March First Sunday Hike to be on Mary's Creek

It was a wonderful day to play in the woods and about 35 members and friends showed up to do so.  We used every minute of the two hours to ogle terrain and structures and history. There was a muddy spot on the road and a ford over Mary's Creek, so the hike qualified as "an adventure".  All made it back to the cars just fine, thank you, and that made it "a good adventure."  We are deeply obliged to Dr. Mike Holland and his family and neighbors for allowing us on their land and to Mike in particular for being our native guide.  To the left is a picture of some of the group at the meeting house site.

This hike was wonderful and it reinforced the primacy of the mill in premodern, rural America.  We, in fact, visited a school and two mill seats (Gutherie and a mill on Stafford land on the 1893 Spoon Map shown to the left) on our First Sunday hike.  The school, which probably doubled as a community meeting house, sat alongside the old roadbed leading to the mill. 

At the mill we saw the dam, wheel well and tail race.  Fortunately Mark Chilton was along to explain what we were seeing.  Besides the mill, fifty yards or so downstream from the dam there was evidence of at least two bridges and a ford; this was not an unimportant place judging by the public investment in infrastructure.  To the right is a photo of the Stafford site dam with a good view of its silt drain.

 Downstream about a quarter mile away sat Guthrie's Mill.  It was in use into the 20th century and the modern culverts over the creek are not more than forty years old.  The old race, dam, wheel well all served to tell a bit of the history of the place.  A free stacked stone dam, like the one upstream, with its pond mostly silted up, served a single wheel.  The ford below the mill was remarkably well preserved thanks to the fairly recent installation of the culverted stream crossing.

Visit the TPA Facebook Fan page to see two albums of photos from the hike.  Tag the hikers you know, and comment if something particularly piques your interest or recall.

Consider Donation at Hike

The economic situation has dried up the TPA's primary revenue streams, local government contracts and artifact inventories for large land owners/developers.  So to help cover the expenses entailed in finding our hike sites and arranging permissions and so forth, we ask our hikers to consider donating the value of a movie theater ticket for each adult in attendance.  Two hours of playing in the woods with good folks addicted to cheap thrills and glorious engagement with nature has to be at least as valuable as sitting in a germ incubator with a herd of strangers.  We're planning to lay on more hikes (two a month or more) and during the summer we will joint venture with Frog Hollow Outdoors on a series of canoe tours (July, August and September). 

Come out and play and help the TPA find ways to amuse and amaze. 

Upcoming Hikes

Trading Path Calendar

We've activated a Google Calendar for the TPA.  We will endeavor to keep it up to date and not be too different from the event calendar on our web page.  Our first goal will be to keep you informed of upcoming events.  If you have other information you'd like to see on the calendar, let us know and we'll try to comply.


To initiate or renew your membership in the TPA, we now offer the following three options:

Option 1: You can renew using your credit card via the Triangle Communities Foundation at: www.trianglecf.org

Option 2: You can click the "Donate Now" button on the right side of the screen, and that will take you to PayPal, a secure transaction site.  You'll be asked a few questions to create an account so as to protect your sensitive information, and then you'll be able to donate using a credit card or other vehicle.

Option 3: The membership form can be downloaded from the website and sent in to the address below with your payment.
 
Thanks for your continued support!

So, you want to suggest a First Sunday Hike.....

Please, if you want to suggest a First Sunday Hike, there are a few points to bear in mind that will make preparing the hike a lot easier.  For example:

1. We need to know the names and contact information for all property owners that will be affected,
2. The site needs sufficient parking for a dozen or more cars,
3. The hike needs artifact content, historic merit, something to trigger the hikers' imaginations; we need a description of the site,
4. There needs to be a passable route suitable for hikers of all ages,
5. The route should be less than two miles long, depending on artifact content.  That is, the more there is to see, the shorter should be the hike.
6. The trail head needs to be accessible without heroic driving.

trm