Masters rowing in “The Triangle” has two centers of gravity, both of which have much to offer. Wheeler Lake on the south side of Raleigh has nearly two miles of protected water in a pleasant park setting. Wheeler is home water to the Triangle Rowing Club junior program, the N.C. State crew club and Raleigh Rowing Center, a masters club offering recreational and competitive sweep and sculling programs. A fleet of sweep and sculling boats is available to members, as is rack storage for private shells.

Youth rowers at Camp Row the Wheeler

Members of Triangle Rowing Club learning to scull

Members of the Carolina Masters Crew Club row on University Lake in nearby Chapel Hill, where the masters share boathouse space with the University of North Carolina varsity women’s and coed club crew teams. With only about a mile of clear water, rowers on University Lake spin more often than others, but they also enjoy a no-motorboat policy. The only exemption: coaching launches. Falls Lake and Lake Michie also have rowing.

As you would expect of an area with three major research universities, Raleigh is a hotbed of music and the performing arts. The area boasts its own symphony, opera company, ballet and several theater companies.

Perfect fall day on Lake Wheeler

You can hear live rock, country, bluegrass or blues every day in the week, and the North Carolina Museum of Art has the best collection between Washington D.C. and Atlanta. Fans of sports other than rowing have plenty of options too, including great college sports action, a minor-league ballclub and even an NHL team.

Downtown Raleigh and all three college campuses are easily walkable, and the city boasts an extensive network of greenways and bike paths. This system links into three bike routes sure to fire the imagination—the 700-mile

North Carolina Mountains-to-the-Sea Bicycle Route, the Cape Fear Run to coastal North Carolina, and the Maine-to-Florida U.S. Bicycle Route 1.

#5 Columbia,
South Carolina

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