Duke Forest Surprises

Duke Forest attracts 170,000 visitors every year to its 7,050 acres in Durham, Alamance and Orange counties. But most people hike, bike, fish and picnic in just a few locations, particularly the Al Buehler Cross-Country Trail and the New Hope Creek area. Although those are beautiful spots, there also are less well-known places to enjoy Duke Forest. Fifty gates open into the forest, and about 45 of them allow access to the public, says Judd Edeburn, Duke Forest resource manager.

 

Here are two trails that offer education, beauty and solitude. For more information and maps to Duke Forest, click here. 

 

 

SHEPHERD NATURE TRAIL

 

It's easily accessible and designed for visitors, but most people who encounter the 0.8-mile-long Shepherd Nature Trail are nearby neighbors passing through on their morning or evening run, Edeburn says.

 

This trail is one place for the casual visitor to learn more about the history of the forest, and to examine both the natural and man-made impacts on the environment.

 

After entering at Gate C near N.C. 751 and Constitution Drive, you wind down and around a small creek, where 21 signs offer information about what's there.

 

"The purpose is to provide an opportunity for folks in a natural setting — in a very beautiful setting — to learn a little about the ecology and history of the land," Edeburn says.

 

The trail was first developed as an Eagle Scout project in 1994, but Hurricane Fran in 1996 wiped out much of the scouts' work, Edeburn says. Later, other volunteers and students installed the signs and created a brochure for visitors. There are plans in the next few months to replace and update the current signs and to put labels on trees to help visitors identify about 30 species of trees.

 

Near the end as the trail loops back to the gate is the Bobby Ross Jr. picnic shelter, which was donated by Duke employee Susan Ross and named after her late husband. The shelter -- as well as one at Gate F -- can be rented for the day.

 

Along the trail, some of the stations point out natural changes to the landscape over the years. In one spot, there are the remnants of trees knocked down by both Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and Hurricane Fran. Some areas cleared by Fran nearly 10 years ago now have a dense thicket of sweet gum, poplar and red maple instead of the tall, mature trees that once stood there, Edeburn says.

 

Other changes are man-made, such as soil that still shows the ridges and furrows created for tobacco farming more than a century ago. There's also a spring that was improved with a low rock wall dating to the 19th century, and may have been dug out by the Shepherd family, from whom Duke bought the property.

 

"The rock walls are part of the legacy that can be studied," Edeburn says. "There are becoming fewer and fewer relics of the past."

 

 

PINEY MOUNTAIN TRAIL  

 

Although it might be a bit of a stretch to call it a mountain, the knob on the Piney Mountain Trail is one of the highest spots in Duke Forest.

 

"In the winter you can see out across the Triassic Basin, and even to Chapel Hill," Edeburn says. (The Triassic Basin is a rift valley formed 220 million years ago when the supercontinent Pangea tore apart and the Atlantic Ocean was born.)

 

Piney Mountain Trail begins at Gate 21 on Mount Sinai Road, directly across from the Mount Sinai Baptist Church. Walk in about a half-mile, and you'll reach the top of a 450-foot hill. When the leaves are gone, this spot offers quite a view. Straight downhill from there is New Hope Creek. (If you've ever gone into Duke Forest from Whitfield Road and hiked down past Slick Hill, you've been on the other side of the creek at this spot.)

 

Edeburn asks that hikers resist the urge to head straight down the hill to the creek -- walkers striking off on their own create a lot of problems in the forest. Although visitors have been welcome since it was first purchased by Duke in 1931, the university uses the forest primarily as a research site. Students visit the forest about 15,000 times each year, and there are many research plots within it. When people start tromping through them, it can damage those sites, Edeburn says.

 

Erosion is another problem caused by impromptu trails, especially those that go downhill. So, if you head down to the creek from Piney Mountain, be sure to use one of the trails that go off to either side and loop back around to the top, Edeburn says.

 

"Keeping the public use confined to designated areas is important, especially with the increasing use for recreation," he says.