Get out and take advantage: You never know how long it will last.

Coast

This may be hard to believe because of our ongoing cold, but the time is rapidly running out for an enjoyable hike in a coastal wetlands. Once temperatures start climbing into the mid to upper 60s, all kinds of critters begin to emerge that can take some of the fun out of exploring a forested wetlands.

Thus, with temperatures expected to stay in the 50s Sunday, we suggest you check out the Wonder Wetlands hike at Merchants Millpond State Park near Gatesville. On this two-mile hike on established trail into a wild forest, a ranger will talk about the park’s wetlands and how they affect plants, animals and people.  In addition, we recommend you get there two hours early, rent a canoe ($5 first hour, $3 every subsequent hour) and explore the millpond.

Logistics: Sunday, March 9, 3 p.m. Merchants Millpond State Park, Gatesville. Learn more about the park here, for more info on the hike, call 252.357.1191.

Saturday forecast: High of 59, partly sunny.

Piedmont

Running or biking on the American Tobacco Trail, we usually stop on the bridge section over White Oak Creek and contemplate the waterway’s path. Downstream, we know that the creek empties into Jordan Lake. But upstream, where exactly does the creek go? And how much farther can you paddle up it?

Find out the answer to these and other White Oak Creek questions Saturday, when Jordan Lake Ranger Steve McMurray leads a three-hour paddle up White Oak Creek. The trip commences from the Crosswinds Boat Ramp, paddles a stretch of open water on Jordan Lake, then probes White Oak Creek. Recommended for experienced paddlers only.

Logistics: Saturday, March 8, 1-4 p.m. Crosswinds Boat Ramp at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area. For more information on Jordan Lake, go here, for information on the paddle trip and to register, call 919.362.0586, ext. 219.

Saturday forecast: High of 65, partly sunny.

Mountains

DuPont State Forest between Hendersonville and Brevard has nearly 100 miles of trail, a sizable number for a tract of land just over 10,000 acres. With so many trails to choose from, picking a circuit can be a challenge, both from the standpoint of optimizing your scenic return and from the standpoint of suddenly realizing you have no idea where you are.

Good reasons to sign up for Sunday’s 12-mile hike sponsored by the Carolina Mountain Club. Attractions along the way: Lake Imaging, Grassy Falls, Thomas Cemetery, Wintergreen Falls, Stone Mountain and “the old firing range.” And because it’s the first day of Daylight Savings Time, you’ll have an extra hour of sunlight to savor the scenery.

Logistics: Sunday, March 9, 9 a.m. For more information and to register, contact hike leader Jan Onan, janonan@bellsouth.net, 828.698.3237. For more information on the route, go here.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

Coast

CapeFearCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar for the Cape Fear/Wilmington/southern N.C. coast searchable by date and event name.

Coastal Guide
Comprehensive calendar including nature programs from a variety of costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs. Covers the entire coast.

Crystal Cost Tourism Authority
Comprehensive calendar focusing on the Crystal Coast. Good source for programs offered by N.C. Coastal Federation, Cape Lookout National Park, N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve and other costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs.

NCCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar including programs for the Outer Banks and Crystal Coast.

North Carolina Coast Host
Comprehensive calendar for the entire coast that lets you search for events by day, by region, by county, by city or by event (based on key word).

This Week Magazine
Primary focus is the Crystal Coast (North Carolina’s coastal midsection).

Mountains

Asheville Citizen-Times
From the main page, click on “Outdoors,” then WNC Outdoors calendar.

Blue Ridge Outdoors
Searchable calendar lets you extend your reach to events throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast (or you can just limit it to North Carolina). Also lets you search a boatload of categories, ranging from Hiking, Mountain Biking and Climbing to Trail Running, Triathlon and Road Walking.

The Mountain Times
From the main page, click on “Calendars,” then Main Events.

Todd’s Calendar

Piedmont

Charlotte

Charlotte Observer events calendar
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including Nature, Recreation, Recreation & Wellness, Running

Charlotte Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triad

GoTriad.com
Comprehensive calendar includes a Sports & Recreation category.

Piedmont Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triangle

Triangle.com
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including: Birding, Boating, Cycling, Nature, Rec & Wellness, Recreation, Running, Swimming, Tennis, Yoga.

Carolina Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Statewide

Great Outdoor Provision Co.
Calendar includes three weekly events for each of its seven markets: Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem. Search by market.

Office of Environmental Education
One calendar for the numerous Environmental Education Centers statewide.

North Carolina State Parks
Lets you search for programs at the state’s parks, recreation areas and natural areas by location, by month, by topic. To reach the calendar from the home page, click on “Education,” then “Fun & Free Programs at Parks.”

National Forests in North Carolina
From the home page, click on Carolina Connections for news updates on the state’s four national forests as well as hints on recreational opportunities and a detailed rundown of recreation areas and the amenities at each.

U.S. National Wildlife Refuges
Rundown, by month, of regular activities at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service refuges in North Carolina.

– See more at: https://getgoingnc.com/2014/02/this-weekend-spring-from-winter/#sthash.d9diK6Wt.dpuf

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The post This weekend: Sun, warmth and the return Daylight Saving Time appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Winter is approaching, but the temperatures this weekend will be more autumnal. Perfect, in fact, for getting out and shaking the lethargy of a Thanksgiving feast. Carolina Beach State Park gives you good reason to head for the coast, there’s a rare opportunity to explore a Jordan Lake tributary in the Piedmont, and in the mountains, the trail less traveled could be the one yielding the biggest reward.

Coast

Winter is the best time to be at the coast. The beach crowds have scattered, replaced by overwintering waterfowl. The skies are crisp, the air bracing. If you like exploring, this is the time to do it along the coast. Sometimes, though, you need a little push.

Saturday, Carolina Beach State Parks offers such a nudge with its one-hour Biological Wonderland program. It’s a popular program at the park, giving visitors a quick overview of this incredibly diverse area, an area best known for its rare, carnivorous plant life. Come early, familiarize yourself on the park’s six miles of trail, then swing by the Flytrap Trail parking lot and get enlightened.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 30, 2 p.m., Carolina Beach State Park, Carolina Beach. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Partly cloudy, high of 61.

Piedmont

We have two weak spots when it comes to paddling. One, the winter, when a naked canopy makes it easier to peer into the woods surrounding you. Two, exploring new, exotic places.

Maybe the White Oak Creek area of Jordan Lake doesn’t strike you as exotic, but every time I’ve biked over it on the American Tobacco Trail I’ve been intrigued by its swampy feel, by where it comes from, where it goes. Saturday presents a rare opportunity to determine both when Jordan Lake Park Ranger Steve McMurray leads a paddle trip from the lake up White Oak Creek. A sense of adventure is guaranteed.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 30, 1 p.m., Jordan Lake State Recreation Area. Free, but preregistration required. You can do that, and get more information, by contacting Ranger McMurray at at 919.362.0586, ext 219, or at steve.mcmurray@ncparks

Saturday forecast: Partly cloudy, high of 48.

Mountains

Don’t your ears tend to perk when you hear of a hike described as using “a rarely used trail”? That means that even on a gorgeous late fall day you won’t likely encounter other hikers, and because the trail is rarely used — and under-maintained, most likely — there’s what I like to call on the hikes I lead, a heightened opportunity for adventure (translation: a good chance of getting lost). The latter isn’t likely in this case, as Sunday’s 7.5-mile hike on the rarely used Rough Creek Trail in the Pisgah National Forest is being lead by savvy Carolina Mountain Club hike leader Lenny Bernstein.

Logistics: Sunday, Dec. 1, 9 a.m. (carpool meeting time from Asheville). Contact Carolina Mountain Club hike leader Lenny Bernstein, at 828.450.1325, lennybernstein41@gmail.com. Learn more about the hike here.

Sunday forecast: Partly cloudy, high of 48.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

The post This weekend: Cool adventure appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Durham discovered the shortfall in July when it opened bids from eight contractors on the project, which also calls for about 4 miles of paved trail. The lowest bid, from Blythe Construction, came in at $7.75 million, about $2 million more than the $5.8 million — including $4.7 million in NCDOT funding — the city has allotted. The shortfall has discouraged and annoyed — but not surprised — regional greenway advocates and users: As far back as 2007 the city estimated the project could cost as much as $6.3 million.

Asked Wednesday how what options Durham might have to bridge the gap, project manager Byron Brady and Dale McKeel, the proactive coordinator of Durham’s bicycle and pedestrian program, both said they were “not at liberty to say.”

On the other side of the Triangle, however, Triangle greenways uber-advocate Sig Hutchinson was not so constrained.

Hutchinson believes the bridge could be bundled with pending greenway projects in Cary and Raleigh to qualify for federal TIGER 3 funds. TIGER 3 involves transportation-specific funds available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal program launched two years ago to help dig the economy out of a black hole. $20 million in TIGER 1 funds, for instance, helped Raleigh fast-track the 28-mile Neuse River Greenway, the initial 8 miles of which is scheduled to open in September. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

“As soon as I heard about the Durham bridge, I called called Vic [Lebsock, Raleigh’s senior greenway planner] and Doug [McRainey, parks planner for the town of Cary] to see about Tiger 3,” Hutchinson said yesterday.

Among the various requirements for Tiger 3 funds, a project must already be designed and shovel ready — meaning construction can start within 30 days of receiving funds — and an application must include a minimum of $10 million in projects. Applicants must also have a minimum of 20 percent in matching funds. Raleigh and Cary both have at least one key project that can be thrown into the mix.

Raleigh: Thanks in part to those Tiger 1 funds, Raleigh is in the midst of a greenway construction boom. In addition to the 28-mile Neuse River Greenway, the city is building the 3-mile House Creek Greenway, which will link the 15-mile Reedy Creek/Rocky Branch/Umstead B&B trail system with the 11-mile Crabtree Creek Trail; the last 4-mile stretch of the Crabtree Creek Trail, which will link the existing 11 miles of greenway with the emerging Neuse Trail; and a 2.9-mile stretch of the Walnut Creek Greenway. That will lengthen Walnut Creek, which runs along the southern edge of Raleigh, to 6.7 miles, but still leave it a mile and a half short of connecting with the Neuse River Greenway. It’s that last 1.6-mile stretch that Raleigh would seek Tiger 3 funding for.

Cary: Cary’s White Oak Creek Greenway is 2 miles short of connecting with the American Tobacco Trail. That stretch has been problematic according to Doug McRainey, Cary parks planning manager, because it’s actually in Apex and Apex hasn’t expressed much interest in the project.

“It’s north of their population center,” says McRainey. Besides, Apex is pushing to make its own ATT connection along Beaver Creek to the south.

Cary sees the 2 miles as key to its own system because the ATT connection would make it possible to take the White Oak Creek Greenway to Bond Park, where travelers could pick up the Black Creek Greenway for the 7-mile trek on to Lake Crabtree. There 5 miles of trail in adjoining Umstead State Park links with Raleigh’s Reedy Creek Greenway.

The TIGER 3 application process encourages bundling of interrelated urban projects, which would seem to bode well for a Cary/Durham/Raleigh package. Boding not-as-well is the fact that part of the package — the White Oak Creek element — is more rural than TIGER 3 likes to see for its urban applications. McRainey says that partially derailed a joint application between Raleigh, Cary and Wake Forest, among others, for TIGER 2 funds. There’s also plenty of competition for the $527 million in TIGER 3 funds available, with upwards of 200 applications expected.

Still, among the options being openly discussed, it offers hope for a community teased with the prospect of a bridge over I-40 for more than a decade.

“It’s a potential solution,” says Hutchinson, who says the bridge plays a key roll in the development of a Trianglewide greenway network.

“It’s huge,” says Hutchinson. “When you start thinking about the missing links in the system, you’ve got that one, White Oak Creek, the quarry, Walnut Creek and the Neuse. Everything else is just spurs connecting to the grid.” Plug in these missing links, complete that grid and a formidable secondary transportation system will exist for non-motorized travelers in the Triangle.

Applicants have until October 31 to apply for TIGER 3 funds.

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Follow-up post: ‘Could a TIGER save Durham’s American Tobacco Trail Bridge?’

The post Could a TIGER save Durham’s American Tobacco Trail bridge? appeared first on GetGoing NC!.