EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final installment of three-part series.
From the heart of the Pisgah National Forest, where the Appalachian Trail teeters on the Tennessee-North Carolina state line, Hot Springs beckons.
Weary hikers and famished whitewater paddlers rejoice when they hear its light traffic echoing off the French Broad River and up the mountainous banks. Hot Springs means good food and drink, a night maybe spent in a bed, and all of it with good, friendly company.
It’s a place long-distance hikers mail extra supplies ahead, kept safe by outfitters awaiting their arrival. Shops cater to outdoor needs with camping and hiking gear. Raft and canoe businesses put in the water there.
Given the vitality in Saxapahaw and the promise of Glencoe Mill Village and mill buildings in Haw River, there’s no reason Alamance County can’t become the Hot Springs of the state’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail, says Brian Baker, Alamance County Parks and Recreation director.
“That’s not far off,” Baker said last week. “I’m from McDowell County, about 20 miles away from Hot Springs, where the Blue Ridge Parkway brought people in, and they bought things and ate in our restaurants. I think this can be a Piedmont version of that.”
Years in the making, the Haw River Trail — a 70-mile stretch of trails planned from Haw River State Park to Jordan Lake — will be almost dead center in the state’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail. The massive undertaking involves the creation of 1,000 miles of trails from Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks.
Piece by piece, our portion is coming together. More than 10 miles of trails exist near Glencoe, in Shallow Ford Natural Area near Elon, Red Slide Park in Haw River, and Swepsonville River Park. More sections are planned for Saxapahaw this year, and trails from Glencoe running southeast by Stony Creek Reservoir and into Haw River are under construction.
Almost every year, the trail adds new easements for future trail sites from private landowners.
Weeks ago, the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources announced it’s hired a consultant to help complete a master plan of the ambitious trail. At the same time, the nonprofit Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail is compiling a hiker’s guide with local attractions, lodging and restaurant guides on the trail.
That group says as many as 10 hikers per year are already completing the statewide journey by following country roads where trails haven’t been built. In Alamance County, those are roadside stretches roughly following N.C. 87 on its diagonal slash from north to south.
EVEN WITHOUT A finished trail, some are investing in the Haw River’s future.
Years before modern efforts for the trail, George and Jerrie Nall began the refurbishment of Glencoe Mill Village. After purchasing and restoring a Holt family home, they saw opportunity in riverside land. They purchased the land that became Glencoe Paddle Access, dedicated in 2007 for their late son, Dr. Steven Nall.
“We immediately started working to get that property because we didn’t want someone else to get control of it” with different purposes for it, Jerrie Nall says. “We held onto it knowing we wanted it to be used by the people. We could see in the future that recreation departments would want it.”
The Nalls had already spearheaded and established the Textile Heritage Museum in the picturesque mill village, commemorating the technology and culture that brought life to Alamance County and much of North Carolina.
They’ve since encouraged friends to donate to the trail as they continue investing the mill village. Though tight-lipped about the details, Jerrie Nall described extensive investments in a project called “North of Charleston.” The area below the museum is being refurbished as an attraction the couple hopes will be the village jewel.
“We are bursting at the seams,” Jerrie Nall says with a gleam in her eye. “Glencoe is ready to pop!”
Why the Haw River? George Nall said it’s about seeing possibilities for future generations.
“It’s important: We’re maintaining it for youth, not only now, but in the future, so children and families can walk along the trails and see the river and learn about nature,” George Nall said. “If someone doesn’t take the time to think through things in advance, it’s gone. If you don’t plan ahead for good things to happen, children and parents won’t have those things in the future. … Jerrie and I get emotional about it because it’s a very important thing.”
This year, the city of Burlington jumped onboard with plans for a $500,000 nature center in the mill’s former dye house. Recreation and Parks Director Tony Laws is awaiting word of a federal grant application and is in negotiations with large private donors for the project.
The irony that the nature center will be located in the 5,000-square-foot dye house, which once helped poison the Haw River, isn’t lost on him. The center will teach about wildlife habitats here and contain a classroom area for programming.
Everyone looks to Saxapahaw, with the hugely successful Haw River Ballroom, Eddy Pub, and Saxapahaw General Store serving gourmet food, as the model. Even other states envy the transformation.
Now, people are waiting for a restaurant in Glencoe, possibly the final puzzle piece in refurbished mill buildings already housing artist studios and a preschool center.
“Saxapahaw is the model for what trail towns can be,” Baker says. “Glencoe is on its way to becoming another one of those spots.”
TEN YEARS AGO, Joe Jacob was through with the paddling business. He’d sold his previous business and was relocating to Saxapahaw to write a book.
Then the bug bit again. Mac Jordan, the spark behind Saxapahaw’s development, convinced him that putting people on the river would breathe life back into the community. Jacob bought six canoes and founded Haw River Canoe and Kayak.
“I’ve never really done much marketing. It just happened,” Jacob says.
Creative trips like moonlight paddles and women’s retreat paddles, including wine, chocolate and massages, brought people onto the river who normally wouldn’t sit in a boat. It also built word-of-mouth and grew the company. In 2012, Jacob expanded to Bynum, south of Saxapahaw, with the Bynum Outpost, offering similar paddling experiences on a different section of the Haw.
This spring, he will set down roots in northeastern Alamance County at the Grove Winery outside Gibsonville. The Upriver Outpost should open in March.
“The river’s so different in all three locations, and that makes it neat. But the other thing: the politics are so different” when you’re on the river, Jacob says. “If the whole county is interested in the river, that perhaps could provide the political will that makes people say, ‘This is something special and important to our county,’ and give us the economic reason to take care of it.
“Conservation is good for business.”
Last year, Haw River Trail visitors in Alamance County numbered 270,000. That could be the tip of the iceberg if the Haw River and opportunities here continue to be promoted, Baker and others believe.
“The river can absolutely be more a part of our economy. But more importantly, it can be part of our identity,” Baker says.
The Haw River is what makes Saxapahaw, Jacob says. In 20 or 30 years, he hopes that will be said for all of Alamance County.
“It’s the ambiance. What would Asheville be without its river? People come to Saxapahaw, are drawn to it, because it’s not Raleigh, New York or Dallas. It’s this little old funky town with good food, good music, and a lot of things to do with kids, and a lot of it’s free. The river’s all part of that,” Jacob says. “New York City has its Central Park. Hopefully, we’ll have the Haw River corridor.”
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