Jones Lake State Park

Official site for the park can be found here - Jones Lake State Park

As North Carolina's tricky spring started rolling out at the end of February, you know, the hot one day, cold the next, I knew it was time to get back out hiking. Obviously, if you live in this state and are a fan of hiking, your eyes will nearly always look westwards towards the mountains, and I would be the same way. But living in Fayetteville puts me too far away from the mountains for a good dayhike, therefore, I needed to find areas close by where I could at least satisfy my hiking desire and start losing some of that winter fat. Raven Rock is nearby in Lillington, but that is still a little over an hour away and I had been there weekly when I lived in Lillington. No, I needed something closer, and I found this at Jones Lake, a mere 25 minute drive with 0 traffic.

Jones Lake is one of the Carolina Bay lakes, bodies of water oriented from southeast to northwest. There are many theories on how they were formed. They are, except for one lake, highly acidic and while the water is clear, its a dark brown color because of all the tanins in the water. Because of its high acidity, fish don't thrive there as much as in other places, although, fishing is still fun there.

The park is comprised of two lakes, Jones and Salters lake. The park entrance is at Jones lake, with a really nice picnic area, sand volleyball and a small but nice sandy beach. Again, while the water is dark, its not cloudy. As the lakes are really shallow, the kids love this aspect. Within the park you have three distinct areas, the lake and its shore, the bay area directly around each lake, and the pine forest in between the lakes.

There are also only two trails at the park, the main trail, a five mile hike around Jones lake, goes through all three of these areas and provides a nice change in scenery in this short hike. Halfway into the Bay Trail, one can take a  1.75 there and back trail into Salters Lake, leaving the pine forest and entering the Bay and then seeing the lake. Added all together, this almost seven mile hike makes the time spent there more than worthwhile.

The trails are, of course, flat. But this is the only simple part of it. In the bay area, the trail is covered in roots and rocks, making one constantly be aware of where they are stepping. Once one clears the bay and enters the pine forest the path becomes sandy, and nothing is more tricky to someones fatigue level than a flat sandy trail. You get much more of a workout than one imagines at first.

Again, the variety in the scenery is really nice, but what Ive always enjoyed about this trail (I have returned on many occasions) is the fact that there is so much visible fauna there. The proximity of the water brings them all out. Birds are seemingly constantly flying about while frogs seem to only stop their song when you near their water hole. In my couple of hikes I have seen a Red Bellied water snake, a Copperhead and a Corn snake. Yes, I yielded to the Copperhead.

The main trail also has three overlooks, where the lake rushes into view from the dense bay brush, and also links up with the fishing pier. Its possible to see the fire watch tower from the fishing pier. I really need to find a way to get up there to take pictures. There is camping available there with showers and running water and one of these days Im gonna camp there to wake up at sunrise and get pictures of the sun coming up over the lake.

I have always been a mountain hiker, or at least hills. But I have begun broadening where I hike, and I look forward to checking out more trails along the coast and its coastal lands.

I do have one thought though. I enjoy biking as well. This park has service road that goes deep into the park itself, part of the bay trail goes on it. I could see them allowing bikes on that road and bringing in even more people. I wonder if anyone has thought of that or if there is a specific reason they don't allow it.

If you're ever down this way, check it out, its an easy dayhike with a picnic area available.

If you have been, Id love to hear what you think about this park.

Happy Hiking,

Xcrown

Overlook #1

The pine forest. Such a dramatic change from the bay brush.

Fearless trooper. He still swears he sees a bear every time we go.

Eno River State Park Western Trails

The official site for Eno River State Park can be found here - North Carolina State Parks.

The map of the trails on the wester portion of the park can be found here - Eno River Trail Map, PDF

My wife and I and the two kids, boy almost 3 and a girl 8 going on 19, checked out this section of trails on the Eno river on March 26th. It was a cool, cloudy, drizzly day. We went for the purpose of testing out my new rain gear, but, never really had the chance to test it as it never poured.

This section of the state park is the one that is advertised by all the signs leading up the it. The main information center and the ranger station are located here. There are two large parking lots with modern bathrooms and water fountains. There is also a rather large picnic area located close to the bathrooms.

This section is clearly the more popular section as well. The large group campsites are here, about 1-2 miles from the parking lot. On that day, there were about 3 separate groups of kids and fathers hiking down to the campsites. Its always nice to see people, even if some looked completely out of place, attempting to hike and camp.

The first set of trails include the Cox Mountain trail and Fanny's Ford trail. Both are loops and link up to provide a longer hike. Combined, they provide just a little over 5 miles of hiking. The Cox Mountain trail includes a short but steep hike up about 450 feet, a great little challenge to anyone who has never really hiked serious mountain trails. There are a few visual treats. The first is the free swinging footbridge that crosses the Eno. I'm a huge fan of any kind of bridge while I'm hiking, even if its just a couple of boards over a small creek, therefore, this footbridge is a blast. Of course, having my almost 3 year old think about climbing the rails and almost fall was not so fun. There is also an old wooden cabin that has been converted into a picnic area deep in the hike.

After a lunch back at the parking lot, we hit the other trails. The Buckquarter Creek trail, loops into the Ridge Trail, a long one way trail that leads deep into the woods there a good ways away from the parking lot, but offers another large group campsite for those willing to hike about 4.7 miles in. The Ridge trail holds two really old homes, 19th century homes, within the tall pines and oaks, and offers a unique sight while on the hike. Once we returned from the Ridge trail, we looped back into the Holden Mill trail, dropping down into a small valley that was crisscrossed with small creeks, with a lush green grass growing. It was a beautiful sight. The Holden Mill trail is another loop that hikes up about 200 feet then drops down and comes back along the Eno. The trail here really hugs the river, at times there is no clear path, and one has to hike and climb rocks where one slip will land you in the water. Be warned if you have little ones, you will have to help them up and over the rocks, but we managed just fine.

All in all we hiked 9.7 miles. We did not take two smaller trails at the end of the Ridge trail, Shakori and Knight trail. There are plans to make the Shakori trail loop up into the Holden Mill trail, then offering a 10 mile loop in the near future.

This is one of those sets of trails where, if you just want a day of good hiking, especially if you live nearby, you will gladly return here multiple times.

More to come. Enjoy the pictures.

Happy Hiking,

Xcrown

Cardinal.

Hes loving it.

It's looking at me funny.

One of the few flowers that day.

Footbridge over the Eno.

One of the two 19th century homes. 

Starting off the Cox Mountain trail.

Eno River State Park Eastern Trails

This is my first official post, but is actually fifth hike this year. We have been doing one hike each Saturday while I have been sneaking in a few during the week as well along with biking a few trails as well. I will catch you all up on those trails in the coming days.

The official site for Eno River State Park can be found here - North Carolina State Parks.
The map of the trails on the eastern portion of the park can be found here - Eno River Trail Map, PDF

We had already done the western portion of the trails the previous Saturday and were now tackling the eastern portion. The Eno River is located just north of Durham and is a rather simply drive from Fayetteville, up i95, then i40, NC147, then i85. There are a few signs to the park, but its easy to find. The trick is, to get to the eastern trails, you ignore the sign that leads to the park on Cole Mill Road, and take the opposite way. Eventually you'll see  the entrance to the Cole Mill section of the park. The eastern trails also include the Pump Station area of the park. More on that later.

The Cole Mill area has a small parking lot with two pit toilets, which are probably the nicest pit toilets I have ever seen. There are two spigots near each toilet that provide city water, great for loading up on water before heading off. Maps are also available at both toilets.

We began by taking the Cole Mill trail, which would link up to the Bobbitt Hole Trail. These two trails make up the trails south of Cole Mill road. They both are looping, so you can easily take one, and if you're feeling it, take the next one. Both climb some mild hills and then drop down into one of the campsites available there. There are a couple of streams it crosses until it reaches Bobbitt Hole, a swirling pool of water that most likely forms a great fishing hole along the river. The trails then double back on their loop heading along the Eno River, which on this day was swollen from a few days of raining. The trail can be a little thin and certainly hugs the river, so be careful if you have little ones. Our two have the tendency of not really watching where they walk.

Once these two trails loop back to the parking lot, we took the Pea Creek and Dunnagan trails, both do linking loops north of Cole Mill road. Pea Creek is the shorter, but includes a few quick but steep climbs over a bunch of small boulders. Dunnagan is longer and includes plenty of ups and downs. There are few old stone foundations and even five (from what we saw) tombstones. One of them was inscribed with the years 1826-1914. All four of these trails logged around 5.2 miles on my watch, we completed them in 2:35 of actual hiking time.

Going back on the road and driving south on Cole Mill road, you take a right on Rivermont Rd, stay on it till it turns to gravel and you find the entrance to the Pump Station. Here, Nancy Rhodes creek was damned up and that water was pumped back into the town. The remains of this large building are still there along with some old stone foundations as well. The short Pump Station trail loops around all of these buildings and along the Eno River as well. Having hiked the Dunnagan trail, we could see this trail from the opposite side. Off of Pump Station trail is the Laurel Bluff trail. This trail goes north along the Eno, with plenty of ups and downs and going along cliffs along the Eno. There are plenty of good views of the river. This trail is one way though, 2.5 miles either way unless you want to hitch a ride at the end of it back to your car parked on Rivermont rd. We took this trail as the last trail of the day and it really beat us good. We had to turn back with about .8 miles left because rain clouds came in in a hurry. Either way, it was a good trail, and if done there and back, its an even 5 miles.

These trails were not nearly as interesting as the western trails, but still quite enjoyable. There were plenty of people there, with their children or dogs. I counted 25 turtles, all soaking in the sun that day. With NC spring coming around, many bulbs were up and about to bloom, adding a strong hint of green to the mostly brown winter look. The parking lot was more than large enough and there were picnic tables aplenty nearby. The only downside to these trails is its location. The park is a sliver of land along the Eno River and there is ample evidence of the close homes. We ran into a father and son using a dirt bike and four wheeler along the trail, prohibited of course. There is also that hint of trash the further away you were from the parking lot.

Total hiked, 8.9 miles. 4:37 actually hiking. Not really unique enough to do again, but if you never have, do the trails at least once.

Favorite Trail: Dunagan Trail, because of the old stone foundations and the tombstones. An odd silence and look back into the past.

Happy Hiking,
Xcrown