These days, you find adventure where you can — provided it’s close to home.

Personally, I’ve established a 10-mile perimeter for how far I’ll go, for the most part, for a good adventure. (I say “for the most part,” because if there’s an adventure to be had that’s slightly beyond that, I’ll go if the odds of encountering others is slim to none. So far, I’ve breeched my 10-mile containment zone once, a paddle trip that easily complied with social distancing standards.)

This past Wednesday, I set my sights on an adventure with one simple goal: avoid people. So I headed down NC 751 in Durham, a 3-mile stretch of two-lane bound on both sides by Duke Forest with 15 separate trailheads. Some provide access to trails that are maybe a quarter-mile long. Others open onto as much as 4 miles of trail. Surly one of the roadside pullouts would be empty, I thought. After passing a dozen that weren’t, I hit the jackpot: Gate 11.

Gate 11 leads to the largest run of connected trail in this stretch, including passage south to Cornwallis Road. But the big prize of Gate 11: Couch Mountain.

Ordinarily, a 1.6-mile trail that gains less than 150 vertical feet wouldn’t get my “thrill-of-victory-agony-of-defeat” juices flowing. Nor would the prospect of planting my flag on a 640-foot “peak.” But these aren’t ordinary times, and when I realized I had a chance to bag one of the highest peaks in Durham County (770-foot Red Mountain being the county’s apex), my juices began to flow. 

I won’t go into detail about my successful summit bid; you can catch the highlights in the attached 3 minute and 33 second video. It ain’t “Free Solo,” but it is an example of the kind of adventure to be had in your own backyard in these stay-in-place times. It’s also an example of how it’s good to find and appreciate our smaller, simpler escapes. 

What’s in your backyard?

On the topic of finding those adventures, here’s a quick primer from our just-released “Explore Your Neighborhood: A Guide to Discovering the World Immediately Around You.” First, fire up Google Maps. Then:

• Begin with a distance you’re comfortable traveling, both walking from your front door and within a short drive (my comfort zone, again, is 10 miles). To determine distances, call up Google Maps, then, in the menu bar, click on “Your Places.” Click on “Maps,” then “Create Map.” You’ll get a map of the U.S.: keep double clicking on “North Carolina” until you get down to your neighborhood. Then use the distance tool — ruler icon — to determine crow-fly distances from where you live. 
• Look for splotches of green. They may be golf courses or cemeteries, or they may be parks. Keep in mind that while some parks are closed, many have closed only rec centers, restrooms, playgrounds and other physical facilities;:their trails and open fields may still be open. 
• Look for green dashed lines. Green dashed lines indicate a natural surface hiking trail.
• Look for solid green lines. These often indicate a paved walking trail.
• Look for green pins with trees in them. Some parks are marked with these.
• Look for streams and creeks. Greenways and trails sometimes parallel waterways. Even if there aren’t actual trails, you may find fishing paths or game trails that offer access. Even if these paths don’t go far, they make for a nice diversion into the natural world.

With a little scouting and the right attitude, you can find an adventure you didn’t know was within reach. 

Get out this weekend and bag your own Couch Mountain.

* * *

Resources

• 

  “Explore Your Neighborhood: A Guide to Discovering the World Immediately Around You,” is our just-published guide to doing just that. It’s compact, just 54 pages because you want to spend less time reading about exploring, more time doing so. It starts with how to scout your neighborhood, then suggests how you can plot your own adventures. Available in ebook and paperback.

• Exploring Duke Forest. Duke Forest consists of more than 7,000 acres in six divisions (and one natural area) in Durham, Orange and Alamance counties. Finding access can be a challenge, and unfortunately, sales of the map packet have been suspended due to COVID-19. However, you can check the overview map of the forest on its website, then cross reference it with Google Maps, where you’ll find most of the trailheads.

The post GetOut! And find your backyard adventure appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

We like to ward off the beginning of the work-week blues with a thought about life on the outside.

Today, I get to open an early Christmas present, a present that’s been sitting under the tree for three months.

Duke Forest.

In September, I relocated my office to Durham, to a location based in part on its nearness to our new home in Hillsborough, in part based on the reasonable lease. A third perk surfaced within a few days when I realized I was within a five-minute drive of Hollow Rock Nature Park, Sandy Creek Park, and Duke’s Al Buehler Cross-Country Trail, perfect lunchtime escapes. It was a few more days before I realized I was also within five minutes of at least a half dozen access points to Duke Forest, off NC 751 and Cornwallis Road. On my first visit, to Gate 11, I was met by an asterisk:

Closed to the Public 

Monday through Friday 

Sep 26 — Dec 16, 2016

For the Deer Herd

Reduction Program

Rats.

Now in its ninth season, Duke’s “Deer Management Program” was launched to thin the forest’s deer population and “to reduce the negative impacts of overabundant deer on the Forest.” Deer reduction opportunities are not available to the general public. Rather, hunting is conducted by two pre-selected groups. The program applies to three of Duke Forest’s six divisions: Durham, Korstian and Blackwood: the Durham Division is the one in my backyard.

Every evening since September, I’ve driven home past 15 access points off NC 751. From the road, each access looks pretty much the same: a gate consisting of linked iron bars painted white strung between green posts. Beyond, a gravel road disappears shortly, sometimes around a bend, sometimes over a rise. This peek from the road offers little clue to what lies beyond.

The maps for each division, available as a package from Duke for $8, provide minimal additional insight, mostly in the form of topo lines suggesting, for the most part, moderately rolling terrain. The maps also show that the main recreational access — both hiking and cycling are permitted — is via gravel roads, the primary purpose of which is to provide educators and students access to this teaching forest. As such, the utilitarian roads are typically point-to-point; there are no loops (unless you count hiking back to your car on NC 751 as completing a loop).

It’s this point, though, that makes Duke Forest so appealing. The forest is managed; rustic signs posted periodically tell the tale of these woods over the past 80 or 90 years. For instance:

Loblolly Pine

Planted 1931

Erosion Control, 1932

Thinned 1949, 53, 58

Clearcut 1988

Pine Release 1990

Pre-Commercial Thinning 1995

& 1996

How often are you privy to the story of the land you explore?

The utilitarian nature of these trails — their intent to get you from here to there — has a primitive appeal. Most of the trails we hike today were designed for our recreational enjoyment. They seek summits and panoramas, they aspire to water and falls, they employ switchbacks to ease our effort. When the trails at Duke Forest do so, they do so incidentally. These paths give you a better sense of what role trails played before we needed them for escape.

Two weeks ago, I could take the suspense no longer. On a Sunday, when it was legal to explore, I pulled over at Gate 11 off 751 for a peek under the wrapping paper. With map in hand — a good idea for any hike, especially good at Duke Forest, since most roads aren’t marked — I headed up a moderate gravel incline toward Couch Mtn. (640 ft). I walked through mostly young hardwood and pine forest, past one spur to the left, past a second. Where the trail forked, the map told me to go left. Within a couple minutes, I was atop Couch Mountain and a cul de sac turnaround. I surveyed the gently rounded peak for signs of why the path ended here — an old homestead? a forest monitoring device? —  but was stumped.

It was getting dark, time to head back. But it had only taken me 15 minutes to reach Couch Mountain, making me realize I could return some day soon over lunch and look for more clues.

Maybe even today.

***

For more information on Duke Forest, go here.

The post A present opened early appeared first on GetGoing NC!.