Saturday

4th Annual Triangle Fat Tire Festival & Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day
Mountain bike celebration
10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Harris Lake County Park, New Hill

Forgive me if I’ve told this story before, but I’m telling it again. At this summer’s Huck-A-Buck race at Lake Crabtree, Steve Rogers (who would go on to win the Sport 45+ title in the TORC/Johnson Subaru summer XC series) and I were watching the boys from NC Bike Trials hop their bikes from sawhorse to picnic table to light post and back.

“I don’t know how you would even get started doing that,” I said to Steve. “I mean, how do you ‘ease’ into something like this? It’s like pole vaulting.”

There was a pause. “Actually,"Steve finally said, "I pole vaulted in college.”

The point: Some people wrongly associate mountain biking with the likes of hopping a bike from one unstable, unlikely and high object to another, or, using a vertical pole to fly over a horizontal one. Ride a bike down a windy narrow dirt path littered with rocks and tree roots and downed trees? You’ve gotta be nuts.

Maybe a little. But it’s not as intimidating as you might think. Saturday is your opportunity learn this first hand, at the 4th annual Triangle Fat Tire Festival at Harris Lake County Park. Take a group ride on Harris Lake’s beginner trail, talk with experienced riders (TORC’s braintrust will be on hand, from president Paul Elliot on down), play bike limbo, ogle cool rides. And if it all seems silly, take part in the bike toss. Festivities run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

You don’t need to toss a bike to know that this is silliness for a grownup? That maybe if they’d had mountain biking when you were a kid ... . Well, think about the children, because it’s also Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day at Harris Lake. Let a trained professional (well, someone from TORC) introduce your child to the wonders of riding between trees, over rocks, through the air. Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day events begin at 9 a.m.

Find more festival details here, more on Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day here.

Tweets and Creeks
Birding Expeditions
8 a.m.
Crabtree Creek, Raleigh; Ellerbee Creek, Durham; Bolin Creek, Chapel Hill.

For you non-bike throwers, the Triangle Land Conservancy launches its Fall Outings series Saturday with Tweets and Creeks, birding expeditions along three creeks in the Triangle. Writes the TLC in its current newsletter, “Would you like to know more about birding, but don't know where to start? Or do you know a lot about birding and want to observe the fall migration with fellow enthusiasts? Here's a great opportunity for both the novice and experienced birder to enjoy this pastime in a convenient location.”

Karen and Joe Bearden lead the Crabtree Creek expedition, which includes stops at Rothgeb Park and Joslin Garden; Will Cook leads the Ellerbee Creek hike, through the Urban Nature Perserve and Indian Trail Park; and Bo Howes will lead birders along Bolin Creek from the Community Center Park toward the Forest Theatre in Chapel Hill.
The events are free, but registration is required. Click here for Crabtree Creek, here for Ellerbee Creek, or here for Bolin Creek.