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. 

Oct 20 Sugar Maples in Kirchner Woods

 

Thanks to the Stowe Land Trust for making this small 75 acre property open to the public. Once a family sugarbush, operating for over 50 years until the 1990s, the land now has a 4 mile trail system through its mature forest. A sugarbush is a Sugar maple tree forest used in the production of maple syrup. We all think of Vermont as the center of this activity but Quebec now accounts for 70% of the world's production. 

The Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is predominately used as the source of the sap for the syrup. Other maples are also used to a lesser extent including Red maple, Black maple and Florida maple (also known as Southern Sugar maple). The sugar content of the sap is highest in Sugar maples. Depending on the content, a gallon of syrup requires about 30 gallons of sap, give or take. Mature trees are tapped in the late winter when temperatures are often freezing at night and warming during the day. The sap rises and falls in the tree during this time allowing sap to be extracted. There is a one to two month window for collecting sap. 

The sugar house ruins

Sap used to be collected in buckets and emptied daily into larger vats. Buckets were replaced by plastic bags and now by a system of tubing. A tubing system connects every tree at the tap point, using gravity to flow the sap from the highest elevation trees to the lowest where a collection station is located. 

Then it is time to boil away the water in the sap. The sugar house here, used a long rectangular vat heated by a wood fire below. Often, boiled sap would be transferred to a smaller vessel for the final boil which needed to be more controlled. The final boil was the art of making syrup, trying to get the color and taste correct for the most expensive grade - light amber grade A. I prefer the darker grades which tend to have a stronger flavor bordering on burnt. Maybe that is because that is the way I used to make it as a kid. It would be dark outside while boiling and hard to control the heat of a fire. I had one batch just turn to sugar. It was like hard sugar candy.

Bucket dump

Paper birch trees are also used to make a syrup to much lesser extent. It is used more as a flavoring for beverages and sauces. The sugar in birch sap is fructose and glucose. Maples have the more complex sucrose in the sap.

This maple is not letting go

Oct 19 Little River State Park - Vermont

 

This is my 3rd or 4th visit here. It is a popular place but it being a dreary mid October weekday, very few folks were out on the trails. 

My hike was a loop through an area once settled with many rock foundations and several cemeteries. Here is the commentary from the State Park brochure:

In the early 1800s, pioneers cleared fields, rocks, and stumps in Ricker Basin and Cotton Brook. A settlement of 50 or so families once lived in this area. The hard demands of the land and weather forced younger generations to abandon the farms. Today, old cemeteries, sawmill remains, old town roads, bridges and many cellar holes can still be seen as evidence of a past community.

On November 3 and 4 of 1927, torrential rains caused local rivers to rise and drove residents to their roofs. Between 1935 and 1938 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, constructed Waterbury Reservoir. The CCC camp here was a fully operating, thriving community with more than 80 buildings, and housing 2,000 men at its peak. Now, half a century later, only a few solitary chimneys and concrete foundations remain.

Having hiked the Ricker Farm Trail and Stevenson Brook Trail on previous visits, I opted for the Dalley Loop Trail this visit. The commentary on the interpretive sign at the above house foundation stated that the nearby barn ruins had once supported an 83' long barn. It was construction with an 83' long spruce pine serving as the ridgepole. 

Ruins of the 83' long barn

Artesian well near a house foundation

I visited 3 cemeteries on this loop hike. The stones are made from locally quarried marble. Normally, when I visit old cemeteries, the stones are discolored and engravings are eroded. This marble holds up very well and makes the cemetery look clean and nicely maintained. That is quire a contrast to southern New England cemeteries which have sandstone gravestones.  

Oct 18 Bellow Falls Petroglyphs

 

This was an interesting side trip heading up I-91 in southern Vermont. Bellow Falls Vermont lies on the Connecticut River right where Bellow or Great Falls is located. The townspeople built a canal around the falls to navigate on the river. These petroglyphs are located on that section of the river which the canal bypasses. There are dams on the downriver side of the canal and just above the petroglyph site where the falls would have been. See photo below taken from the petroglyph site. 

Reverend Robert McClure of Dartmouth College wrote about the site in 1789 and attributed the carvings to the local Abenaki tribe. Over time, speculation on the origin and meaning of the carvings have been debated with no definitive answers. Dating the carvings is almost impossible. In the 1930s, the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution hired a local stone cutter to recarve the heads since they had eroded by river water for so many years. In 1961 someone added yellow paint so they could be seen better. You can see some of that paint today. There are yellow painted bars above the two petroglyph sites so they can be located from above. 

From the site looking downriver

The carvings are located down a steep rock forming on the west side of the Connecticut River gorge. They can be accessed by walking from downtown Bellow Falls on Bridge Street to the now closed Vilas Bridge. They can be seen from above near the bridge entrance. To get down to them, follow the side road on the bridge entrance on the right about 50 yards. There is a faint trail here which disappears once you are on solid rock. When I went, there was a local fellow above guiding me to the site. I may have found it on my own if I had taken the time to see them from above and locate a route to them along the rocks. Wear shoes with good grip. The rocks can be slick. 

Note the drippy yellow paint at the top of the photo. 

In 1990 the site was placed on the Register of Historic Places. The documentation for that placement mentioned that the figures are consistent with corn husk masks of the Abenaki Indians. 

A yellow painted bar above marks the site

The site encompasses two panels located about 30 feet from each other. There is a panel of 8 and a panel of 16 figures. Some have these weird extraterrestrial-like antennas convincing some folks that the Indians were visited by aliens. I must say that they don't look like feathers or antlers. They look like early era television antennas. 

The site has been damaged as I wrote earlier. There may have been other cravings here which could have eroded away by water or could be hidden from view by shifting rocks. Dynamiting the logjams below the falls could also have obscured some. When the canal was built nearby, an Abenaki burying ground was disturbed. Could that have some significance to the site??

There are a few other Native American carvings in the area including one underwater in Brattleboro. These are the most extensive of those. 

Two yellow bars can barely be seen in the photo to mark the petroglyph location.