Get over yourselves, will you? Yeah, yeah - so you live in Western North Carolina. Adventure lies heavy on your doorstep. You’re the envy of everyone from Scranton to Spokane. Water plummets from your mountains in thrilling cataracts. Your trails pass through unmatched verdure. Your roads are long and winding and occasionally even bike-friendly. Finding outdoor adventure in WNC is like plucking so much ripe fruit from the vine, so why even go to the trouble of picking favorites?

Blue Ridge Parkway: Best Road Bike Ride

And yet, whether for reasons of proximity, vibe, potential thrill-meter readings or breathtaking scenery, certain locations scratch and claw their way onto our readers’ poll year after year. Best mountain biking? Can you say “Bent Creek?” Hiking to beat all? Try the Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah National Forest, Graveyard Fields.

The mighty French Broad again sewed up the paddling category, making it a Hall of Famer, and, as for skating, uh, helloooo? Asheville’s Food Lion Skate Park ran away with it once more.

In the less “extreme” categories, Max Patch made a good third-place showing as a place to quaff Veuve-Clicquot and nibble on toast points and tapenade. (Make that pimiento cheese and pork rinds for the rest of us.)

Granted, there were some sour grapes on our vine this year. For reasons political, annual ski favorite Wolf Laurel was both lauded and snubbed. And in view of our mild, global-warming-tinged winters, some of you wags suggested we give Colorado best ski-destination props. Fine. We can’t be all things to all people. But admit it - we’re pretty dadblamed close.

- Kent Priestley

Bike ride: mountain

Bent Creek
Mount Pisgah
Blue Ridge Parkway

Bike ride: road

Blue Ridge Parkway
Town Mountain
Montford

Place to hike

Blue Ridge Parkway
Pisgah National Forest
Graveyard Fields
Bent Creek

Place to paddle/kayak

French Broad River
Nantahala River
Green River

Place to picnic

Blue Ridge Parkway
Craggy Gardens
Max Patch
UNCA Botanical Gardens

Place to skateboard

Food Lion Skate Park
Cherry St
Central Asheville
Downtown
Variations of “skateboarding is treated like a crime”

Place to ski/snowboard

Wolf Laurel
578 Valley View Cir, Mars Hill
689-4111
Sugar Mountain Ski Area
Hwy 184, Sugar Mountain
898-4521
Cataloochee Ski Area
1080 Ski Lodge Rd, Maggie Valley
926-0285
Colorado
“Not Wolf Laurel”

Place to swim

YMCA
various locations, Asheville
251-5909
Malvern Hills Pool
Rumbough & Sulphur Springs Rd, Asheville
253-1164
Skinny-dip Falls

Place to walk/run

Beaver Lake
Bent Creak
N.C. Arboretum