Great Outdoor Blog

Driving to the trailhead I wondered if we’d packed enough cold gear. Snow had been reported at Wilburn Ridge with an overnight low in the 20’s. My buddy and I have a crew of eight high school kids with a collective playlist of nearly 10K songs but did they pack enough insulation?

My concerns are dismissed once we reach Grayson Highlands. Our midnight arrival stirs a Park Ranger who provides an adequate shake-down of the party. She’s impressed to see a group of young people, 4 girls, 4 guys and two dads, out in the woods. She also cautions us to be careful – “Deer season opens tomorrow at sunrise.”

After finding gloves, hats and headlamps we hoist our packs and head north to connect with the Appalachian Spur Trail and over Wilburn Ridge. Our party carries a variety of packs – the majority being Osprey Packs. Two boys lead the way as they’ve hiked this area with their Scout Troop. The girls help with reading the map. Everyone is excited to get on the trail and enjoys the night hike experience. Jokes are passed down the line as we discuss who brought along a blaze orange vest and who brought the antlers.

I kid you not, a rifle shot awakens me just before dawn. Unable to return to sleep I decide to crawl out of a cozy MSR Carbon Reflex 2 and explore the area where we’d chosen to camp. The shelter was occupied when we passed it at 1am so we hiked a bit further before pitching our tents. The babbling of Big Wilson Creek has me digging out the Platypus Gravity Works (video demo here) as I do my best to appear non-deer-like making my way to the creek. Water filters as I fire up the MSR Pocket Rocket and take in the sunrise with a cup of coffee.

The next two days with the crew were great. These young people share a profound connection with this wilderness and each other. Away from our busy city life we can live in the moment – present and connected to the beauty all around. We talk about how the most difficult part of the trip is returning home. They want to do this again – soon – and bring along more friends. We all have a new sense of adventure – maybe it comes from the from the night hike, or stream crossing, or maybe from meeting the hunter who shared his story – but that sense of adventure remains with us long after we return home. Kids these days are eager to get outside and share that adventure with others. They are the next generation of conservationists and it was a privilege to join them on this trip.

Thanks to the folks at Outdoor Sports Marketing and my skillet carrying friend, Blake, who help to make this and many other Scout and Youth adventures possible.

The new GoPro HD Hero2 Professional has just arrived in select Great Outdoor Provision Co locations! This is the POV action cam to have for all active outdoor interests. It has the same waterproof to 197 ft housing as the HD Hero but is much improved over the older model. The new HD Hero2 Professional has a sharper optical glass lens and improved low light performance. The image sensor has increased to 11 MP. Perhaps even more importantly, you now get 3 field of view (FOV) options at native 1080p recording: 170 deg, 127 deg & 90 deg. The previous gen HD Hero only offered 1080p at 127 deg FOV. To get 170 deg FOV, you had to crop down to a 960p resolution recording. Attached is a complete comparison of the various GoPro HD cams. Put one of these on your gift wish list!

We stock the new GoPro HD Hero2 Professional in our Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem shops along with a variety of mounts and accessories including: LCD BacPac , Battery BacPac, Handle Bar Seat Post Mount, Chest Mount Harness, Suction Cup Mount, Surf Mount and Grab Bag.

All are welcome!! Come join us for the Mountains-To-Sea Trail & Backpacking NC Challenge celebration.

When: Tuesday, Nov 8th, 6pm-7pm
What: A casual meet & greet with local author Joe Miller and Kate Dixon who serves as the Friends of MST Executive Director.
Who: Welcoming all who love the MST and Backpacking North Carolina
Why: To celebrate the MST and those who completed our Backpacking NC Challenge.

We’ll honor our those who have hiked and select FMST Raffle Winners.

>> Check out Joe’s Trip Report for Merchants Millpond

Challenge participant photos:

Come help with trail work on the NC Mountain-to Sea Trail on Saturday, September 24, 2011 at Falls Lake in Durham County! September 24 is National Public Lands Day across America! We will meet at 9:00 AM and move to the project sites.

NEW Meeting Spot – All interested should meet at Food Lion parking lot at Ravenstone Commons at the corner of Sherron Road and Highway 98. Please use google maps for your driving directions.

Please RSVP to jdbrewer@bellsouth.net or 919-900-0483 for our workday by September 21, 2011. Your RSVP is a huge help in a successful workday.

Thanks to Great Outdoor Provision Co. for sponsoring our breakfast from Chick-Fli-A at our workdays. Thanks also to Starbucks off Falls of Neuse Road and Durant Road for the coffee.

Make sure you bring plenty of water, bag lunch, and gloves.

Thanks for your service.
Jeff Brewer

Providing Raleigh with a "new sense of place"

Raleigh received a precious gift today. Our first Nature Preserve. The benefactress was accustomed to making special deliveries such as the Park dedicated in her honor today. As a pioneer in medicine Annie Louise Wilkerson, MD delivered over 8,000 babies. Dr. Annie was the first female doctor of obstetrics and gynecology in Raleigh and the first woman to serve as chief of staff at Rex Hospital and at Wake Med. She always put her patients first and the gift of this park provides a haven for generations to come.

View across the prairie at the Wilkerson Preserve

Dr. Annie passed away in 2005 at the age of 91 and in her will gave the City of Raleigh a 157-acre farm. The terms of the gift include:
“That the property herein conveyed shall be maintained as a nature preserve park, and used for the primary purpose of nature and wildlife education, the study of research into methods of conservation, and shall not be used for general recreation or any other purpose inconsistent with the primary purposes set forth above.

The park shall be name the Annie Louise Wilkerson, MD Nature Preseve Park.”

Located in at 11408 Raven Ridge Road, this park, as Raleigh Parks & Recreation Manager Stephen Bentley put it, “gives Raleigh a new sense of place.” A great lover of nature, Dr. Annie outlined specific themes in her will as goals for the park. Just walking from the Park Office (former family home) down to the pond you recognize that Mr. Bentley and the team at City of Raleigh Parks and Recreation have honored the wishes of Dr. Annie and the Wilkerson Family.

View of Wilkerson Preserve Pond

The preserve includes trails, prairie areas, picnic areas and thick forest to help visitors find their own sense of place. The preserve was designed using Low Impact Development (LID) and Sustainable principles. Permeable pavers are used as an alternative to more traditional hardscapes. The wastewater treatment and water reclamation system is unique and provides a model for future park projects. The system treats the wastewater from the Park Office and restrooms into recycled water used to flush the toilets and urinals in the restrooms. This is the first small scale Membrane Bio-Reactor reuse system of this type and application in the State of North Carolina. Visitors will also find a car charging station provided for electric vehicles.

But this is just the beginning. Phase 2 will bring additional features to the Wilkerson Nature Preserve as the park compliments and connects with the other services of the North district boundaries within the Falls Lake watershed. Discover the park yourself and take along a friend. Dr. Annie would like that.

Enjoy this fantastic video by Randy Johnson about this year’s Big Dig in Watauga County. Seeing this makes us appreciate our dedicated MST volunteers even more (if that’s even possible!). Thanks for a great video of the weekend, Randy!

>> Learn more about the MST

Alfreton, Derbyshire, England and Louisville, Colorado, May 18, 2011

Terra Nova has smashed the Guinness World Record for the lightest commercially available tent, with the Laser Ultra 1. The company recently received confirmation that the tent, which weighs just over 21 ounces (600 grams), is now the record holder. It snatches the title from the Terra Nova Laser Photon, trimming over 7 ounces (200 grams) or around 26% off the record in the process.

Terra Nova was awarded the Guinness World Record for the Lightest Tent Commercially Available for the first time in 2004. The Terra Nova Laserlite was a one person tent weighing just over 35.2 ounces (1 kilogram), the same weight as a bag of sugar. Seven years and four Guinness World Records later, the Laser Ultra 1 weighs nearly half of that.
The Laser Ultra 1 has been designed for short duration ultra events. Although its style follows that of the popular Laser tent range developed by Terra Nova, the most striking difference is the color; the silver translucent Ultra fabric used for the flysheet is incredibly lightweight but strong.

The Laser Ultra 1 tent won a Gold European IF Design Award when it was launched to the trade in July 2010 at the Outdoor Show in Friedrichshafen, Germany.

Managing Director, Andy Utting said, ‘It is great to see our investment in new technologies paying off. When we launched the Laser Lite, people were sceptical of the robustness of such lightweight tents, seven years later, a single person tent has to be less than 35.2 ounces (1 kilogram) to be considered light, and our designs have become the blue print for the competition.’
Terra Nova is distributed in the United States and Canada by Sport Hansa LLC of Louisville, Colorado.

About Terra Nova Equipment
Terra Nova Equipment has been designing award winning tents and outdoor equipment for over 25 years. Its tents have been used all over the world from the summit of Everest to the North and South Poles. More recently Terra Nova has successfully developed superlight backpacking tents and rucksacks and holds the Guinness world record for the lightest tent in the world. The company owns three brands: Terra Nova – best in class expedition and backpacking equipment, Wild Country tents – high specification backpacking and family tents, and sleeping bags and Extremities – a GORE-TEX licensed technical clothing accessory brand

Charlotte Shop @ 7pm
Thursday, May 19

Come hear Joe Miller talk about the new era of backpacking. He’ll discuss trips in his new book, “Backpacking North Carolina,” and talk about how advances in technology and a new philosophy toward backpacking have made the pursuit more accessible than ever. Come prepared for a short slide show and to sample the nuevo cuisine of backpacking.

And, learn about the “Backpacking North Carolina Challenge”! Do two, four or six trips in the book by Oct. 31, 2011 and win valuable backpacking prizes from Great Outdoor Provision Co.

by Amanda McGuire, Charlotte Staff

“As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was going to happen.”

Getting your kids into the Great Outdoors can lead to a lifetime love of nature and a variety of outdoor activities. Hiking is a great way to introduce even small children to the outdoors.

Plan Ahead: Do your research and choose a trail that will offer you and your kids plenty of chances to engage with nature. You might be able to tempt older kids with the promise of a great view or a waterfall at the end of the hike, but younger kids may need more “highlights” along the path, like a lake, stream or boulders at the midway point. Get out a map and making planning a family affair, so that kids can see where they’ll be going and what they’ll be seeing along the way.

Be Prepared: Be sure to bring plenty of snacks and water for everyone, as well as the proper clothes and shoes for conditions. Consider long sleeves and sunscreen for sunny days, bug sprays or permethrin-treated layers for woods and grasslands, and rain gear for way days. Kid-sized packs or Camelbaks will allow them to feel involved by carrying some of their own gear or lunch.

Keep it Fun: A hiking trip is the perfect time for games of all sorts. Trails offer unlimited opportunities for scavenger hunts or spirited rounds of I Spy. It’s also a great chance to indulge imagination by pretending to be explorers or adventurers. If you’ve got a GPS unit, try your hand at geocaching.

Slow Down: Children see and experience the world differently than adults do, so slow down and take it at their pace. Keep in mind that the goal is not to finish the mileage or bag the summit, but to experience nature along the way. Take time for long breaks to explore fallen logs, check out the bugs living in puddles, or have a long talk about what the birds might be saying to the squirrels.

Leave No Trace: Teach kids about the importance of protecting their natural heritage by introducing them to the Leave No Trace and PEAK (Promoting Environmental Awareness in Kids) principles.

Start your kids young, and you’ll be giving them the gift of a lifetime in the outdoors, but more importantly, you’ll be sharing a family experience that just can’t be replicated elsewhere. Remember that the journey is the destination, for both you and the kids.

Get in. Get out. Leave behind nothing but…nothing. That’s the philosophy behind LNT—Leave No Trace—backcountry travel. No one wants to bust their chops to get to the back of beyond only to find half-burned candy bar wrappers and whacked off tree branches. Even at popular campsites it’s just as easy to minimize your impact as it is to trash the woods.

But in its original version, LNT was a downer, a bunch of DON’Ts that read like a middle school principal spelling out the rules for the big spring dance. When it comes to camping, though, we’ve all come a long ways from trenching tools and latrines made of lashed poles. Sure, there’s stuff that still ranks a big NOT. Leaving toilet paper on the ground. Cutting standing trees. But we’ve re-tooled a 21st-century version of LNT into a big list of proactive, positive-outcome-calibrated DOs. Now you can be the change. Leave No Trace. Here’s how to vanish from the wilds:

GET IN. Most North Carolina campers can choose from existing campsites, even in fairly remote areas. Better to bed down on a beaten-down tent pad than wreck an undisturbed site—you can always set up the camp kitchen at a scenic vista nearby. Stick to existing fire circles in heavily used areas. If you go off-rail, remember that good campsites are found, not made. Look for a spot just large enough for the tent. The standard LNT mantra is to forgo the fire, but if you go with the burn, prepare a fire site by shovelling out a layer of soil and surface plants and setting aside. Learn to use a map and compass or a GPS. Flagging tape is so yesteryear.

GET OUT. Before you break camp, burn all wood completely. Kids love this job, so give ‘em a stick and make sure they push every little stub into the fire. Saturate the ashes, then scatter them. If you scraped out a fire pit, replace the sod, and toss leaves and twigs over the spot. Scour the camp for tiny bits of micro-trash. This is another great job for kids—offer an ice-cream-cone reward for whoever can find the most micro-trash, stuff like snippets of foil and paper, egg shell fragments, and sippy-cup straw wrappers. Remove all cordage from trees, even if you didn’t place it there. Naturalize the site before you leave. Rake matted grasses and leaves with a branch. Bring in rocks and sticks to hide your tent site. And the same rule applies no matter how near or far to civilization you camp: Pack it in, pack it out. Yes, that means banana peels, apple cores, egg shells, and cigar butts. If it wasn’t there when Columbus landed—or was it Erik the Red?—remove it.

IN THE MOUNTAINS:
Camp just below ridge tops to keep your tent from being so visible by others—you’ll still have a killer view. Burn smaller sticks and burn all wood completely to avoid leaving burned stubs behind. Use a tent with a tub-style floor; you’ll never dig a drainage trench again.

AT THE COAST:
Always build fires below the high tide line. Camp away from the toe of sand dunes. When fishing with live or cut bait, toss shrimp shells and leftover fish in zippered plastic bags and pack out; raccoons and foxes are attracted to such trash, and then prey on sea turtles. Leave any eggs you find on the sand alone; beach-nesting birds rarely build nests.

ON THE WATER:
Carry dirty dish-cleaning water away from the stream and campsite; the next camper doesn’t want to filter water soiled with your leftover spaghetti noodles. Scatter ashes into a strong current and camouflage the fire site with sand.

THE GOODS:
It’s no surprise that Great Outdoor Provision Co. keeps stock on what it takes to get you into the woods. But we also carry what you need to get out of wilds without giving Mother Nature a bad hair day. Check out these easy-on-the-land ideas the next time you’re headed outside.

P-cord and S-biners
Once upon a time, hanging a lantern or pot-holder was as simple as driving a nail into a tree. What were we thinking? String a length of parachute cord around a tree trunk and slip on a few S-biners to hold whatever needs holding.

Cooking stoves
Instead of a fire, cook on one of our high-performance cookstoves. Our stores stock stoves from the one-person MSR Pocket Rocket (don’t forget to pack out the gas canisters!) to the Primus Atle double burner, almost big enough to handle Kate, her 8 kids, and a couple of “Survivor” rejects.

Gourmet freeze-dried foods
This ain’t your daddy’s stroganoff. Kung Pao Chicken. Pad Thai. Check out our aisle of backcountry grub and you’ll find stuff good enough to serve at your next indoor supper club. (MULEteam members SAVE 10% on foods)

Therm-a-rest Trekker Chair
You could drag a fallen tree down the creek bank for a makeshift camp chair. Or you could not.

And here are three items that will you help you forget that you never started a campfire:

• Stare at the stars instead of a fire with the Miller Planisphere. Dial up the direction you’re looking, and the mysteries of the heavens reveal themselves.
• Load up on some of our many camp-friendly games such as locally made PHD Discs and the Ogo Sport Games.
• Bunk in a North Face Dolomite or a Mountain Hardwear Flip, cushioned with a Therm-a-rest sleeping pad. These rectangular sleeping bags can be doubled up for a bag built for two. Make your own fire.