We get so much from our trails in a year. Is it too much to ask that we give a little back on just one day? That day being this Saturday, June 5?
For a few decades now, the first Saturday of June has been National Trails Day. It’s a day when we celebrate our trails, sometimes by doing maintenance, sometimes by simply taking a hike. In North Carolina this National Trails Day, 15 events have been registered with the American Hiking Society, which sponsors the annual event.
As someone pointed out on Facebook earlier this week, this is the first time since November that a seven-day forecast has not included a chance of rain. Further, we’re looking at sunny days with temperatures in the 50s for the weekend, rising into the low 70s by the end of next week. Thus, you are obligated to get out. And we are obligated to help you.
Gate 35 appeared almost as a dream.
I was driving north from Chapel Hill to Hillsborough on Old NC 86 late one afternoon in early December, a time of fading light known as the gloaming. The sun hadn’t officially set, but with a mostly cloudy sky it might as well have. Little light remained, but just enough that, passing by at 55 miles per hour, I thought I glimpsed what appeared to be dirt road guarded by a familiar gate, a chalk-white chain-link iron bar suspended between two forest green posts. I made a mental note of the location, and a Post-It Note to return and check it out.
It’s looking like a pretty nice weekend to be out in the woods, with daytime highs into the low 60s both Saturday and Sunday. There’s a chance of rain Sunday; otherwise, a good-looking December weekend is on tap.
First, a couple of off-trail adventures, both intended to keep you off pandemic-popular trails.
It was a cloudless 50-degree late fall day, a day that was intended only for being outdoors. We dream of days like this, days when every minute of sunlight — and there were 607 and change on this particular day — should be spent outside. Alas, I was bushed: low biorhythms, iron-poor blood, ennui? I didn’t know and it didn’t matter, because I barely had 60 minutes in me., let alone 600. And if I could only get in a couple miles on a day meant for 10, what was the point. Which brings me to the point.
