Rich Fork Preserve — Local services in High Point

8-13-21

Lot can hold maybe 10+ cars. Signage at the lot with map. Light to moderate traffic. Hiking only to the right and bike/hike combined to the left.

Right/Hiking only:

About .20 miles to the Conner trails on a gravel type trail passing a house and dilapidated sheds. The Conner Nature Trail is .22 miles. It has switchbacks and hills down to a creek. Not flowing and rather ordinary. Sand with occasional roots. The Conner Trail Loop (.37 miles) is also sand with hills. Nothing scenic here. Both trails have lower canopy with dense forest. Expect periodic webs. These trails are EXCELLENT for hiking fitness for wind and speed with the hills. The trails move fast.

Left/Hike and Bike:

It is hard to make sense of this side of the preserve as far as trail names and where you are. The signage along the trails doesn't give a name but just inner and outer loops. I just do everything. I didn't track the length for this spot (I did for my entire hike however...see below). Sand throughout with occasional roots. Well formed. Hills galore. One stream crossing that would require a biker to dismount (in my opinion) and two bridges to cross. I mentioned the hills and this side of the preserve is also an EXCELLENT place to work on hiking fitness particularly speed and wind. Also moves fast since it is well formed. Nothing scenic however.

Takeaways:

1)This isn't a scenic hike. Don't come here looking for that. It's ordinary and probably a 2-3 star hike for that.

2)I have seen deer and turtles each of the five or so times I have been here. Today (on the bike/hike side) a small Corgi type dog chased three deer maybe 10 meters in front of me. The dog looked at me and went back into the woods. The Conner Loop had one deer that saw me and ran off. So they are here. Turtles I saw today were closer to the bridges.

4)I always do every trail at a place like this and my tracker put it at 3.73 miles (6 km). As mentioned before, EXCELLENT place to work on fitness. Trail etiquette has been excellent here with folks letting faster traffic move by.

In general, this isn't a destination hike for me but I will hit it if in the area. Nothing scenic. The wildlife, the well-formed trail with hills (excellent workout), and the lighter traffic gives it a little oomph. Otherwise this is a...

This was a fantastic area to explore and hike while visiting High Point. It feels like your out in the middle of nowhere in some great big national forest! Very green and shaded, the trail we did was very well marked. We took the Connery Nature trail a few times. There were some interesting old houses / structures that we enjoyed passing by. The icing on the cake was the stream waiting at the end. The kids had a blast wading through the stream, playing in the sand. We only came across one other person while on this walk which added to the remote feeling of the area. The way back is a little steep but still very doable. We have seven kids ages 3-17 and all handled the trail just fine. We would definitely come back if we were...

Great place to go mountain biking riding, with pretty good trails. They have a few finished trails with more on the way, and while their basic they have an ok variety of trails. The berms are not too great, but they do have many of them which do help in the long run. The trails starts off with a kind of flow trail and then uphill to the start of the main loop and then downhill until you cross a bridge where it continues to flip between uphill and downhill, but not in a flow trail type of manner ending with a satisfying downhill. I definitely recommend biking on the trail, but you need to be aware there is only about 10 parking spaces and no bathrooms except the...