Jan 17 East Morris Hike

 

About a year ago I explored the East Morris area a couple times. This trip I wanted to follow Spencer Creek. Not far from the entrance of Morris Mountain Road off Tower Road, I headed in the direction of Spencer Creek. After a short forest walk, I arrived and began to follow it downstream. Meandering here and there as I went, I crossed a number of times to check out anything interesting. 

I encountered a large number of pits by the creek in a floodplain. I see pits most places in the Uwharries but usually not floodplains. Possibly these were clay pits.

Not wishing to go all the way to Rt 109, I investigated a bunch of quartz rocks on creek left. These quartz rocks had been dumped here, down a steep embankment. I'm not referring to a small amount of rocks either. There were tons of them. And among them I located the most transparent quartz I've ever encountered. Could these rocks be from the Morris Mountain mine which has eluded me? I followed the road leading up and away from the quartz dump. The road would have been difficult to follow were it not for all the quartz rocks which were in many spots along the road but no where else. Obviously, some quartz never made it to the dump. Up and Up I went, thinking all the time I would find the mine. 

Then this presented itself; Uncle Jim's Hunt Club property, posted to the nth degree. I have stumbled onto this property before but not here. It's populated with fully enclosed deer stands with staircases, windows and other amenities. Not wanting to trespass here, I followed the property line to head back to Tower Road. 

I ended up in the East Morris Mountain Hunt Club. I didn't want to disturb the camp above until I noticed it was abandoned. Someone's pop-up camper didn't close up like it should have, a common problem with them. So, it appears it was just left here. Our wonderful Forest Service has to follow a legal procedure before these abandoned camps can be removed. That is such a pity. 

Now, I'm headed back to my truck, walking along Tower Road. A freshly dozed road appears on the right side of the road. I followed it for a good way, It roughly followed an old road, going through several wildlife fields or food plots as we refer to them. Running out of daylight forced me to change course.

One final time I crossed Spencer creek before returning to Morris Mountain road.