Our History at Umstead

It has literally been one of those days. One of those inexplicably bad days where nothing actually happened, nothing out of the ordinary, yet I wallowed through the day as if someone had just run over my dog. (Bad expression, I know.) I was indiscernibly and irrationally blue. The world was a glass that could only be described as half empty. At best.

I was in a funk. Can't explain why. I just was.

So I came home from work, picked up B.B. and took her down to my favorite set of walking trails around here: down at Umstead State Park. It was warm without being too hot, and the park was practically deserted. There was a small cadre of moms and kids having a picnic near the entrance, and a couple casual walkers that we passed on our way in, but that was it. Come here on a weekend, and we may meet/greet several dozen other hikers. Today, I think we passed two (one of whom had a group of four nervous dogs on leashes and was kind enough to pull them way back off the trail as we passed).

The trail from the Harrison Ave. parking lot goes basically in two directions: north to the Company Mill Trail or east down Loblolly Trail. The Company Mill Trail is my favorite, probably because that's the first trail B.B. and I ever walked down in this park. We came here for the first time back in the fall of 2009. She was still quite the puppy, about 10 months old, but devilish in her desire to explore new places. I'd never been before, although K and I had scouted it out several months earlier and picked up a map. So one Saturday morning, B.B. and I headed down there to check it out. The map showed the Company Mill Trail at just under 6 miles (which was, at the time, about the distance we'd been walking 3-4 times a week) so I headed in that direction.

The thing to know about this trail is it starts from the elevation of the parking lot and immediately descends down switch backs to one of the lowest points in the park, down by a river (using that term loosely) which, I guess, is Reedy Creek. (It's not well labelled on the map, but it does flow into Reedy Creek Lake, so that might be a clue.) At that point, about a mile down, you cross the river over a narrow bridge (maybe 30' long) and you can then follow the Company Mill Trail left or right. Either way, it makes a big, 4-mile loop. It climbs up and down in several places and winds around until you end up right back where you started, at that bridge, and then you have to then scale your way back up those switch backs to the parking lot. It's strenuous for a casual walk, but if you're prepared for a hike, it's a lot of fun.

But I digress...

The first time B.B. and I went there, back in the fall of 2009, probably late November, it was cool, but not cold, there weren't too many people there, and the leaves were almost completely gone from the trees. The thing about these trails is they are very easy to follow and see most of the year, but that time of year, just after all the leaves have fallen, it's a little difficult in some places to tell where the trail goes. Sure, there are markers on trees every 100' or so, and mostly the woods are thick enough to dissuade you from accidentally stepping off the beaten path, but there were a few places where the trees opened up and with a fresh blanket of leaves all over everything, the trail literally could have gone in a dozen different directions. There were a couple times where I had to stop and think about it.

But B.B. knew exactly where to go. Of course she did. She was following the scent of thousands of shoes and boots that had walked there in the past, so she just marked on and led the way. I wasn't too worried about getting lost. I grew up in the woods and have a decent sense of direction and space, but it was charming to see her constantly turn where the trail turned, zig where it zigged, zag where it zagged. That was a spectacular day. We made it back to the car about an hour and a half later exhausted and exhilarated, all at the same time. We've been back dozens (not quite hundreds) of times since and we've explored many of the trails (most of them in the lower, Reedy Creek section), but that is still my favorite.

So today I decided to walk our old favorite. We hit the trail head and headed down the switch backs and ended up at the river soon enough. Today, though, we were alone. Usually we see lots of people down by the river bank playing on the rocks. I usually just say "Hi" and walk by, leaving them alone, but I've always thought it sure looked like fun to sit on a rock and enjoy the smells and sounds of the water rushing by. As a kid, we used to take trips up to the mountains in western North Carolina (or eastern Tennessee) and we'd invariably find a river or stream to explore. The most fun I had as a child during those little adventures was navigating my way from one bank across to the other by hopping from stone to stone. This river (or creek, whatever) doesn't have nearly enough stones to make it across, but there are a number of good boulders lined down the sides for sitting. So we sat.

Which is to say, I sat and B.B. plopped down and proceeded to squirm her way right into the water. I let her jump around a bit (she loves to swim) and explore to the length of our 6' leash until we realized that the algae-covered rocks made it difficult for her to get back up. After a few failed attempts, furry paws comically churning on the green rock surface to no avail, she sort of stood/sat in the water and just looked at me as if to say, "Well, I'm stumped. You're going to have to come and get me."

So I did. We tried again, with me pulling on the leash just to get her within reach, and then I grabbed the considerable scruff around her neck (she has handfuls of extra skin underneath all of that fur) and pulled her up until I could reach her arms. By then she was on solid (and non-slippery) ground. She shook most of the river water right onto me and settled down. We sat for about 15 minutes just soaking up the nature. Funny, but that's all it took to reset the world's cup to being half full again.

With B.B. still a damp mess, we picked ourselves up and walked down the trail, opting to head down to Reedy Creek Lake and up the bike trail back to the car instead of navigating those switch backs again. I wish I'd gotten some shots of B.B. in the water, but it's hard enough to hang onto a leash with a swimming dog at the other end (the current is pretty intense right there and I didn't dare let go) without having to pull a cell phone out of my pocket and work the camera. Maybe I could have gotten a shot post-swim, but if you've seen one wet and bedraggled dog, you've seen them all.

Funny. I was the sopping mess going into the park. B.B. was the mess coming out. She unburdened me, like she always does, then shook it off and marched on. As a metaphor, she really inspires.

Umstead to Quail Ridge

Okay, so one of the reasons why I started this blog is because there are a few big walks that I have been planning that I'm quite excited about.  Need to tell someone, so what better plan than to write them all down and toss them into the electronic ether?

One of the first I'd planned was a walk through Umstead State Park south (and pretty much just see how far we could go).  I'd never been down there and wanted to check it out.  Honestly I didn't think it would be this soon.  We had a lousy day forecast for Sunday.  It was drizzling in the morning and was supposed to have thunderstorms all afternoon.  But then, unexpectedly, the skies cleared to bright blue sunshine, mid-70's, light breeze, beautiful.  So B.B. tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Hey paw, what do you think?"  (She's chatty that way.)

We got kind of a late start.  It was almost 4:00 when I realized it wasn't going to rain all afternoon, so we hopped in the car and drove down to Umstead.  We live in Cary so (for those of you familiar with the area) naturally we use the entrance off of Harrison Ave.

Now, even though it's not accurately reflected on this map (which has us taking the bike trail down past Reedy Creek Lake, we actually took Loblolly Trail through the woods to the multi-use bike trail that goes through Umstead.  Loblolly adds another mile (or so) to the length and lots of ups and downs, but it really is a beautiful walk.  It's got several bridges and one place where you have to hop over a small stream.  B.B. seems to like that jump for some reason.

Once we got to the bike trail, it was a straight shot out of Umstead.  That trail becomes the Reedy Creek Trail system.  From there we lost most of our shade, but luckily it wasn't too hot.  (One of the reasons I may have jumped the gun a little and tried this walk earlier than I expected was the fact that summer is fast approaching.  Last year, we pretty much stopped walking altogether in July and August because of the heat.  B.B. can't take too much with her heavy fur coat and we had numerous days in the upper 90's and even triple digits.)

The walk down the trail to Edwards Mill Road was lovely.  Woods on the right (mostly) and pasture on the left.  We walked past the entrance to Schenck Forest but the signs all said they don't allow dogs, so these trails are officially dead to me.

Across Edwards Mill Road (and I notice there's a bike tunnel under so bicyclists don't have to wait at the light... although we took that opportunity to have a bit of a rest, having walked about 5 miles at that point, and didn't mind waiting) you get into some slightly more industrial looking area.  Still seems like pasture/farmland but there were some large building to the right and to the left, one nasty looking wrought-iron fence around one, and some NC State facilities.  About a mile later we got to the NC Art Museum.

This is where it got beautiful again, and I do want to go back and explore the museum grounds some more (although, once again, it has a few areas that don't allow dogs, something that annoys me to no end... not so much the rule, which I guess I understand, but the fact that some people—obnoxious dog owners—clearly have set a bad enough example for these places to set these rules, just ruins it for the rest of us).  The park around the museum has some large exhibits out-doors which make it interesting.  We'll have to go back and see the rest some day.

The trail from the museum forks off to the right and heads down south to I-440.  This is interesting because I've driven 440 many times, and I've seen this walking path over it, but I never really knew where it came from or where it went.  Today I found out.  The trail winds through some more woods south of the museum (down a steep hill to a bridge across a stream and then back up) to this bridge which spans the length of 440.

Across the bridge, I was really in uncharted territory.  I knew where I was spatially since I've driven down there many times.  In fact, one of our favorite local independent bookstores (Quail Ridge Books) is right there (somewhere) next to a Whole Foods, a one-two shopping combination that often makes for a very enjoyable weekend morning for us.  But the trail turned away from that direction and went under Wade Avenue, where they are clearly doing some construction, and into Meredith College (which Google tells me is the largest private women's college in the south-east, interesting).

Reedy Creek Trail (yes, we're still on that same trail system) winds around the outside edge of the college grounds and is just a beautiful as some of the other places we'd been.  As we were walking counter-clockwise, the college building were to our left and they really looked beautiful.  Made me miss my own college days (not so far back that I can't remember).

And then the trail ended, right there on Hillsborough Street.  At that point I did know where I was and we walked back down to Wade and stopped, finally right outside the bookstore.

Now, I'm very lucky, in that K has agreed to come pick us up if we wanted to take walks like this.  Previously I'd limited us to circular walks, either from home in a big loop, or from places like Umstead such that we always ended up back at the car.  K doesn't really want to take these long walks with us, but she is more than willing to help out like this, which expands our opportunities greatly.  I called her about a half hour before I figured we'd reach the bookstore (which I know for a fact she has programmed in her car's GPS) and she got there about 4 minutes after we finally sat down to rest.  Amazing timing.

B.B. was a machine, just trotting along.  She loves going new places.  It's funny but if we're walking a trail or sidewalk for the first time, she's on high-alert, sniffing everything, watching everything, inspecting, examining.  But the second time we go there, she's much calmer.  She knows this place.  Been there, done that.  It's routine.  Smarter than I am, that dog.

So, to wrap up... not all of our walks are going to be this epic.  This was clearly one of the big ones that I'd been wanting to take.  We've got lots of routine favorites that we'll hit more often and I'm sure I'll be blogging about (if, for nothing else, to fill out this travelogue of our adventures).  I'm sure I won't be taking pictures of all of them.  But for the really fun ones, I'll do so and write it up in these pages.

Thanks for coming along.