Not an ordinary walk
By Ken Moore
Flora Columnist
I have mentioned Battle Park a number of times in past Flora stories, but I’ve never participated in a guided walk there. Two Saturdays past, I did, and what a walk it was! Don’t miss an opportunity to sign up for one of N.C. Botanical Garden curator Stephen Keith’s occasional interpretive walks through Battle Park’s 93 acres of nature and history.
Though the fine interpretive trail guides available at trailheads are helpful, they can’t compare to Stephen’s personally guided walk, a delightful energetic ramble from historic point to historic point.
At the beginning, he set the stage, appropriately, next to UNC’s legendary Forest Theatre. Many of the trails, he explained, were personally laid out and cleared by university President Kemp Plummer Battle during his reign from 1876 to 1891.
Battle, for whom the forest park is named, sought peace and rejuvenation from the rigors of university responsibilities by blazing trails and experiencing the natural semi-wilderness so close to the heart of the university and the town.
Of note was a passage from Battle’s papers asserting that university students of his era spent far too much time indoors with their studies, when a fuller education and healthier mind and body were to be gained by more time spent in the nearby out-of-doors.
Our community is fortunate that Battle’s solitary refuge continues to remain available to us for the spiritual and emotional rejuvenation that a mature forest can provide.
At stops high and low along the land contours, Stephen engaged us in stories of the place, including one of the final skirmishes of the Civil War fought near the high vantage point, now named Piney Prospect Overlook, just below picturesque Gimghoul Castle.
At one spot, Lovers’ Stone Seat, participants took turns assessing the comfort of a boulder’s reclining configuration.
Of particular interest is the site of the tiered open-pit sewage system that serviced nearby faculty homes in the early years of the past century. The Orange Water and Sewer Authority was not even a vision back then. Little by little, the site will be cleared of the exotic invasive vegetation and this relict of one of the community’s first sewage systems will be more visible.
The day of our walk coincided with Stephen’s monthly scheduled university-student volunteer-work day. Some 25 students were busy pulling and rolling English ivy from tree trunks and the forest floor. During the course of our walk, we viewed several areas where invasive plants had been removed and the forest was returning to its former nature. As the years-long eradication effort continues, I believe an “exotics-free†Battle Park is an achievable goal.
Wildflowers are emerging now in the park, as they are along woodland trails throughout the Triangle. A variety of choices of guided walks and hikes are offered by area recreation departments, Duke Gardens, N.C. Botanical Garden, Triangle Land Conservancy, Eno River Association and others. New to me is the Chatham Conservation Partnership’s guided-trip schedule, including wildflowers, fire ecology and geology (chathamconservation.wikispaces.com/Announcements).
Opportunities abound. So whether with a guide or on your own, don’t let this season of nature’s grand reawakening slip by without being in it!
Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com.
Read more Ken Moore Citizen columns at The Annotated Flora.
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