Lady's Slippers at Williamson Preserve

Saturday I headed to check out a new trail off the Neuse River.  I parked at the Mial Plantation Trailhead for Neuse River Trail and took that towards Johnston County.  After crossing the line, the trail became Claytons River Walk and I turned onto Bootleggers' Loop to enter Williamson Preserve.

The trail crossed a small creek on a footbridge and then came to some old barrels right off the trail, presumably from moonshine production.

There were some atamasco lilies blooming around here.

The trail soon came to a split and I went right to hike the loop portion.  After finishing up the trail, I went back in the preserve on Neuse River Connector and hiked the Salamander Loop.  In about a mile, I spotted a pink lady's slipper.

I've never seen one in the Piedmont, just a couple times in the mountains.  Continuing on, I spotted another patch a little further.

There were a lot of these beautiful orchids all along the northern half of Salamander.  I was really excited to see so many.

After finishing up the loop, I hiked back to Neuse River Trail to head back to the car.