[Chaos-l] Cedar fork falls

[Mark Lerch]

Beautiful.  I enjoy this kind of thing.

Another massive treasure is Umstead State Park.  You can get a great double-header by also hiking the adjoining Schenck Memorial Forest, past the beautiful NC State horse pastures.  And there's a greenway on the other side of the Forest which will take you all the way over to the RBC Center and beyond, the State Fairgrounds.  I've walked all that.

So theoretically you could park on the Cary side of Umstead State Park and hike all the way to the Fairgrounds.  Who knows what that round trip distance would be, but I suspect well over the 20 mile mark - all through forest in the Triangle area!

Incredibly, on a beautiful fall day you can hike a 6 mile trail in Umstead and pass maybe half a dozen people the entire way.  It is quite underutilized given the area population.


-----Original Message-----
From: chaos-l-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:chaos-l-bounces at rtpnet.org] On Behalf Of Jon Stewart-Taylor
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 3:48 PM
To: chaos-l at rtpnet.org
Subject: [Chaos-l] Cedar fork falls

Hi all.  With the sudden outbreak of Spring today and after all the  
recent rain, i walked up to Cedar Fork to see the cascades.  I'm  
always amazed there's a place like this in a suburban location like  
Chapel Hill:  http://www.thiswaytonature.com/cedarfalls_park.html

The creek was very full, just within it's banks.  With all the water,  
some of the cascades were not as prominent, but it was still  
impressive.  If you've never been, and you like this kind of place,  
it's well worth going.    One spring i saw masses of Trout Lilies  
along the bank.  That was spectacular.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r80o2DL7MPo/SzAgu9EOhVI/AAAAAAAADq0/wmNJI3z5Tgo/s320/trout+lilies.jpg
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/wildflowers_north_america/91791

Reaching the creek overlook on the trail is a moderate  walk, but  
actually getting down to the water is very nearly a climb. You'll need  
to do that if you want to go upstream to see the cascades not visible  
from the trail (one of the best is about a 1/4 mile up from where the  
trail reaches the water).

J.

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