One last place before I move on to Texas. For a quick hike early before work or late after getting off, I loved my hometown hiking venue, Clemmons State Forest. It was hilly, the trails were good ,about 5 miles worth, I knew it like the back of my hand and it was close only ten minutes from home if you hit all three traffic lights red.
Clemmons was an educational state forest and home of the talking trees! Along the kids trail were stations where you pushed a button and the trees would talk about themselves. Pretty neat for kids.
But I liked the forest Demo trail and the watershed trail. These were where you could clock some miles.
Now I mentioned it was hilly. The elevation difference wasn’t much. Using an altimeter on my phone the lowest point in the creek bed was about 150Feet. The highest point was about 350. Along the Demo Trail was a climb of 100 feet in less then a quarter mile, so although not large hills they were steep!
Two hours to do three miles. I did the Watershed Loop many times in just under an hour. See the thing about Clemmons is that it was a day use area. Guess this sign was a reminder that the staff wanted to go home at 5PM when the park closed. Along the watershed trail there was a small waterfall. The trail didn’t go to it but passed nearby. If you knew where to bushwhack to it, it was worth it. Only about twenty five yards or so off the trail. I never understood why they didn’t cut the trail so it would pass by the waterfall so everyone could enjoy it.
The watershed Loop had two water crossings. The first was this log the second was a couple of rocks. They built a bridge at one time but the floodwaters from Hurricane Matthew washed it aside. It didn’t destroy it just washed it to the bank. It was a small bridge so Nate and I had planned to go and figure out how to move it back but we never got to it. I used to hike through about once every two weeks or so and clean the deadfall from the trails. It was my park and I wanted it right!
Another feature at Clemmons was the oldest tree in the park. This huge loblolly pine was planted in 1892. Before Clemmons was a State Forest it was a pine tree farm. Many places the trees were still pretty much in rows.
Also at Clemmons was a pretty unique “Y” bridge.
Near the bridge was a spring that flowed from the rock.
Ah Clemmons I loved that little park.
Sorry about the blurry pics. I took some with my old phone and it wasn’t a good camera.
Old Man Wandering 