Helen was pregnant with Jordan and we were looking for a place to settle down. Local Realtor Jackie Tanner showed us a few houses, took us to lunch at Weaver Street while music played outside and then pointed us to Bolin Creek for a stroll in the woods.

Needless to say, we were sold.

When Helen, Jordan and I moved here six months later, we looked for a house along the Bolin Creek trail. While we didn't find a house there (we live nearby in southern Chapel Hill), we adore Bolin Creek for exactly what it is.

Paved paths through wooded areas have their place. But not along Bolin Creek. Dave Otto suggested in these pages that flooding and mud occurs along the trail. Of course it does. It's the woods. Flooding and mud happens. Truth be told, if you pave it, you might eliminate the mud, but not the flooding. Likely, the flooding will get worse if what happens on the pavement in front of my house is any indication. But I digress.

It's great that our kids can stroll through actual trails in the woods right here in the center of town. As for paved paths for bicycles, wheelchairs and the like, there are miles of paved paths through natural settings that already exist in our area. I vote in Chapel Hill, but were I to vote in Carrboro it would be for an unpaved Bolin Creek trail.

Jesse Kalisher

Chapel Hill