PLACES OF PRAYER

"Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Luke 5:16

".....we went outside the city......where we expected to find a place of prayer." - Acts16:15

Harris Lake County Park

Advanced Hog Run Bike Trail: This is an extensive maze of miles of trails that are little used during the week. See the link below for a map. Don't go there without a map!! My favoprite secluded paortion is reached by parking in the Disc Golf /Fishing Lake Parking Lot and walking across the levee parallel to the main road. The trail fades but picks up as you bear left away from the road and then merges with the Hog Run Loops in about 100yds or so.

http://www.wakegov.com/NR/rdonlyres/C27B49F6-846D-42A5-87BF-1E1478E2CCEB/0/HLCPBrochure06.pdf

Umstead Park:

1) Trenton/Reedy Creek Rd back entrance...off Blue Ridge Rd:  Many people have been parking near the gate where Reedy Creek Rd elbows left turning into Trenton Rd (no signs) to go running or ride bikes. Parking is difficult now due to construction and even closure of the road, but you come in from Trenton Rd off Trinity Rd park wherever you can then enter through the gate and go a tenth of a mile or so and you will find an old abandoned trail with signs directing you not to go there on the left. This trail goes about nearly a mile downhill to an old creek valley and eventually joins with the Loblolly Trail. There is a nice private place for prayer over the hill on the other side of the creek that I found one time which you may too enjoy.

2) Harrison Ave entrance off I-40: From the back left corner of the main parking lot head down to the shelter where you find an information sign. From there go to the right, but not a sharp right (instead of left where Company Mill Trail leads) through the grass and ground cover until you reach the woods and begin to pick up faint signs of where Company Mill Trail used to go!  This takes you through the hills about 3/4 mile till it meets the current trail.

West Cary/Bond Park:

Take either entrance off High House Rd and follow signs to the boating area. There you will find trail maps. The most remote one is the lake trail. If you follow the asphalt path clockwise from the boating area you will take a right turn a half mile down that crosses a small bridge. After that the path becomes a trail which bears right, but if you go straight up the power line hill and cross the street you will find a cross trail that is even more remote. It doesn't go far to the left, but it rejoins the lake trail to the right.

Spur off Am. Tobacco Trail:

Beginning from Wake Co. northern terminal parking lot (White Oak Church Rd off Green Level Rd) go left (North) heading toward Durham. Look for a path to the right about a half mile up. It is before the first bench. It goes for miles back into remote woods and the right fork eventually comes out in a rural neighborhood.

South Cary/Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve:

Heading south away from downtown Cary on Kildaire Farm Rd it is past Tryon Rd and Walmart . Look on the right just beyond the light for Lochmere Dr. This park has unbelievable canyon-like views as well as some fairly secluded walking trails that make you feel more like your in the Appalachians than suburbia!