Dec 8 Little Caraway Creek Check Dam

 

Located near Earnhardt Road, this dam has been breached on river right. It appears that an earthen dam on river right accompanies the stone dam. Creek water has blown a hole in that earthen dam and now the creek flows freely around the stone dam. One outlet can be seen here. There does not appear to be another. 

We estimated the length of the stone dam to be about 100 feet with 80 of those feet at river level. The rest is built up on a hill alongside the the creek. There is a stone structure rising up from the dam on river left. A brick structure rises up from river level to above the dam on river right. The brick structure is right where the dam was breached and may have been an attempt to prevent the earthen dam from eroding. Or both of these structures could have supported a swing arm used during the dam construction. However, it is unclear to me that the brick structure was part of the original build. It is made with mortar and there is little mortar elsewhere in the dam.

In this photo, the brick structure looks like a buttress. 

It could have a hollow interior. 

This is the up river side of the dame. The outlet can be seen. It was completely covered up with debris and silt before the owner, Steve dug it out. There is a metal rod protruding from the dam on top of the outlet. That may have been used to hold a gate to close the outlet. 

After visiting this dam, we walked to another on a tributary. It was of a different construction. The check dams we have seen are very nicely engineered with tight fitting stones, a sloped top on the upriver side and   with water outlets. This dam had none of that and was likely designed to impound water behind it. 

Dec 7 Haw River Trail at Shallow Ford

 

The Haw River Trail (land trail not the paddle trail) is a planned 80 mile trail from Haw River State Park to Jordan Lake State Recreation Area. About 20 miles have been completed. Much of it will also be part of the Mountains to Sea Trail. My hike today was from the Shallow Ford Natural Area, an Alamance County Park. The Haw River Trail is incorporated into the park and for about .6 mile outside the park boundary.

I located 3 homesites in the area. This one has a huge circular pit. I wondered if this might have been for a well. Artesian wells were dug in a huge cone shape and filled in after reaching the desired depth, usually 40-60 feet. 

This rock lined structure was likely a dairy or ice cellar. The nearby river would have provided ice. Often the ice was insulated with hay and could last well into summer. 

Another homesite

After walking along the river as far as the trail went, I backtracked to this stone structure next to the river. It is not a bridge and not a dam across the river. I walked around here for about 30 minutes during to figure out the purpose. It is possible that water was diverted from the river but for what purpose. There appears to be a channel for the water to get back into the river about 100 yards from the structure. Join me next time and we'll figure it out. 

This has to be one of the most underrated trails in the area. The views along the river were quite scenic. The river is loaded with rocks. riffles, rapids and dead trees, big and small. 

Dec 6 Raven Rock Tour

 

Today was a PHOC pickup hike led by Hubert. Our route took us on every hiking trail except The Northington Ferry trail. The photo above is a rapid known as Lanier Falls. The trail to the river is the Campbell Creek Loop Trail. It goes along the creek for a good distance. There are many American Hornbeam trees, large Loblollies, many American Holly trees and others. 

Over to the other side of the park, we hiked the Little Creek Trail, American Beech Trail, Raven Rock Trail and finally the Fish Traps Trail. The massive staircase at Raven Rock is a neat engineering feat. It appears to be in good condition still. There is a massive Oak tree here that has Resurrection  fern on every branch. The rock's overhang would shelter a great number of people in rainy weather. 

This is the largest Native American structure I have seen in North Carolina. The fish traps were sealed at the downriver end with rocks, allowing the water to flow through but not the fish. 

The Cape Fear River

Nov 30 Biles Mountain Hike

 

"Biles Mountain", never heard of it. In fact, if you google search it, all you will find is a newspaper piece from the Stanly News and Press written by Crystal Cockman, Associate Director of the Three Rivers Land Trust. 

I had heard from a Carolina Climbing Coalition member that they were applying to the state to open up a climbing area in Morrow Mountain State Park. Having been around that park for years, I couldn't think of an area that could be used for climbing or bouldering. Using Alltrails, I looked for the dark green shade that indicates an area is rocky. A suspicious area was spotted and it coincided with the area Crystal mentioned in the news piece. 

Rather than start from inside the park, I drove to the Falls reservoir boat launch. From there I followed an old road into the park heading toward the Large Loop Bridle trail. Just after passing through a floodplain I noticed some rock outcrops and figured this was the place. Heading up, the rocks got bigger until at the very high point were the largest rocks.  

Biles Mountain forms a long ridge with at least a half mile covered in boulders. It was located right along the park boundary. A line of deer stands delineated the property line. For the most part, the ridgetop was grassy with a mix of Chestnut Oaks and Shagbark Hickories. Sparkleberry bushes with there bright red leaves were easy to spot. 

You are right on the property line of the state park. The deer stands detracted from the experience and will be an issue if this is the area that will be open to bouldering. I saw one with a staircase and two handrails. And I did see a fair number of deer on the ridge.

As everyone know, Morrow Mountain (the mountain itself) is the main source of rhyolite used by Native Americans in making tools at the nearby Hardaway site. Sugarloaf and Hattaway Mountains also have quarries on them. It does not appear any such quarrying existed on Biles Mountain. The same goes for nearby Stony Mountain. I'd guess that the quality of the rock was not suitable for tool making. The rock on Morrow, Sugarloaf and Hattaway fractures in nice sharp edges. These probably don't. Next visit I plan to loo more closely for signs of quarrying. 

This looks like prime Timber Rattlesnake territory. The snakes will congregate in a den for the colder months. Ideally, the den will have a south facing rock that the snakes can lounge on while soaking up heat from the sun on warm sunny days.

I was amazed at the size of this outcrop area. It seemed to go on and on. As I made my way slightly downward toward the park entrance, there is a depression. It appeared dry but judging from the different grasses and caked mud, it was an ephemeral pool.  

After the rocks diminished to smaller and smaller in size, I was almost at the park entrance road. It was along here, a few large cedars attracted my attention.  

The trees could have been an old homesite. Although, I didn't see any foundation rocks or chimney fall, I did see this rock lined well. 

Above is the service road which connected the Large Loop Bridle Trail to Falls Road (the road to the boat launch). 

On the opposite side of Falls Road, I thought it would be fun to hike around before returning to my car. That is where I encountered this quartz field. They appear to have been dug. This area become steep and punctuated with deep gullies which were difficult to get through. After a couple slips and slides in the gullies, I was ready to leave. 

Nov 5 A Bird Island Reserve Paddle

 

It's more than just a Kindred Spirit mailbox. This almost 1200 acre reserve became publicly owned in  2002 after a intriguing ownership by the Price family of Greensboro. Almost exclusively visited by a beach walk from Sunset Beach NC, we wanted a different approach, via water. Paddling in from the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) was the plan. Using a navigation app, we crossed the ICW at Bonaparte Landing. Crossing the ICW was a little tricky on this Sunday. Boats travelling the ICW don't slow down and can create some swells you need to be prepared for. 

Once across the ICW and safely in Bonaparte Creek, there were only a few small motorboats. We paddled to the remnants of this pier once used by the Price family. Nearby, we were able to beach the kayaks on a sandy strip. We made our way by foot to the nature loop trail. At high tide, we might not have been able to do that. It was nice to stand on firm ground for a while. We saw some sea ox eyes while walking around.

Cordgrass dominates the salt marshes. Besides the salt marshes, there are 5 other habitats in the reserve- beach, sand dunes, maritime grasslands, maritime shrub tickets and mud flats. 

Oysters line the banks. They would be underwater at high tide.

After our water tour of Bird Island, we paddled back across the ICW to a spot where we thought we could access an old road on a spit of undeveloped land. It looked to be about 200 acres bordering the ICW and a tidal creek. We located a spot to land the boats. Then we made our way through a thick forest until we stumbled upon this paved road. It was narrow and being overtaken by vegetation. 

Then we came upon this bathroom in the middle of the woods. We wandered around following paved and unpaved roads. We were right at the NC/SC border. After a short exploration we returned to the boats. I later learned this was a golf course built in 1989 and probably abandoned around 2008 when may courses went out of business here.  

The rental home we stayed in, overlooked Bird Island just at the other side of the creek. Sunsets were spectacular and provided a great backdrop for happy hour.

Remnants of the Prices' bridge from Sunset Beach to Bird Island can be seen in the far right of this photo. You might need to enlarge to see the posts.