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This brook slides down to Shelley Lake over broad steps of gneiss (or maybe schist) |
The Shortcut
- Approx .5 mile walk (.7 km)
- Easy
- Paved from Sertoma Art Center
- Lake Park Trail is dirt
- Narrow, not great for bikes or strollers because of roots and rocks
- Highly scenic
- Rocks: graphite schist and wake county gneiss maybe?
- Birds: pileated woodpecker, blue birds, raptor, red cockade woodpecker
- Mammals: squirrels (lots)
The Long Way Around
For the last six months or so my husband, Chuck and I have been exploring the trails, greenways, nature preserves and parks around the Triangle area. Our latest expedition took us down a little trail near Shelley Lake along the Lake Park Greenway. This is a side trail, just a dirt path that branches off the main trail from Sertoma Art Center that sits on the ridge above Shelley Lake. It rained a few days ago, and without the leaves on the trees the footing was still a bit damp; but not slick or messy. The trail is a bit rooty and rocky in places; but soft and comfortable to walk on.
Rocks are the defining element of the trail. We crossed a creek, great bedding planes of what I think is wake county gneiss, but it could be schist - I will check with our geology buddy. The rock formed regular steps about 10-15 feet running back up the draw so that the water cascaded across and down these shelves. It was unexpected and lovely. I can't wait to see it when the trees are leafed out.
There is some kid-created graffiti on the supports for the sewer line that crosses the creek parallel to the bridge. A bit of a pebbly sandbar sits below the bridge inviting crawfish hunting. I'm sure the local raccoons and other wildlife love it. As far as I can tell there is no name for this particular brook. Further along the trail, there are many more out crops of gneiss and piles of mossy, lichen skinned rocks - probably pushed here by the city to clear the sewer line access. There are some good sized trees along the trail. Typical Piedmont pines, oaks, tulip poplar, beech, etc... The largest date from around the 30s or 40s. This was all farm land until around then. This ravine may not have been completely cleared. Often difficult to cultivate land was used for pastures. There is an outstandingly large tree up on the grounds of the Sertoma art center. Probably several hundred years old, obviously grown out in the open and not in a forest. It has lost lots of bark and this time of year it is impossible to say if it is still putting out leaves. We’ll check back in the spring. None of the trees along this trail were anything near that size or habit. All looked like they’d grown up in a light woodland.
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Some excellent graffiti
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East Mine Creek? This creek runs perpendicular to the previous stream. The water has cut a narrow channel through the rock.
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Things get interesting at the turn of the trail. The first hint we had of something unusual was of an uprooted tree. The dirt at the tree's root was nearly black. Not the bright red clay or sandy clay we see in most of Raleigh. I misinterpreted this as being rich soil from the ravine we were in; but at the next creek crossing I could see how wrong I was. The next bridge gave us a great view of a steep cut in the bank rising 20 feet into the ridge. The whole bank was nearly black, with a greasy sheen and some obvious bedding planes. It was graphite! Mine Creek, East Mine Creek and Lead Mine Road are named for this mineral that was dug here in Wake County up until the 20th century. According to the NC Greenways Geology site, this is identified as a graphite schist which runs in narrow bands from Lake Wheeler in south Wake Co. to Falls Lake in north Wake Co. Shelley Lake lies in the middle of this range. We were lucky to get such a great view of the mineral in this cut. The NC Greenways Geology site dates this deposit to over 500 million years, before woody plants. They speculate that this carbon is from algal mats that grew in a shallow sea. I am beyond excited to learn that this might have been formed by stromatolites or some similar organism.
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Stream cut with graphite schist. Sorry the shadows are so strong on this wall it is difficult to see how dark the deposit is with the sun beating on it.
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On our way back to the Sertoma Art Center we heard a woodpecker hammering. We stopped in our tracks and exchanged excited looks. This wasn’t a little woodpecker’s drumming, this was something big. Chuck saw it first, a red pileated woodpecker high up in a dead pine tree. He was hopping about testing the trunk for food. This is the largest woodpecker extant in North America. We’ve seen several this winter, but this is the first one we’ve seen in town. A moment later another pair of walkers came down the trail. One was the property owner of the dead pine. She’s deliberately left it standing to support this woodpecker. We were all thrilled to see her tree being used as it was intended. I’m sure it is a boon to the whole nature community.
This was an unexpectedly delightful trail. I highly recommend taking a few minutes to walk along and enjoy this interesting piece of Piedmont nature and Wake Co. history.
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