Distance: 3.5 miles (one-way)
Degree of difficulty: Easy
Elevation Change: Gain, 401 feet; loss, 430 feet
Source: Great Day Hikes of North Carolina’s Mountains – to – Sea Trail
Hike #18 of the Mountains to Sea 40 Hike Challenge follows concurrently with the Laurel Bluffs Trail from Lake Brandt Marina to the N. Church St. Parking area. This series of trails offers excellent opportunities to experience many aspects of the nature preserve not far from the busy metro area of Greensboro and it’s surrounding neighborhoods. Lake Brandt offers different options for the public to experience the outdoors with fishing, canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding or just relaxing by the water. However, swimming is not allowed in Lake Brandt.
This portion of the MST is one of the longer sections that is currently on trail in Segment 8. If you are planning on doing just this specific day hike, you will be picking up the trail (assuming east bound) after it has traversed a distance of about 8 miles- starting from above Lake Higgins continuing around the south perimeter of Lake Brandt.
Starting at Lake Brandt Marina, the trail travels eastbound crossing Lake Brandt Rd and then venturing to the woods. Be aware that the trail here is on a grassy patch of land and the trail can be hidden to the right. When you see the large concrete culvert – take a right.
Soon after leaving the clearing, the trail continues briefly through a captivating bamboo forest. Many of these plants are 30 – 40 feet high.
At roughly 2 miles, the trail gets closer to Reedy Fork, however, from the trail it is difficult to get a good view of the tributary. It would be interesting to hike this later in the Fall to get a better view of the area.
One fascinating area is a section where the trail briefly comes out of the woods to something of a clearing, but in reality it is acres of Kudzu. I have lived long enough in North Carolina to know that this is part of the environment, even though it is not indigenous to our country. I guess this shows that the MST truly is reflective of portions of our state. I am sure the trail maintenance crews have their work cut out for them in keeping Kudzu under control. (Makes you wonder how much damage a crew of goats could do.)
The day hike ends at the Church St. parking area , but the MST continues on around a portion of Lake Townsend for approximately 6 more miles where Segment 8 ends at the Bryan Park soccer complex.
Overall the trail is well maintained and is easy to follow. Elevation gain is gentle and it makes for a relaxing walk.