Hiking with the Fat Bald White Guy 2013 Calendar

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Salem Lake Loop

       Salem Lake on Christmas Day

Railroad Bridge Refection

Christmas Day is a great day for a hike....especially if there is a trail nearby....Salem Lake is not ten minutes from my home and the 7 mile loop has served as conditioning hike for the FBWG... today rather than vegging on the couch I left my hiking companion at home cooking Christmas dinner and set out for a training hike but I am glad I took my camera....what a great day at the lake!

The dam at Salem Lake was recently replaced and the lake was drawn down for nearly a year...it is now filling back up and wildlife...especially ducks are everywhere!

Dozing Mallard

I am not familiar with the breeding habits of mallard ducks but whatever the season was, these guys were very busy as there are maturing young ducklings everywhere on the lake...so if you like ducks....Salem Lake is the place to see them!

The trail around the lake is a wide crushed sand and gravel path...easy on the knees and you will encounter many joggers and other hikers of every variety....but you will also be terrorized by the bicycles which will whiz around at frightening speed....don't zone out or you will get run over!  

From the trail you can see the distant shore and gauge the distance of the hike before you...the lake has ever changing views....every time I hike the lake I see something new. I usually park at the Linville Road access and walk clockwise....for reference the parking lot is about milepost 3 of a counter-clockwise hike if you begin at the marina trail head.  Going this way you encounter the only incline of the trail about 1.5 miles down the trail.....the trail rises over a small bluff and then snakes its way into a really nice cove where there is an very inviting creek adorned with a commemorative bench if you need to rest your dogs. 

Every time I have hiked the lake trail I have rushed by this spot ignoring a small wooded trail that leads upstream along this inviting creek....but today was Christmas and I was looking for a present.....and I took the less traveled path and was rewarded with a gift better than what Santa brought.

It had rained for several days and the creek was up and as a result there were many nice small water falls...and for a moment I forgot I was in Winston-Salem.

As I walked up the wooded path I was able to walk across the rocks in the stream to take in the view from both sides of the creek.

I took a water break and sat on a large boulder and took in the view downstream.  The woods were quiet, the silence only interrupted by the gentle roar of the water rushing over the rocks.... This will be a great place to visit in the fall!

While I was tempted to explore the creek further and the many other trails leading into woods away from the lake, I was reminded that I had another 5 miles to hike...so I returned to the loop trail.

On the downhill side of the marina, among the many improvements brought on by the dam construction is this new but rusty bridge....seriously a new bridge  that is already rusty....go figure

The view from the bridge introduced me to the first of many wonderful reflections created by a cloudy winter afternoon on the still waters of Salem Lake.

At mile marker 6 thereabouts is a great view back to the marina...you can see the clouds reflected on the water from here as well but in this photo you see a spot of light in the left hand corner of the photo...it is the reflection of the sun spotlighting through the clouds!

I could not resist snapping this photo...seldom in the winter do you get a chance to have an interplay of color and the mirror-like reflections of the pine tree makes the scene actually appear in the photo prettier than I remember!

Look carefully at this picture and you can see Ole Sol peaking out from the clouds.

There is a wonderful rock outcropping on the northern shore of the lake from which you could grab some rays on a warmer day...today I enjoyed watching a duckling race

Somewhere along about mile marker 5,  I could not resist resting my dogs on a newly erected park bench.  

The view up the trail was nice but the sentiment expressed by the marker on the bench told a better story....I don't think I ever met Dick Peterson...seems like a great guy with a wonderful perspective on life....after all it was a reminder that we each should expect to receive a present not only on Christmas morn...but each and every day!  

The Fat Bald White Guy really likes the Salem Lake Trail...it is the place I can go to stay in shape for my mountain adventures but it is also a great hike....Access is so convenient 10....the trail is great but too many crazy bike riders...7...scenery is improving as the lake fills back up....7.....Solid 7.5 trail...at 7 miles it is a bit long for some folks but just right for the FBWG,....Merry Christmas!

     A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

                  From The Fat Bald White Guy

    For to us a child is born, a son is given...
     and his name shall be called Wonderful,Counselor, Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace... 

Pilot Mountain

Ocean Isle

At the beginning God expressed Himself. That personal expression, that word, was with God, and was God, and He existed with God from the beginning. All creation took place through Him, and none took place without Him. In Him appeared life and this life was the light of mankind. The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out. John 1:1-5

Piedmont Environmental Center

Moores Knob Trail

That was the true light which shines upon every man as he comes into the world. He came into the world - the world He had created - and the world failed to recognize Him. He came into his own creation, and His own people would not accept Him. Yet wherever men did accept Him He gave them the power to become sons of God. These were the men who truly believed in Him, and their birth depended not on the course of nature nor on any impulse or plan of man, but on God. John 1:9-13

Moores Knob

Hawksbill Mountain looking East

It is not that they do not know the truth about God; indeed He has made it quite plain to them. For since the beginning of the world the invisible attributes of God-his eternal power and divinity-have been plainly discernible through things He has made and which are commonly seen and known, thus leaving these men without a rag of excuse. They knew all the time that there is a God, yet they refused to acknowledge Him as such or to thank Him for what He is or does.            Romans 1:19-20

Lake James From Shortoff Mtn. Trail

The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day by day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. They have no speech,they use no words; no sound is heard from them, yet their voice goes out to all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psalms 119:1-4

Jonas Ridge Trail Linville Gorge

The Chimneys-Linville Gorge

Sitting Bear Mtn. Trail

See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor nor spin. Yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his splendor was not dressed like one of these.  Matt. 6:28-29

Hanging Rock 

Look at the birds of the air. That they do not sow, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you much more valuable to Him than they are?  Matt. 6:26

Table Rock Mtn. viewed from Hawksbill Mtn.

For lo, He forms the mountains, and creates 

the winds, and declares unto man what is His thought, that makes the morning darkness and treads upon high places of the earth. The Lord, the God of hosts is His name.             
                          Amos 4:13

Table Rock Mountain

Cathedral Falls-Linville Gorge

Tremble, O earth at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob who turned a rock into a pool- the hard rock into a springs of water. Psalm 114:7-8

He cuts the rivers from among the rocks and His eyes sees every precious thing. Job 28:10

Linville Falls

View from Devils Cliff Trail

He causes the vapor to ascend from the ends of the earth, He maketh lightning for the rain,He bringeth the wind out of His treasures.  Psalm 135:7   

He draws up the drops of water, which distills as rain into the streams. Job 36:27

Linville River

The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it, for God has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers. Psalm 24:1-2

Cape Fear River Inlet

I am the Lord, the Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King-who made a way through the sea; a path through mighty waters.    Isaiah 43:15-16

Linville River

Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare: "Rivers of living water will flow from his heart".             John. 7:38

Bathtub Falls -Basin Cove

I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, to all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.                Rev. 21:6

Gully  Creek Trail- Cumberland Knob

Spence Ridge Trail- Linville Gorge

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and the tender branch thereof will not cease. Job 14:7

And He that sat on the throne said: "Behold I make all things new"  Rev. 21:5

Bluff Mountain Trail- Doughton Park

Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many I say to you will seek to enter and not be able.              Luke 13:24

Hagan Stone Park

You make known to me the path of life,you fill me with joy in your presence,with eternal pleasures at your right hand.  
                       Psalm 16:11



No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.         1 Corin 2:9                                                                        

Cottontail Falls-Linville Gorge

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. For the Lord God is great, the great king above all gods. In His hands are the depths of the earth and the mountain peaks belong to Him...Come let us bow down and worship... for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care.                                   Psalm 95:1-7

AMEN!

Merry Christmas from the FBWG and his hiking companion!  






"It is impossible to conceive how different things would have turned out if that birth had not happened whenever, wherever, however it did...for millions of people who have lived sine, the birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life, but a new way of living it.  It is a truth that, for twenty centuries, there have been untold numbers of men and women who, in untold number of ways, have been grasped by the child who was born so caught up in the message he taught and the life he lived that they have found themselves profoundly changed by their relationship with him."  
Frederick Buechner

All the pictures in this blog post were taken by the FBWG during his exploits on the hiking trails in North Carolina and Virginia.  If this is the first time you have you have viewed this blog please take time to check out our adventures in previous blog posts.    FBWG