The path ducked past the splash of the spray park, crossed Panhandle Road, and spilled onto the park’s main artery. A quick hop across carried us to the Mossy Creek Nature Trail, where a clear tributary tumbled over velvet-green rocks.
From there, Warrior’s Path Nature Trail guided us down to the boat-ramp lot.
Mossy Creek surrendered to the Old Plantation Trail beside a lone brick chimney—the last sentinel of the Occoneechee Plantation.
The loop circled the vanished estate passing an old cemetery.
Only terraced gardens remain, stepping down the hillside like green staircases, each level littered with knobby Osage oranges glowing chartreuse against the leaves.
We closed the circle on the Big Oak Nature Trail and rolled back to the car, stomachs growling.
A short drive into town yielded hot coffee and biscuits, then we returned to the Panhandle Trailhead for the park’s grand finale. Seven miles long, the Panhandle Trail shadows the paved road to the equestrian campground, then slips behind a gate onto a forgotten lane that ribbons down a narrow peninsula.
Open meadows flashed by, but mostly we walked beneath a tunnel of hickory and oak, the fallen leaves a rust-red carpet underfoot. No grand overlook waited at the tip - only a quiet cove.
We picked our way down the bank, boots sliding on pine needles, until Buggs Island Lake opened wide and blue before us. A heron lifted off the water, slow wings beating the morning still. We turned, seven miles back the way we came, legs warm, the peninsula now ours alone.
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