A Walk Through the Woods

[fivecats]

A Walk Though the Woods #1
December 2005 Chapel Hill, NC
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Leaving work for my afternoon walk the other day I had thought to head in one direction but my eye was caught by a trail that led into the woods across the street.  On a whim I decided to follow it and see where it led.

So, in the fine tradition of androkles who used to take us along on his urban walks until he and Bill moved to their little corner of paradise, feel free to come along by .




A Walk Though the Woods #2
December 2005 Chapel Hill, NC
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The path actually diverged at one point, with a sign posted in the middle of the pathway leading to the left that indicated that it was the offical Footpath. Being me, I decided to take the road more washed out and, therefore, less traveled, to see where it led to.  At the bottom of the hill, there was a small bridge that I guess might be needed during a seriously rainy time.  That day, however, it simply gave me an excuse to take another picture.




A Walk Though the Woods #3
December 2005 Chapel Hill, NC
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Just on the other side there was a small rock sculpture.  It was quite nice to find something so unexpected and almost whimsical.  Someone put some thought and energy into collecting these rocks and arranging them into this structure.




A Walk Though the Woods #4
December 2005 Chapel Hill, NC
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Taking a right onto the actual footpath and up a short way was another rock sculpture. This was was set just in front of the underside of a fallen tree with the roots still clinging needlessly to the red North Carolina clay it had spent decades trying to gain nourishment from.




A Walk Though the Woods #6
December 2005 Chapel Hill, NC
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The Footpath was remarkably well maintained, given that it's the end of Autumn and very few people seemed to be using it (I didn't see anyone on the path my entire time on it).  The University has laid down treated wooden planks to keep any soil errosion from taking out the uphill climb of the path, at least too quickly.





A Walk Though the Woods #7
December 2005 Chapel Hill, NC
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A short way up the hill past the wooden planks the trail headed straight for a distance and then curved to the right.




A Walk Though the Woods #8
December 2005 Chapel Hill, NC
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Where there was yet another bench awaiting a weary hiker.  For me, though, I knew my time was running short so I continued on until I found some campus landmarks I recognized and headed back to my office.

Thanks for coming along.

(This image isn't displaying properly in my Semagic preview window.  If it's missing for you, it can be found here)

(Many of these images seem disturbingly out of focus, or perhaps just overly "soft" focused.  I have no idea why.  My apologies to those with sensitive eyes who, like me, found them a bit hard to look at)



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Comments

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

It's a lovely tour - thanks T (and no, the last didn't show for me, either). More of these, please, and yes, I miss those little tours from androkles.

As for the softness, are you sure it's not camera shake?

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's possible that there's some camera shake going on there. I'll have to watch my shutter speed more closely.

I'm also wondering if flickr doesn't have some sort of limit on how many images you can link to from them on a single web page. That might explain why the last image didn't show up.

I'll see about doing more of this sort of thing in the coming weeks.

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[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I can fool flickr this way:



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[nursemae.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous! Shots like that remind me how glad I am that there are oodles of trails like this all over the area here. There's never the excuse of "what to do?" because you can always explore a new path (or 3).

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

After spending 6+ years not taking lunches and another year and a half of having only housing complexes to walk through, the campus here makes for a wonderfully inviting reason to go exploring. I'm liking the idea that I can walk out the door and not know where I'm going to go for the next 30 minutes.

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[zombiefodder.livejournal.com]

Nice pics. Thanks for taking us along on your walk.

The University has laid down treated wooden planks to keep any soil erosion from taking out the uphill climb of the path, at least too quickly.
The kids and I like to think of these as things designed to kill disrupt unwary bikers who ride on trails where they should not. (I can't tell you how many bikers we have met while walking on trails posted with "no bikes" signs.)

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Wow. Hadn't thought about that. Given the University setting, I can imagine that might be the case around here, too.

They need to put in wide sections of large, rough rocks every now and then along the path. That'll take care of any bike tires. (Or "tyres" for those across the pond)

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[myrhiann.livejournal.com]

Thanks for taking me with you on your walk. I enjoyed it. I miss Androkles walks, although I'm happy he feels so rapturously happy in rural Queensland.

I thought the 'softness' might be the result of the changing light in late autumn/early winter.

While we are talking photography you might like to visit PassionForPixels.com

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I don't think any of us, especially Ian or Bill, would trade their newfound paradise in for an urban setting, no matter how interesting the architecture or colorful the neighborhood.

Changing light might be one reason for the "softness". new_brunette thought it might be camera shake, which may be the case as well. Despite it being in the early-to-mid afternoon I do recall the light not registering well in my camera.

Thanks for the recommendation for PassionForPixels. I'll check it out later today.

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[flipe.livejournal.com]

lovely... peacefull walk.
i enjoyed it :)

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Many thanks.

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[flipe.livejournal.com]

im the one who's thankfull.

[ruralrob.livejournal.com]

I love this kind of post. Thanks for indulging us.

I didnt get out much today. Now I think I've been somewhere . .

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Much of what I photographed was the uphill climb. It gave me a great excuse to stop and catch my breath a bit along the way. :-)

The campus has a lot of picturesque sites and paths. I'll shoot some more and post them in the coming weeks.

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[keirf.livejournal.com]

Very red and brown.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Late Autumn in North Carolina.

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[velvetslide.livejournal.com]

Very restful. Thanks. The scuptures are kind of zen. Nice. {last photo didn't show either}. That's such a large park near your work, it seems miles from anywhere.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

That's one of the nicest things about this area. Chapel Hill is a fairly large town, but they've made a concerted effort to keep a lot of the land fairly rural and wooded.

It probably helps that we're tucked away in the upper right-hand corner of the campus, with the woods right across the street from our building.

I'm planning on adding to the rock sculptures once the weather warms up some. :-)

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[drood.livejournal.com]

That's lovely. Of course, at the moment I'd think anyplace lovely that wasn't covered with snow.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Personally, I miss snow. North Carolina just gets cold and damp, especially around Christmas. I don't mind the cold, provided there's something to show for it.

I think I've had too much Hallmark instilled in me. Christmas without snow is just lacking something.

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[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I'll have more walks soon!

And what ever happened to the statues you promised? :-)

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