Several weeks ago I decided to take Basecamp on a field trip to Jordan Lake to ruck and get wet. I scouted places and found a couple of interesting possibilities. The one that did not make the cut was the Eagle Spur in Durham (http://www.triangletrails.org/trails/eagle-spur-trail). It follows an old railroad track 2.5 mi from Stagecoach Road to a peninsula that juts out into Jordan Lake. It’s a nice trail with some interesting features, but ultimately it did not make the cut because it is linear and had few options to meander off the trail.
The selection was on the north side of Jordan Lake in the game lands, an area administered by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission and used for hunting game large and small. The area appears to be little used in June when there is no active hunting season. Flenderson and YHC set off at 6 from the starting point. We met Grunge driving in after a few minutes and headed back to the start to pick him up. With a trash bag in hand to collect trash seen along the way, we rucked north toward a point where we could follow a trail near the high power lines to the water. Interestingly, this spot is directly across Jordan Lake from the terminus of the Eagle Spur Trail, so there is a complementary peninsula where the railroad tracks used to be. When we reached the end, we took off rucks and had a brief playtime. (Photo courtesy of Phlenderson Prophessional Fotography Services)
Arms locked, and arrayed side-by-side, we waded in to scout the water around the end climbed up the roots on the other side. Rucks on the ground, a set of 20 sc derkins in the sand. Pick up rucks, 20 flutter kicks in cadence. 10 ruck thrusters followed by 10 m bear crawl. Return to get trash bag and start return.
On the way back, YHC every few minutes called for “two” or “three”, indicating that PAX would get on the ground, do two ruck-on merkins, and get back up again. This process would be repeated two or three times, depending on the call, everywhere there seemed to be a decent spot.
None of the trash we found was interesting—soda or beer bottles made up most of it, a few shotgun shells and a pair of sandals. The coolest thing was that Flenderson spotted a snake bones in the road. All of the flesh was long gone, but the entire skeleton was coiled up and intact.
The return had a brief detour to explore a side trail that petered out at the end of a cornfield, and we arrived back around 8 after 5 miles.
Name-o-Rama and COT: Many personal and public events have reminded YHC of time marching on and of mortality. From the trivial (YHC getting reading glasses) to the inspirational (Lo Pair’s story in Endurance magazine) to the sad (the putting down a pet recently) to the difficult to understand (suicide of Anthony Bourdain), YHC is reminded to live in the present. Not just get by, but live. Enjoy where you are, be there for your loved ones, don’t fall prey to the thoughts starting with “If only I could…”. Among other things, do CSAUP stuff because the dirty secret emerging is that they are neither stupid nor pointless. Great ruckership today! Aye!
Route including post-Basecamp extra ruck for Grunge and YHC:
