The full moon made a brief showing as we ate outside at Darby’s Tavern for our excellent meal and chats among new and old friends.
Got an article about our ride and the planning/execution of the future Beaches to Bluegrass Trail — in the local/regional newspaper that was published Wed. AM, including this photo of the group at Elmo’s. I’ll see if I can link the online article here.
Pedaled away from Berry Hill Wednesday AM via a pasture road that connected with the Tobacco Heritage Trail, a nice cinder trail that I wanted to stay on, but unfortunately, it was only slightly more than a mile long.
Saw some chicken artistry along the route toward Clarksville.
We stopped for lunch at Buffalo Springs, once a health spa and resort, now a piece of the Army Corps of Engineers public spaces, and is considered part of the John H. Kerr Reservoir. The improved spring flows with water that offers traces of lithium in it. This of us who partook were quite mellow for the rest of the day.
Shortly after arriving at our accommodation for the night (various cabins and the Number 9 Lodge at Occoneechee State Park, we all went for a tour of Prestonwould Plantation (pronounced “Preston-Wood”) an amazing 18th Century home undergoing restoration, and studied by the historians at Colonial Williamsburg for the accuracy and the breadth of the documentation still preserved and accessible today. Because we were late arriving the sun set on our tour of the grounds and outbuildings so several of us returned the next day, so I’ll save the photos of that adventure for a bit later.
Because we were scheduled to stay at Occoneechee for two nights, we had many options to choose among for Day 4, Thursday, Oct. 9. After our catered breakfast, Jack decided to ride the short route and I decided to not ride at all. Several of us went off to the park walking trails and we saw the ruins and interpretive descriptions of what was once Occoneechee Plantation. That was a really nice walk, with the Plantation loop being about a mile and a half, and the Mossy Creek trail adding a bit more for a little over 2 miles. It was truly lovely.
We headed into Clarksville to do a bit of touring and find lunch, and saw more interesting stuff, finally linking up with some of the riders over a great lunch at the Lake View Restaurant.
Prestonwould Plantation is an extraordinary place, as is the resident research historian, Julian, who has devoted his life to restoring this amazing home, and with money and luck, will also be involved with restoring the grounds. It’s late now and I want to get this up, so I won’t go into the incredible history we learned here. But here are some photos from yesterday and today.
peregrinations 