Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail (Hillsborough, NC)

Overview: The Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail (HOST), a 44-acre preserve and historical site, includes three miles of trails that take visitors around the original speedway (open from 1948-68), or alternately, along the banks of the Eno River. This trail is set to join the statewide Mountains to the Sea Trail.

Directions: Travel south on I-85. Take exit 165 and turn right onto NC 86. Continue straight through the first stop light (intersection of NC 86 and US 70) for 0.5 miles. The entrance to the park will be on the right hand side, across from the Vietri glass store.

Observations & Ponderings: A walk along the Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail can transport visitors back to the NASCAR's inaugural 1949 season. Sitting on the original stands, visitors can almost hear the crowd roaring and the tires squealing. Sitting on those same stands, listening to hawks overhead, can also transport you further back in time, when the Occaneechi indians roamed the Eno River valley.

Starting at the HOST entrance, along Elizabeth Brady Road, visitors are greeted by large box elders (Acer negundo), spleenwort ferns and coralberries just beginning to leaf out. White throated sparrows zip in and out of the shrubby understory. Further down the trail, just past the little creek, giant worty hackberries (Celtis laevigata) and solid cherries (Prunus serotina), with their potato-chip bark, encourage visitors to head towards the old speedway.

Black cherry (Prunus serotina) bark, Hillsborough Occoneechee Speedway Trail, Hillsborough, NC, March 29 2009 (© Nicolette Cagle)

After passing the cherry-bark oak (Quercus pagoda), continue down the gravel path and hang a right at "future trail east." Here, you will be greeted by the open blooms of spring-beauties, the babbling of the Eno River and, if you're lucky, a slithering snake!

Brown snake (Storeria dekayi), Hillsborough Occoneechee Speedway Trail, Hillsborough, NC, March 29 2009 (© Nicolette Cagle)

Spring-beauty (Claytonia virginica), Hillsborough Occoneechee Speedway Trail, Hillsborough, NC, March 29 2009 (© Nicolette Cagle)

Within a few minutes, you will hit the old track. This easy to walk, gravel path offers up singing migrants, including yellow-rumped warblers, yellow throated warblers and Louisiana waterthrushes, as well as a plethora of spring flowers (e.g., cutleaf toothwort, early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginica), hairy woodrush and giant chickweed).

Cutleaf toothwort (Cardamine concatenata), Hillsborough Occoneechee Speedway Trail, Hillsborough, NC, March 29 2009 (© Nicolette Cagle)

From Triangle Naturalist

Hairy woodrush (Luzula echinata), Hillsborough Occoneechee Speedway Trail, Hillsborough, NC, March 29 2009 (© Nicolette Cagle)

From Triangle Naturalist

Giant chickweed (Stellaria pubera), Hillsborough Occoneechee Speedway Trail, Hillsborough, NC, March 29 2009 (© Nicolette Cagle)

After enjoying the natural wonders of HOST, feel free to sit down in the old stands and envision this place as it once was, whether that be with a crowd cheering on speeding stockcars or with American indians furtively stalking a deer...

From Triangle Naturalist

Old stands on the Hillsborough Occoneechee Speedway Trail, Hillsborough, NC, March 29 2009 (© Nicolette Cagle)