The Land Trust for Central North Carolina does wonderful work in the Uwharrie area. One of their projects is to create a corridor filling in the gap between Birkhead Mountain trail and the present Uwharrie Trail. The original UT crossed private land through this gap and was later abandoned as land changed hands and areas were timbered. Central acquired King Mountain and surrounding land a couple years ago. Long Mountain is owned now by the Plant Conservation Program (PCP), a state organization that manages for native plants. And now this final small gap between the two, Little Long Mountain or Bald Mountain, is for sale and Central has an option to buy pending a funding source. At the trailhead, Jason Walser, Central's director, stood on the back bumper of a pick-up to address the 35 or so people gathered. In his remarks, Jason stated that funding at the state level had dried up but despite the feds being in even worse financial condition, they were still writing checks and this could possibly be an earmark target.
Everyone made the mile hike up to the top where there are terrific views in all directions. There were so many kindred spirits and wonderful folks on this outing. Carol Fountain with PLC made the trip. My buddies, Matt Bennett and Mike Chisholm were there. Mike actually blazed the UT through this area 40 years ago. The NC Zoo snakeman, Mark Lewis kept a constant vigil for snakes of any type. I think he spotted and Northern Ring, all 6 inches of it. Boon Chesson, the longleaf pine conservationist joined along. There were fellows from Clean Water and Wildlife there too. And one fellow from Salisbury called Tux. Tux appeared to be a native American. He carried a beautiful staff with a leather grip and leather tassels. Attached to two were a Bald Eagle feather and a Golden Eagle feather. Tux happily pointed out, "white men can't possess these".
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