Might Oughta Should: Hope Valley loop

Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Hope Valley loop

One of the interesting things about walking a lot has been learning how one neighborhood connects to another--and learning that routes I've been driving for years aren't necessarily the most direct ways to reach a destination (even if they might be the speediest ones). In February, a friend commented that I should swing by on a walk sometime, but I had always thought of her house as much too far away to do that. Last Friday, after heading off for a short walk on the American Tobacco Trail, I googled her address and discovered her house was closer than I had thought--closer on foot than by any route I've ever driven there--so I decided that would be my destination for the day. When she texted that she wouldn't be home, I expanded my loop to include Hope Valley, a neighborhood I hadn't covered during car-free February because it had seemed too far away. Friend was home by the time I was looping back, so I got a quick visit in on top of my longest loop walk yet.

Ta da--14 miles!

Some highlights:

C.C. Spaulding Elementary School is named for Charles C. Spaulding, who was president of NC Mutual for almost three decades.

The American Tobacco Trail passes above S. Roxboro. Usually I'm on the bridge instead of under it.

Look! A desire path! I'm learning that people really don't like walking through puddles.

The intersection in the photo below begins one of the most unpleasant stretches of road I've walked on. The photo looks back at the sidewalked portion of S. Roxboro Rd....

...and this next photo looks forward at the un-sidewalked part. The narrow desire path is uncomfortably close to the road, and further ahead, there's very little room for walkers to leap away from cars that zip past.

S. Roxboro eventually becomes Archdale Drive; the treacherous portion of the road ends at Durham Parks and Recreation's Operations Center with the welcome appearance of sidewalks. There's a park--Southern Boundaries Park--just east of the building, but I didn't stop to check it out. If I had, I would have learned that Third Fork Creek Trail has a terminus in the park--a walk for a future date. (Googling the trail informs me that the city has plans--or at least had, pre-pandemic--to join Third Fork Creek Trail to the American Tobacco Trail--very exciting!)

Hope Valley Road, a.k.a. Hwy 751, is another street that's not designed for pedestrians. Nor for bunny rabbits.

I've driven down Hope Valley Road many times over the past 20 years, but never explored this ritzy 1920s Durham subdivision. If you want to see some jaw-droppingly expansive mansion estates, Hope Valley is the place to look.

My cell phone camera isn't good at showing depth; this shot is looking downhill from the top of the Hope Valley golf course.

After some twists and turns, I emerged from Hope Valley neighborhood onto Old Chapel Hill Road. I think this next photo is an apt synecdoche for the streets I had just visited. A bit of background: I routinely encounter trash everywhere I walk, mostly consisting of fast food containers, squashed beer or energy-drink cans, and empty plastic liquor bottles. The first trash I saw on this road bordering Hope Valley was a La Croix hibiscus sparkling water can--neatly upright, of course, because lying sideways would have been untidy.

The wooden sign for the Valley Run subdivision made me laugh for its wishful thinking. As far as I know, Durham is not a place where any sky-blue river runs past pine trees into the sea.

The Bird Boutique is "a Parrot Lover's Paradise," visible from a distance thanks to a 1.5-story decorative wooden parrot.

Hope Valley Elementary. The other side of the sign says "Read a book with your child, Veterans Day Nov. 11." Here's looking forward to brighter post-pandemic days when kids are safely back in school buildings.

An old gate to Rockwood Park perhaps dates to the park's beginning in the 1950s. I couldn't see a way into the park from this gate without jumping over the side of a cliff. (Durham has cliffs? A very steep descent, anyway)...

...but further along the road, there's an entrance that descends down the cliff into the park.

Again, my camera isn't good at showing hills--but notice the difference in the heights of the treetops from where the photo was taken and where the evening sunlight is striking.