Tag Archives: trail running

Five great trail runs in seven North Carolina cities

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

This weekend: No regrets, get out!

Hang ten, Fred!

Surf while you can, don’t pass up a good shower, and there’s a trail run in the mountains — somewhere.

Coast

A regret that needles at me seven years after the fact: Standing on a pier in Kaanapali on Maui watching a beginner surf lesson and not ponying up the $25 or whatever to take the lesson myself. I can still see people far less athletic than I bounding atop the long, spongy beginner boards and riding two-foot swells that went on forever. Looks like fun, I kept telling myself. That bit of melancholy leads to today’s weekend suggestion for the coast … read more

MST Endurance Run: The Southern Apps Attack

The Southern Apps Mountain gods exact their revenge.

Sunday, Day 4 of the MST Endurance Run, began on schedule for Diane Van Deren with a 3:45 a.m. wake up call. After getting off the trail the previous evening at 9:36 with Annette Bednosky, her trail guide for the weekend, she’d gotten her first good night’s sleep — 4 hours. She arrived where the Mountains-to-Sea Trail passes the Folk Arts Center in Asheville ready to rock a 43.8-mile day. read more

A race, a report

In my life as a guidebook writer, I frequently find myself returning from a scouting expedition and conducting a topopsy. That is, I get out the appropriate topographic map for where I’d been and try to figure where and how I got lost. It’s a helpful exercise. It sheds light on how I might help others avoid making the same mistake. And, to a lesser degree it turns out, helps me avoid making similar mistakes in the future. read more

90 Second Escape: Uwharrie Mountain Run

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 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. read more