Dec 11 Birkhead Loop

This PHOC hike took us through the Birkhead Wilderness of the Uwharrie National Forest. We began at the Tot Hill trailhead, headed for Rush's Mine, Fern Valley, back to the Birkhead Mountain Trail, lunch at Bingham's Graveyard, with a return via Hannah's Creek Trail, Robin's Branch Trail and finally out on the Birkhead Mountain Trail. The GPS data for this hike varies from 12.2 to 12.5 miles with a 1400-1700 foot accumulated elevation gain.

The springhouse above is at Rush's Mine. Mining ceased in the area around 1910. The metal crank used for raising dirt and ore out of Rush's Mine is still in place in the last hole to be mined. There are several other holes nearby including 2 just a few yards apart. I think there may have been a vein someone was mining horizontally when either a collapse  or another hole was dug.

Fern Valley stills looks green with all its ferns and holly trees.

Dec 3 Hiking the High Line

Back in 1930 the city of New York began a massive project on the west side, near the meatpacking district. The project was to remove freight trains from street level where they posed a safety hazard. Elevating the railroad tracks cost a fortune, $2 billion in today's dollars. The tracks were used until 1980. In the late 1990's a plan to remove the elevated tracks was opposed  by a neighborhood group which later became the Friends of the High Line. Today they provide 90% of the funding to maintain the park, although it is a city park owned by the city.

Portions opened in 2009 and 2011 and now it runs from West 34th Street to Gansevoort Street, roughly between 10th and 11th avenues. It is an extraordinary walk with many interesting twists.

Remember when looking at these photos, this is an elevated walkway. There are no street crossings. Access is via a series of steps and some elevators.

Dec 2 Lower East Side Food Hike

Our Lower East Side Food tour began on East Houston Street at Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery. Since 1910 this place has been serving knishes. It looks there may have been one remodel done in the 1950's. We ordered a potato knish, as seen below, divided into quarters and sampled.

It tastes like mashed potatoes in the center of a baked bun, slightly like a biscuit. At $2.80 it wasn't an indulgence but having had one, that may do it for me. There are many more tasty ways of consuming calories.

Barely a block away is Russ & Daughters. The attraction here are bagels. There a good size and fresh and tasty. However, at this place you can build your bagel into a real expensive meal. We ordered a plain bagel with chive cream cheese, Gaspe smoked salmon and onions and capers.

I've never seen so many smoked salmon choices. The stuff from Scotland is most expensive. At around $12 this was an indulgence. The salmon had a delicate flavor and you could easily bite it apart.

Same street and one more block away is the famous Katz Deli. Here there is a proper procedure in procuring your sandwich and experience.

Upon entering you are given a ticket. The ticket is presented every time you get food or drink so it can be marked. When leaving the ticket is collected and your meal is tallied up. I don't know what happens when you lose your ticket. You may sit and get waitress service, but only in the tables along the wall. Otherwise you get in line at the sandwich counter, tell the sandwich man what you want. We chose a pastrami sandwich on rye. The sandwich man slices a piece and lets you sample it. The meat is cut about 1/4 inch thick and just falls apart. It is tradition to place a one dollar bill in the sandwich man's tip cup. It looked like there was already $100 in it. The sandwich comes with some fresh pickles. For drinks, you get in another line for soda etc or go to the kitchen sink in the back with glasses marked clean, and pour some water from the tap. Remember we are in NYC and the tap water is good, fresh from upstate New York reservoirs. 

The walls are covered with photos of celebs, all on premise photos, no stock photos.

Next stop is Ray's Candy Store. I got an Egg Cream which appears to be carbonated water and chocolate syrup. And that is what it tasted like. The real hit here was the frozen yogurt. Seen here is pistachio. 

"Truth Justice and the Comics" I think Ray might be a bit of an oddball. 

Prosperity Dumpling is a bargain. You get 5 pork dumplings for $1. We also got a sesame pancake for $1. It tasted like a funnel cake.

We needed to sit down, so we ordered our juicy pork buns at Old Sichuan to be served at the table with hot tea. These pork buns were very good but also very filling. Dipped in soy sauce and handled with chopsticks, it was also fun. One of the fortune cookies here read:

"A good way to keep healthy is to eat more Chinese Food"

At the Chinatown Ice Cream factory we got 15% butterfat ice cream in Chinese flavors. I went for the Lychee.

One final stop on Friday's tour is New Beef King. Beef Jerky made daily. I got oyster flavored jerky, fruit flavored, spicy hot beef and pork. It was not chewy like most jerky.

Nov 26 South Mountains

This PHOC hike led by David Memory loops through the park. A major attraction on today's hike was the rocky outcrops shown above, called Chestnut Knob overlook which provided a pleasant vista of the surrounding mountains. We wandered through several different forest types beginning with mixed conifer, then pure conifer continuing to hardwood and climax hardwood. Shinny Creek is lined with mountain laurel and rhododendron. 

The most populated place in the park is in the vicinity of the waterfalls. This 80 footer drops in a nice pool. We climbed the wood steps and walkways providing excellent access for viewing the water show.

Nov 22 Lake Waccamaw State Park

Lake Waccamaw is the largest of the water filled bay lakes. There are over 500,000 bay lakes in the Atlantic Coastal Plain with most being in the the Carolinas. All are oval shaped, oriented northwest to southeast with sandy beaches on the southeast side. the picture above shows the horseshoe shape of sandy bottoms. Most of the bay lakes have filled with sediment and no longer are recognized except from above. Waccamaw is the only one fed by streams and canals. All others are dependent on rainfall. The other major difference is due to limestone deposits in Waccamaw that neutralizes the acidity found in all bay lakes.

Lake                                                   ph                                      Number of fish species

Salters                                               4.4                                                   14

Jones                                                 4.3                                                   13

White                                                4.9                                                    23

Singletary                                           4.6                                                   16

Waccamaw                                        6.9                                                   42

"Bay" has nothing to do with a body of water. It refers to the sweet bay, red bay and loblolly bay trees that grow around the lakes.

Oriented Lake Theory

As the sea receded beginning about 40,000 years ago, lakes were left in all shapes. Strong northwest winds caused water currents to shape the lakes into ovals. As the currents impacted on the southeast shore, the peat layer was worn away, exposing sand. Currents were forced both right and left at the SE shoreline, eventually exposing sand in a horseshoe shape.

The park has a 5.5 mile trail encompassing the southeast sandy shore of the lake to the outlet, the Waccamaw River which was dammed in the 30's to prevent water level fluctuation. There is a section of that trail that is infested with fire ants. Use caution walking there, their formic acid bites are not pleasant.

Nov 21 Singletary Lake State Park

The first thing I saw upon getting out of the car was this polypore attached to an oak tree. It is rather large.

Singletary Lake is the only North Carolina State Park serving groups only. There are two cabin complexes which can be reserved for groups. When they are occupied, the park is considered private and the public is not permitted. When the camps are vacant like today, you can contact the park office and receive permission to enter the park and have a look around. That is what I did. I didn't mean to follow the park boundary cut but that is what I ended up doing. I walked all around the 4 mile lake and didn't see it until the very end. Like all other Carolina Bay lakes, Singletary is oval  shaped and oriented north west to southeast with sandy beach on the southeast side. At 11.8 feet it is the deepest of the CB lakes.

Beginning around the lake I encountered this sandy terrain with Turkey leaf oaks sporting  nice red leaves. Again, this was the SE side of the lake.

It appears to be about a foot deep where I'm at on the pier. Out in the middle of the lake was a raft of Ring Neck ducks I estimated at 5000.

Cypress trees, accented with Spanish moss dominate the shoreline and the many sandbars on this side of the lake. Here we are again on the SE side of the lake.

Nov 21 Jones Lake State Park

When Jones Lake State Park opened in 1939 it was the first "black only" state park in NC. It integrated in 1964.

The park consists of two Carolina Bay lakes, Jones and Salters. The state owns the entire shoreline of each so they are undeveloped except for a small dock and beach on Jones. There are seven miles of trails completely encircling Jones and an "out and back" to Salters. 

Cypress knees are everywhere, in the water and on land.

The state owned forest next to Jones has a sizeable pine straw operation ongoing.

While at Salters I saw a couple Cormorants, a raft of Ring neck ducks and a few Coots.

Nov 20 Green Swamp

North Carolina's Green Swamp is a vast area of long leaf pine savannas, cypress swamps and pocosins. Also a Nature Conservancy owned tract. 

It appears to be a good area for deer hunting. The pine savannas offer long unobstructed views. Most of the hunting I saw along the roads was being aided by dogs. The dogs are released and run deer back to the shooting gallery.

These appear to be hooded pitcher plants. There were a number of groups but most look like the dry summer did them in.

Yellow Patches make an interesting mushroom.

Nov 20 Boiling Spring Lake Preserve

The Nature Conservancy owns this small tract of land in the town of Boiling Spring Lake, NC. I thought the preserve might involve the lake the but it does not. There is a 2 mile hiking trail leaving from the community center. It meanders through a maze of Turkey Leaf Oak trees like these above and below. The leaves' color was spectacularly red as you can see. This area was once a long leaf pine plantation supplying products mainly for British naval needs. Pines bark was cut in a V shape so sap would flow to the bottom of the V and could be collected. Sap was then burned in huge horse shoe shaped pits resulting in a substance which could be manufactured into turpentine, varnish or other preservatives. Some of the pits were located on the property but I could not detect any. Trade with Britain ceased during the Civil War and Britain located other suppliers.

November 13 American Tobacco Trail

It was a great day for a bicycle ride and to celebrate your 60th, not mine but one of the older women in the group.

We've been riding this route for a bit over a year. It is a 27 mile out and back. Some is paved, some is gravel but most is packed cinder. It was a very nice afternoon and the locals were taking advantage of it.

Next year at this time we may have a longer ride. Bids for the bridge over I-40 are opened Dec 15 and if it within the Triangle trails budget, it'll be contracted.

Patti rides on her Craigslist bike.

Nov 11 Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area

A state natural area administered by Eno River State Park and located adjacent to I-85 in the vicinity of the I-85 and I-40 split. Beginning in the parking area, walking the loop trail right next to the interstate did diminish the experience. It was about 20 minutes before we turned the corner far enough from the road that we heard only the distant highway noise. Occoneechee Mountain, at 867' is the highest point in Orange County. It is unusual that the summit is just a couple hundred yards from the Eno River, the main drainage in the area. The entire side of the mountain facing the Eno is carved out having once been a quarry. 

Here I am crossing the Eno on a fallen Beech tree. Beech trees are found along the river. Most of the rest of the property is dominated by Chestnut Oaks. Also riverside were Catawba Rhododendron, Mountain Laurel and Galax. Those are not plants found in man nearby locations. The Brown Elfin Butterfly is also found here, although we didn't see any on this chilly November day. Brown Elfins are not seen anywhere else nearby until you get 100 miles away in the foothills of the Blue Ridge.

There are still some colorful leaves along this section of the loop trail next to the Eno River.

Here you can see the upper slops of the mountain and the scarred remains of the quarry. It appears the rock is unstable on these quarry slopes and thus closed to any type climbing.

We enjoyed the short walk, less than 3 miles in this natural area. It definitely seems out of place for its surroundings.