Section III Hike
After a break to take a couple of layers off, the group enter the woods on a cart path that soon turns into a footpath. The silence of the woods, a mixture of beech, cedar, maple and oak is broken by the spring antics of chipmunks chancing each other through the dry leaf. The sounds of a woodpecker jack hammering a tree and running water soon add to the hiking experience. The trail rises and just after it turns west, a faded white picket fence stands out in the forest. Here we find the Kenyon Family Cemetery. Paying our respects we check out the headstones, some dating back to the 1700’s. One, a small child Lizzy passed away at the age of two and the last person we found laid to rest here was in 1908. Passing by several stonewalls the trail brings us to the stone foundation of the farm house. This small house featured a set of granite steps going down into the foundation on the south/west corner and the remains of its fireplace in the north/west corner. Emerging onto Pine Hill Road we head west passing the Carolina Management Area check in station. Crossing the crystal clear water of Meadow Brook, the trail returns to a white pine forest. At a fork in the cart path we leave the North South Trail and hike down to a small cascading brook for lunch. Following the foot of Kenyon Hill, the trail passes several large rock-out-crops and a wetland area; sometimes we have to cross swollen brooks from the spring run off. At the edge of the Carolina Management property we find a strange object. Here left in the woods many years ago is a road grader. This rusting yellow hulk sits in the forest now silent, its tires sunk into the ground, a testimony to man. The trail starts to open up and eventual turns into a muddy dirt road. Soon we pass old farms, a well with a hand pump and a dog barking from the hill top. After hiking along a lane in the pines the trail passes a small stable with several horses playing in the warm spring sun. We return to civilization first walking through a 1960’s era plat and later the Meadow Brook Golf Club. With a 10 minute walk along Route 138 we talk about our trek and the one to come as the cars wiz by on a beautiful spring day. Live the Experience!
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With great expectations our group head out
for the third section of the North South Trail. Arriving
at the Meadow Brook Pond parking area we jokingly make
comments about the ice fisherman we saw last week. There
was one little island of floating ice out there and a
section ladder could have reached it. Hiking along a pine
needle covered lane, Meadow Brook Pond could be seen
through the white pine. Shortly the trail emerges from
the forest into a cut corn field and follows the tree
line to the east. We are greeted by a Springer spaniel
with a cow bell on. Soon his human family comes out of
the woods and greets us. During the walk through the corn
I talk about Native Americans using a method of planting
called the three sisters. At a large pile of debris I
mention the North South Trail guide book needed updating.
In the book it mentions the trail turns at a red barn in
disrepair. I think the barn is beyond disrepair. Nailed
to one of the beams protruding from the rubble is a North
South Trail sign.