Walking to Saxapahaw

Since returning from Germany last summer, I have been mourning the lack of easy long-distance day-hikes enabled by convenient mass transit. I finally decided to aim for some point-to-point hikes from Durham, figuring I could select destinations on bus or train lines.

In January, I started mapping out some potential routes. Maybe I could walk to Virginia! How many days would it take to reach the border, or Richmond, or Charlottesville? Turns out about 3 days, 10 days, and 10 days respectively. There's even a designated greenway--the 3,000-mile long East Coast Greenway--that passes through both Durham and Richmond, albeit mostly on roads and intended for bicyclists. 

I got as far as determining that finding places to stay en route would be a challenge. Then I discovered the ODX bus--the Orange-Durham Express--which runs from Durham to Hillsborough to Efland and back on weekdays during the early morning and early evening.

In February, the ODX enabled a 44-mile, 2-day walk starting from home:

    * Day 1: Durham to Hillsborough (19.5 miles), taking the ODX home (+1.5 miles). 

    * Day 2: ODX to Hillsborough (+1.4 miles), then walking to Saxapahaw (21.6 miles). 

There exists no mass transit home from Saxapahaw. S, who bicycles there on a semi-regular basis, kindly offered to pick me up by car. 

Day 1, Tuesday Feb. 21:

The walk from home to Hillsborough was hands down the most gloriously beautiful local walk I've taken since becoming a walkaholic. It knocked happening upon the ECWA Beaver Marsh Preserve on a snowy January day in 2021 down to second place.  

I needed to start our taxes, so my route began with a walk to Costco to buy software. From there, I continued past the strip malls...

For questioning potters...

...to Guess Road, and more commercial strips...

Because Du meine Seele, du mein Herz...

...eventually wending my way into the Croasdaille Farms subdivision.

I may or may not have walked on this path:

From Croasdaille, it was another few miles to the Laurel Bluffs Trail along the Eno River...

Stray daffodil

Trout lily

...then north along Cole Mill Road, past my second favorite fire hydrant in all of Durham (first favorite is described here).

Eno flowing beneath Cole Mill Road

Then the trash started, and didn't let up until the intersection with Pleasant Green. Here's a photo of someone's personal toxic waste dump at an especially egregious spot along Cole Mill Road:

This award-winning sculpture adorns the entrance to a private residence:

Open Hand, by Joe Coates

Eventually I landed in Eno River State Park. There's a short trail that begins just before the parking lot for Few's Ford, and it spits you out on the east side of the suspension bridge. That was an "ooh ahh!" moment for me, since I completely bypassed the bigger parking lot and the stepped trail down to the river. 

Ooh ahh! I'm east of the suspension bridge!

Cox Mountain Trail

Komoot, my route-planning app, told me to head west off of the Cox Mountain trail. Had it not told me to turn, I would not have noticed the un-signed trail. Clearly little used, and possibly non-maintained, it proved well worth the turn.

Old Eno homestead is gone, but daffodils remain.

The biggest, reddest open vein of clay I've ever seen runs up a steep hill

It's hard to make out, but the trail was an old forest road

The trail continued to the state park border and, with ominous signage, onto private land; so [TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES] following [TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES] and [TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES], past a pottery, to where I finally arrived at the Mountains to Sea Trail--a.k.a. Hwy 70:

Vroom vroom. Yes, this stretch of highway is part of the MST.

After walking a mile or so north on 70, I missed the turn-off to stay on the MST along the Eno. Because I had just enough time to catch the 5:20pm bus home if I hurried, I chose not to backtrack to find the turnoff, and instead continued on the highway until St. Mary's Road, then turned left, past Ayr Mount and River Park Elementary and into scenic downtown Hillsborough. Shortly thereafter, I was one of only two passengers on the impressively speedy ODX bus back to Durham.

Day 2, Tuesday Feb. 28:

In theory, I was supposed to do this section the day after Day 1. But life and weather and blisters changed that. A week later, and on a day's notice, my friend TS joined me for the walk to Saxapahaw. I'd never been to Saxapahaw, and figured that arriving on foot would be a rewarding way to experience it.

T and I met shortly after dawn and skedaddled downtown to the bus station. T is one of the three fastest walkers I know (hat tips also to RM and CM), so we arrived with ten minutes to spare. 

The speedy ODX dropped us off across the street from the Weaver Street Co-op, where we were instructed to stretch--so we did.

We linked up with the MST behind the co-op. 

Mosaic in a parking garage behind the co-op: "Love Hillsborough"

The MST follows the Hillsborough River Walk for a bit:

The River Walk includes bridges, boardwalks, and paved trails...

...and tons of turkey vultures. 

Eventually we left the River Walk and headed west along a road to Efland. This road did not show Hillsborough at its finest. (I took a photo of some vulgar flags in front of a trailer home, but the image is too uncouth to post here.)

Eventually we approached I-40...

Cotton

The scenic Mountains-to-Sea Trail...

...and crossed to the south side of the interstate. It took another mile or two before we finally left the traffic and noise of the Efland I-40 interchange behind.

Our route followed an approximation of a future planned section of the MST. For now, it's an "alternate" route entirely on paved roads.

At the intersection of Chestnut Ridge Church Road and Buckhorn Road, we stopped at the INFO CEN ER, but learned very little:

We encountered only a handful of bicyclists and joggers over the course of the day.

Look! There's one!

For lunch, we paused near some houses on a scenic stretch of Bradshaw Quarry Road. With a healthy fear of trespassing and gun ownership in rural NC, I was game for sitting on a guard rail with our backs to the traffic, but T insisted on tromping off the road a bit. We found a fallen tree to sit on, and ate lunch surrounded by trout lilies. 

Then it was back to the country roads...

We passed a sign for Yellow Rake Road, although that was clearly a misnomer:  

Shortly beyond Pink Broom Road, it was baby burro season...

We crossed into Alamance County, which looked much like Orange County.

Over our entire route, we saw sign after sign that said "Private Property: No Trespassing." Sometimes these signs made sense, e.g. next to fishing ponds in which one might drown, and on Orange County Water and Sewer Authority land on which one might taint the drinking water. Still, we wondered what secret treasures must be hidden in these here hills to warrant so many signs, and we applauded multiple residential property owners for wisely making their land and wood piles look distinctly non-covetable.

This property looked covetable. What illicit activities would you engage in here?

By way of contrast, here's a welcoming, self-serve, honor-system, wee 24/7 open-door apiary store a few miles outside of Saxapahaw. I Venmo'd the owners $25 and added a 3-pound glass jar of local honey to my backpack, to gift to my honey-loving honey in appreciation of the upcoming ride home.

Signage told us when we arrived in Saxapahaw, although our official destination--the General Store--was still a few miles down the road.

After tanking up on seltzer and a chocolate chip cookie at the General Store, we meandered through Saxapahaw down to the Haw River. 

There's an island in the middle of the river, aptly named Saxapahaw Island, with a park aptly named Saxapahaw Island Park. We hiked a short loop trail around the park before heading back to the General Store to meet S for dinner.

And that was that. I was pleased that the ride home took a good 40 minutes, since it's always disheartening to have a seven-hour hike undone by a mere 20-minute car or train ride. (And for those of you paying attention, the drive to Hillsborough would have been about 30 minutes, which is also more than 20. Whew!)

Experiencing cold and wet exuberantly

The story, as I remember a friend telling it, is that many winters ago, his wife was driving somewhere with their toddler on a snowy day. At some point, she discovered the toddler had completely undressed himself, despite being snugly strapped into his carseat. Friend said that spouse said that toddler said he had stripped down in order to "experience cold."

That wording, obviously, has stuck with me. I like the idea that one does not have to be something unpleasant (or pleasant, if coldness is your thing), but instead one can experience something--and the difference is a choice.

As part of my recent effort to age exuberantly to make my life worth living, I have decided to experience more and be less. One outcome is that I now walk long distances in the rain on chilly days. Rather than being cold and soggy, I get to experience cold and soggy! 

Thus I met friends for lunch a six-mile roundtrip chilly rainy walk from home, and I did not melt! 

Thus I headed ten miles down the greenway to the mega-mall in a breezy drizzle, and then (because it was during my second annual "car-free February") hopped onto a bus to get home. 

Thus last Saturday, I walked 15.5 miles from Durham to Chapel Hill in the rain, to meet up with friends for dinner and an opera. Because wet shoes and socks generate more friction against toes than dry ones, I had the added bonus, just before reaching the restaurant, of mindfully experiencing the exact moment when a blister that had been simmering for days finally gave up the ghost. (Because I am also attempting to age with a smidge of style, at least in public, I had an opera-worthy pair of flats, dry socks, and a dry shirt in my backpack; I changed in the restaurant restroom and left my sneakers behind in the trash can. Thanks for the 500+ miles, shoes!)

Of course, exuberance does not require rain. Posts on sunshine-filled walks coming soon.

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Photos from a Saturday walk to Chapel Hill. I planned my route to go through Duke Gardens...

...where spring flowers were already abundant.

The rain began in earnest as I left the gardens, so I walked most of the way to Chapel Hill under an umbrella.

I've been meaning to post a photograph of this bridge for a while. This is on Academy, where it crosses I-40, and it's the scariest bridge-over-freeway that I've traversed so far. The concrete barrier comes up as high as my kneecap. Fear of tripping and plunging onto a car going 70 mph outweighs fear of getting hit by a car going 45 mph, so I walk in the street instead of on the narrow sidewalk. 

Durham is full of subdivisons that have half a block of sidewalk on either side of the main entrance. This spot was notable for having an entire block of sidewalk. Most of the walk to Chapel Hill looked like this--just without the sidewalk--so this was the last photo I took.