It’s summer, it’s time to hit the water.
Coast
High on the list of many reasons we enjoy the adventure life in North Carolina is the opportunity to paddle a swamp. Does any location scream adventure more than a swamp? Slowly making your way through the tupelo gum and cypress weeping Spanish moss, paddle in hand, wary eye cast into the jungle beyond … throw in a bottle of gin and a dame and it’s “The African Queen” in our own backyard.
In the last two weeks, the forest floor has, finally, come alive with splashes of color: carpets of delicate white spring beauties, patches of starburst white chickweed, bursts of purple periwinkle, flashes of yellow green-and-gold.
The spring show is in its prime, but it won’t last forever. Here are five spots where you’re likely to find the season in full flower for at least the next couple of weeks (longer in the high country).
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.
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.
Every five weeks I get a new batch of best friends.
That’s how long it takes to graduate folks from my beginner-to-bonafide-backpacker program, GetBackpacking!
After four weeks of training hikes, this past weekend we spent three days and two nights at South Mountains State Park. Peak fall color, cool (OK, at night it was cold) temperatures, 10 happy, newly minted backpackers, all of whom I would gladly spend 60 straight hours with again.