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Each month, we’ll throw a dart at a map and write about where it lands.

LOCATION: Clark’s Creek Greenway 9729 Mallard Creek Rd.

9729 mallard creek Rd.

The Squirrels’ Playground

It’s a year of bounty for the giddy rodents at this bucolic University City greenway

GOOD HEAVENS, the squirrels are lucky. They seem almost giddy as they jump between branches, chase each other up trees, and race through leaves at Clark’s Creek Greenway on a Sunday a ernoon.

For Charlotte’s oak trees, this is a “mast year,” when the trees synchronize and overproduce nuts. It happens every two to ve years, and here, you can’t miss it. Acorns carpet the ground on either side of the paved trail, ensuring a months-long feast for the squirrels.

“Whoa, mama!” yells a preschooler walking with his mom as an acorn drops from the tree canopy and lands on his shoulder. They hear a rustle overhead and look up. Did a squirrel drop it, or did it simply fall?

New housing developments and businesses constantly sprout from the ground in University City, as in so many areas of Charlotte. This greenway begins at Mallard Creek Elementary School, which as of early November had come alive again on weekdays with kids back in classrooms.

But on this serene, winding trail, with a babbling brook as a soundtrack, it’s fun to forget all that’s out there and think of yourself as just another creature on the squirrels’ playground. —Cristina Bolling