About six months ago on our first visit to Owens and Ricketts Mountains
we were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful blufflines and fantastic rock
formations all over these two mountains, we decided then that we must return
as we barely touched the area, for that adventure see: (71 Owens and Ricketts Mt.). Today
we’re going back to see more of Owens Mountain.
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rugged east side
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Even though we use the
same route west out of Mount Judea as last trip, I
wind up missing two turns and waste a lot of time backtracking to Cowell Road, which itself is in much
worse shape today than it was last fall. Eventually we make it to Owens Mountain Road
(FR 1204C). Under two miles up Owens
Mountain Road we park at a small clearing on the south side of a little cemetery. We start here at Tennison Cemetery with only a few gravesites, most are young members of the ‘Tenison’ family.
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spring flowers
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‘Owens Point’ is known to rock climbing enthusiasts as ‘The Tombstone'. Behind the cemetery going due east through the woods about 100 yards
brings us to the top of a little waterfall maybe 15 feet tall. This is a two-tiered fall, off the top of the
bluff, water falls about ten feet to a ledge then off the ledge another five
feet or so to the base.
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unfurl the fern
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Today though
with very little water flowing, just enough to make the climb off the ledge
very slick. In fact, we slide down on the
seat of our pants off this ledge getting wet and muddy in the process. For this reason, I’ll call it ‘Soggy Bottom Falls’ in
recognition of the hilarious film ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou’ staring George
Clooney. |
along the east side bluff
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Once below the falls we make
our way north along the base of the bluffline, this is pretty rough, definitely
a bushwhack. In less than 200 yards from
Soggy Bottom is a nice bluff with lots of climbers ‘bolts’ up and down its
face. Another 200 yards north is Lumber
Shelter, a shallow shelter cave, with the only evidence of ‘lumber’ that we found, an old fence post with a rusty nail in it.
Continuing along the base of the bluff another 100 yards brings us
around Owens Point with some nice rock formations. |
easier hiking on westside
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Now heading south along the west facing bluffline there is a lot less
undergrowth and the hike is a whole lot easier, there even seems to be a trail
most of the way. Just past another short
climbing area is a ‘meager’ shelter, small shallow and with a lot of rubble on
the floor. We keep going south about 300
yards along some pretty tall bluffs to a steep bear crack which could be
climbed up as a desperation exit. |
The Tombstone
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We
continue south, and 100 yards later come to Long Shelter, this is the
best and biggest cave on this hike and in wetter conditions even has a Skinny
Falls flowing over the front of the shelter.
Past Long Shelter the bluff diminishes quickly, we soon come to a little
(tiny really) shelter that someone has stacked stone partially across the
opening, creating a small, protected enclosure.
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vertical westside bluffline
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At this point the bluffline has just about disappeared, we begin heading
east up the hill to yet another tiny shelter with stacked stonework in its
entrance. Continuing uphill we find an
old road and follow it east to Owens Mountain Road, then north a short way to
our parking spot at the cemetery. |
Tennison Cemetery with parking
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Taking a break, we drop the tailgate and have lunch, while eating our
sandwiches we realize the time is already past
two. Probably too late to hike Ricketts Knob, which was the plan, but too early to call it a day. We decide to walk down
to the end of Owens Mountain Road to check out the view. Only about a quarter mile north of the
cemetery the road ends at Owens Point and a really nice campsite.
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Ollie Mae Tenison
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Owens point on top the bluff wrapping around the point, offers breathtaking 270° views. To the northeast is Honey Creek which today is obscured
in smoke drifting up the valley from somewhere far below possibly Vendor. To the northwest across the Left Fork Big
Creek valley then up the mountain on the other side we can spot traffic
travelling on Hwy.7 over two miles away.
And right below us are the rock formations and base of the bluffs just
hiked around an hour ago.
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west vista from Owens Point
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Yes, truly a magical place to camp, but not if you sleepwalk!
After admiring the view for some time, we head back to the truck, and the
end of today’s adventures. We didn’t hike as much as we had planned thanks to the delays getting here, but
once again we’re pleasantly surprised by the beauty of Owens Mountain. And, you know we had a great time, today we
hiked just 1.5 miles with an altitude gain of 106 feet, oh yeah, we’ll be back.
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deer track
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Owens Point: Statistics Chart 89 The parking area next to Tennison Cemetery is about 1.7 miles north on Owens Mt. Road (FR 1204C) from the intersection at Cowell Road (NC 6370), the last half mile is pretty rough. For more detailed directions to Owens Mountain see: (71 Owens and Ricketts Mt.).
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base map before fair use alterations is property of USFS Forest Service-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License
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