Cooper Mtn Cemetery Spruced Up

The old sign was shot up and rotting. This one is quite nice. Someone salvaged the fence and gate, put up new posts and dressed up the trailside of the cemetery.

Thanks to whomever is responsible for this restoration.

March 29 Uwharrie Beaver Dam

If you follow the Birkhead Mountain Trail to its Hannah Creek crossing, you'll find the water is higher than normal. Walk downcreek about .2 mile and you'll understand why. Look at this classic beaver dam, artistically build across the creek with small sticks. The impounded area actually spill into the creek downcreek.

March 28 Another Uwharrie ramble

Odd looking tree here.

Today I began at Tot Hill TH, heading up Talbot Creek until it peters out into a series of pools. Turning right at this point I quickly found myself at Camp 7 on the Camp 3 Trail - got that. If you walk along the Camp 3 Trail a short way, you'll see an old right leaving left. Follow this a bit less than an a mile to an old homesite and some interesting solitary rock formation like the one at the bottom of this entry. Then you head uphill quickly to an exposed rock outcropping with many cedars. This is probably Cedar Rock Mtn.

From this point I headed back to Tot Hill TH but this time well away from Talbot, to the east. That is when I ran into this abandoned home, still set with furniture. I could see an electric line running here, maybe from Gray Owl Rd. There were fields surrounding this home, now thickets surround it. Following an old road, I crossed an active beaver pond on an old wooden bridge. I kept following this road to within about .4 of the TH.

March 25 Thornburg visit

I try to visit the old Thornburg farm every spring. There are lots of open fields providing plenty of sun for early flowers. Each year you can detect some more deterioration in the home and outbuildings. This trip, most notable was the condition of the fields. It appears they are being allowed to grow back. It looks like the only maintenance being done is to mow a few rows through, probably to thin what will become a thicket.

Look at these odd trees. I wandered around, panned a couple streams and tried my best to get lost.

Basin Creek - 36 creek crossings

Today's walk was up Basin Creek from Longbottom Road trailhead to Caudill Cabin in the NPS Doughton Park. Roundtrip it is just a 9.6 mile hike along beautiful Basin Creek. It took us a bit under 6 hours to do this, primarily due to the numerous creek crossings. There are 36, that is 18 in one direction. Several required we remove boots in favor of "creek crossing shoes". Too bad we had only one pair. A couple of times we needed to toss the shoes back across the creek so the other could wear them for the wade across.

We only saw four other hikers on the Basin Creek Trail, all with wet shoes. Basin Creek Trail begins at the primitive campground, one and a half miles from the trailhead. There is one creek crossing prior to reaching the campground. It is a ford and looks like vehicles could easily have made a run through it. After passing the campground, which had a slew of tents today, the trail proceeds along the west side of the creek and is a very wide trail having once been a road. There is a millstone in the creek at the site of what appears to have been a dam and mill. This marks the end of the nice wide trail. The trail crosses the creek here and becomes much rougher. We passed a number of chimneys and some rock piles that once were chimneys. The creek crossings start to blur together. Waterfalls, cascades and river chutes punctuate the creek. We see daffodils and other bulb flower plants near the old homesites.

Finally, the trail starts a rough uphill march in the final 1/4 mile to the Caudill Cabin. Situated in a bowl, with Fodderstack and Wildcat Rocks above, you can hear people talking at the lookouts above. The Caudill Family maintains a visitor register and cabin history inside the small one room cabin.

On the return hike we see dozens of kids milling around the slew of tents at the campground. The youth group is dragging wood and building major fires.

March 13 Work detail at Pilot Mountain SP

Piedmont Hiking and Outing Club along with Friends of Sauratown Mountains and a few other folks, converged on the Jomokee Trail at Pilot Mountain State Park today for some trail work.

Buckets of ballast were carried from the trailhead out to the knob and dumped on eroded spots. That went on for 2 hours. My arms are 2 inches longer now. Once that was in place, we dug ballast which had run off the trail, tossed it back on the trail.

And finally we dragged downed trees and bushes to fill in gullies to discourage folks from eroding manways. I can't wait to do this again.

March 12 Uwharrie Float

The river level today was just barely below the Low Water Bridge and the flow was swift. We were the 3rd party on the water so there was very little wildlife to see. Start time was just after 10am. Just before our departure we met a fellow from Kannapolis in his kayak. His mission was to set up some geocaches along the river.

Here we are at Lunchstop Rock enjoying a PB&J sandwich. Our Kannapolis kayaker joined us here. I love this outcropping of Carolina blue slate. We did locate another much smaller rock outcropping slightly downriver on river left. Perhaps that will be an alternate lunch stop in the event the main venue is occupied.

No mishaps on this trip. We ended up at the 109 bridge around 1:30 finally catching up with the 3 kayakers ahead of us.

Russ expertly negotiates Lunchstop Rock Rapid.

March 8 Deep River Float

Finally some rain to rise the river levels up. You must take advantage of these occurrences. So here we are floating on the Deep River, Ramseur to Coleridge, one of my old haunts, yet one I have not paddles for over 2 years. Access is on private land and if the landowners get tired of putting up with lots of disrespectful trespassers, they have every right to limit access to their property.

River level is 2.4 at the Ramseur gauge. No problems with any of the rapids today. We spot a couple otters, a beaver and a raccoon. That a bad day at all. On the bird side, we see the usual suspects, Kingfisher, many many Ducks - Woodies, some Canadas and one huge GB Heron.

This heron led us down the river for several miles.

March 4 Albright Grove Hike

Albright Grove, named for Horace Albright, director of the NPS, superintendent of Yellowstone and Yosemite and legal assistant to Stephen Mather. That is quite a resume. This is a uncut grove of mixed hardwoods and hemlocks. The trees are not the size of trees in the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, but represent a greater number of big tree species than the Kilmer forest has.

The trailhead is reached along a small gravel road, Laurel Springs Road. The first several trail miles are along an old gravel road which finally succumbs to a rough trail. Today, the trail still had its winter fallen tree debris. I managed to snake my way through a couple spots. As you approach the grove, big trees can be spotted along the trail, then you cross a wonderful footbridge just prior to entering the loop trail through the grove.

Some of the hemlocks in this area have succumbed to the hemlock adelgid. The loop trail goes high to a ridge with big tree all around. The terrain is very rough and gives one an idea of the forest conditions before logging took most of the trees.

The return hike is downhill and a nice easy walk. I believe this was about an 8 mile hike.

Wilderness First Aid Training

Twin Creeks Science Lab is located in the GSMNP just outside Gatlinburg on the Cherokee Orchard Road. The sign to it says "Official Business Only". So this was my first look inside this "green" building funded partially by one of the "friends" organizations I belong to. Built in 2007, it is quite a unique structure. I particularly liked the resource library located on the left of the above image.

Here is my fellow trainee, Gary, with his makeshift leg splint. I used his hiking poles and a bunch of stuff that I would likely have found in hikers' packs, to construct this splint.

We treated folks with head wounds during the training. Carl, above, fell out of a tree while hanging a food bag.

Gary patched me up with this arm splint made with an umbrella, Wal-Mart bags and a bunch of other handy stuff.

March 1 Porters Creek Hike

I started up Brushy Mountain Trail along Porters Creek and soon meandered off trail to look at some rock piles. That is where I ran into this doe along with a few friends nearby. She took an interest in me, approaching to within 30 feet but never any closer. Here she is stamping her right foot at me. I don't know what that means, but she seemed to do it several times.

Her vigil continued until I grew tired and moved on by the small herd.

This stone staircase leads to an old homesite. Further up the trail is a cemetery, remains of an old car and many more homesites. Where Porters Creek trail branches off Brushy Mountain Trail is the old road turnaround loop. A short distance from here is the wonderful cantilevered barn below. Close inspection will show, the barn was constructed without hardware. The hinges are wood, the beams are pegged and the only nails are those from a recent renovation.

Just past the barn and over a small creek is the original homeplace. During the 1930's, the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club was permitted to build a cabin with sleeping quarters on the old homesite. Today, there were daffodils blooming along the yard. The springhouse is still intact with running water.

LOST again

L.O.S.T. = Lower Old Scramblers Trail. Very appropriate name for this "scramble" along the lower wall base, west side of Linville Gorge. A group of 9 of us ventured onto the Rock Jock Trail near Conley Cove parking area. After a short walk on this "real' trail, we headed off near Blue Jay Point. The scramble down was through a ticket of Rhodobriers. One Bat Cave was on the agenda. This cave is narrow and perhaps 40 feet deep. The pile of brush in the back of the cave may be the work of a vulture's nest building effort. Too many people venture into this cave for that to be a good nesting spot.

Not far from there is a chute that can be tricky to descend. Everyone made it through but there were some blackened pants after this point. Next spot of interest is the keyhole leading to lunch spot extraordinaire, Seneca Point. Not everyone, actually just two, walked out onto the jutting rock with air below it. Best spot in the house for lunch.

After leaving Seneca, the dreaded Zen Canyon awaits. This is a steep climb back up on top of the wall. It seems to never end and gets steeper and slicker as you approach the top. Today there was significant water coming over the wall - a waterfall of sorts. I got a nice 30 minute rest at Zen Point waiting for everyone to clear the canyon.

Here we are at Razor's Edge. This is probably the most technically difficult place to reach. It requires a steep descent and then a pretty scary rock climb with few options. But once you are there, it is a spectacular spot.

Northern Virginia Brewery Tour

Once again I arranged the Blue Gray Brewery Tour. This year we headed north to visit 3 NOVA breweries. Our first stop is Port City Brewing in Alexandria, a 3 week old brewery. We are first group to tour the facility. My first impression was good - the IPA license plate sitting in the parking lot. The system is a brand new JVNW system just installed in the Fall. Everything was spanking clean. The marketing plan here is draft beers initially with bottles to follow. A bottling line was ready to go, recently purchased from Southern Tier. A downgrade from them no doubt.

Second stop is Bill Madden's Mad Fox Brewpub. You can see Bill above emerging from the fermentation tank. Bill's wife's maiden name is Fox, hence the name. Upscale food is the noontime draw for this downtown Falls Church brewery. Obviously, space is precious here and the brewery is wedged in a tiny space, much unlike Port City, where there is much room to expand.

Final stop is Vintage 50 in the historic town of Leesburg. This is an upscale brewpub with a large outdoor patio seating area. It was $2 a pint happy hour when we arrived.