Lake Pine in Winter

Walking around Lake Pine in the winter is still beautiful. Many of the trees have lost their leaves, except the stubborn Beech Trees, who hold their serrated  light beige leaves with tenacity despite the winds and changing temperatures. Seeing between the trunks and branches the lay of the land is visible now. All the little hills and valleys and make up the slopes of the lake.

This past weekend when we walked the dog around Lake Pine, we noticed that the lake looked a little like a hand in a mitten. Take a look for yourself next time you see the signs with the map on it.

We still think the colored images on the path way should have numbers added, so that there is a unique number that exactly represents where a person is on the path. Some people may not see the colored images, or recognize them. Numbers are universal, and would add to the ability to quickly communicate where someone was who needed help.

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Back Again

After many many months of not walking around Lake Pine, Apex Community Park, Lady and I have started back again. So we will have some photos to share. Easily looks like a highland lake, and in the winter it feels like one. Come summer, when it's hot and sweltering, not so much.

There is a season

There is a time and a season for everything.
This blog about Lake Pine, the Apex Community Park, is closing down.
It's been fun recording scenes around the lake when I walked there with some frequency.
Now it's no longer part a place we visit.

I hope you've enjoyed some of the photos and notes about the lake and the birds and wildlife there.

Anora McGaha

Fall at Lake Pine, Apex Community Park

On Saturday mornings, the parking lot on Lake Pine to the Apex Community Park is almost always full. At any one time, one can pass about 30 or more people on the 2 mile lakeside path. Listen up and you will hear spanish, french, italian, german, south asian languages, chinese, arabic, new york accents, carolina countryside accents and more. It is truely an international, global, community sharing the resources at Lake Pine.

Lake Pine – Getting Better All the Time

The Lake Pine road parking lot for the Apex Community Park was packed this Saturday morning. What a successful community area this is. The town of Apex is frequently updating services, including adding more bird and bat boxes, benches, trash cans, trail markings, as well as landscaping.

This bluebird stood atop a pole that kept visitors off the new grass plantings on the berm that holds the lake in.

Turtle at Lake Pine, Apex Community Park

 

Sexual Assault at Lake Pine, Apex Community Park

World traveled fast by news and phone that a man exposed himself to one woman and sexually assaulted another midmorning, yesterday at Lake Pine, the Apex Community Park with a 2 mile paved walking/biking/running path around a wildfowl and turtle inhabited lake.

The lake has visitors from dawn until dusk when it closes, people of all cultures and ages, enjoying the really tremendous space of the area. It's a very popular and successful park.

The impact of a sexual assault - the details of which haven't been made known to this writer - could be serious and limit the activities by women and children at the park. We'll have to see.

Here's a local news article from the News & Observer on the event.

New Color Markers on Lake Pine Trail

Much to my delight I saw that there was a new sign with colored symbols to show people were they are around the lake. They could be brand new or old, since it's been a while since I've been around the lake. Years ago, maybe three or so, the trail was sectioned off by colors and a sign announced the entry into a new area of the lake. This was a safety measure so people calling for help could tell where they were on the 2 mile paved trail.

I remember writing in to the town saying it was a great idea, but what was missing was extending the color markers through the trail so at any point a person could look up and see what section they were in. I was visualizing the blazes painted on trees in state park forests, so people can stay on the trail.

Instead of blazes, this innovation was even better. Color blind people or people from different cultures might not know the color as we call it. So this time a symbol was matched to the colors and painted onto the trail. So every twenty or 50 feet there was a symbol: a yellow butterfly, an orange goldfish, a green tree, a purple frog and more. Definitely a much more safe method.

Congratulations to the Town of Apex for developing and implementing this new safety measure around our really wonderful Lake Pine.

Town of Apex Map of Lake Pine

The Town of Apex has a good map of Apex Community Park and Lake Pine. Check it out here.

Dogster.com Reviews Lake Pine

Check out this review of Lake Pine on Dogster.com.

Pat Adolphi and Dash Remembered on St. Patty's Day

At the east far side of the lake, next to a pond with a fountain, a bunch of us Lake Pine walkers contributed to a bench and a bush to remember Pat Adolphi and his mastiff Dash.

It'd been a while since I'd been at the lake. As I turned the bend to the right where you can see the bench, there were bright green decorations in the bush and a basket of bright plants on the bench. Someone was remembering Pat.

It reminded me not to take this walk for granted. It reminded me that there is community in the walkers around the lake. Maybe some people will feel glad that my beagle and I walk about the lake. Thankful for the laughs they get when my beagle wants to turn around half way around the lake and refused to go forward.

That day I saw the lake as if I hadn't seen it before. The expanse of it. The wide swath of wooded hills around it. The turtles suspended in the water, just their heads sticking out. The duck couple sleeping on the turtle tree on the western cove of the lake.

There is work in the works. Several areas were cordonned off for repairs. It's getting better and better. I didn't even mind the bike riders speeding by, their interruption only moments long.

A Swan in Flight

Yesterday in the warm air I saw one of the two swans of Lake Pine in flight. You should have seen those powerful wings, normally just decorative elements as they sail across the lake, now masterfully racing through the air to the far side of the lake where the other swan coddles eggs on a nest.

It took my breath away. This beautiful white bird with black markings on it's beak, wings spread out wide like a hawks or an eagles.

I would have taken a picture but my camera is broken. So you'll just have to imagine it in your minds eye. A powerful pure white bird propelled through the air above the shimmering waters of Lake Pine.

Map with Names for Special Places on the Lake

For the four or so years that I have been walking around this lake, I've been imagining having names for the many stretches, nooks and inlets, so it'd be easy to share with people where we saw what, and to notice what changes in the different spots.

I still imagine having a quiz of all the flora and fauna we can find at the lake, with your pictures coming in and adding to a directory of wildlife there. Then children, and even keenagers, could test their knowledge of the names and ways of nature at Lake Pine.

The map is from the Town of Apex Parks - but I've added little labels and arrows to different places I've seen wildlife and that I wanted to name, like Turtle Inslet - where the most turtles hang out and logg!

Maybe you can suggest some? And hopefully I'll have time to add more and update this map.

Apex "Turkey Trot 5K" at Lake Pine

Today, November 22, in the Apex Community Park popularly known as "Lake Pine", the annual Turkey Trot race was held.

Turtles coming for food

Not only do the swans and ducks come to the shore for bread, the turtles do too!

Beaver? No, a rat...

Heron in Flight

Laura Duncan Street Park Sign

There are two main entrances to Lake Pine, the lake that is part of the Apex Community Park.
This is the main entrance, on Laura Duncan, and is also the entrance to the playing fields, tennis courts, volleyball courts, etc! This side of the park has much more parking, and has several entry points to the trail around the lake.

All the way across the lake is the other entrance, on Lake Pine.

Lake Pine Walkers

Two Walkers Remembered - A Memorial Tree

On Saturday June 7th, on the bulletin board at the Lake Pine entrance of Lake Pine, this poster was on a bulletin board. Remembering two walkers, a man and his dog, who we will no longer see at the Lake, a memorial tree will be planted.

It's a sweet opportunity to contribute and be part of a community. For more information email GRMASNUGLZ@AOL.COM or call Pam Mesik at 363-1491.

The Great Pine at Lake Pine

Geese Family Outing

Lake Pine Walkers Help Find Lost Beagle

I just found this note in a 5/12/08 Post in Raleigh Craiglist Lost and Found.
Here's celebrating the collaboration of strangers!

The 5/12/2008 note said:

"I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped me find my beagle at Lake Pine this morning. I was scared to death that he was lost but because of the many nice people at the Lake this morning I was able to run to catch up with him as someone kept him from running further.

I couldn't help but compare it to the twilight bark from 101 Dalmations! I lost him behind the ball fields and was looking for him in the parking lot when I asked a biker if he had seem him. The biker not only told me where he was, but he turned around and rode halfway across the lake to let the people who were trying to catch him that I was on my way. I was touched that so many people helped me this morning and am thankful to live in such a wonderful community.

Special thanks to the biker and the woman with the twins and all of the others who pointed me in the right direction."

In a watery log

Giraffe Tree

Fern Slope

Ferns are not so common in well-traveled public parks like this. So it's very nice to see a whole area that has many ferns.

These ferns on Fern Slope are highlighted by the sun.























Click on the photo to see the detail. The ferns are in the middle of the photo, to the right of the tree with big green leaves.

Do you see what I saw?

Up in the Sky so High

Boats: Welcome There, not Here

Gray Bird in Tree

Anyone know what this bird is? See how beautifully camouflaged it is against the pine bark. It was poking about the tree trunk hopping and making a peeping sound. A few minutes later it flew up into the tree leaves - see the last photo.