CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/31068
One step at a time on the Cape Fear River Trail | By Rebekah Sanderlin ON THE RUN T here was no trail here when settlers arrived two hundred and fifty years ago to create the neighboring towns of Cross Creek and Campbellton. There was no covered bridge, no railroad trestle and no benches on which to sit, rest and take in the natural beauty. There was only a wide river, tall trees and a mass of tangled roots, rocks and vines. That’s what I think about as I wind my way around the four mile stretch of the Cape Fear River Trail. The entrance to the trail is off Ramsey Street near Methodist College and Jordan Soccer Complex. The trail has quickly become a favorite spot for runners, walkers and bikers. I am running and, as such, desperately searching for anything to take my mind off running. No trail was needed here when settlers arrived because the people who traveled this ground so many years ago weren’t here for exercise. They didn’t know about their blood pressure and for them starving to death was of much greater concern than looking good in a bikini. In fact, the idea of a bikini would have offended their sensibilities. They moved through our region on foot and on flat boats. They carried their scant possessions on their backs and prayed that their food supplies would last. They dreamed of freedom and of being left alone. They fell in love and they buried babies along these riverbanks, not sure where their journeys would end. For some, this area became their home, far from the fighting and misfortune of their homelands. Others kept on moving, staying here days, weeks or months before pushing westward — ever west. The tat-tat-tat sound my feet make as I run would have been a foreign noise to my ancestors who never heard the sound of running shoes on pavement. They ran only from or towards danger and did not know that running was a sport, or that physical exertion could be considered recreation. But my feet make a sound like a snare drum as they hit the pavement, like the sound the drums made as soldiers headed into battle two CityViewNC.com | 53