I know, I’ve got some catchin’ up to do with the pictures. I’ve been out there with the camera, but been a bit preoccupied trying to figure out how to ride a mountain bike.

Speaking of mountain bikes, you can see some odd things along the trails, like this “appliance in the woods” I found beside the Long Cane Horse Trail:

I’d really like to know what that small freezer was doing out in the middle of the woods, and why it’s so celebrated.

Anyway, back to the lake, Great Egrets are here, I usually see them just in the late summer – early autumn.

Feast day for the spiders stringing webs around the bridge:

I don’t recall seeing ducks like these before, but they are ducks:

I’m not sure what drew in these Black Vultures, maybe they just wanted some time at the beach:

Nature’s lesson: just because a tree has died, that doesn’t mean it’s contribution to the forest is at an end:

Now this could be noteworthy, if my identification is correct:

This seems to match pictures and other information for a Limpkin. That is, matches everything except the range maps, which show Limpkins inhabiting no farther north than Florida. Climate change in action?

And, of course the obligatory Great Blue Heron pictures:

And, yes, they do fly in the fog. They must be equipped for IFR.

We’ve had some neat sunrises lately. I’ll leave you with this one:

I just spent some time up in North Carolina again, this time at the Davidson River campground in the Pisgah National Forest. My objective, as last time, was to continue working towards a real backpacking trip.

The first order of business was to hike with my backpack full of camping gear (around 18kg, I really need to revisit that “ultralight” camping thing). I set out on the North Slope trail, which I guess is because it’s on the north side of a ridge. I was actually going south while sloping up.

A nice walk, it was good just being in the woods.

There were places to be careful, though. You could literally fall off the trail, and it might be a while before you came to a stop.

This looked just a bit precarious. I’m impressed that mountain bikers ride this trail.

Having completed that, it was time to set up camp. I don’t know what that big flat spot was for, there was a paved area to leave the car on.

As on my last trip, I didn’t partake much of the campground facilities, just getting water and using the bathhouse (they don’t like campers digging catholes for some reason). My objective was to live on what I had in my backpack. That said, the place did seem to be well run, the facilities I used were in good order, and the campsites were not too close together. The campground does sit right alongside US276, so there’s a fair bit of traffic noise during the day and evening. That did provide a bit of a handrail while I was on the North Slope trail: I knew I was going in the right direction as long as the traffic was on my left, and I was heading back towards the campground when it moved in front of me.

I’m glad I didn’t have to use this shower, because I didn’t bring anyone along with me.

I kept noticing on the map this “English Chapel”. Turns out it has nothing really to do with England, it was built in the 1800s by a man named English.

The next morning brought rain. This provided a Useful Learning Experience for my backpacking aspirations. I know now that my little camp stove works in the rain.

Time to hit the trail again, starting out on the North Slope trail along the Davidson River. This time with a lot less backpack, maybe 5kg.

There’s a connector between the North Slope trail and the more extensive Art Loeb trail that passes by the south side of the campground and ends nearby. Climbing that connector trail taught me to not pay much attention to the climb going up, just keep going. Then if you want to look back (down), ok. You can see some of the switchbacks below in this picture. This climb started way down there.

Oh Sure, NOW you tell me this trail is “Most Difficult”. Like what I just climbed wasn’t?

I did see a couple of people running up here, which is gotta be hard core.

Ok, so this is STILL “most difficult”.

There’s not a lot of wide open vistas up here, but you can get some views.

N.B.: A tree that falls over is not necessarily done for.

What, go off the trail? Here??

Again, there are places you could fall off the trail.

Finally, back down to the river. Whew.

And the end of the Art Loeb Trail.

Of course, I’m still not back to the campsite. Most of the way from here is like this, no climbing to speak of, no tree roots to tiptoe over, no precipitous falls if you make a wrong step.

Nope, don’t move the rocks. That would be leaving a trace.

There’s a few places where the river has some little rapids.

And finally, a day well done, and the sun about to close up shop behind a cloud and mountain.

Until sunrise the next morning, and time to pack up and go back to “civilization”.

I didn’t head straight out of the mountains just yet however. REI was offering a class in “wilderness survival”, which I thought would have Useful Information to know as I approached that backpacking trip. And it did. Highly recommended if you might be in the wilderness. It won’t make you an expert, but will give you things to think about and a good idea what else you need to learn (for example, I need to work on my knot tying).

All in all, a good trip, met the objectives, a learned a good bit. I knew those trails would be a stretch for me, and they were, but at no point did I consider giving up. There were a few times, however, where I wondered “what have I gotten myself into??”

Strava links:
North Slope trail
North Slope/Art Loeb trail

I thought the Winter Solstice might be a good time to pay a visit to my favorite place for a walk in the woods, Croft State Park. I know I was a day early, but, close enough!

The good news is that the bridge across the Fairforest Creek, that was washed out some years ago, is back!

(as usual, click on the pictures for a full-resolution version) You can now cross the creek between the north and south part of the park (unless you have 4 feet):

With the bridge there, I decided to take a walk around the Southside Loop Trail.

Contrary to the assertion of a friend, the Fairforest Creek is not a “babbling brook”. It was quite coherent and I understood its every word.

This old tree looks like it’s been a buffet for woodpeckers.

I came across this apparently late-blooming plant. The thin pink leaves caught my eye, and the round leaf with markings that look amazingly like “survey marker do not remove” probably gives this plant a survival advantage in areas frequented by humans.

Actually, there were a number of these in areas that looked like work had been going on. I know they’ve been trying to clear any Dangerous Things left over from when this was a World War II training base. In the meantime, stick to the trails and keep your eyes open.

As is usual for Croft, the trails on the south side are well marked. Um…. yeah, I think I should go THAT way.

I’m not sure what caused this tree to grow a gall like this, must have been pretty irritating:

Along the trail I saw arrows pointing to the side, but no other markings. That little spur lead to the power line right-of-way and I figured that’s all that was. Oh wait, maybe that was the detour!

In some areas the trail gets a bit vague, but if you look farther ahead with a wider view you can make it out:

It’s a bit jarring when the trail suddenly gets hard and gray and Reeeally Wide:

but just past that point it’s all back to a normal, comfortable forest trail:

I took a side helping of Fern Gully Trail. I found the Fern Gully:

Which was also a good place to pause and lighten my backpack. N.B. lightning the backpack doesn’t necessarily lighten the total gross weight, it just moves the center of gravity a bit.

The south side trails are frequented by mountain bikers. I imaging this would give them pause:

The other side of that log had some rocks piled up to form a bit of a ramp, so I guess the bikers usually go around clockwise, while being my usual odd-ball self I was going counter-clockwise.

All-in-all a good day. The NWS was putting out special weather statements all day about sleet being mixed with the light rain across the area, but that all stayed south of the park and I just heard some light rain falling a few times.

Route on Strava, which also took in the Fairforest Loop Trail as I wasn’t quite ready to leave the forest after completing the Southside Loop Trail.