Take a hike along the Eno River in winter and you'll likely have a nice commune with nature. Take that same hike as part of the Eno River Association's Sunday Winter Hikes series and you'll likely come away with a much broader experience.

On this Sunday's hike in the Fanny's Ford area, you'll discover that 100 years ago, solitude was hardly the order of the day here. One of the 42 mills that once operated along the Eno's 40-mile length was here, says Kathy Harris, who will lead Sunday's hike, and the mills did much more than turn the harvest into usable product.

"The mills offered any excuse for getting together," says Harris, who has been leading hikes along the Eno for 25 years. "One excuse was to have an ice cream social. They'd make their own ice cream out there, have picnics. They'd just get together to socialize."

For longer than even Harris can remember -- and she served on the 50-year-old group's first board of directors -- the association has been leading weekly winter hikes.

Currently, the hikes are every Sunday, January through March 5, beginning at 2 p.m. The hikes are typically 3 or 4 miles long and last 2 1/2 hours.

"Each one of the hikes explores a different part of the state park," says Emily Herbert, who coordinates programs for the river advocacy group. "We explore the cultural history and natural history."

The emphasis depends on who's leading the hike. The association has a diverse array of hike leaders, some of whom specialize by topic (botany, for instance) and some, such as Harris, by area. Harris has been leading hikes on nearby Cox Mountain for 25 years.

Among the other things you might learn from Harris on Sunday's hike:

* Just across the Eno, on the Buckquarter Creek tributary that feeds into the river, an American Indian village once existed. (It has yet to be excavated, Harris says.)

* During the region's heyday in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a black midwife lived in a little house on the river. "She cared for people on both sides of the river," says Harris, using Fanny's Ford to get back and forth across the Eno.

* Just down from Fanny's Ford are what remains of the Holden Mill. "Mr. Holden learned information from people on both sides of the river," Harris says. "He heard all the important things that go on in a community." Holden used that information, she adds, to get into politics.

In addition to the rich natural and cultural history, the winter hikes are prime time to explore the river.

"It's cool," says Harris. "It's no secret the humidity there in the summertime."

But, says Herbert, it's the expertise of the hike leaders that makes the Sunday hikes particularly special.

"It's more than just a walk in the woods."