Located in Davidson County, near the former town of Newson, this NCWRC property is sporting a new hiking trail to the top of Bald Mountain. There is a small parking area with a lone sign indicating it is 1.2 miles to the top. At 950' Bald Mountain fits right into the nearby topography.
I was not able to locate the quarry conveyor which is still located on the mountain. The quarry operated during the time period that the nearby dams were being built.
The trail begins in an recent timber cut and transitions to a mature forest loaded with American Holly. The trail zig zags up the mountain and is not blazed. Try to stay on the trail. With leaves off trees, I was looking at Tuckertown Reservoir most of the time.
USGS survey disk is near the top. Limited views west and north are here. My peakfinder app showed the Grandfather Mountain area but a slight haze prevented me from seeing it.
The view Northwest has Tuckertown and maybe High Rock lakes. High Rock Mountain takes up much of the north view.
When Badin Dam was built, a railroad serviced it. It is built right alongside the lake. It looks like you could follow the railroad tracks to access the Bald Mountain trail too.
There are two homesites on the property that I found. One is small and probably a small cabin. There was a short line of daffodils marking the site entrance.
A more extensive home was offtrail. The area had many daffodils popping up and a couple Trifoliate Orange brier bushes.
Near the home I found an embossed beer bottle from the Darley Park Brewing Company of Baltimore. They were in business for just a couple years around 1900. This huge tree trunk blocked my way back to the parking area. Many large trees are still standing in the forest nearest the lake and railroad tracks. Everywhere else has seen a more recent timber cut and a fire must have burned underbrush at some point in the past 10 years.
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