The Trail That Has Everything: Chinqua-Penn Walking Trail

We have found so many trails around us lately - all I can do is be grateful we live in such a beautiful state and country. For nature lovers like us, there is really no boredom when it comes to where to go next - so many choices, and now, we finally have the time. 

We usually get a different landscape with every trail we try: it could be a paved, city trail, or a dirt road, or it could be a true nature trail, not maintained much, paved with nothing but underbrush, pine needles and dead leaves. We walk sometimes by lakes, sometimes streams, sometimes farms, sometimes pastures, sometimes just trees and bushes. 

But we finally found a trail that has it all: the Chinqua-Penn Walking Trail in Residsville, NC. About an hour North from our house, the trail has been maintained by NC State University in more recent times. The trail sits on the old grounds of the Chinqua Penn Plantation, so you'd find old fixture buildings from those days, alongside gorgeous, enormous, ages-old trees, a well-maintained farm, a couple of ponds, and a beautiful, tranquil stream running right through it, complete with a couple of waterfalls. Amongst those, the "Little Niagara" fall (with emphasis on "little"), flowing over a quarried rock wall. 

The trail is about 1.7 mile long, nestled in Rockingham County, in the middle of a sleepy community. If it were to describe it in one word, it would be quiet. Or better yet, peaceful. 

The day when we explored it, there were hardly any visitors on the trail, only two other cars in the parking lot besides ours. It feels like the world has not found it yet, which suits us just fine. 

This is the first trail we have found since we moved back to NC that promptly had us both say "let's go back to it tomorrow!". 

Here are some pictures that don't do it justice, but that might entice you to visit, if you live around these parts. 

The entrance to the trail reminds you why you're here. The stained glass "quilt" pretty much summarizes what you're about to see (you can click any of the pictures to see a larger version): 

The trail is a mix of dirt road/ gravel and wooden boardwalks, and it's virtually all flat. The boards come in handy over the marshy areas: 

Some of the old fixture buildings on the property were like hidden gems, just popping around all over the place: 

The stew site (a place where they gathered for the fall Brunswick stew parties): 

A locally harvested rock bridge that dammed a koi pond:

They used the same kind of rock for the pump house which sits on the stream:

A supporter of the Trail project paid to have this "observation" platform and stair walkway in front of the bridge. It dipped bellow the bridge, and it was framed by bamboo and a kudzu wilderness. It was like walking into The Emerald City: 

This shelter was built by a group of Boy Scouts, so, it is newer than the old Plantation, but it fit in with the rest of the place nicely. We were thinking we might need to use it, because a massive thunderstorm was threatening to approach as we were walking around: 

Part of the trail meandered alongside age-old, massive trees: oaks, and elms, and maples: 

A face in one of the trees besides the trail:

We saw a handful of creatures on our walk. The place is like a private reserve for bluebirds. They are everywhere. They fly, they perch, they chase each other, they are curious and gorgeous spots of blue peppered all over the meadows: 

There was surprisingly a penury of butterflies, but then again, the wildflowers are not in full bloom yet. We did see a couple, and a couple of dragon flies and other winged friends, too: 

A sparrow was friendly and chatty:

This is one of the ponds, the more "wild" one, tucked between trees and a meadow:

The koi pond looked mostly man-made, as it was barred by the dammed bridge. It actually did have koi in it:

... and turtles:

The stream was snaking around the heart of the forest and among bamboo groves, making these pretty waterfalls now and then. The moss carpet was soft and fresh, embracing exposed roots like soft, silky gloves. It almost didn't look real:

The blackberries were almost ready:

Some squirrels were hopping about, eating acorn: 

These arrows should really read "Farm to the right", "Wild nature and forest to the left". The estate is beautifully shared by a wild nature preserve (really) and a farm. They are both equally nicely maintained and gorgeous. You can kind of see the approaching thunderstorm: 

Farmland as far as the eye can see. And much quiet, and lazy: 

This picnic spot towers over the koi pond and the bridge. The picnic table and chairs are made from the same beautiful rock as all the other fixtures. 

Click the picture to see the whole album, and if you can, make this your next outing. Hope you agree with me that you would have found a new (to you) NC gem: 

The Peace of White Lilies

On the first weekend of summer, we drove down about an hour to the sleepy town of Southern Pines. We spent no time in the little Southern town, although we have heard good things about it and plan to go check it out at leisure one day (we figured there won’t be much open during this pandemic, anyhow), but we went there with one purpose in mind only: to have a 2-mile walk (and a picnic sandwich) around Reservoir Lake, the David R. White Greenway trail.

I won’t bore you with all the details of that walk – an easy, wide, dirt trail around Reservoir Lake, not as populated as state park trails around the NC Triangle area – but I will share some of the pictures I took. There were not many creatures out that day, although the day was not hot, but crisp and fair, but the one thing that just left me speechless were the thousands of water lilies. I love water lilies and lotuses because they are such an oddity. They almost need no soil and they come from the dirtiest, nastiest, smelliest, marshful depths to only be one of the most delicate, fragile, and absolutely perfect creations that ever existed on this earth.

In these times of such unrest and turmoil, they were like a pathway to freedom and peace …

Enjoy …

We did the David R. White trail (green) - about 2.2'ish miles

The first peek at Reservoir Lake. It looked so peaceful. Not a sound, not a boat. Just pines, oaks, and water 

They don't call this area "Southern Pines" (next door to Pinehurst) for nothing. Huge Southern pines lined the lake and the trail

The trail was mostly shady, easy and flat. Wide enough that we could dodge other people and puppies without too much closeness

At one point, this opening revealed some creatures: ducks and turtles, and white water lilies beyond. More peaceful.

The ducks shared the log happily with the turtles. And this cute mallard had an awful itch he had to get to! 

More ducks were asleep in the shade of this beautiful branching tree.

About mid-way on the trail there was this tiny stream, flowing lazily into the lake. Just a trickle made a peaceful sound in this mostly quiet area. 

The trail is peppered with these peekaboo "windows" into the lake, where more waterlilies and ducks disturb the spotless surface.

Carpets and carpets of white and green water lilies everywhere, beautifully laced together in perfect harmony.

You don't have to be a Buddhist to believe in enlightenment. For Buddhists, enlightenment equals becoming a Buddha. As living creatures, we're all on a journey to seek enlightenment. 

Water lilies are a close cousin of the lotus flower. When I see them, it reminds me of the most ubiquitous mantra of Buddhism, "Om mani padme hum". 

There are many translations and interpretations on the web for it, so look it up and find your own. For me, the most eloquent one says this: "We have within us the seed of purity, the essence of a One Gone Thus (Tathagatagarbha) (sic), that is to be transformed and fully developed into Buddhahood." (quoted here: https://www.shambhala.com/snowlion_articles/om-mani-padme-hum-dalai-lama/)

Click the last picture to see the entire album.

The Patriotism of “Now”

Random Thoughts on Memorial Day

I grew up in a country that worshiped the past in a present that was corrupted, crooked, unfair, and hopeless. That was and still is called patriotism there. I developed an early, almost visceral dislike for those who worshiped that past while not doing one thing to better the present. One thing to ensure the past stays great through the present and to ensure they hand it even better to the future. I moved to a different country lured by promises of freedom and equality and fairness, and some days I think of my new home and tell myself: “Boy, not much has changed.”

Patriotism, to me, is not remembering those who died for the country once or twice a year, during long weekends between two burgers on the grill. Patriotism should be what we do every day, with all of our own actions to ensure the country moves forward. Patriotism is actively ensuring the future generations will have a better, more secure, brighter future than we did. Patriotism is truly believing to our core that people are equal, that they deserve freedom, unconditionally, and free of labels, and that it does not really matter where we’re from but it matters more what we do, every day. Our individual story and our intrinsic value of who we are, wherever we are and wherever we come from, matters infinitely more. How do we ensure we stay valuable for moving forward age-old ideals? Because, yes, we are the ones called upon that now.    

Sure, the past is great. Sure, those who died defending values such as independence, free knowledge, culture, freedom of speech, freedom of choosing, fighting bondage and unfairness should never be forgotten. But as great as all that was, that is and will forever stay in the past. What we do every day, with every action, with every thought, the way we carry ourselves into the world, the way we teach our children values that will move them forward and not get them stuck into a time earlier than even that of those who already died for these ideals – this is true patriotism and that should be celebrated when we realize, and only then, that everyone is doing it. Until then, we got work to do.

I fear a fake patriotism for all of us, especially today. Folks who today show up on social media to bow to those who made the ultimate sacrifice only to laugh at their next-door neighbor’s ask for freedom and safety for their own children, only to shrug at lending a hand of kindness and thoughtfulness to the less fortunate on account that “handouts are not what this country needs” – I fear these folks might be guilty of fake patriotism.

Sure, sacrifice is deserving of praise. But where is our sacrifice? Why do we think patriotism is a thing of the past? Why do we not think that whatever those people fought for stopped being important? And who do we think has the duty to ensure the future remains as they dreamed of it?

It’s easy (and cool) to worship the greatness of the past. It is mostly hard and uncomfortable to ensure what’s in front of us is not going awry. It’s hard and inconvenient to ensure that in our country (whatever you call it, because this is happening all over the globe) we still defend those ideals for the generations to come. The freedom, true freedom for everyone, not just those who fit snugly into our moral mold, and the defense of that, at all costs, seems to me more patriotic than flying the flag, or saying “we won’t forget.”

Maybe today is not the day. Maybe today should be a day of worship. But this is what today, just like July 4^th and Veterans Day - this is what days like these make me think about, every year. These days are a stark reminder to me that we should risk being a little more uncomfortable to try to do our share to right some wrongs. Our work is not done. It never will be. This is what I celebrate today: the hope that we will finally, as nation, understand that our work is not done and that we will ensure that our good ideals will continue to be fulfilled and guarded viciously for those who will, one day, look at us as the past. After all, this is the only way I know that those many people who died already will not think that did so in vain.