Hike at Owl's Roost trail/Bur-Mil Park

• Date Hiked: April 5, 2020
• Posted length: Owl's Roost:  4.3 miles.  (access to trail via the Atlantic-Yadkin Greenway)
• Total miles Tracked: 6.5 miles
• Type of Trail:Multi-use Mountain biking/hiking trail
• Conveniences: In non-plague times, bathrooms, water, and a nature center. Picnic shelters and parking still available! 
• Best Features: Varied terrain, easy to get to, easy to follow. 
• Worst Features: Shared with mountain bikers. Most are courteous but be prepared to jump into potential poison ivy thickets on very short notice. 
• Wildlife spotted: Turtles
• Vegetation: Pine and hardwood forests
• Associated Website:https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/departments/parks-recreation/trails-greenways/hiking-trails/owl-s-roost and https://www.guilfordcountync.gov/our-county/county-parks/bur-mil-park
• Primary Author: Cheryl

On a warm Sunday, we met James' sisters Joy and Gina, brother-in-law Joe, and their friend Tracey for a hike on the Owl's Roost Trail.  The trail itself borders a peninsula along Lake Brandt in Greensboro and is off the Atlantic-Yadkin Greenway.  We all met up at Bur-Mil Park and solidified our hiking plan.  If it weren't for all the closures due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Bur-Mil Park would have provided bathrooms along with a pretty awesome Wildlife center.  Maps were also not available, so we made-do with a snap shot of the map on the door to the wildlife center.   

We headed out from next to the wildlife center to the Atlantic-Yadkin Greenway, a paved, multi-use trail.  Tons of people were out walking, running and riding on this sunny Sunday in early April.  We walked about a mile and a half down the A-Y Greenway, before dropping down into the woods to The Owl's Roost Trail.

This trail is a multi-use Mountain biking (ranked difficult) and hiking trail.  We had six in our group, so we were able to call out to each other when bikers approached so we could step off the trail.  Almost all the bikers we encountered were courteous and also called out to us - but there's always a few that feel like they own the trail.

The ferns were starting to unfurl with their fiddleheads, the dogwoods and redbud were flowering, and other wildflowers were also beginning to bloom.  

Midway along the trail they had a mail box where you could leave a note, much like the Kindred Spirit mailbox at Sunset Beach. 

The trail winds around the peninsula overlooking Lake Brandt.  We all talked about when we'd come back to the park to explore by kayak.  

Gina took this pic of Joy and Cheryl keeping 6 feet apart! 

This is a very popular trail, so if you're looking to get away from other people, you might have better options. But, if you're looking for an easily accessible trail in the Triad that provides varied terrain, a good loop length, and a nice workout you'd have a difficult time picking a better destination. 

Eno River to Flat River Kayak Trip

• Date Kayaked: March 29, 2020
• Total miles Tracked: 5.1
• Type of  Paddle: River (flat, low current)
• Conveniences: 24 hour boat ramp, plenty of parking
• Put In:  Eno River Boat Launch-Red Mill Road, Durham, NC
• Water Access:  Cement boat ramp (single ramp)
• Best Features: It's our home river
• Worst Features: No facilities. Not even a trashcan. 
• Wildlife spotted: Just turtles. Usually herons, egrets, watersnakes
• Vegetation: Pines, hardwoods, wildflowers
• Primary Author: James

Boats! Starting this blog in January put the third noun in Bikes, Boots & Boats at a bit of a disadvantage. In North Carolina, the water is too cold to kayak from early November to at least the end of March. Still, on March 29, we took advantage of a warm day to run out to one of our local favorites, the Eno River. There are a few different places to paddle on the Eno, but for us the most convenient location is a 24 hour boat ramp near Red Mill Road just north of Durham. The fact that it's 24 hours means that we have been able to do some moonlight paddles from this location, and we also don't need to stress out about kayaking past some arbitrary gate closing time at a park. The launch area has plenty of parking and an easily accessed ramp and dock. That's pretty much it for facilities. No bathrooms, water fountains, picnic tables or even a trash can. 

This section of the Eno is wide and flat. Downstream takes you to Falls Lake and upstream takes you back to Durham. There's current, but not so much you struggle if you choose to go upstream.

Downstream only a mile or so, the Eno intersects with the Flat River.  Depending on the water levels, there are several wide creeks you can paddle around in. If the water is high enough, there's actually a full loop you can paddle up a creek to intersect another creek that flows into the Falls Lake. Then, from Falls Lake you can paddle back to the Eno. This time, though, we just headed up the Flat River. This is another slow, lazy river, passing mostly alongside gameland and a few farms. You do pass fairly near a factory at one point, which can be noisy. But, aside from that brief interruption, the Flat is very remote and peaceful. You see fewer boats than you will if you remain on the Eno. The only wildlife we saw on this late March trip were turtles, but this is a fantastic place to come in warm weather to find herons and egrets, and there are numerous places along the bank that show where deer come to the water.

Depending on the water level, in theory you can paddle the Flat all the way to Oxford Road. We've never quite made it, but even when the water is low you can easily paddle at least two miles up the Flat. 

The downside of there not being a lot of current is that you don't really get much of a rest heading back downstream. The ease of access, relatively rare motor boats, and great scenery keep us coming back. You'll be seeing more posts of different destinations you can reach from this ramp.

Paddling back as the light fades is no problem. The boat ramp's always open!

Biking the Tobacco Heritage Trail, La Crosse, Va

• Date Biked: April 3, 2020
• Posted length: Approximately 17 miles.  Conflicting mile markers closer to Lawrenceville
• Total miles Tracked: 36 (South Hill to Lawrenceville) and 2.2 (Boydton)
• Type of Trail: Rail trail, paved, crushed surface, dirt
• Conveniences: Picnic tables and pit toilets along the trail.
• Best Features: La Crosse section is flat and paved.  The rest of the trail is more rugged but scenic.
• Worst Features: No water 
• Wildlife spotted: None this trip
• Vegetation: Red buds, flowering fruit trees, wildflowers, hardwood forests, kudzu
• Associated Website: http://tobaccoheritagetrail.org/
• Primary Author: James

If you study Google Maps, with bike routes turned on, you find the Tobacco Heritage Trail meandering long distances across southern Virginia. Alas, while a great deal of former railroad beds have apparently been set aside for the project, the actual bikable sections are someone small and scattered. There's a mile in Boydton, and roughly two miles in South Boston and Victoria. We've biked South Boston in the past and found it a very pleasant ride, though it's a bit short to go out of your way for. If all of these small segments are eventually connected, it's going to make for an impressive bit of biking.

Fortunately, there is already one nice, long segment, just over 17 miles connecting La Crosse, Virginia to Lawrenceville. Technically this isn't continuous, since it does go onto paved roads in Broadnax, Virginia, but you're riding on lightly trafficked back streets. Odds are good you'll pass through the town without even seeing a car on the road with you.

Seriously, traffic isn't a problem. 

The old train station in Broadnax....

... located on Railroad St. 

We parked at the trail head on Evans Creek Road a few miles outside Broadnax. We'd ridden this trail twice before, but this was our first time planning to do the full 35 mile round trip ride in a single trip. Previously, we'd found the section from Evans Creek to Broadnax to be the most difficult section . It's a fairly uphill grade from Evans Creek to Broadnax, and when we first biked in in 2016 we had to get off and push our bikes across soft, sandy sections where we were plagued by horseflies. We refer to this as as the "sand swamp" and often use it as a reference point for terrible rides.  This time, however, we zipped into Broadnax without real exertion. Perhaps the trail is simply more packed down after a few years of use. Once you reach Broadnax, the trail to La Crosse is paved and flat.

The "Sand Swamp," now much less sandy and swampy!

La Crosse has a nice trail head park with a caboose. But, to the best of our knowledge, there are no bathrooms or water fountains. Still, if you are just looking for a short, pleasant ride, you can park here and do a round trip on the paved section of about 10 miles.

Oh! Right! This is an official segment of the East Coast Greenway! 

One we reached the end of the trail in La Crosse, we headed back, aiming for the town on the far end, Lawrenceville. If you are making a similar journey, you might be alarmed when you notice that you're at mile marker 20 on what's supposed to be a 17 mile trail. I assume this is aspirational mileage, because there definitely isn't a mile 0 in Lawrenceville. In fact, mile markers, which are clearly marked each half mile, kind of vanish around mile marker 4. The trail past this seems very untended, to the point that we sometimes wondered if the trail might have officially stopped. But, we kept pushing on along the ruts to reach the Lawrenceville trail head. Unlike the nice park in La Crosse, the Lawrenceville end is just a sign and two dirt parking spaces. We biked this section before and went into Lawrenceville for lunch and it was a nice enough little town, but it doesn't seem like the locals make much use of the trail or are even much aware of it. There were several people walking and riding on the trail in La Cross, but we only passed one rider on our trip to Lawrenceville.

Sometimes the trail near Lawrenceville is nothing but a pair of ruts in the grass. 

While Lawrenceville is somewhat of a dud as a destination, the actual ride from Evans Creek is quite worth it. You're mostly passing through farmland and forest. There are a few historical markers along the way, and old structures hidden back in the woods if you're watching for them. Most of the ride is shady, and while the surface can be a little rugged, the land is mostly flat. With a bike with a little shock absorption, it's a fun ride.  

After we completed this large section of the trail, we packed up our bikes and headed west to find the section of the trail in Boydton.  This section is relatively new, and boasts ample parking at both ends of the trail.  While it's only just over a mile in length, we could tell that it gets a good amount of foot traffic. It is a rail trail, but beware of the steep hills where it dips down off the old rail-line at the halfway mark.   At the terminus, we could see where the trail will continue in the future. 

We'll keep this on our watch list to perhaps return in the future when the multiple sections are all linked together.
 

This might be the first trail we've biked with a warning to look out for low flying planes. 

A great place to practice social distancing.

 

 

Not actually from our bike ride, but the Love sign in Clarkesville on the drive home.