I love Umstead

[Gqgeek81]

Spent the morning yesterday in Umstead wandering around.

Every time I go I'm blow away by how nice the forest is out there.
The trees are surprisingly open and its easy to wander off trail for a few miles without running into anything but rolling hills and wildlife.

Its almost hard to find briars of any sort and the animal runs provide a few short cuts that make it even easier to lose yourself from civilization.

I discovered a fairly flat topped hill a good distance from any of the trails with water nearby. Could easily hang a small army of hammocks up there. Might have to go back for some stealth camping one day.

[Catavarie]

I enjoy getting out to Umstead to hike around for the day as well.

In fact my only problem is the amount of road and airport noise that can intrude into the forest. Perhaps I'm just really sensitive to it when I'm out in the woods though.

If you haven't been yet, I recommend Eno River for a great place to hike and get away from the sounds of the city as well.

[Hawk-eye]

I use to go there quite often when I was going to NCSU ... but late spring, summer ... that place was Tick central. I saved my trips there for fall, winter and early spring ...

I did hear the noise level is much higher because of the growth in the area ... a bit of a shame for sure.

[AKA Pete]

Glad to see you were able to have a nice day in the woods.

I was able to slip out of town late Thursday afternoon and took off to Uwharrie for two nights.

Got set up Thursday around 7:00PM just as the rain started. Few thunderstorms around with some lightning but nothing hit me except the rain. It stopped around 7:00AM Friday and I got packed up and hit the trail. Did some miles and went to Woodrun where I spent Friday night.

Packed out early Saturday and was home by noon.

Woodrun camp seemed like Time Square Friday afternoon. Mountain Bikers were crossing and recrossing the camp going from one mountain trail to the other and up and down the main train. All appeared to be having a great time.

(Note to self - need bigger tarp, used two 6 x 8's for full coverage and it looked like a spider web of lines around my hammock.)

[Gqgeek81]

I remember the bikers when I visited Uwharrie. I haven't been to Eno but I may check it out soon.

Just walked in the door from another 3 hours and 4 miles at Umstead. There are a few parts close to the roads but I don't might it much. Its fairly easy to head into the central southern portion and feel like you're a million miles from anywhere.

I found an interesting spot today that was the remains of something or another.
I had been walking through a low flat area beside a drainage and turned to go up one of the hills. Against the bottom of the hill was a little pond about as wide as my arms. At first I thought this was just a hole from a turned over tree but I didn't see the hump of dirt you usually see with those. I turned around and parallel with the hill was a 10 foot long trench about 12 feet in from of the hole. It looked to be centered in from of the hole and almost at each corner was a 1in thick steel rod going into the ground and sticking up a few feet with an inch or so of threads on the end.

I have no idea what the tench was but it made it pretty evident the hole in the ground was not natural. I'm thinking maybe a spring house, a root cellar or maybe just an out house though if it was as big as the tench it would be an awfully big out house.

Any ideas?

[Catavarie]

Sounds like it could have been a old wind mill site possibly. Without seeing it I can't be sure though.

Windmill up on the hill to power a water pump and the trench below could have been used for a cistern of some sort for the water to be pumped into.

[PackBacker81]

Umstead is a great get away... used to wander around out there myself when I was living in Raleigh. When I wanted to get out for a weekend I'd usually make the drive over to Uwharrie.

I use to go there quite often when I was going to NCSU ... but late spring, summer ... that place was Tick central. I saved my trips there for fall, winter and early spring ...

I did hear the noise level is much higher because of the growth in the area ... a bit of a shame for sure.

I knew I liked this guy for some reason. State folks are some of the best!