Carolina Thread Trail: Murray's Mill & Bunker Hill Covered Bridge

Carolina Thread Trail: Murray’s Mill & Bunker Hill Covered Bridge – Catawba, NC
7/4/20 – 4.5 Miles

Travel plans canceled left and right as the world realized that COVID-19 was not going anywhere fast. Beach trips, mountain vacations, Disney World, and visits to Grandma’s, everything seemed risky. 

Canceling the annual 4th of July Thomas family reunion of my mother’s generation (16 siblings!) and descendants was especially disappointing, as folks are scattered far across the land with just this once-a-year chance to see elders, cousins and new babies. There were so many of us, I didn’t know them all. In 2020, no reunion, no Virginia accents, no talk of farming (tobacco has been replaced by hemp!) and…oh, the food! Let’s pause a moment for the food.

Jim and I were itching to do something, wear our masks and be outside somewhere new in the 93-degree heat. He’s mentioned Murray’s Mill a few times as a day outing, so this was our chance. Even if the mill wasn’t open, there is a segment of the Carolina Thread trail to walk on. So we took a little drive to Catawba, NC. A calendar-perfect day for photographing the mill!

Murray’s Mill Lake formed by damming of Balls Creek

The David L. Stewart Trail starts beyond the mill and continues between the edge of Murray’s Mill Lake and a soybean field. Wild blackberries were bursting beside the path. The air was July-still and the mid-day sun produced a stifling heat. 

When I was a kid, the Thomas reunion was held in my own family’s big side yard. Imagine over 100 people, lots of barefoot children, lawn chairs, ice cream churns, and that same July heat. We weren’t allowed in our little house except to use the bathroom. The moms would hustle all the food out onto borrowed picnic tables when it was time to eat and hustle the leftovers back inside when the meal was over. Those who came from out of town left for the drive back home, and the locals stayed around until suppertime, when the moms brought the leftovers back out to the tables.  When I was an adult with kids of my own, our elders finally agreed to move the event to an air-conditioned church basement.

Jim and I followed the trail looking for snakes and other critters, but none were stirring. The wooded area was a respite from the direct sun. 

The trail comes to the edge of Shiloh United Methodist Church’s parking lot, turns right, then skirts the property edge out to Shiloh Road where it crosses Balls Creek. From here, the Murray’s Mill Pond Loop Trail continues to the opposite side of the pond and back to the Mill.

…but we turned back the way we came and retraced our steps to the mill.

Another section of the trail starts at the mill and goes in the other direction, but Carolina Thread Trail signs didn’t continue as far as the website suggests. The path still follows the creek, but it divides and re-divides into social trails and motorbike trails.

Trail passes under the bridge by the mill 

A footbridge crossing Balls Creek had been damaged by high water. It wasn’t broken down entirely and we treaded lightly to see what was on the other side. Many trails intersected without signage, so we headed back once again to the mill.

Inside the little general store was busy and uncomfortable as some people wore masks and some didn’t (still voluntary at this time).  But most importantly, the A/C worked and there were goodies.

Not knowing if there would be any food available anywhere, we’d brought our own sandwiches, and now our picnic was complete with a Nehi Peach and a Sun Drop. We ate lunch at a picnic table, not bad at all when you sat a spell in the shade of the old oak trees – just like at a Thomas Family Reunion.

A short drive away from Murray’s Mill, also in Catawba County, is the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge. Built in 1895, it is one of two remaining covered bridges in North Carolina.

The bridge is part of Connor Park, a nice little picnic area with a nature trail. The Bunker Hill Covered Bridge is a short walk from the parking area. We had the place to ourselves as we examined the bridge from all angles, inside and outside and below. It spans Lyle Creek.

The Carolina Thread Trail segment here follows Lyle Creek upstream for about half a mile to end at private property signs. The path was overgrown and humid and buggy…and what else would you expect on the 4th of July! 

The vision of the CTT goes beyond today and I’m glad that the organization grabs every piece of land possible to incorporate into its master plan. Who knows what this little bit of trail will connect to one day? The next generations will enjoy the benefits.

I hope that all of our 4th of July celebrations will return in 2021. I miss that fried chicken and biscuits and chocolate chess pie and butterbeans and cornbread and squash casserole and home grown tomatoes…

“Family is a link to our past,
a bridge to our future.”
~Alex Haley

Carolina Thread Trail: Andrew Jackson State Park

Carolina Thread Trail: Andrew Jackson State Park – 8/24/19 - 2.5 Miles

Five days home from my Pembrokeshire Coast Path thru-hike in Wales and I felt a little antsy to walk somewhere. Late August in the Carolinas means hot and oppressive humidity, but big storms blew through overnight, a cold front moved in, and today was 70 degrees and misty/drizzling – the P’shire! Jim was busy volunteering as a marshal for the Tour de Turns bike ride, so I took a short drive to a Carolina Thread Trail walk.  

Andrew Jackson State Park is in Lancaster, SC, a quick 35 minutes from my home. I was a little surprised to be the only car in the parking lot on a Saturday morning, but I was here for hiking and the trails were open. [FYI if you’re going, look at the website. Different components have different hours of operation. The park office is open from 11 am to noon (!) and the museum is open 1 pm to 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Budget cuts? Short staffing?]

The story goes that Jackson’s father died several weeks before Jackson’s birth, and his widow moved with her children to this area of the Waxhaws to live with her brother, James Crawford, and his family.

I took a quick stroll around the main grounds, checked out the bathrooms, the impressive amphitheater, the schoolhouse and the closed museum. (No structures remain from Jackson's time.)

Replica schoolhouse

“Boy of the Waxhaws,” a sculpture featuring young Jackson by Anna Hyatt Huntington, whose work I've enjoyed on the extensive grounds of Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC. 

A stone monument to Jackson’s statement that he was born here (to affirm naysayers, I guess)

Replica of a “meeting house” of the Scots-Irish Presbyterian tradition
in which Jackson was raised

The Crawford Trail loop begins beside the meeting house. It’s a one-mile leg stretcher walk, sandy soil with gold flecks, otherwise nondescript, no water feature or views. The trail crosses a paved road, takes a 90-degree left turn at a group campsite (looks like for horses) and crosses the paved road again to return to the trailhead. This early bird caught all the spiderwebs.

Have I seen everything there is to see in just 45 minutes? Of course not. I cruised through the 25-unit campground, happy to see it full on this overcast misty morning, kids’ bikes already riding the circuit as parents coaxed campfires back to life.

The park includes an 18-acre lake with a small fishing pier and a 1.3-mile trail all the way around called “Garden of the Waxhaws Trail.” A counterclockwise ramble around the lake was the best part of my visit. Tree identification signs punctuate the trail. It passes through the campground, which has a small beach. A sign says “do not enter, only for campers” which I ignored, otherwise how can a visitor walk on the trail?

Past the campground, a boardwalk extends through an obvious flood area, beautifully crafted with intriguing curves that draw the hiker along to see what’s next.

Always on the lookout for wildlife, I saw three gleaming white egrets. I disturbed them on one shore, they flew to the other side, and when I reached them again, they returned to the first shore in a huff. Beauty in motion.

Campground across the lake

Visiting Andrew Jackson State Park later in the day is worthwhile for exploring the buildings and the history, but the quiet simplicity of the undisturbed lake in the early hours won me over.

“An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” 

~Henry David Thoreau

Carolina Thread Trail: Girl Scouts Camp Oak Springs

Carolina Thread Trail: Girl Scouts, Hornets’ Nest Council, Dale Earnhardt Environmental Leadership Campus at Camp Oak Springs – 11/17/18 – 4.4 miles

I’ve been away from home for several Saturdays in a row. The coziness of my couch is calling me, but today is National Take A Hike Day! It’s been raining most of the week and now the skies are blue.  Don’t want regrets in my memoirs, so let’s check out another segment of the awesomeness that is the Carolina Thread Trail. This one is especially close to my heart.

My history with Girl Scouts, Hornets’ Nest Council, goes back over 25 years when my oldest daughter became a Brownie Girl Scout. Her troop was active in the outdoors and in volunteering with them I realized how much I loved the outdoors too. Both of my daughters continued in Girl Scouts until they graduated from high school. In addition to their opportunities, Girl Scouts mentored me to become an outdoor leader [I taught 8-year-olds how to light fires!] and trainer of other adults, touching a wide circle of women who, in turn, introduced and encouraged hundreds of girls to outdoor skills and leadership empowerment. I am forever grateful for what Girl Scouting did for my girls and for me.  Hornets’ Nest Council was the genesis for this blog.

Those 25+ years centered around Camp Occoneechee near Lake Lure, NC, a 210-acre resident camp where adults become kids again and where girls grow up. On many weekends the roosters woke us up in our sleeping bags. Sadly, but inevitably, civilization crept closer and the camp was sold. Land was purchased in a new location and Camp Oak Springs was created on 673 acres with capacity for 1000+ people. It continues to grow as the resident camp experience for the next 100 years of Girl Scouting. Change is hard but envisioning the future is what Girl Scouts do so well. And yes, I have slept a few nights at Camp Oak Springs too.

Speaking of envisioning the future, the partnership between Girl Scouts, Hornets’ Nest Council and Carolina Thread Trail is a great fit and I’m happy that they found each other! Read more here.

Brrrr…a cold start, 32 degrees. Pretty sure I’ll have the place to myself this morning, a chance to listen to the woods and quiet my mind.

The South Fork of the Yadkin River is the natural southern boundary of Camp Oak Springs. It is also part of 358 acres protected by Catawba Lands Conservancy. The 2.2-mile natural surface trail runs alongside the stream, which was flowing swiftly this morning after the recent rains and spreading into the flood plain.  I stopped to listen to the soft gurgle and noticed the geometrical shadows on the surface.  In fact, there were shadowy lines everywhere.

Small creeks have cut steep banks on their way down to the South Fork and small wooden bridges made the crossings easy. 

I couldn’t help but notice broken pieces of bright orange clay strewn in the water above and below the second bridge. This area of the camp property was once a private shooting range and these were bits of clay pigeons. Are these pieces old or new?  Did recent rains wash them down into the water from somewhere else? 

 

I walked down to the river’s edge and saw again how deeply the banks were cut away, being careful not to slip. That muddy, opaque water didn’t look too inviting!

Rain means mud and mud means footprints – I’m the first two-legged critter in the neighborhood

A Camp Oak Springs trail loop connects with this CTT segment, but it is private property so I stayed out of bounds

I warmed up nicely, took off all my thick layers and even zipped off my hiking pants legs. So much to look at down by my feet and up in the sky! These enormous bushes with serious thorns and yellow balls of fruit balls – what the heck are they? Trifoliate orange or Poncirus trifoliata aka flying dragon orange tree.

No mistaking where the turnaround is

An out-and-back hike gives the opportunity to see the same things in a different way. The sun had moved and the shadows were different. The light shone brighter on the last of the fall foliage.

I was in a happy frame of mind until I encountered highway construction traffic on the drive home.  For a moment I was annoyed and sad to live in a crowded, congested city and all the good vibes from my hike were leaking out…but what a gift from the Carolina Thread Trail folks that I can experience a quiet morning of solitude in the woods.

“Walking and talking are two very great pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them. Our own noise blots out the sounds and silences of the outdoor world.” ~C.S. Lewis