What's a Sunday Stroll? Well, after my dad had triple bypass heart surgery (all genetics, which isn't a good sign for me) I decided we needed reasons to get together and keep my dad active. Hence the "Sunday Stroll" series started! These are usually easy hikes in the Raleigh-Durham area. If you're new to hiking or the outdoors, or you just need an idea for a weekend activity this is a great place to start!
I ran my longest distance ever this past weekend - 14 miles on Saturday morning - so on Sunday I needed a nice and easy warm-up hike with my dad before my trail run with Kelly at Carolina North. I was doing my usual scrounging around looking for green patches on Google Maps when I remembered that on the last long run in Carrboro we passed by a park sign on N Greensboro St and someone mentioned there were some trails back there. I pulled it up and sure enough: there was a little patch of green and a dotted line suggesting trails.
This past Sunday Kelly and I kicked off our trail running adventures (which I will affectionately call "runventures") with Battle Branch Trail. This particular trail starts at the Chapel Hill Community Center and connects to Battle Park, a 93 acre park on campus at UNC Chapel Hill. Battle Branch Trail connects Battle Park and the Chapel Hill Community Center, and you can loop various trails together in Battle Park for a range of mileage for a great hike! Great for running or hiking, it's a great addition to the Sunday Stroll series!
I know, I know, everyone's still obsessed with snow right now (can you believe we got well over 8 inches in Durham?!) but today's a little bit of a throwback. Final photos for the Wake County Parks project were delivered and I am just itching to show you all the last round of images! I got to do a ton of fun things for the Wake County Parks photography project, from photographing mountain bikers and stand-up paddleboarders to exploring hiking trails to meeting up with equestrians to doing some fun interactive lessons with kids - but it also gave me the opportunity to do something I'd never be able to do otherwise (well, not legally at least): explore a park that hadn't been opened yet!
Swift Creek Bluffs Nature Preserve is a Triangle Land Conservancy property that nestles up against Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve. Swift Creek runs along both parks and is protected by tall bluffs which create a montane environment with flora and fauna commonly found at higher elevations. In January very little is showing off its alpine blossoms, but with the trees bare you can easily spy the creek along the entire trail.
On Sunday morning when I woke up to go on a Sunday Stroll it was four degrees Fahrenheit outside. Four degrees! I couldn't remember ever witnessing such cold conditions; even the winter break of my freshman year that I spent in Wisconsin racing sled dogs only showed me temperatures as low as 8°F. Regardless I had promised my dad that cold or no cold we were hiking that morning at Bass Lake in Holly Springs, so I bundled up with my merino wool long johns, my quilted coat, and my snowboarding jacket and I headed out.
I was going through the backlog of hikes I planned on posting on the blog, and I was shocked to discover that I did this Durant Nature Preserve hike in September! I am seriously that behind on posts, and I'm also amazed at how quickly this fall has disappeared.I met my dad early one morning in September for a Sunday stroll in Durant Nature Preserve in north Raleigh. I'd seen signs for it off Capital Boulevard every time I went to to the WRAL soccer park complex, and finally curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check it out.
It was the summer solstice and I was waiting for a group of cyclists to come down the American Tobacco Trail. I was hoping for a few photos of cyclists on the trail and had tentative plans to meet a group somewhere along the Wake County section, but with no firm confirmation and the sky darkening with clouds I found a scenic bridge and settled down to wait.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Umstead State Park is not an escape. Let's just go ahead and get that cleared up. You're not going to Umstead State Park to get away, to find yourself in some remote place or discover some backcountry route. But that being said, Umstead State Park is a good place to get away.
I realized recently that as much as I talk about the American Tobacco Trail and as often as I go running on the trail that I've never actually written a blog post on it. Clearly I had to fix this. The American Tobacco Trail is the product of a rails-to-trails project converting 22+ miles of railroad track into a mixed use trail. The ATT now runs from Durham to Apex and includes miles of paved, mixed, and compact gravel surfaces. Since the trail is so long and has diverse surfaces and amenities at intermittent trailheads I am breaking this up into a series of posts focusing on a few miles at a time and highlighting special features, parking, and amenities, starting with the New Hill-Olive Chapel trailhead.
Just like there's nothing quite like filling up on turkey and stuffing there's nothing like a three day weekend for getting outside. Last year REI announced that they would close on Black Friday and "#OptOutside" and they encouraged others to retreat from the bustle of shopping and commercialism and embrace some nature. This year #OptOutside is making a comeback with more companies and organizations on board. Just as I opted outside last year with a backpacking trip on Art Loeb Trail and Cold Mountain, this year I'm opting outside because let's face it - do I really need an excuse to get outside? 😉
Yates Mill. Everybody in the Raleigh area goes to Yates Mill in the fall. Except me apparently, so of course I had go check it out. I called my dad and he eagerly met up with McCrae and me for another Sunday stroll.
Who wants to write a user guide on Sunday mornings when you can go hiking?! My dad came over for a "Sunday Stroll" a few weeks ago and we explored Harris Lake County Park in Wake County over by the Shearon Harris nuclear plant. I'm used to visiting the park for disc golf and McCrae sometimes mountain bikes at the park, but this was the first time we were going to explore the walking trails.
Bond Park is quite large for a municipal park. It has an amphitheatre, several picnic pavilions, ball fields, playgrounds, a small lake and boathouse with available rentals, and a huge open green space for frisbees or kicking around a ball or just idling in the sun. The trails all intersect with a large kiosk in the green space that points you off in the appropriate direction based on your interest.
I've got to tell you this: I love Carolina North at UNC Chapel Hill. The last time I lived in Chapel Hill I rented an apartment right across the street from Carolina North so I would just run across the street and hop on the Pumpkin Trail for my regular run. The Pumpkin Trail is a local area runner favorite: there are UNC students, community running groups, local area high school cross country runners, neighboring folks out walking their dogs, trail runners, annual Pumpkin Run and Philosopher's Way participants, power walkers, mountain bikers, and all other variety of people.
Out West gets all the fun. Places like California and Utah and Colorado are constantly in the headlines of adventure and outdoor articles. The big name national parks are featured in movies and pictures and lists like “10 Trails You MUST Hike This Summer!” and “5 Lakes That Are Perfect For Camping.” The outdoor community has its epicenter in the great wilds out West, but what about people who don’t live in these places? What about the people on the East Coast?
It has been SO LONG since my last Sunday Stroll post! No joke, it’s been almost a year since my last Sunday Stroll post on Adams Tract in Carrboro, eek!! And while I’ve been hiking and running, that’s a fair representation of how long it’s been since I went on a Sunday Stroll with my dad. We’ve only ever been on one other Sunday Stroll since then at Clemmons forest, and I just haven’t posted about that. (Also my bad.) But I’d been talking a big game about reviving our Sunday Stroll tradition, and I even texted my dad to check his availability for a recent Sunday morning, only I never actually followed up with him on when or where or how far.
So fast forward to Sunday morning. I’m lying in bed being a lazy bum, and my doorbell rings. It’s my dad. Asking, “Hey, where are we going hiking this morning?”
😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳