Ok, let’s try this
again. It has been ten months since our
first visit into Bowers Hollow (see: 3 Hedges Pouroff & Bowers Hollow) and hopefully this time we’ll get farther. We stay focused on the drive in, no
unnecessary stops, and we get an earlier start.
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small spring
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We hit the trail
around 10:00 and make reasonably good time to the major intersection. This is where one old road (trail) continues
straight down to Hawk Hollow and the many waterfalls down there. Or turn left to Bowers Hollow Falls. And it’s where the hiking
conditions start to deteriorate, we turn left on the old road to the east.
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fireplace
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The road soon becomes just a trail before it fizzles out altogether. Now we’re bushwhacking to the northeast using
the GPS and homing in on an old homesite, progress towards the homesite is pretty slow going, we pass an old 'trash dump' along the way. A couple times we have to back up and go
around briar patches, it also gets quite steep.
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stacked rock fireplace and chimney
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We finally make it to the old homesite, but we're worn out. All that remains of this house is the fireplace and chimney. Apparently built without mortar the
rocks are stacked with no cement to hold them together, it’s amazing that it still stands.
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catchin' my breath
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And here it is already 1:00, it
took us 3 hours to get this far. I
estimate that at this rate we still have another hour to Bowers Hollow Falls, if we're lucky.
We decide to have some lunch and think about it. After lunch we head back to the car, but not by the same bushwhack route we came in on.
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damaged headstone
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While sitting on the hearth of the old fireplace having lunch, I notice what looks like an old road circling around the front of the ‘house’. We have found
old roads are usually much easier hiking routes than a full on bushwhack, so we
take the old road, and this works out much better.
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hunting season selfie
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It at least doesn’t have any steep sections,
and less undergrowth. This old road circles around to the west then south up a
little ravine. It brings us out right at
the major intersection to Hawk Hollow.
The bushwhack to the old homesite took us over an hour and a half, coming
back on the old road only takes a third of that.
I’ll remember that next time we’re
here.
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Kapark Cemetery
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Bowers Hollow: Statistics Chart 33 It’s 3:00 by the time we
get back to the car, but I’m
not giving up, we’ll be back, see: (87Bowers Hollow Falls). On our way out
we drive down to Kapark Cemetery and walk around trying to make out inscriptions on some headstones. Other than
one modern burial this graveyard doesn’t look like it has been used for a
long time. Although we didn’t get to
the falls (again), we still hiked almost 4.5 miles and top to bottom over 300 feet
elevation change.
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