By Beth Barton
More than 20 members of the Homestead Hikers started off their 2017 hiking season with a hike on the Uptown Connection Trail in Martinsville.
This asphalt trail follows the route of the original Danville &Western Railroad line that once connected the Tultex manufacturing plant (now a business center known as the Clock Tower at Commonwealth Center) to the D&W main line less than a mile away.
The railroad was abandoned in 2009 and has now become the Dick & Willie Passage Rail Trail with a total of 4.5 miles of paved hiking and biking trails that wind through Martinsville.
The hikers followed the Uptown Connection Trail to the Silverbell Trail that joins just before the main passage. It is short trail featuring a boardwalk and several small metal sculptures of animals.
While the snake on the railing immediately stands out, the hike coordinators helped to point out the harder to find sculptures of a dove, rabbit, grasshopper, trout, frog, turtle, and quail.
After continuing through Frank Wilson Park, hikers returned to the trailhead via a historic section of town on Church and Cleveland streets. Hike leader Paul Johnson shared the varied architectural histories, which included several historic residences, Martinsville Middle School, which opened in 1939; and DeShazo’s Silo, an incinerator for the DeShazo Lumber Company, which closed in 1971.
In February, the group spent a beautiful day on the trail found on the former Chinqua-Penn Plantation in Reidsville, N.C. Winding through the meadows, the woods and alongside the plantation house, hikers stepped back to the 1920 when lavish parties followed a hard day of work in the fields.
Hike guest leaders T. Butler and Lee Templeton shared the history of the pump house, the summer house, the stew site and the rock dam and the quarry used to build them along with the plantation home.
The Homestead Hikers organized in 2014 through the Reynolds Homestead. Hikes are led by volunteers and cover trails both within and outside the county. Guests are always welcome. Anyone interested in joining this group of more than 60 members may email homesteadhikers@gmail.com. More information can be found on Facebook.
The March hike, led by Linda Agee, will be along the Ararat River in the beautiful Riverside Park in Mount Airy, N.C. The group will meet Sunday, March 12, at 2 p.m.
A group with the Homestead Hikers enjoyed a February outing that included a nature trail through Frank Wilson Park in Martinsville. The group’s next hike will be along the Ararat River in Mount Airy, N.C., on March 12 at 2 p.m.
