Summer is in its waning days, the temperature is having trouble getting much past 80 during the day and is slipping below 60 at night. The air is dry, the sky clear, the bugs are being kept at bay.
It’s fall hiking season. But where to hike?
If you live in one of seven major North Carolina cities, GetGoingNC has solved your dilemma. Actually, GetGoingNC and Great Outdoor Provision Co. have joined forces to solve your dilemma.
Sure there’s a threat of rain — there’s always a threat of rain in summer; it’s the meteorologist’s ultimate hedge. But cooler temperatures demand that you start planning an active weekend earlier than usual.
Like now.
Piedmont
I usually don’t throw out mountain bike races as a weekend option because they’re typically targeted to a more adrenaline-influenced crowd and they can be expensive to enter. None of that applies to the venerable Huck-A-Buck this Sunday at Lake Crabtree County Park in Morrisville. The Huck-A-Buck has a competitive element, to be sure, but race founders Chris Pappas and Pat Lundergan with Happy Fun Racing have done a great job ensuring that the Huck remain a Race for the People — meaning people like me, who can show up and not be obviously out of place in the aforementioned adrenaline-happy crowd. I’m especially glad to suggest the Huck-A-Buck considering last year’s 10th edition was rumored to be the last. Long live the Huck!
Bike sharing, a transportation concept embraced around the world but only slowly making its way to the United States, has come to North Carolina. Charlotte B-Cycle began operating yesterday, with 200 bikes located at 20 stations in Uptown, including several along Charlotte’s Lynx light rail line.
Bike sharing programs offer the use of bikes to people who don’t have them. They’re typically intended to help people run errands or commute to work in urban areas. Bikes are parked at strategically placed stations around town. Participants in in the programs typically pay a usage fee. Generally, you can ride the bikes anywhere (they have GPS tracking), but you must pick them up and leave them at a station. (Lose a bike in the Charlotte system and it will set you back $1,000.) According to Wikipedia, bike sharing programs were operating in 165 cities around the world as of May 2011. France had the most programs, with 29, followed by Spain, 25; and China and Italy, both with 19.
The Charlotte program will allow riders 30 minutes of free use, making it an ideal option for quick trips in Uptown. Each additional 30 minutes is $4.Twenty-four-hour passes are available for $8 — perfect if you’re just visiting for the day — and annual passes, a good option for urban dwellers and downtown workers, are available for $65. Memberships can be purchased online or at the stations.
However, through Sunday the fee is being waived.
Bikes in the Charlotte program as in most bike share programs, are designed for short trips (see photo). All come equipped with baskets, lights and a bell. The bikes, which resemble beach cruisers, have three speeds and are equipped with tires somewhere between a balloon tire and a road tire.
Similar B-Cycle programs are in place in 12 other U.S. cities, including Spartanburg, S.C. An effort is underway to bring bike sharing to the Triangle.
Charlotte’s B-Cycle program was launched with funding from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina’s new Get Outside North Carolina! initiative. That program promises to pump $4 million into bike and greenway projects around the state over the next four years. Two other programs in line for GO NC! funding include the two-mile Blue Loop greenway at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh and the 15-mile Gary Shell Cross-City Trail linking Wilmington with the drawbridge to Wrightsville Beach. According to BCBSNC, every $1 invested in biking trails and walking paths can result in $3 in savings in medical expenses.
Because of the mid-week holiday we’re relaxing the definition of “weekend.” It starts … today!
Coast
You go to the beach regularly, maybe even live there for a week every summer. Yet how much do you know about your fellow residents, especially the year-round residents? The sea turtles, for instance, or the sea gulls? Tag along on Audubon North Carolina’s Free Friday Field Trip at Mason Inlet, a “fascinating sanctuary where you can get close-up looks at nesting birds and chicks,” according to ANC. “Coastal birds are scrappy survivors that combat extreme temperatures, unpredictable weather, and predators to successfully raise their young.” Who wouldn’t want to spend time with scrappy survivors?
We’re staring down the first steamy weekend of the summer. Frankly, I’m hard pressed to think of something to do outdoors that doesn’t involve water.
There’s swimming, of course. At your local pool (search for local parks and rec departments with pools at the North Carolina Recreation & Parks Association Web site), at a trusted swimming hole (find 76 in North Carolina at SwimmingHoles.org), at the coast (find Outer Banks beaches here, Wilmington area beaches here and assorted other beaches here.