At our sister site, NCHikes.com, we make monthly (or somewhat monthly) recommendations for seasonally appropriate hikes. In summer, for instance, we try to suggest hikes that are either high and cool or ones that involve walking near, or at some point frolicking in, water.
We love trails. You love trails.
Saturday, we show that love during the annual National Trails Day observation. Launched by the American Hiking Society in the early 1990s, NTD is the one day of the year where express our love of hiking trails, paddle trails, singletrack mountain bike trail, doublewide equestrian trail … if it’s a trail, it’s covered under the NTD rainbow.
Dozens of National Trails Day events are planned in North Carolina for Saturday. We’ve compiled a list of 37 events; we provide the basics and a link or phone number where you can score specifics.
We’ll rerun a more complete list a week from today, on Thursday, June 5. In the meantime, leave Saturday, June 7 open. You have a date with a trail.
Yesterday afternoon I got to experience new trail. Not new to me, new period.
Earlier this year, volunteers from the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail connected the 60 miles of MST along Falls Lake with 10 miles of trail along the Eno River through its namesake state park. The long-awaited link between Penny’s Bend to Durham’s West Point on the Eno city park penetrates an especially junglelike stretch of the Eno that required little money but a lot of sweat equity by a workforce headed by FMST volunteer Fred Dietrich.
“Did you see the bridge?” asked FMST member John Willis. “We had to haul the 400-pound support beams 100 feet, which was about 99 feet too far.”
The effort is an example of how the vast majority of our recreational trails come to be: through the dedication of volunteers like Fred, John and legions of others.
On Saturday, June 7, you can become one of those legions. June 7 is National Trails Day, a two-decade-old event sponsored by the American Hiking Society in which we celebrate our trails by hiking them, by maintaining them, by building more of them.
So far, according to the American Hiking Society, 25 NTD events are planned in North Carolina; you’ll find a list of them below. We doubt this list is complete, which is why we run it this week. If you have or know of an NTD event not included here, send us the details — or at least point us in a direction where we can find the specifics.
We’ll rerun a more complete list a week from today, on Thursday, June 5. In the meantime, leave Saturday, June 7 open. You have a date with a trail.
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of 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.
Looking for a new adventure?
Let me answer that for you: Yes, you are.
I know this because you visit this site for one of two reasons: Either you’re already into adventure and are always looking for more, or the idea of adventure intrigues you, you just haven’t found the right fit.
My goal here at GetGoingNC is to help you find that fit. That’s also the goal of my new book, “Adventure Carolinas.”
Billed as “Your Go-To Guide for Multi-Sport Outdoor Recreation,” the book focuses on six key adventure sports and touches on 10 more.
The six keys: mountain biking, flatwater paddling, whitewater paddling, rock climbing, scuba diving and backcountry exploration.
The 10 more: downhill skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing, tubing, kiteboarding, hang gliding, ziplining, standup paddleboarding, windsurfing, geocaching and caving.
Sure, I’d like to you buy the book. But first, I’d prefer that you learn more about it, ask a few questions. And for that reason, I have a number of appearances set up statewide over the next month. Check out the list below, mark your calendar.
Let’s talk about your next adventure.