Know where you're going

Don't you hate it when you accidentally click the wrong thing and close your page before you have a chance to save your work?  C'est la vie.  Lucky for me I'm at work until 0700 and have plenty of time to write it again.

Dad and I hiked another section of the Eno that we haven't been to yet. We basically did section 2 & 3.  We started at Pump Station Trail and headed east.  This brought us to the Mountain to Sea Trail/Laurel Ridge Trail.  I liked the diversity of this trail.  There were some small elevation changes, rocks, roots, wooded areas, river, creeks and soft flat areas.  It had a little bit of everything...well, except bathrooms, but we won't discuss that.

The area that surrounds the Eno River was mostly farm land back in the day.  Amazing that it has grown into such a populated area.  Section 2 had some cool remnants of the past.  This is one of three of the old fireplaces that we saw. There was also an old Mill, dams, walls and the old pump pictured below this one.

Sad it's been vandalized with graffiti

I'm guessing this wouldn't make a good water source...or any water source for that matter!  Luckily we weren't far from the river.  We tried to find a date on the pump but to no avail.  Based on the other areas I've seen along the Eno, I'm going to guess late 1800's, maybe early 1900's?

I was surprised at how much ice we saw along the trail.  I assumed it would have melted by now.  I think the high yesterday was 50.  The shaded area's must have been pretty cold because it didn't look like any of it melted from morning until our trip back.

So this is where my title of "Know where you're going" comes from.  The first two miles of our hike is on the west side of Guess Rd.  When we came to Guess Rd there were stairs leading up to the bridge.  We decided instead of trying to cross this busy road, we would bushwhack to the other side.  Luckily before we got to far we realized there wasn't a trail on the other side of the bridge.  Thanks to technology, we found the trail to be on the other side of the river and then goes under the bridge.  Ahhh the fun of learning :)  This picture is from the other side of the river.  I saw a crane but couldn't get a picture of it.  Maybe another day.

We hiked about 4.5 miles out and found an amphitheater with picnic tables.  Dad got a new stove for Christmas so we had yummy mocha's (instant coffee with hot chocolate) with our lunch.  It turned out to be an amazing day!  The temp was perfect, the skies sunny, the scenery beautiful and the company was excellent.  All in all a great 9 miles!  Oh and the great thing is that I didn't use any Alleve before the hike and my hip did great!  That reminds me, I need to go do some more squats.

Question of the day:  Has anyone ever used this http://www.backpacker.com/fall-gear-guide-2013-brunton-power-essentials-solar-kit/gear/17965.  Comments and observations would be welcomed.

Peace, love and happiness.....

Fun Muddy Mess

Happy New Year!!  We started out with a hike at the Eno River.  My sister, Mary, had the day off so she joined us.  I did not know it is an annual tradition.  Luckily, we arrived early and missed the large crowds. We had a lot of rain last weekend that apparently all ran off down to the trail.  It started out very muddy. Mary only ended up on her butt once, but ended up sitting on a log as she went down.  She was crossing over a downed tree and did the splits as her feet slid in the mud.  I think we all almost went down at least twice!  It was still a blast though!!

This is the highest I've seen the river so far.  I'm sure there have been many, many times it has been higher.  I just haven't seen it this high before. 

We were going to hike along part of the Mountain to Sea trail, but there are no bathrooms along the way, it was cold and I figured there would be too many people and not enough tree coverage to use the woods. Bathrooms are a must since mom always makes sure to have coffee ready for me when I arrive at their house.   We decided to do two short loops instead.  The first was Pea Creek Trail.  The second loop was Dunnagan Trail.  We found this cool cemetery along Dunnagan.  It made us wonder how many other interesting sites we have missed along the way

Cool cemetery we found along the trail.  Looks like it dates back to the 1800's

I'm guessing this wall is part of the "historic pump station" that is on the Dunnagan trail.  I'm going to have to do more research on the history of this park.  There are a lot of points of interest here.  

My favorite part of the river is listening to the water rush over all of the rocks and boulders.  It's so easy to leave behind all of the stresses of life out here and get lost in the beauty of it all.

Mary was kickin' some butt out here!  She quit smoking (go girl!!) about 3 weeks ago and she said it has made a huge difference.  Hopefully we can get out more on the weekends together.  The low is supposed to be 16 Friday night and rain on Sunday so I doubt it'll be this weekend.  A cold front is moving in next week so I'm not sure if we'll be able to get out.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed :)

 Wishing everyone peace, health and happiness in the New Year....