Trying Stand-Up Paddleboarding at Lake Crabtree and Harris Lake
I have been having a blast taking photos of Wake County parks! Most recently I met up with a group of stand-up paddleboarders at Lake Crabtree. The week before at Harris Lake I'd met Laura Prudhomme, the organizer of the Meetup "What SUP Triangle?" through a meetup with Life Is A Hike. Laura and her husband Mark own Earth Creature which rents SUP gear and organizes events like the SUP meetup at Harris and the meetup at Crabtree. I found them through a mutual friend and after I took photos at the Harris Lake event Laura invited me to take photos at a Lake Crabtree event and try out paddling for myself.
Local mountain biking group offers events for riders with wide variety of experience
I don't have a mountain bike. It's probably a good thing seeing as 1) I regularly wreck my road bike on straight, paved, and unobstructed trails; 2) I already don't have time for the bajillion activities I already do; and 3) they're expensive and do I really need another expensive hobby? But McCrae mountain bikes and I'm always jealous and slightly terrified of the bent wheels he brings home from rides or the insane Rampage videos he likes to show me to simultaneously make my skin crawl with fear and my eyes go wide with excitement. So recently when I got the chance to take photos of mountain biking at Lake Crabtree that anticipation and excitement welled up.
Q&A with Emily after her first time backpacking (our Max Patch adventure)
It's hiking season! I'm super excited about tackling another section of the Appalachian Trail this weekend with another friend and I'm still head over heels with the last trip with Emily. To celebrate I caught up with Emily and got her thoughts on her first backpacking trip and what she learned as a newbie.
Empowering women in the outdoors
REI just announced a focus on women in the outdoors in 2017 called "Force of Nature." It's an attempt to counter the long-standing complaint about the outdoors industry: for too long the outdoors has been dominated by men. Men are on the covers of outdoorsy magazines, men are depicted in active ad campaigns, men get the best gear, men get featured on social media, men men men men.
How I introduced my friend to backpacking with incredible views and juuuuuuust a wee bit of snow
We had a few days off work on March 16 and 17 (rumor has it we got those days off because of the start of the NCAA tournament), so with the extra free time my friend Emily and I headed off to the mountains to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail.This was Emily's first backpacking trip and the pressure was on me to make sure she 1) didn't die, and 2) had a good time. (Spoiler: I delivered on #1, and hopefully on #2!)
Thanks for keeping me on track and for making my exercise hours my happy hours
Valentine's Day is all about celebrating love - for your partner, for your friends, for those people who keep you sane. On this special day I want to say thank you to my exercise buddies.
Because roses die, chocolates don't last a day, and cards get thrown away, but memories will last a lifetime
Valentine's Day is around the corner - do you have plans?! You could do the usual Valentine's Day date of roses and candlelit dinner, but if you're bored by the same-old-same-old then consider an alternative Valentine's date. (Added bonus - you can do a Galentine's Day with these same activities!)
SLED DOG FAIL! Ryder doesn't want you to watch this video - Poor Ryder has been the laughingstock of the household the past few days. He's a spoiled snow dog who loves to pull on his leash when we're out hiking and backpacking, so I figured it might be fun to do a little sledding with him. I didn't have a sled so I grabbed a lid from a plastic bin and headed out with precious poopsie. Too bad he just whined and crawled into my lap. Useless snow dog.
