Call of the Eno

Judy and I recently slipped away for a couple of days 

of hiking and thrift shopping in the Hillsborough area.

This has fast become one of our go-to getaways because

there are so many trails nearby and at least a couple of

good shops.  Most of all, it's still got the small town feel

even though it's just outside Durham and Chapel Hill.

The first round of pictures are from the Eno River State

Park.  The weather couldn't have been ordered up more

perfect.  Low humidity, low 70's, and a light breeze

from the north.

This is the ranger's station, welcome center, and nature museum.

I always call areas like this Fern Valley.

Judy spotted this solitary treasure just after we began our hike.

This zebra swallowtail seemed mightily attracted to Judy's shoe.
It was wondrously beautiful.

We approached the Eno River at Few's Ford, a 19th century
pioneer crossing.

A little downstream is this cool suspension bridge.
Yes, it's a swinging bridge, and it swings!

We had been on this bridge before, but today we would cross it
to hike the Fanny's Ford Trail and part of the Cox Mountain Trail,
which we had not done before.

This replica of a pioneer cabin must be for the use of group campers,
especially in case of rain. It is quite large with spacious rooms and
no windows.

Here was our turn-off for a loop trail that would follow the
Eno River for some distance.

We feel blessed to have the feel of the mountains this close to home.

Fire Pink is one of our favorite wild flowers.  This is the only
specimen we saw.  We had some at our old property, but the
deer started eating it.

We were glad to see the Eno still supports a thriving population
of turtles.

This red toad shows up well here, but with a couple of hops
he was camouflaged in the pebbles beside a small stream.

We returned via the same route.  A marker showed that during
Hurricane Fran the water level was higher than this bridge!

The next day we went to the Occoneechee Mountain

Natural Area.  We hiked the Chestnut Oak Trail, the

only trail there that we hadn't done before.

Mountain Laurel was blooming in the higher elevations.

A ranger had kindly tipped us to look for "a black bear hugging
a tree."  I think we found it.

These trees may be related to our "Jack, Will, and Tom" on the
SFL Nature Trail.

These are Chestnut Oak leaves.  They are uncommon in the Sandhills,
but I did see some in woods not far from the Farm Life campus. They
are common at Morrow Mountain and Occoneechee Mountain.

Our trail intersected the Overlook Trail, which looks out on an
abandoned quarry, the Eno River (barely visible here) and the
western area of Hillsborough.

In this picture, the Eno River is in the dead center.  It then veers
toward the town, where a beautiful greenway follows it for a
couple of miles or more.

 A nice lady we met while hiking told us about a

new "Bee Hotel" at Gold Park in town.  We had been

there before, most recently on Solar Eclipse Day last

September, but the Bee Hotel had opened since then.

Several path tiles have been decorated by local artists.

Many native plants which attract bees have been laid out here
at the corner of Gold Park where the greenway trail enters.

We learned that most native honeybees are solitary, rather than
living in colonies.  They will nest in almost any hollow wood,
which explains this odd but intriguing structure.

Here's your close-up.  There were some bees around, but it's
still under construction.

This type of project is just one indicator of what a nice
community Hillsborough is.

This brick foundation supports a railroad bridge just a few dozen
yards from the Bee Hotel.  We were amazed to hear that the brickwork
is from around 1850.  When the bridge was being rebuilt more than
70 years later, engineers determined that they couldn't build a more
sound foundation than the one that already existed. Impressive that
the same could be said now, almost 100 years later!

That's it for this Hillsborough/Eno River/ Occoneechee

Mountain trip.  Aside from all these attractions, we know 

of several great places to eat and a nice Holiday Inn

 Express to stay at.  Yes, we'll be back!