All month long Earth Fare will pay the TPA five cents per shopping bag carried in to the store.  So, hurry on over with your bag and stock up on healthy stuff.  Earth Fare is a wonderful place to buy good, buy smart, and buy that which is healthy both for your and the Earth.  Earth Fare sells local products whenever possible.  For example, they carry NC wines and beers, and local cheeses.  So, please, make a point of shopping at this wonderful store, particularly this month, and help the TPA by buying smart.  The bag program is just part of this month's fundraising at Earth Fare; they're hosting a party for us as well.

On the last Friday in February, Friday, Feb. 27 from 6:30 to 8:30 The Duck-Rabbit Brewery and Earth Fare will host a beer tasting, and the proceeds will go to the support of the Trading Path Association.   The beer tasting will be at Earth Fare's Brier Creek location in the Briardale Shopping Center. Featuring live music, the full Duck Rabbit artisan beer collection and snacks, this tasting will offer attendees the opportunity to explore this amazing collection and a TPA representative will be on hand to tell you something about how taverns influenced travel and development in colonial piedmont North Carolina.  Tickets are $10 per person, which includes a souvenir Duck Rabbit pint glass. All proceeds will benefit the Trading Path Association. 

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First Ever Tri-County Heritage Bike Tour needs volunteers 

Tentatively scheduled for the last weekend in March, if you can, please, lend a hand at the TPA's first ever bike tour.  We are planning a 45 mile bike ride through Durham, Person, and Orange Counties.  We need volunteers to assist at the departure, at the three water break stations along the way, and to check riders in at the end of the day.  We have yet to set a limit on riders and we haven't even set the price for this event, but we know for sure we'll need all the help we can get to make this event work.  Volunteers may sign up by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .  Mention "bike ride" in the subject line.  Bicyclists may find the tentative routing (map to the right here) interesting.  Every number on this route map references a section of crib sheet to be provided to riders telling them what it is they're riding past, pointing out obscure, seldom seen places, and other amusements.  Departing Elodie Farm, a goat cheesery, the route  passes east or Rougemont in Durham County and climbs Mount Tirzah in Person County.  Passing through Timberlake, the route then takes the rider to Hurdle Mill.  At Hurdle Mill it turns south, passes through Orange County and enters northern Durham County.  The course leads to the Little River, over through Bahama, across the Flat River and back to Elodie Farms.  There will be rest stops on Mount Tirzah, at Hurdle Mill, and near Johnson Mill on the Little River in Durham.  A pre-ride took about four hours, and the rider thought the scenery well worth the time.  It is one of our favorite areas in the southeast.  In the course of this ride the riders will be on at least three different ancient routes, will see wagon roads, a Native American quarry, and at least one packhorse trail.  We'll do everything possible to make volunteering painless and rewarding.  We will peg the cost and offer a firm date on the TPA website events listing within the week.

Attempting to better understand stream use in colonial times, the TPA has for the past two weeks stumbled around on the banks of Stroud Creek in Orange County, NC.  We selected Stroud Creek because it is clearly a secondary stream located in proximity to a colonial town for which we have good land grant records.  Stroud Ck wraps around the east and north sides of Hillsborough.  It is only five miles long with but two or three significant influences.  The original grant holders in this basin were, according to David Southern, Quakers.  The basin itself reaches out to the course of the Trading Path that originally passed north of Hillsborough and alongside of which sat Eno Meeting, the first Quaker Meeting in the area.  We will eventually inventory another stream with similar hydraulic characteristics but not so close to an urban center.  Thus far we've learned two things; there were far more mill seats than appear in any public records, and silt patterns, where undisturbed are good indicators of the location of mill seats.

Do not go to the property indicated on the map (above)as almost all of it is private and you may enter only with owner permission.  The appropriate way to gain that permission is to identify the owner through public records and then write or call them and ask for specific permission to trespass.

If you find the project interesting, volunteer to assist in the field.  Send us a note at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or call  919-644-0600

March First Sunday Hike

We will study the area of Cox's Mill a Revolutionary War site in Randolph Count for our March First Sunday Hike, on Sunday March 1st.  Colonel David Fanning is said to have had his Tory militia headquarters in this area.  Our meeting will be at Bill Johnson's farm at 2580 Highway 22 South, south of Ramseur on the east side of Deep River.  As usual we will depart the trailhead at 2 PM and be back to the cars by 4 PM.  Mr. Johnson's fields were covered by armies several times during the course of the Revolution.  Both sides camped forces here probably because there was good water and two or three grist mills within easy reach.  We'll visit one of these mill sites, a point that has hosted a succession of bridges over the Deep.  The route planned is not long and not particularly rough but neither is it easy.  There are some steep slopes and the trail is utterly unimproved.  Sturdy shoes, a walking stick, and patience will be required.  Provided all of the above, this will be a most rewarding hike as the mill seat is highly evolved as are the stream crossings.  Lots to see.  If we have the weather granted for the pre-hike, it will be a marvelous day.

The map to the left shows the meeting site relative to Ramseur.  Click on the map for an enlargement.

Suggest A Hike

If you have an idea about a place to hike or an interesting spot you'd like us to visit, let us know.  We are more or less on hiatus in July and August, and we may resume First Sunday Hikes in September.  Meanwhile if you have a place we can hike without bugs and other varmints bothering us, please  let us know about it.

 
trm