Mar 26 TRLT Deep River Big Tree Hike

 

Today I joined Three Rivers Land Trust at one of the properties they have a conservation easement on. This one is located on Deep River in the vicinity of the House in the Horseshoe. For whatever reason, some of the old growth trees on this tract were never timbered. It's always a treat to see old growth forest and this did not disappoint. Some of the monsters have toppled recently. We had to climb over one large one.

Trout Lilies were in bloom and they were some of the largest ones I have ever seen.  

Our guide for the morning hike was Bruce Sorrie, author of Wildflowers of the Sandhill Region which sits on my reference book shelf. Bruce pointed out a delicate ground plant that is quite rare in this area, Yellow Harlequin.

There was quite a nice community of Hackberry trees. The largest one had almost smooth bark and resembled an American Beech. Otherwise, they have a knobby rough bark.

Spring Beauties were abundant as a ground cover.  

Here is Bruce by the state champion Shumard Oak. Quercus Shumardii. They are often used as landscape trees since they grow quite fast and have a stately crown. 

Katie had her forester tape handy and measured the circumference. She got the tape out for a giant Sweet Gum as well. Bruce thinks it may challenge the current state champion. Also, on the property is a state champion Florida Maple.

Mar 22 Bennett Creek Paddle

 

Today's paddle is with the flow on Bennett Creek, the outlet for Merchant's Millpond. A short shuttle on country roads was the first order of business. Then we carried the boats from the boat launch across the road to the put in on Bennett Creek. The water level was great for this paddle which can get sticky in low water.

These guys were hard to see. There were 5 sunning on a small island. Although I could not get close enough to identify them, one group member did. They are Cottonmouths. We spent a good amount of time staring at them before paddling on.

We stopped for lunch at a private landing provided in memory of a local guy with a big grin. We enjoyed our stay so much we picked up all the cigarette butts and other trash as a thank you for providing such a welcoming place.

We don't know how this sign got there. It looks like the post had broken in two. Never heard of Ralph Lane? This is the full essay from the NC Historical Marker program:

 Sir Ralph Lane of Devonshire, England entered into the service of Queen Elizabeth I in 1563. After serving as a courtier, soldier, and sheriff, he was invited by Sir Walter Raleigh to command an expedition to America. On April 9, 1585 he sailed with 107 colonists to America under Sir Richard Grenville. By the end of June they had arrived at Wococon, what is now Ocracoke, on the Outer Banks. A colony was established there with Lane as the governor. While there, they encountered native people belonging to the villages of Weapemeoc, Roanac, Pomeiok, Aquascogoc, and Secotan.

     After Grenville left for England, the colony moved to Roanoke Island and established Fort Raleigh. Lane thought that a better harbor was necessary and sent colonists to explore the potential of the Chesapeake Bay area. The hostility of Indians and shortage of supplies prevented a move to that region. In 1586, Lane and a group of colonists explored the Chawanook Indian country and the Chowan River. Thomas Harriot, a mathematician and scientist, and John White, an artist, were members of the expedition. Raleigh had sent Harriot to study the native inhabitants as well as to explore the region’s plants, animals, and minerals. White was hired to make maps and paint watercolors of the region. Their findings were preserved in their book, A Briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia.

     By June of 1586, the colony’s supplies were running short and Grenville’s relief expedition had not yet arrived. Sir Francis Drake arrived on June 11 and offered Lane a ship and enough supplies to last through the summer. The ship however was destroyed by a hurricane; the discouraged Lane and other colonists abandoned the colony and boarded Drake’s ships to immediately return to England. Lane was criticized for abandoning the colony especially since Grenville’s relief squadron arrived shortly after they left the colony for England. Lane never returned to America but moved to Ireland to assume the post of muster-master general and clerk of the check. On October 14, 1593 he was knighted by the lord deputy of Ireland, Sir William Fitzwilliam. He died in Ireland in October of 1603.

After lunch, the river opened up into a wider channel. It was not as interesting as the first half but still a great way to pass the afternoon.

Toward the end of the paddle, Joel spotted a fishing line tied to a bush with something hooked. He went over to investigate. It was a big one. And it got away.

Mar 21 Merchants Millpond and Lassiter Swamp

 

My only previous visit to Merchants Millpond was a canoe camping trip in the late 1970s. At night we hung a lantern at our campsite and took another lantern in the canoe and paddled about at night, using the campsite lantern to get us back to the right spot. 

On this visit, I arrive mid morning and meet 5 friends who have camped overnight. Our group swelled to 8 as a couple other day paddlers arrived. Once we got everyone in boats, we headed out in the pond. It is not your typical pond. It looks more like a swamp with Bald Cypress, Tupelo Gum widely spaced. Duckweed and Yellow Cow Lily fill in the open spaces. Below the surface Coontail was ready to snag a paddle. The 760 acre pond has been around for over 200 years and the mill once served to grind locally grown produce.

The park has buoys to guide paddlers through the maze. Our goal for the day was to paddle across the pond and then up Lassiter Creek into the Lassiter Swamp where old growth Bald Cypress are located. Specifically, one large Cypress was our destination. I was told this tree was core dated at about 1000 years old and is the second largest tree in North Carolina. 

The pond slowly gives way to the creek. Eventually we are on a narrow creek and paying close attention to water flow. We need to be certain to follow the creek and not dead end channels. Water flow was the key to navigating this area. It was here the Tupelo Gum sported the most unusual branch growth, growing in any and every direction like contortionists. 

We had to bounce over a number of fallen trees. Paddle a good head of steam and hit the submerged tree square worked every time. Not once did we need to get out of the boats to get by an obstacle. After leaving the pond, we paddled the serpentine creek for 2 miles.  

Then an obstacle appeared that looked like it would present a good challenge. Will and I negotiated a way around it. Then Will noticed the tree. We were too concerned about getting through this sticky spot that we failed to notice the huge tree creekside. We've arrived!

Will wanted the obligatory tree pose photo. I nestled my boat between the giant knees to snap this one. We rested up a bit while admiring the tree and adjacent forest. The tree was definitely not as big in terms of circumference as the Bald Cypress on the Black River but it was taller and had a full crown. A formula of those three measurements is used to score a tree. I assume the tree's height and the width of the canopy gave this guy a big score.

For most of the paddle we could see the hardwood forest on either side of the swamp. When leaves fill in, it may not be visible. After turning boats around and heading back to the pond, our paddle was easier floating with the slight water flow. We found a spot where we could land the boats and get out for a relaxing lunch more scenic than any restaurant. 

Back in the pond, our attention turned to spotting Alligators. We saw dozens of sliders but no gators. 

I was pretty tired as we paddled across the pond toward the boat ramp. The Cow Lily slowed the boats as it was impossible to avoid them at times.

One last photo of the pond near the boat ramp.

Feb 28 Forty Acre Rock Preserve

 

The Elf Orpine was brilliant today. The recent rain had filled in the rock depressions where aquatic vegetation grows and it was in full color. We saw just a few blooms - small white flowers pop out of the red structure of this stonecrop. Elf Orpine is found only in these wet rock face depressions in just a handful of sites, mostly in Georgia. Is is found in all of this preserve's rock faces, which, by my count, is 5 rock faces.

Naked water slide and waterfall sports the largest Trout Lily colony we have seen here.

These guys only bloom for several days and only when the sun is out. Since they are always facing down. it's hard to see the open flower. 

Here s the largest of the rock faces. I've heard it is 14 acres, not 40. Even if all the rock face acreage were combined, I doubt it would be 40 acres. 

Next up in the wet rock depressions is Pool Sprite. The leaves float on the water and will have a very small white flower. There were a couple in bloom today.

The erect leaved plants growing on the or near the moss are Wooly Ragwort. We saw one just barely blooming.

Another of the rare plants here, Puck Orpine, looks like Elf Orpine but it may not be as red and tends to populate the edges of the rock near the cedar tree line.

After our stroll on the big rock face, we head to the other complexes. They have a different character than the big rock face. They are smaller, have less declivity and more moss and lichen. Once our tour of the rockfaces concluded, we headed off into the forest to find the large boulder fields.  

At the bottom of the creek in a quite inaccessible spot, we found this mill wheel laying in the water. It seems like a very unlikely place for a mill. The creek water goes subterranean here and spills back in the creek from several underground channels. 

A couple of balanced rocks. How they got there, I don't know. Someone had tried to move the one below using a cedar tree as a lever. We removed the lever and fulcrum so no one else might be tempted.

Several of the rock had these odd shaped weathered holes. The mud dabbers liked them.

The final three rocks pictured here, form what we have named, the amphitheater. 

On this trip, rather than follow the creek down to old Rt 601 to return to the parking lot, we located a spot we could hop across the creek and take a short cut through the woods to the parking lot. More rocks punctuated this route, although we didn't spend any time looking closely at them.