Birthday Hike at Umstead State Park: Sycamore Loop Trail

It's someone's birthday today. I'm not going to name any names, so you'll just have to guess who turned another year older.

I had a great day today. I slept in late (until about 11:45am) because I needed to catch up on some lost sleep during the past week. My parents had come to visit for 10 days, and I was staying up late, around 1-1:30am every night, sometimes later, and only getting maybe 6-7 hours of sleep. So I definitely needed a recovery day to catch up on sleep!

The weather was gorgeous today and I just couldn't justify staying inside the house all day. I chose to go to Umstead State Park in Raleigh for a hike because I hadn't visited there in a long time. Lately, I've just been hiking in Hillsborough or North Durham. So a visit to Umstead sounded great. It used to be my favorite training location way back when, you know, when I was a super fit athlete and all I wanted to do was work out.

I parked at the Bike and Bridle trailhead parking area which is in the Crabtree Creek section of the park, which can be accessed by entering the park at the Highway 70 entrance. As soon as I stepped out of the truck, I breathed in a lungful of pure nature. Ahhh, so nice. The sky was a beautiful shade of light blue and there was no one in sight. Pure silence in the middle of nature. Ahhh, double dose of nice. Then a few seconds later, a 747 from nearby RDU roared overhead, disrupting my moment of zen. Ah, boo! Oh well, it beats the constant noise of I-85 you hear when you hike at Occoneechee Mountain in Hillsborough (last week's hike with my parents).

Here's a picture of the beautiful sky just before the loud airplane flew overhead:


I started hiking on the parking loop access road until I reached a locked gate with a brown sign on it. The sign stated who and how to yield to other trail users. I still get a kick out of these signs out here, even though I've been looking at them for 7 years. Back home in California, the hiker is the most important trail user. Cyclists and horseback riders both yield to hikers. But out here in NC, everyone yields to the almighty horseback rider. I don't understand it. How does a hiker walking at a pace of 3 miles per hour threaten a 2000 pound horse walking at about the same rate? Eh, whatever...I walked past the gate and continued walking straight until I hit Graylyn Road.

Okay, here's my route: Turn right on Graylyn (multi-use fire road), then right on Sycamore trail (hiking only trail, I think? Maybe horses are allowed?). When you get to the first fork in the trail, go left. Don't go right, because that would take you back to the parking lot. Stay on Sycamore trail, which is a wonderful trail that will keep you on your toes. Loads of rocks and roots are just waiting to trip you up! After a while, you'll see a creek, and if you look close enough, you can find a little trail that goes off to the right and it parallels said creek. I was amazed at how much water was flowing in this creek. I had to take a picture:


I kept walking along the creek until I found something that really brought some excitement to my hike - a waterfall!

I never knew there was a waterfall in Umstead! Which is surprising, due to the amount of time I've spent out here over the years, riding, hiking and trail running!

Here are some pretty pictures of the little waterfall:

First picture, you can see that the total vertical drop of the fall might be around 3 feet. But hey, it's a waterfall. And the sound of it is so relaxing!


A closer picture of the falling water:


My comfy trail running shoes wanted to be in the picture, too:


If I had a comfy foam padded seat, I could've sat there on the rocks for a long time just enjoying the sound of the water and being in nature, in perfect hiking weather. But I decided to keep moving, being the ever-adventurous person I am.

I climbed up the rocks to see if I could see where the waterfall was coming from. I found out - a little dam of some sort. I guessed that it was overflowing from Sycamore Lake.


I was right. Sycamore Lake was too full from all the rain we got last week. I've heard this is a good lake to go fishing in.



At this point, I decided to turn back and get back onto the Sycamore Loop trail.

I kept my pace steady, but not fast. I took short little breaks whenever I needed. Solo hiking can be a little boring, so I kept myself awake by singing along to whatever song was on the random iPod shuffle, or by talking to myself or to Baby Girl Newton.

Here's a pretty view of the trail:


Finally I reached the almost-halfway point of my hike - Graylyn Road again. There's a nice bridge over the creek at this point, and I sat down to take a picture and stretch my legs a little.


I thought about just cutting my hike short and taking Graylyn Road up to the parking area, but then I thought that would be kind of wussy, so I kept on hiking Sycamore trail, now on the eastern side of Graylyn. Here's a map of my hike. I'm clueless with Photoshop, I could only figure out how to draw my route with a gray paint line...



The hike started at the "P" that I circled. So I've already covered my hike from the start point all the way through the first section of Sycamore Loop trail. Now I'm at the bottom most point on the map, and entering the eastern side of the loop. As you can see, this section of the loop is a little longer than the western side of the loop. But I felt strong enough to finish. Or so I thought...

I bit off a little more than I could chew. I only took 2 more pictures the entire rest of the hike. And they're not even that great, otherwise I'd share them with you.

When I reached the end of the Sycamore Loop trail, I was never happier to see Graylyn Rd. I knew it would only be another 15 minutes until I reached the parking lot!

I had a lot of fun on this hike. Beautiful trail, weather, scenery and solitude. I couldn't ask for a better afternoon on my birthday!