Today while not supposed to be hot, won’t be cold either, so a good day
to go hiking somewhere. We decide to try
the Bench Trail on the north side of the Ponca Wilderness, mainly because Kat
wants a trail with little elevation gain and very little bushwhacking.
Bench Trail is on a bench along the south facing mountain slope, so the trail should be relatively flat, and it is an official
trail of the BNR so there shouldn’t be any bushwhacking. I’ve been curious about the Bench Trail for
years and today I’ll finally get to see it for myself.
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Sherman Mountain through the utility clearing
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With two vehicles you could hike the entire Bench Trail pretty easily on
a day-hike, going west to east is
best with a lot less elevation gain than going the other way. Today our plan is to check out the east
portion of the trail to somewhere around Cecil Hollow then turn around and head
back, but if we have some extra energy, we
may climb up into Cecil Hollow to Antenna Pine, we’ll see how it goes.
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| East Bench Trailhead |
We park at the east end of the Bench Trail under the powerlines which is
also the east border of the Ponca Wilderness.
Here in the clearing under the powerline is room for maybe 8 or 9 cars,
with the trailhead west at the edge of the woods marked with a couple wood
posts. This utility right-of-way
clearing provides an awesome view all the way down to the Buffalo and back up to
the top of Sherman Mountain on the other side, although some may consider this
a ‘scar’ across the landscape.
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on Bench Trail
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West bound on the Bench Trail it doesn’t appear to get a whole lot of
use, while still easy to find and follow there does seem to be a lot of vegetative encroachment all along the
trail which is an old road. This eastern
end of the trail that we hike today stays on this old road pretty much the
entire time. Easy hiking with just a few spots that are a little overgrown, and very little elevation
change for the first mile.
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a gorgeous fall day
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Along this first mile we marvel over the beautiful fall color
everywhere, passing over an old steel culvert then a little further come to a
‘bearing tree’ on the north side of the trail.
At around the one-mile mark we come into a giant boulder field with
great big house size rocks on both sides of the trail. Most of these boulders appear to have flat
tops, some with small trees growing on the top, and if a climbing route to the
top could be found, would afford some fantastic views of the Buffalo valley
below.
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giant boulder field
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A little past the giant boulder field we begin a descent of just over
100 feet around the head of Clemmons Hollow.
Although not really very steep, this is the biggest elevation change so
far today and includes four series of wooden logs pinned to the trail creating
widely spaced steps, which are intended to slow
erosion down the roadway. Naturally the
abundant horse traffic does a lot of damage along these pinned log
areas, as a
result the trail is very ‘chewed-up’ and we proceed slowly. |
at trail intersection (connector trail)
|
After the fourth set of pinned logs the trail levels out and in about a
quarter mile we come to a trail intersection.
The trail downhill to the south is a connector between the Bench Trail
and the Old River Trail, this connector trail features almost 900 feet of
elevation change. While here at the
trail junction six horseback riders pass by heading west. A little over 100 yards farther we catch up
to the horses at a big flat rock, where they are taking turns posing on top the
rock (on horseback) while the others snap pictures. In the future I’ll refer to this landmark as
‘Lone Ranger Rock’.
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rock at left is 'Lone Ranger Rock'
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More than just a photo-op, this rock also marks the intersection with
Antenna Pine Trail. Not an official
trail, is the result of over 50 years of annual treks up to the top of the
mountain by scout troops to ‘plant their flag’ at Antenna Pine. We decide to try and make it to the top as
well, since we’re so close, why not. Without any sort of signage, it would be really easy to just walk past this intersection, so just remember ‘Lone Ranger Rock’ and look for Antenna Pine Trail heading off to the north. I would be interested to find out if the Boy Scouts have a name for this rock.
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'giddy-up, you can do this'
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Antenna Pine Trail starts as a gentle meandering scenic hike through the
woods for about the first 200 yards, passing an intersection along the way with
a very steep short-cut to the top. At
the end of that first 200 yards, we’re close to the steep rocky edge of Cecil
Hollow straight ahead. Here the trail
which zigzags back and forth up the steep slope has been obliterated by a large
tree that has fallen across the trail. A
steep and rough detour around the tree fall and back up to the trail, we soon come to the base of a bluffline near
a corner where the bluff goes straight to the north or right to the east. We continue north, although here along the
base of the bluffs are trails going everywhere.
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at the base of the bluffs below Antenna Pine
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Not much farther we come to a steep but short bluffline break with two
hiking sticks leaning against the wall of the bluff and a bright red rope
hanging down into the break, I make a spot decision to climb up here knowing
the rope may be gone when I return.
Using handholds in the sandstone I easily climb the 12-15 feet up to flatter ground and don’t really need the
rope. From here I continue uphill on the
smooth rounded sandstone cap rock. |
Kat from the top
|
Here on top, I walk around to the south then east along the edge of the
bluff with vista after vista and views for miles. The giant rocks of this bluff form a sort of
peninsula, I believe the entire area is referred to as Antenna Pine. Antenna Pine not a solitary tree, since the
whole lookout point is covered in a pine forest. Also, here on top are some more hikers and the
six horseback riders we left down below at Lone Ranger Rock. When asked, one rider explains there is
another route with a much gentler climb, although about twice as far that horses can do with no problem. After enjoying the panoramic 180° views for a
while I back off the edge of the vista and head farther uphill looking for a
flag.
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Ardy from the bottom
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From what I’ve read, every summer Boy Scout troops hike up here from
Camp Orr over 1200 feet down the mountain on the Buffalo River. Once they reach the tree, they remove the flag left by the previous troop and hang
their own, then in a rambunctious ceremony in the mess-hall that evening, they
return the flag removed to its owners.
This scene repeats all summer with each troop making the trek up to
Antenna Pine. |
Antenna Pine Vista
|
Farther up in the woods about 100 yards or so I find what appears to be
the top on a forested ridge, and in a flat area that could be used as a nice campsite are wooden and stone benches around a fire ring. Here hangs a white flag, Troop 1333 from
Parkville MO evidently left this hand drawn flag hanging here at the end of the
summer boy scout camp season to remain until removed early next summer, when
the annual Antenna Pine ritual resumes once again. |
many vistas, many pines
|
I return to the big vista area then continue around and down over the
sandstone hillside back to the bluffline break, which now has no red rope
waiting to assist my descent. That’s
okay, I slide down a little on my butt then am able to climb back down using
the same little handholds as before. Kat
has been waiting here and tells me she tried to buy the rope from the two
hikers who took it with them, but they just laughed. It’s all good, a rope isn’t really needed for
this short climb. I tell Kat what I
learned about the easier route to
Antenna Pine made for horses, and she
says we’ll have to come back and find it so she can see the view on top, but
not today.
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blanket of pine needles
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We head back down Antenna Pine Trail to Bench Trail, which is a lot easier
going downhill, then turn left (east), from here it’s every bit of two miles
back to the trailhead under the powerlines and our waiting car. We had a great time today and we were both a
little surprised at all the other folks we saw on the trail today, six other hikers and six horseback riders, I
guess Antenna Pine is more well-known than I thought. Our total hike there and back was 5.3 miles
with 865 feet of elevation gain, we’re both glad I made the climb to Antenna
Pine.
Bench Trailhead: The east trailhead and parking are easy to get to, just head down Erbie Road (NC 2700) out of Compton to a couple switchbacks down the mountain. Right after the second switchback and second crossing under the powerline is a sharp right turn onto the access road, trailhead and parking under the powerline. The distance from Compton to parking area is about 4 miles. |
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