The magic of Maple View Farm quietly exists near the outskirts of Hillsborough. Among the green fields filled with an innumerable amount of cows, a small ice cream shop sits on top of a hill. The ice cream in the small wooden building has become a novelty for UNC students, and deservedly so. It is absolutely delicious.
My roommate and I excitedly looked at the blue line tracing an 8-mile journey from Ehringhaus to the farm on Google Maps.
“This is totally doable,” we agreed. “16 miles round trip —that’s nothing. Plus we get ice cream.”
Because we do not own bikes, we rented a pair of Tar Heel bikes from the lobby of our dorm and prepared ourselves for the journey ahead.
With Google Maps in one hand and a handlebar in the other, we slowly made our way in and out of Carrboro, disrupting plenty of traffic on the way.
We learned about the importance of bike lanes and found a new respect for bikers as we were whipped by the wind of cars angrily swerving around us.
We stopped and admired tiny Carrboro neighborhoods, large Carrboro horses grazing on the side of the road and beautiful stretches of quiet road.
About an hour after our departure, we slowly rolled into the parking lot of the ice cream shop, out of breath and in small amounts of pain.
We walked into the shop and were greeted by twangy accents and welcoming smiles. I asked for one scoop of coconut ice cream and one scoop of raspberry pomegranate sorbet. The colorful scoops were packed into a homemade waffle cone, created on waffle irons right behind the ice cream counter.
After paying for our treats, my roommate and I headed outside onto the back porch and took a seat in two wooden rocking chairs. The ice cream was magnificent and the view was even better. To see an open stretch of farmlands just a few miles from campus made us appreciate the place where we live more than ever.
We made our way through our enormous mounds of ice cream and considered the prospect of biking home.
“It’s cold.”
“My legs hurt.”
“Let me text someone to drive us back.”
“Perfect.”
We did not complete the full adventure. We called ourselves failures and made apologetic faces to the kind soul who returned us to our dorm. We turned the 16-mile bike ride into an 8 mile-bike ride and consumed at least 500 calories.
However, the bucket list simply instructs its participants to get ice cream from Maple View Farm. Which we did. And it was amazing.
Do not miss out on the bucket list item #21. Maybe just take a car to the farm to save some time.
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