Of Birds and Beatles

“I hear a symphony.....”

I have this old football injury to my knee, so we went for a shorter trail this week, just barely more than a mile.

Ok, I didn’t really injure my knee playing football, but it makes a more interesting story than saying I just turned it funny when I was getting on the bed.  See?  Football injury.

As I’ve mentioned before, Cary is crisscrossed with miles and miles of Greenway. This week we took the Symphony Lake Greenway. This circles a small lake and runs alongside the Koko Booth Amphitheatre where the North Carolina Symphony performs in the summer, along with many other fine shows such as Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Huey Lewis and the News, both coming up in the near future. Guess which one I already have tickets for?

But back to the trail. The wooded area features loblolly pines, alder and beech. A variety of ferns fill the undergrowth with a rich green. We managed to find a few wildflowers along the way as well. A small arched footbridge crosses Swift Creek.

The trail is asphalt, not my favorite kind of trail, but it is easier to walk on than the more rugged woodsy trail, and given the football injury, was probably a better choice this week. You will, however, be sharing this trail with a multitude of waterfowl. Not to mention their...umm...production. So step carefully. Most of our fellow hikers were Canada geese, but we did see a stately old swan and a tall egret.

We started at about seven-thirty on a Saturday morning. There were only a handful of other people on the circuit, but the crowd was increasing as we neared the end. Probably later in the day, it’s quite populated. It was a pretty day. The surrounding woods reflected easily on the lake surface.

We did return to the venue later that evening for the NC Symphony, featuring the Music of Paul McCartney. We took a picnic with us, but opted to pay the extra $5 for a table. And good thing, because that area was covered when the downpour came about a half-hour before show time. But the skies cleared quickly enough, and the show was great. We danced, we clapped, we sang along. The gentleman who portrays Sir Paul has been doing it since the 70s. You would think in all that time, he’d learn to play the bass left-handed. But it was still a great show.

Being that the date was June 18, the second (and final) encore was appropriately enough, “Birthday.” It would have been Paul McCartney’s 69^th birthday. 

Had he lived.

But this is a blog about Trails, not about the irony that Ringo would be the last Beatle standing. And it was a lovely trail. Long enough to get a nice walk in, but short enough to avoid further injury. And we enjoyed the waterfowl. 

Happy Trails!