Weekend Getaways
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Weekend Getaways: Spring Strategist
A dozen out-the-backdoor escapes—plus four fresh events—to help
you maximize your playtime.
Text by Christopher Percy Collier Map by Mijael Seidel
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EAST
Cheer the Gators, Georgia
For a front-row seat to a reptilian chorus 10,000 strong, load up a kayak and head to the heart of the 402,000-acre (162,683-hectare) Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, where the resident alligators are auditioning their spring mating calls. The 41-mile (66-kilometer) Red Trail leads from one end of North America's great blackwater swamp to the other, meandering from Kingfisher Landing to Steven C. Foster State Park. Arrange kayak rental with Okefenokee Adventures ($16 a day; www.okefenokeeadventures.com).
Visit Rock Town, Georgia
The residents of Rock Town, a fabled hundred-problem boulder field plunked down atop Pigeon Mountain, are a curious breed of Popeye-armed crag
rats equipped with crash pads and chalk bags. To join them, hook up with a guide from the Adventure Guild, in Chattanooga, Tennessee ($195 for a daylong climb; www.theadventureguild.com), and hit easy-to-moderate Back Street Boulder and the Maze, a veritable jungle gym of tightly packed problems that sit just footsteps apart.
Hike a Mini-AT, Tennessee
The Appalachian Trail isn't the South's only epic hiking route. The 293-mile (472-kilometer) Benton MacKaye Trail (www.bmta.org), worthy enough to be named after one of the AT's creators, is less traveled—but no less scenic. For a 35-mile (56-kilometer) out-and-back, pick up the footpath along the banks of the Ocoee River near Thunder Rock Campground and head deep into 640,000-acre (258,999-hectare) Cherokee National Forest. Settle for the night at cascading Big Lost Creek. At sunup, hike on to the Hiwassee River to cast for rainbows.
ROCKIES
Lord Over the Flies, Colorado
The thick haze rising above the Arkansas River in April isn't fog; it's caddis flies, which swarm by the millions during the annual Mother's Day Caddis, beginning April 10. But to see the spectacle—and catch some fish—you have to be in the right section of river at the right time. That's where Bill Edrington, owner of Royal Gorge Anglers ($295 a day for two people; www.royalgorgeanglers.com), comes in. "The hatch is a huge buffet line for the fish," he says.
Train for Everything, Utah
Camp Xstream's Adventure Race Training weekend, April 20-22 ($995; www.gravityplay.com) is like basic training for the multisport set. There's yoga at sunrise, night trekking at sundown, and biking, rappelling, kayaking, and orienteering through a slickrock wilderness in between. By day three, participants will be ready for whatever harebrained plans race organizers concoct this season. Between sessions, get some R&R at the Red Cliffs Lodge (included; www.redcliffslodge.com) on the outskirts of Moab, where Primal Quest racers stayed last summer.
Gallop Into the Wild West, Utah
While riding horseback past old mining camps, mustangs, bighorn sheep, and towering buttes, it's easy to imagine yourself starring in your own spaghetti western. Hondoo Rivers and Trails six-day trip into the San Rafael Swell ($1,290; www.hondoo.com), a canyon-carved region twice the size of Rhode Island, starts in the one-horse town of Torrey (population 174) and heads directly into the Wild West. When you start talking to your ranch-raised quarter horse in Redford-esque whispers, you've found your inner cowboy.
CENTRAL
Bike the Ouachitas—Fast, Arkansas
During the 62-mile (100-kilometer) Ouachita Challenge, scores of mountain-bike racers roll to the outskirts of Hot Springs for some April 1 foolishness on the Ouachita Trail (www.ouachita-challenge.com). Scout the route on race day, then rent a full-suspension mount at Parkside Cycle ($40 a day; www.parksidecycle.com) to ride it at your own pace. The run starts with the tough stuff: a 6.6-mile (11-kilometer) climb up Big Brushy Mountain. By early afternoon life gets easier: Bomb through Fiddlers Creek and onto the smooth, winding singletrack of the legendary Womble Trail.
Hook a 30-Incher, Michigan
Steelhead—big, honkin' migratory rainbow trout—are considered a naturalized species in the Great Lakes, introduced to these waters back in the 1880s. To meet the 30-inch (76-centimeter) transplants, head to the Manistee River in western Michigan this month when, according to Ray Schmidt, owner of Schmidt Outfitters (www.schmidtoutfitters.com), "the pre-spawn fish are full of piss and vinegar." Base yourself in one of Schmidt's log cabins ($85, sleeps four) and let your host lead you to what he calls the "silver kings of freshwater" ($325 a day for two).
Scope the Skies, Texas
Come April, Big Thicket National Preserve (www.nps.gov/bith) becomes a 100,000-acre (40,469-hectare) way station for birds traveling from the Yucatán Peninsula to the Great Lakes. "You can easily count 30 different species in an hour this time of year," says education resource specialist Paula Carrington. The less crowded Kirby Nature Trail is typically thick with birders—but it eventually hooks up to 16.3-mile (26-kilometer) Turkey Creek Trail, where you can spend multiple days scoping birds from an open tent flap, steps from the trail.
WEST
Get a Rafting Ph.D., California
There's a trick to dislodging a raft wrapped around a boulder in the
main channel of a raging river. To learn it—as well as how to read Class II-III rapids and rescue someone with a foot entrapment—head to central California where Bill McGinnis, author and founder of Whitewater Voyages, leads the weekend-long Mini Raft Guides School ($224, April 13-15;
www.whitewatervoyages.com) on the American River. "We've been doing longer guide schools for 30 years," says McGinnis. "We're amazed by how much students can learn in three days."
Ski Free, California
The hunt for late season snow inevitably leads to distant backcountry redoubts. Sniff them out safely during three-day skiing-and-camping trips on Mount Lassen (April 13-15; $525) or Mount Shasta (April 20-22; $545) with Sierra Wilderness Seminars (www.swsmtns.com), which focus on imparting skills (avalanche awareness, self-arrest) and having fun (daily backcountry descents). The intermediate-friendly Lassen trip begins with a five-mile snowshoe to base camp (8,000 feet [2,438 meters]), where clients and their guides skin up Diamond Peak, Broke Off, or Lassen Peak for afternoon runs.
Ride Like a Local, Oregon
You know you're pedaling a locals-only trail when it's unnamed and unmarked.
Cog Wild specializes in delivering riders to behind-the-scenes Bend ($90 a day; www.cogwild.com), in places such as the Horse Ridge Research Natural Area, where unmapped trails keep out-of-towners from clogging up sweeping singletrack. At day's end, bed down at the Old St. Francis School, a 19-room lodge and brewery with a Turkish-style soaking pool ($104; www.mcmenamins.com).
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