Repurposed flood plain in Durham offers short hike adjacent to park
For hike #5 of my 52 Hike Challenge I was hoping for a nice, easy, local trail. I had just run 11 miles the day before and I had an indoor soccer game Sunday afternoon, so I wanted something easy to enjoy with Ryder and McCrae. I did my usual scouring of the internet, books, and Google maps, and I found New Hope Bottomlands Trail in Durham. New Hope Bottomlands Trail is tucked away: it's 2.2 miles in a lollipop loop through a floodplain with some views of New Hope Creek.
Coastal state park offers miles of hiking through pine savannah, hardwoods, wetlands, and swamp
It's a bit of a drive out to the land of pine and sandhills and brackish water where the Pamlico River meets the ocean, but it was a beautiful day for a hike under the loblollies while buzzards flew above the treetops, the sun rimming their broad wings with tips of gold. We'd driven to Washington, NC - just a couple miles outside historic Bath, NC - to explore Goose Creek State Park, a swampy park with boardwalks, Spanish moss, and scrub pines.
Carroll Howard Johnson Environmental Education Park offers plenty of short trails that loop together
On Saturday I had some spare time and energy after a cut-back long run, so I headed to Fuquay-Varina to explore Carroll Howard Johnson Environmental Education Park and knock out hike #3 of my 52 Hike Challenge. What a strange little park. The parking lot circles around a wide green space with restrooms and an amphitheatre near a sign showing the various trails throughout the park. I took a glance at the map, noted the small trails that looped together - one loop, and then the next, and then another like a chain - and decided to check out all 1.7 miles of trail that I could.
A short drive north of Durham there's a park that promises few crowds and fun trails for hikers and mountain bikers
The last time we went to Rougemont we were going to see a house, and on the way we ended up stuck behind, well, a house. A massive truck was moving this massive house down this tiny country road - a country farmhouse with whitewash peeling off the side boards, scraping past oaks whose branches creeped over the road's narrow shoulder. We managed to avoid any Rougemont houses this past weekend, making our way to Little River Regional Park & Natural Area, a cooperative conservation park funded by Durham and Orange counties.
Last week I posted on Instagram saying if anyone wanted to join me on a Sunday Stroll to let me know, and I actually got quite a bit of feedback and interest. As a result I'm planning on trying out a calendar for people to see which hikes are coming up and what sort of effort and distance I tentatively expect. I figured it would also be helpful to establish some baseline expectations.
Raven Rock on a winter morning with the clouds so thick you can't find the sun is a monochrome monolith. The rock wall rises from the Cape Fear River and looms over the lazy waterway like Polyphemus gazing slothfully over his sheep while Odysseus and his crew scramble in the shadows. McCrae and I met up with my dear friend Becky and we explored the rocky trail for a morning.
I love a good challenge. Last October I participated in a "Write 31 Days" challenge, but that wasn't painful enough so I added a 31 day running challenge on top of it. I might have been a couple posts short of 31 with the writing challenge, but I nailed the running challenge! It's been a couple months though and it's a fresh new year, so I think it's time for another challenge.
What's in a word? Or rather, what's in a silence? Long, hard work at a day job, and long, physical work in Johnston County forced my silence for the past week. I've never been one to plan blog posts more than a couple days in advance, so with a sudden onslaught of extra responsibilities and the sudden lack of time (an hour commute each way and extra work killed all my blogging and running time) meant radio silence. On Saturday though, stuck in Johnston County, I took the chance to explore somewhere new for a little stroll.
