Jan 15 Ridges Mountain

 

I've visited this state nature preserve many times. I wanted to see some areas of it I've not been to before. This was not a full tour of the preserve, I concentrated in the areas around the stone corral and NW of the big rocks. I did not enter the area of the big bouldering rocks this trip.

Upon arrival, you can access a hiking sign up form via a QR code on the kiosk. That is much better than calling a phone number that rarely is answered, to obtain permission to enter. Having done that, I immediately headed off to the left following closely to the preserve boundary. I saw an old road here but it entered and exited the property quickly. There were many rocks through here. Not much else except a few mylar balloons.

The next area I wanted to see was the stone corral area. Here there are remnants of a dry stack stone wall that may have enclosed a rather large area, perhaps a bit less than an acre. The stonewall would go for a ways and then end only to be picked up later. I'm told this may have been the area of the Godfrey Ridge's Trading Post and along the Indian trading path. Richard Traunter's memoir of his 1698 trip mentions a very rocky hill along the trading path about 3 miles from the Keyauwee Indian Village. So, maybe the path did go through the big boulders of Ridge's Mountain. If so, it may have been a special place or resource location for the Indians. Otherwise, the trading path could have easily stayed below in the bottomlands along Caraway Creek and avoided the rocky way through here. 

Very close to the stone corral, you can see a couple deer stands on adjacent property. There is also a rather large stone free area here. Within the stone corral and adjacent to it, the land appears to have been cleared of stones. I found what could have been a stone foundation in this vicinity. 

Relatively rock free area near stone corral 

Stone corral area near property line

Former deer stand

Another balanced rock

This reminds me of those thick pastrami sandwiches from Katz Deli

Deer stand in stone corral area

Deer stand, not an outhouse.

Stone corral area

I wrote that I did not enter the large rocks area. The above complex is near that area but sloping downhill to the northwest. There are not any social trails through here so you need to be mindful to not step onto a pile of loose leaves with a hole beneath them. Ouch.