RDU On the Rise: Happy trails to you, in the Triangle and beyond

Hey! Welcome to RDU on the Rise, a newsletter for young professionals in the Triangle. I’m Jordan Schrader.

It’s very kind of our staff to let someone of my advanced years (a millennial, yes, but an elder millennial) have a turn writing a newsletter that’s typically penned by its hippest journalists — even after I warned them it would be heavy on activities that interest my 7-year-old.

So this news was nicely timed: The NC Zoo — which, if you’re a 7-year-old or share their interests, you probably know is one of the best things about our state — is moving ahead with plans for an Asia exhibit. With the zoo breaking a long-sought million-visitor mark, the exhibit is a go for 2026, at which time my kid may no longer be into trips to the zoo with his parents, but we’ll make him go with us anyway.

The zoo also has plans for Australia and Amazon exhibits down the road, long after I’m too old to write RDU on the Rise.

Road trips, hiking and barbecue

This weekend, like many weekends, you can find our family at Umstead State Park. We might be on Sal’s Branch Trail, a gentle hike to a lake. It may be hotter than 40 dammits right now (find more colorful ways to say it’s hot on our list). But the temperature is supposed to drop over the weekend. Bring plenty of water anyway.

If you’re up for a longer drive — gas prices once considered exorbitant now look downright reasonable, Richard Stradling reports — I’d suggest Hanging Rock State Park. My family made our first trip there last week and wondered why we hadn’t gone before. Josh Shaffer has some other options on hikes worth a road trip.

Next time I hit that part of North Carolina, I want to go tubing down the Dan River, after reading about Martha Quillin’s latest adventure, part of “Cruising Across Carolina,” her summer tour of the Old North State. Check out the other installments for more ideas.

Closer to home, Martha’s itinerary includes hiking Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area. This one I can co-sign, and I’d add a tip: Park next to Hillsborough BBQ Company. Barbecue makes a perfect end to a good hike. Get extra hush puppies and the banana pudding.

More to do this weekend

▪ If you’re headed for GalaxyCon, as Jay and Silent Bob are, you probably already have your costume picked out. If not, don’t be surprised to see comic book heroes and villains strolling around downtown Raleigh the next few days. Ilana Arougheti has more info — and Josh Shaffer and Angelina Katsanis scored a sick interview with none other than Gus Fring himself.

▪ The Durham Bulls are at home this weekend, including for a Marvel-themed night, “Defenders of the Diamond.” The Holly Springs Salamanders also have a couple of home games, and although the Carolina Mudcats are away this weekend, they’re back at home most of next week against the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, pitting two of the better logos in minor-league baseball against one another.

▪ Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday for Farm Aid 2022, which will bring Willie Nelson, Chris Stapleton, Sheryl Crow and more to Walnut Creek on Sept. 24. Find out more in this story from Mark Schultz.

▪ Happy National Chicken Wing Day to those who celebrate. And if you’re looking for the best wings in the Triangle, Lars Dolder and Drew Jackson tried them all so you can enjoy the best of the best.

Something to watch while eating those wings

I’d like to keep us focused on how to enjoy your last weekend of July, but there’s something distracting me: It’s almost August. And August is a month in which college football is played.

Now, a lot of the news about my team, Michigan, seems to be happening off the field. But for this newsletter, I’d better stick to the hometown programs.

▪ Expectations are high in Raleigh: Jonas Pope IV reports that the Wolfpack has the ACC’s preseason player of the year.

▪ Luke DeCock highlights a potential “end of days” scenario for N.C. State vs. UNC — a Football Apocalypse to follow this year’s Basketball Apocalypse.

Like fall itself, this season is worth savoring because of what’s fading away.

▪ There are only three seasons left before the SEC gobbles up Oklahoma and Texas, only two seasons before the Big Ten fulfills its manifest destiny of reaching the Pacific Ocean, and only one more season to delight in the chaos of the Coastal Division.

▪ That’s the ACC’s “Island of Misfit Toys,” as Andrew Carter put it in this obituary for Coastal Chaos — “like a child’s elementary school art-class drawing — maybe not ‘good,’ exactly, yet charming, nonetheless.”

Yes, a little politics, but just a little

It’s my job around here, after all. Before you go into your weekend, some political news you need to know:

▪ After an election that didn’t quite break 6% voter turnout, we’ll have a new sheriff in Wake County — we just don’t know yet who it’ll be. Virginia Bridges and Kristen Johnson have more on the lopsided defeat of incumbent Gerald Baker.

▪ While some of us aren’t bothering to use our voting rights, others are fighting to get them back — and winning. Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi explains a court-ordered expansion of those rights in North Carolina — and why it could be only temporary.

▪ And a few more: Kyle Ingram on how under-the-radar state court races are drawing big money; Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan on Medicaid expansion stalling again; and Danielle Battaglia on how Sen. Thom Tillis is the politician to watch on a range of issues, from same-sex marriage to elections.

It was great to see some of you at our first “Politics at the Pub” event on Wednesday in downtown Raleigh, a meet-and-greet and Q&A session with the N&O’s politics team. We’ll have more of these events in September and November, so keep an eye out for details.

In the meantime, you can register to join “An Evening of Hope,” a free, virtual conversation on Thursday about challenges facing lower-income single mothers and their families, and what the state can do to help.

That’s it from me.

I’ll hand you off to investigative reporter Tyler Dukes, who will write next week’s RDU On the Rise.

Thank you for reading. Please forward this to others who might want to sign up for this newsletter or our other email newsletters. And please feel free to contact me with questions or comments.