Umstead Reopening

North Carolina State Parks, including William B. Umstead State Park, re-opened on May 9th.  Having been closed since late March, I think this was the longest I had gone without visiting Umstead in a decade!  So with the park opening, we got there right at 8 on the Crabtree Creek side of the park.  Hiking on Sycamore Trail, we saw some jack in the pulpit right at the start.

The trail switchbacks down to Pott's Branch and crosses on a footbridge.

Following Pott's Branch for a ways, the trail then crosses a gravel road and begins a gradual ascent through a beautiful forest.

When we came to the split, we went straight and then switchbacked down to Sycamore Creek.  There were some partridgeberry flowering along the trail.

At Graylyn Trail, I got on Company Mill while Sandy and Alex finished Sycamore Trail.  When I got down towards Crabtree Creek, there were some beautiful mountain laurel blooming.

I ran into Pat here and she indicated that Company Mill Trail had been rerouted during the shutdown.  After crossing the bridge over Crabtree Creek, the trail now turns right and gradually climbs the banks above the creek.

It meets back up with the old trail in about 0.3 miles.  I hiked almost to the other parking lot and did a quick loop around Inspiration Trail.

Then I started hiking back, finishing up the Sycamore Trail loop on the way back.  It was good to be back in Umstead!