Creek area of Mills River, Bent Creek near Asheville and Overmountain Victory Trail at Kerr Scott Reservoir near Wilkesboro.
You want an epic ride? You don’t have to go far if you live in North Carolina.
Here’s our preliminary offering of 19 places to ride that we think are pretty swell. But we want to hear what you think. Think a place on our list is overrated and should be replaced? Let us know. Have we made a glaring omission? Fill us in. Or maybe we’ve omitted a key detail about one of the places that is listed. Tell us about that as well.
We’ll update the list periodically, and so you don’t have to go searching around the site to find, it will live permanently in the left rail of our home page. Scroll down to “Mountain biking,” click and you’re in business.
And send us your thoughts. Nothing like another good excuse to ride.read more
Time was, people sought to slow things down on hiking trails. Not anymore.
In 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, the Outdoor Foundation counted 5.1 million trail runners in the United States, an increase of 1 million from just four years earlier.
Instead of lumbering through the woods like a groggy bear emerging from a winter’s nap, we’re increasingly inclined to bound down the trail like a spooked deer.
We do it to seek solitude, we do it en masse to see who’s the fastest. The Umstead 100, Salem Lake Trail Runs the various races at the National Whitewater Center and scores of other runs fill up immediately, sometimes within minutes of registration opening.
With all that trail running, we’re constantly in search of trails to run on. Hence our latest effort in our collaboration with the Great Outdoor Provision Co.: Five great trail runs in seven North Carolina cities. Those cities: Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem.
We’ve written up descriptions of each location and provided all the information you need — location, directions, route details and more — to plan and execute your trail run.
You can find the runs in one of two ways. One, since you’re already here at GetGoingNC.com, go to the bar on the left side of the home page and click “Trail Running.” A drop-down menu will appear showing you the seven markets. Click on the market of your choice and you’ll be given quick descriptions of each run. Click on a run you’re interested in and you’ll be whisked over to the Great Outdoor Provision Co. Web site where the descriptions will live. Your other option: go directly to the GOPC site.
The locations selected reflect a joint effort by GetGoingNC and Great Outdoor Provision. I come up with a preliminary list of locations, I then send that list to GOPC, which submits the recommendations to the appropriate market. There, it’s gone over by the local GOPC staff. Something to know about the people who work at Great Outdoor Provision: they aren’t exactly in it for the money. Rather, they have a passion for the outdoors and a resulting knowledge that they are only too glad to share. They get out a lot and they know their terrain better than anyone. You’re getting recommendations from the people who know the most about their locale and the best places to be outside.
Check out our list, lace up your sneakers and hit the trail.read more
