Book Club: Hiking the Mountain-to-Sea Trail with “Nature Girl”

We’ve been doing this book club thing with my daughter for six years now.  She was a good reader before we started, but my goals have changed a bit along the way.  I want more than just fun with books and friends now – I want to be able to dig in to the books and bring them to life.  I’m looking for springboards for good discussions about life and faith and choices.  I want to see thoughts and experiences that my book clubbers can take with them into the future.

That’s why I chose Nature Girl by Jane Kelley for our February book choice.  It was an unusual choice for me as the main character Megan was annoyingly selfish in the beginning, but what makes the book so great is the way that she grows throughout the story.  Her transformation – and the determination it takes her to complete the quest she’s given herself along a piece of the Appalachian Trail – is quite discussion worthy.

That’s how we found ourselves talking about Megan over lunch at Chick Fil-A in Durham.  We all expressed our irritation with her selfish ways in the beginning of the book and whether we felt there was redemption for her by the end.  We talked about what it must take to hike the full length of the Appalachian Trail and how we would personally handle moving to another region of the country for the summer like Megan’s family did.

Then we set off.

Not on the Appalachian Trail.  As much as I wanted us to go and hike a part of that, it’s closest point to us is a few hours away, and that wasn’t really feasible.  Instead, we headed out to hike a part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, a path still in creation here in North Carolina that does just want it’s name declares:  it starts on Clingman’s Dome in the mountains and finds it’s way to Jockey’s Ridge in the Outer Banks along the Atlantic, a journey of 1,175 miles.  We chose to hike a six-mile portion along the Eno River in Durham, the same distance that Megan hiked each day of her journey.

We started at the Cole Mill access point to the trail.  The temperature was in the low-to-mid 60s and the sun was out in full force, making it a beautiful day to hike.  

The first part of the trail was the roughest, as we climbed down to the river and then walked along a narrow dirt path along the bank.  We were happy to discover many trees fallen into the water, however, that were lined with turtles sunning themselves.  This photo op – and the happy turtle above – kept us observing them for a little while before resuming our hike.  We continued to see turtles all along our six-mile trek – nearly 80 of them altogether!  Turtles are thriving in the Eno River.

The next part of our trek took us up stairs built into a hill, across a road, along a bridge, and down the other bank to the other side of the river.  Road construction on the bridge kept the traffic to a minimum, making this part of our hike safer for us, and then we were back on the trail and moving along.  The next few miles of the trail were the roughest, with an abundance of rocks and roots, making the hike not difficult, but making it important to watch your foot placement carefully.

There was a lot to see along the way, though.  A neat feature of this stretch of trail are the historical ‘ruins’ we encountered along the way.  There are remnants of an old pump station, and there are stone foundations, stone walls, earthen ridges, and more stretched out along a half-mile.  The girls loved climbing all over these!

Besides turtles, there were lots of neat natural elements to see, too.  The kids spotted a small brown snake along the trail at one point, along with lots of beaver slides and trees that beavers had cut down.  We saw birds flying and spotted a woodpecker going to town on a tree.  The trillium was just about to burst into bloom all along the trail, and the grasses were a brilliant green.

Just before we crossed the river for the last time, we began to encounter the remnants of houses.  This one featured a sturdy stone chimney still standing, and the kids enjoying trying to climb it to sit on the mantle.  The foundation was still visible, too, and we found pieces of a stove, bedsprings, and old pump all nearby.  It was interesting to try to piece together what we found and guess about who might have lived there and what their lives were like.

After another two miles, we crossed our last creek and headed for the homestretch.  Because we were so close, we stopped to play at the river’s edge, which for most of the kids meant throwing in rocks or crossing a small dam to a peninsula-like piece of land a few feet across the water.  Unfortunately, several kids fell in at this point, but at least it was near the end of the hike, and they came up wet but laughing.  I imagine it wasn’t any colder than what Megan experienced when she fell in that river in Massachusetts!

My Big Helper and I secretly laughed at two of these girls along our hike, because they kept saying that instead of ending our hike at the six-mile point, they wanted to turn around and hike back to the beginning.  After falling in the river, however, and finishing our trip, they changed their minds and were happy to sit down and rest.

They didn’t rest for long, however!  The girls were soon up and climbing around on trees and playing tag while we waited for our rides to pick us up.  They’re full of energy!

Nature Girl was a great book for our club and has sparked lots of conversations in our family about the importance of discipline, hiking, and nature conservation.  We’re  hoping to do more long hikes in the future.  

What about you?  Are you a hiker?