This Troy park is a great place to fish, picnic and smoke weed. That is what I see every time I visit. I never thought of what wildflowers might there until I saw a post from a hiking club visit on Tuesday. There were lots of photos of flowers I would not have expected there. Arriving early there was only one vehicle in the lot, smoking weed. And I could see the very distinct sign of Spring in NC, wisteria.
The park is comprised of a pond formed by damming a tributary of Densons Creek. There is also a dam on Densons Creek just above the pond's outlet. It is right in the area of the dams, there was a homesite and maybe a mill. The land has been disturbed so much that it is difficult to see what may have been there.
Beavers are active in the pond. One of them started to gnaw on this keyhole tree.
Walking on the Densons Creek Trail which leaves the park, follows the creek toward the USFS District Ranger Office. Starting out just past the wisteria, I ran into a number of Catesby Trillium. They were throughout the hike. Another flower of note, Atamasco lily was in several locations, just in time for Easter.
Several times I left the creek and trail no explore open woods. On this jaunt, I followed some railroad tracks and noticed a cemetery out in the woods.
There were about a dozen graves ranging from the 1880s to 1927. There was no sign of a road or home here. Perhaps the railroad was the road back when the first graves were dug.
This pile of debris is from a renovation of the bridge going over Densons Creek.
There is a very healthy and vibrant scattering of Pinxter azalea along the creek.
Careful of the aging wooden infrastructure.
Eastern Bluestar
