I did the whole five-mile loop around the lake today, Greenfield Park really is a sight to behold!
...don't worry, I won't be posting the same walk every time I do it, but since today was my first time going all the way around, I thought it would be nice to commemorate the occasion with a set of photos that characterize the full experience.
GREENFIELD LAKE PARK, WILMINGTON NC
The lake here has so many different types of terrain and personality, from lakeshore geography to swamps and marshes, grassy meadows and landscaped fountains...and much more. It was a beautiful scenic walk with all sorts of natural beauty to engage with and enjoy - there was not a dull moment as I traversed the five-mile track.
I am told that this stuff dangling from the tree is called Spanish Moss...it's not a part of the tree, but my understanding is that it also doesn't harm the tree like some vines and epiphytes do. I like to collect the pieces that have fallen to the ground and hang them on my trees at home :)
These geese were enjoying the grassy meadow in the shade. It looked like they were having a fun day of family time, the parents keeping an eye out as the kids romped carelessly under the canopy.
About a third of the way down the trail, I found a map! It was so sunny out it was hard to get a good shot, but it's nice that they put these out there...definitely gives me a good idea of where I'm at, how much I have left to go, and where there is a bridge to let me cross one of the fingers instead of going all the way around. It's not that I don't like walking, but I'm counting on that bridge to help me get back to work in time - this is only my lunch break, after all.
Here is a short bridge I came upon - it's not the one that's going to save me a lot of time, but it's a pretty bridge nonetheless :)
The bridge has some benches, although I think it's strange that the benches face the street/houses, and not the scenic view. To each their own, I guess - plus I don't have time to sit and relax!
I spotted a crow at this location, so I tossed up a few handfuls of peanuts and went on my merry way.
Although the entire trail is scenic and lovely, there were a few spots like this, where it felt like the trail itself was straight out of a fairy tale.
I'm not sure if it's healthy or not, but the water here had something green, presumably a living organism of the photosynthetic variety, completely covering its surface...whether it's a good or bad sign for the state of the water, I felt it was very beautiful to look at.
Can you spot the osprey?
I was not expecting the bridge to be closed…this added a bit more onto my walk, but honestly it works well with my plan to get back in shape...they even have a guard posted to make sure I don't violate the rules...which I otherwise would have done.
As I wandered around the section I originally would have crossed over and bypassed, I did see what looks like a lot of civil engineering type of work going on. They must be doing this to maintain the landscape out here, but I'm not sure how the land can "need work."
Then I spotted this turtle. I'm pretty sure this guy is gonna die. He stuck his head out only a little, and I decided it was wise not to tempt him with peanuts because there were like 7 or 8 hawks all screaming excitedly and flying around the area. I had been doing crow and bird calls as I wandered into this part of the park, but when I saw all the hawks in hunt mode, I decided it would be smarter to growl and sound dangerous...I don't want a hawk to swoop down and f*ck me up!
In the view below, the pier you see on the left is the place where I rent pedal boats with my kids on the weekends. The more I am walking around the lake on my lunch breaks, the more I am thinking it would also be fun sometime to just walk over here and rent a boat for a little while on my own :)
This spot is actually right by a busy road, but from the photos, it just feels so serene. Actually, even with the sound of traffic buzzing around, it felt serene even in real life as well.
But when I rounded the next turn, I found myself popping out onto the one and only (semi)unattractive part of the trail. Here the trail brings you along Carolina Beach Rd for about 30 meters or so. It's a short stretch, so it's not a big deal, but it also meant I was basically back to work.
When I got back inside, I stopped my GPS recorder and scooped out some valuable screenshots. In this one, you can see the pictures I took, laid out along the route I walked - I didn't even know the app did this, but apparently it stores the images as waypoints, so you can reference them if you're trying to find your way back!
In the few times I looked at the app along the way, it gave me an average speed in miles per hour. I never bothered to remember what my speed was, but I did kind of assume it would be given in the summary. The bad news is, that information is not here, but the good news is I'm not too bad at math, so I determined that 1 hour and 11 minutes is roughly 1.18 hours, and 4.3miles over 1.18 hours comes out to an average speed of 3.64 mph.
That's pretty slow for a car, for a bike, or even for the average through-hiker...but for me it felt like I was cruisin' pretty hard. The only thing messing up my speed I think was the 35 times I stopped to take a photo.
Actually, out of curiosity, let's say each photo took ten seconds. That would mean that 350 seconds of that time was actually at a standstill for photos. Dimensional analysis yields that this would equate to roughly 0.097 hrs.
If I subtract that from the original time of 1.18hrs I get 1.083hrs, and if I divide the 4.3 miles over 1.083hrs I get an average speed of 3.97mph. So accounting for pictures bumps up my speed by about 0.3mph - not that I care, but math is so fun - just like walking around Greenfield Lake is fun!
Thanks for checking out some more of my work! As always, I hope you enjoyed witnessing as much as I enjoyed creating!
© Photos and words by @albuslucimus, except where otherwise indicated.
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