Tuesday, North Carolina voters go to the polls to vote on, among other things, a sweeping $2 billion bond package. About $75 million of Connect NC would go to North Carolina’s State Parks.
Today on the Great Outdoor Provision Co. blog we give an overview of that funding and talk to former State Parks Director Lewis Ledford for his take on how the funding would continue a job started in 1993 by a watershed $35 million State Parks bond package. You can find that story here.
It’s long been tradition to welcome the new year with an athletic feat: a bike ride, a run, a dip in the ocean or other suitable frigid body of water. The most popular way — in the populist sense — has been to welcome the new with a walk in the woods. And for the last several years, North Carolina’s State Parks have been helping you do exactly that, by participating in the nationwide First Day Hikes program.
We depart from our traditional format this week, in part because outdoor activities are sparse the weekend before Christmas, in part because it’s time for the Christmas Bird Count, one of the biggest — and the longest running — citizen science efforts around.
To the glass-half-empty crowd, this weekend’s forecast of rain followed by more rain topped by a dash of drizzle (and more rain) may seem discouraging. But if you don’t mind seeing that half-full glass fill further, the wet weekend offers opportunity. You just need to know how to dress for it and where to best enjoy a walk in the wet woods.
Move over whitewater rafting, there’s a new “extreme” family adventure that’s fast become the thing to do for families with a taste for adrenaline.
Ziplines — most of which include high adventure ropes courses — have popped up throughout North Carolina over the past few years, selling the safe thrill that for years has earned whitewater rafting on Class III water a spot on the adventurous family’s vacation agenda.