A beautiful fall hike at Eno River State Park

Today I had the pleasure of leading a ladies hike at Eno River State Park, on a gorgeous early November day. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, but fortunately the weather was perfect. Crystal blue skies, colorful leaves and crisp temperatures…it was the kind of hike I dream about all year.

This idea was born because of the great time we had on the National Trails Day Hike in June. We really enjoyed the scenery and weather, and most of all each other’s company. It was wonderful to make new friends and connect, and to do so in a beautiful environment. So good for the body and spirit.

So I thought I’d keep going with that and organize a Fall Hiking Series on my own. I created it as something for women who, like me, would like to go hiking but not alone.

I scheduled a hike for a Saturday in October, November and December. October’s was cancelled due to Hurricane Michael, so this one was our first.

Eno River State Park is huge — more than 4,000 acres, with many trails. Today we did the Cox Mountain and Fanny’s Ford trails, which is accessed from the Fews Ford picnic area. The lovely trail had hills but not too bad, went along the beautiful river for part of the way, included a suspension bridge, and even a log cabin to explore. We walked a total of 3.12 miles (that’s a 5k!) in approximately 90 minutes.

It was so great to connect with Karen (check out her great blog at karenshealthjourney.com) and Marie, who had done the National Trails Day hike with me; with Martha, who I knew from Instagram and who I’d featured on my blog but we hadn’t met in person yet; and with Catherine and her friend Christene, who I met through Facebook.

Here’s a photo tour of our adventure:

We had such a a wonderful time. I look forward to our next hike on Saturday, December 3 (the last in our series) and invite you to join us! Sign up for the interest list here for this or to be notified of future opportunites.

Thank you to my son Michael for taking these beautiful photos!

Also see my post on a previous visit: Tranquility in 30 minutes: A quick forest hike at Eno River State Park