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Carl Alwin Schenck Memorial Forest
Growing up I hiked wilderness foot trails in Tennessee, and having lived in Raleigh, North Carolina since college, I find that most nearby parks have overly managed trails. By overly managed, I mean they are wide enough to allow park vehicle access, there may be a foot trail but it parallels a road for three-quarters the distance to the destination view, or there are so many people that you constantly hear, “On the right!” Schenck Forest is no wilderness, it is a teaching and research forest managed by NC State, but the forest floor down near the creek was teeming with native vegetation that I only imagine gets trampled by…
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Lake Raleigh
It was a strange collision of events this weekend – the start of Spring Break, full moon, Easter, and April Fools Day. After a long, cold winter, we were eager to enjoy the warm air. Late Sunday afternoon we set out to explore the woods near Lake Raleigh on Centennial Campus. Joe and I first ended up near the paved greenway trail after following bad directions, but we eventually navigated to Centennial Magnet Middle School. Only a few paces into the woods, we came to a foot trail. Back in 2004 or 2005, I took a wetlands course with Dr. Jim Gregory, and on one of the field trips we…
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Milburnie Dam Demolition Part 2
Saturday morning, we opted to skip the Christmas parade, and Joe and the kids played video games instead. By 10:30 am, I was chomping at the bit to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather. Joe had not yet seen the Milburnie Dam demolition, so we went out for a hike. I love being in the woods with Joe, because he always finds new things to explore. We went around the dam to the side I had not yet ventured to and came on a cypress grove full of cypress knees, frogs and lizards. Don’t let the pictures fool you — Joe and I enjoyed the nature hike far more…
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Milburnie Dam Demolition Part 1
One of the joys of being a work-at-home mom is that when events show up in my news feed, I can drop everything and go on an adventure. This happened with the cathedral dome rising back in March of 2016. I showed up with a small crowd of onlookers and got to witness the placement of a copper dome that would outlive generations to come. Yesterday I saw a post about the demolition of the historic Milburnie Dam on the Neuse River. A fellow onlooker told me that as the workers dug down into the backfill of the dam, there were large stones from an old mill that was burned…
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Neighborhood Watch
There have been many break-ins in our neighborhood over the past few months in broad daylight, and according to the police, it’s a group of kids. Both of my across-the-street neighbors have been targeted, as well as an elderly couple’s house behind ours. I took the neighbor behind us a rotisserie chicken the day she had to go to the bank and change all her accounts. She asked if I still had chickens in my backyard, which cracked us both up. There’s nothing like home invasion to bring neighbors together. On the walk to pick up the kids, I come up on a group of three boys, two walking side…
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Sunday Stroll at Lake Johnson
Shortly after we unloaded the car from church, I demanded everyone pack up a snack because we were going on a hike. Joe picked the place, Lake Johnson, which was strategically half way to his favorite pizza place, Michelangelo’s in Apex. Lake Johnson was a spot we discovered in college. We once drove there with my Camry packed to the brim with friends to watch the meteor showers. We also used to take Scoops there when he was a toddler to see the geese and ducks. Today we went to explore. After such a great weekend at Stone Mountain, my expectations weren’t high, but we each discovered something wonderful —…