Apr 28 Mayo River Flowers

 

Bluebells

Today's like is on another Mayo River State Park parcel, opened to the public for about a year now. The dead end dirt road has parking for about 8 vehicles if they are parked without social distancing. It appeared we passed a homesite on the drive in. there were small white daffodils - the late blooming variety. The parking lot had a clump as well but the real treat there were the Bluebells, above.

Pinxter

We hiked in on an old road, passing another homesite before getting to the Mayo in about 1/2 mile. Here there was a large community of Ragwort and Robin's Plantain in the flood plain.

We followed Hickory Creek for about 1/2 mile, seeing a large number of Pinxter Azaleas and a lovely encounter with a Scarlet Tanager. The rock features of the creek were quite attractive. We located an old ford across the creek. 

Scarlet Tanager 

Often heard but not easily seen, this Tanager was low, near the ground, silent and quite oblivious to our presence.

Once we had made our way up the creek to a stopping point, we retraced back to the Mayo. At the river, we followed it along river right. There was a tremendous amount of sand along this stretch. 

Dwarf Ginseng

In this sandy areas, we encountered a quite large area of Dwarf ginseng and Foam Flower. 

Maidenhair Ferns

Yellow Sorrel

Eventually, we turned left after crossing a small creek and headed up back to the road. There was a nice area of Showy Orchis here.  Once on the road, we passed an old tobacco barn with a clump of Star of Bethlehem. The entire hike was about 3.5 miles and quite easy for an offtrail jaunt.

Star of Bethlehem

Apr 26 Mayo River State Park Scramble

 

Domesticated Azalea 

This section of Mayo River State Park is accessed via a nondescript dirt road off of Rt 220 north of Mayodan. There was room for two or maybe three cars in the tall grass. We pulled up and started walking in on a gated road, completely overgrown. It was not long before we passed an old homesite with these wonderful Azaleas. It looked like the property had been inhabited by some counterculture folks. There was an old bus with a screened in porch. Also a picnic style shelter with a brick grill which looked like it had been used once.  

The road led to the Mayo which we followed for a while before climbing up the calcareous cliffs.

Cliff Stonecrop

We walked a big loop, along the river and then high above the river to get back. We also crossed a tributary of the Mayo to walk along an old sluice and saw the remnants of an old mill. The mill stone was about a 1/4 mile down stream. 

The old pumphouse which got its water from a nearby stream, supplied the building below, in much disrepair today.

Apr 3 Burnt Pine Hike and Flora MacDonald

 

Allan and Flora really lived in the Uwharries. It was for a year or two and then they got mixed up on the wrong side of a battle. It seems Flora has a propensity for picking the wrong side. We are on Forest Service property and there place was right here along Cheek Creek in Montgomery County.

I mentioned to a friend that I heard that Flora MacDonald lived in this area. Little did I know that my friend maintained the memorial and knew every inch of their property. Then she took me to the unusual cemetery next.

Next stop on the history tour of the county is to a forgotten cemetery on a dead end road. These gravestones seem very much out of place for these parts. There had to be a sizeable Celtic population here. Check out the shape and the names on these graves. 

Burnt Pine is a private land holding in the area. We took a tour with the owner. It was organized by Three Rivers Land Trust.