Jordan Lake

The other day, while browsing at the book store, I stumbled on a book in the "local" section called, something like, "Best Dog Walking Trails in North Carolina." You'd think that would have been perfect for someone like me, but (a) it was $20, (b) it contained nothing I couldn't get just as easily on the internet, and (c) it spanned most of the state and the few trails it listed local to me (in the Raleigh/Cary area) B.B. and I have already walked.

One exception, however, was a brief mention of Jordan Lake.

Just a bit of history for those who don't know (or who don't want to click the link above). Jordan Lake is located just west of Cary. It's a large Corps of Engineers project (read: man-made) completed about 40 years ago that covers about 14,000 acres. It supplies water to Cary (among other local communities) and has a lot of park land and recreational areas for camping, swimming and boating. And, apparently, hiking.

I checked the state park website to verify, and sure enough many of the different "areas" of the park have walking/hiking trails. Mostly they were small one-miles trails, but one stood out, the New Hope Overlook trail, which purported to be 5.4 miles total. Right up our alley.

Now, the other thing I gleaned from the website was that this park charges admission. What a bummer. (Don't ask me where my tax money is going instead of maintaining these types of facilities.) Seems like it's $6 a day during the summer (Memorial Day through Labor Day), and the rest of the year it's only $6 a day during the weekends. So here I was, fast approaching Memorial Day, and weather already getting hotter, so I figured this could be our only chance to explore this new trail for a while. I scheduled a last-minute vacation day so I could have Friday off, and planned on taking B.B. down there first thing in the morning.

We got up early and headed out for our usual pre-walk walk a little before 7. Once she'd taken care of business (twice) we headed back to the car and hit the road.

The 30-minute drive down to Jordan Lake was nice. It was not quite 70° and the skies were alternating from partly to fully cloudy. The forecast called for rain, but not until later in the day. We left the windows open, and one of us enjoyed sticking her head out into the wind as much as possible.  (We passed an amusing landscaping truck for a company called The Weed Guys ["We fix your lawn"] carrying two laid-back gents who looked as if they fully understood the irony in name.  Sadly, I didn't get a picture.)  Following a map I'd printed earlier, we found the New Hope parking lot without too much trouble. Looks like it is used for camping and boat launching. Regardless, today it was completely deserted. The trail we wanted was at the far end of the parking lot from the boat ramp so we parked there and locked up the car.

Now, the Jordan Lake website warned that this was a strenuous trail, but obviously that wasn't written by the same people who mapped out the Umstead Park trails. Those guys would have called this "easy." Sure, it had some ups and downs but nothing too crazy. The worst problem I had was with bugs. This late in May and with very humid weather, the flies and whatnots were buzzing all around me in full force. Plus, I don't think this trail had been walked on since (probably) last fall because I walked through a couple dozen spider webs during our nearly two hour walk.

Jordan Lake, itself, is about as remarkable as any other man-made lake, which is to say that it didn't have any natural beach areas, none that I could see on this walk, anyway. It is exactly as you'd expect a place to look if the water were artificially flooded into an area. Trees and vegetation tend to grow right down to the water line.  Call me old fashioned, but I don't find that particularly impressive.  Granted, these days, it's difficult to find a "real" lake anywhere around, so maybe beggars can't be choosers.

The trail wound around to several little inlets or coves where we got close to the water, but it wasn't until we were nearly back to the car that we finally discovered the "overlook" promised on the map. It was actually quite a pretty view. The skies had darkened a bit by the time we got there, so this photo isn't the best, but it does give a glimpse at how big this lake is.  B.B wanted to jump in, but considering the hard time we had down at Umstead a few weeks ago, I decided to keep her dry.

Supposedly this trail is 5.4 miles, but my Nike pedometer said we'd walked 6.73 miles by the time we got back to the car (and I've calibrated it recently, so I know it's pretty accurate). Some of that could be our few jaunts off the beaten path down to see the water, but I doubt that would have added anywhere near a mile and a half to the total. So if you go out looking for a little adventure, be prepared for a longer-than-expected hike. And bring your bug spray. Besides the flies and whatnots, I did find a tick crawling up my leg by the time we got back the car. I did the usual tick-check on B.B. and didn't find anything, but she'd just gotten her monthly Front Line treatment a few days ago so maybe that helped.

I'm not sure this trail is worth a repeat visit. It was very narrow so we had to walk single file most of the way. (B.B. likes to alternate walking in front of me and walking next to me.) And the few areas where we could get down to see the water were marred with litter and trash. I'd read that this was a problem around Jordan Lake, but I hadn't experienced it for myself until now. I might go back in the late fall (if I take another day off so I don't pay the weekend $6 rate) to see what it looks like after the leaves have fallen (I suspect it would be prettier).  And after the bugs have gone into hiding, of course. We'll see.

There are few more little trails around Jordan Lake. One, I think was 3 miles long. The rest were only a mile or so. (Although all bets are off if they were measured by the same people who measured this one.) Maybe I'll check them out one day.

See all the photos I took during our little excursion here.