I remember vividly the picture of Singletary Lake in Our State magazine from 2019, I believe. For some reason, I thought the picture was on the cover but maybe not? Wherever it was, it sat lying flat on my coffee table for about a week, haunting me. It still does, with the magazine long gone.
Earlier this year, on a cold, cold, windy
January day, we made the trip to Bladen County towards the Eastern part of
North Carolina to visit it. It was windy and so cold my face was stuck in one
expression. The sun was trying hard to peer through the overcast sky but although
its light was there we hardly felt its heat.
We drove down to the Singletary Lake State
Park on an almost empty highway, on a Sunday. Everyone must have been indoors, around
the fire – they cannot very well be at church during a pandemic, I reckon. But
a fire is what one needed that day.
Research tells you that Singletary Lake is
part of a huge chain of what they call bay lakes which were formed simply by
precipitation water accumulating in the crevices of the earth. They’re usually
round or oval shaped, Singletary Lake being oval. Some of these lakes have
dried out over time and were transformed into farmland. If you want to know
more, check out this article: https://www.ourstate.com/the-mystery-of-carolina-bays-north-carolina/.
Once at the park, we reviewed a few maps to
find a trail. It was easy to find one, because there were not many. There were
two of them, connected to one another, making sort of an eight-shaped course –
Singletary Loop trail. The trail is flat and super easy, in addition to being
very short (maybe a mile all in all).
You walk through a number of terrains along
the lake and enormous pine trees and cypress trees are towering over your
steps, as if in a cathedral. The walk has a ceremonious, sanctified feel to it.
It’s quiet, except for the wind howling through the branches.
The terrains are anywhere from slippery clay to sand, moss, and regular soil. One minute you think you have a good, strong
foothold under you, the next minute you’re sinking in moss or sand and you’re
wondering if it’s supposed to feel that way or if you’re over a sand trap.
After walking a few yards, we realize the
trail is flooded ahead of us. It is just covered by water, like it’s not even a
trail anymore, but a river. We advance with caution and hope to find some
higher ground around the trail, which we do. We step on branches and leaves and
I am thinking: there is no way anyone can pay me enough money to walk this
trail in the summer! The thought of the number of snakes in the warm months
makes my skin crawl.
As you’re walking along the lake on its
benches, you feel like you’re under the sea level … or lake level, as it were …
The winds have turned the lake into a sea, with white-capped rushing waves, crashing
into its low shores. The wave foam is splashing us and wetting our shoes … At
one point, the trail is completely swallowed by water which turned into an
ad-hoc stream crossing right across it. There is no going around this one and
we had to turn around and go back, taking the opposite direction to see if we
can complete the loop.
There are two areas that this trail
crosses: one is slightly more remote from the lake (you can still see the lake from it, but
the waves are not going to wet your shoes), and one is right on the lake (the
longer trek). When we walk right along the shores, we see the cypress trees
leaf-less, clad in Spanish moss, swishing in the wind, hundreds of small black
birds, or starlings dressing them up like tree ornaments. They are strong and
tall, their thick trunks springing right from the water, alone, unattached to
the land we’re watching them from. It’s the image that’s been haunting me ever
since I saw the pictures.
I normally look at trees as growing
organically from the earth, like earth’s babies, their connection un-severed.
These trees have no connection to any earth, it seems, they are happy to make
it on their own floating on water … It's like the superfluous and everchanging realm of
water is what birthed them and not the steady, permanent one of the
earth. It defies logic and what we know about trees … You feel suspended
between this world and another one, one that is possible (you’re awake and
seeing it with your own eyes) but dubious. Although you’re clearly walking on
land, the medium that wins here is definitely the water … The lake, the
streaming flooded trails, the waves crashing at your feet, the trees surrounded
by nothing but water, as if they were floating away … There is an eerie peace
about it all, despite the loud wind and the crashing of the waves. The silence
is primordial, and so is the rustling …
For some reason I thought these places are
accessible only by boat. But you can walk right around them and no amount of beauty or awe is diminished. The lure of the
complete silence, the wind, the beauty and magic of floating trees will be
beckoning me back still for many more years …
I’ll leave you with some shots of this
magical place …