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 NASCAR’s inaugural 1949 season. Sitting on the original stands, you 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 warty hackberries (Celtis laevigata) and black cherries (Prunus serotina)—with their unmistakable “potato-chip” bark (photographed here on March 29, 2009)—encourage visitors to head toward the old speedway.
After passing the cherry-bark oak (Quercus pagoda), continue down the gravel path and hang a right at “future trail east.” Here, spring-beauties open along the path (also photographed March 29, 2009), the Eno River babbles nearby, and—if you’re lucky—you may spot a slithering surprise. On that same late-March walk, I photographed a well-camouflaged brown snake (Storeria dekayi) along this stretch.
Within a few minutes you’ll reach the old track. This easy-to-walk gravel loop offers singing migrants, including yellow-rumped warblers, yellow-throated warblers, and Louisiana waterthrushes, along with a wealth of early spring flowers. On March 29, 2009, I photographed cutleaf toothwort (Cardamine concatenata), early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginica), hairy woodrush (Luzula echinata), and giant chickweed (Stellaria pubera) blooming along the track’s edge.
After enjoying the natural wonders of HOST, take time to sit in the old stands (photographed March 29, 2009) and imagine this place as it once was—whether with a crowd cheering on speeding stockcars, or with American Indians moving quietly through the Eno River valley.
Sense of Place 
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