156 The Road to Reavis Cabin

Day before yesterday I went hiking in the Erbie Historical District, although enjoyable it was a short hike that left me wanting more. Today I once again use Erbie Cutoff Road to NC 2800 then on down to Erbie. I have decided to hike up to Reavis Cabin which should be quite a bit more challenging than the easy hike from the Horse Camp on Tuesday (see: 155 HorseCamp Loop).

Reavis Cabin with screened front porch

I park at Cavers Camp a small group campground with two fire rings, three picnic tables, a vault toilet and plenty of parking for six or more cars. Back down NC 2800 about a hundred yards north is a heavy steel gate at an old road. This is the trail which doesn’t seem to have a name, I suppose you could call it NC 2857 as some maps do, but I’m calling it ‘the road’ to Reavis Cabin.

at Cecil Creek crossing

Down here in the lush woods along Cecil Creek the road is nice and flat, soon I pass an overgrown rock wall on the left then where the road turns slightly to the north is Cecil Creek. At this crossing are the remnants of an old low water bridge or concrete slab, the builders of this ‘structure’ were pretty resourceful using whatever metal was available to reinforce the concrete including a leaf spring from an old vehicle.

more water just after Cecil Creek

Not much is left of the concrete slab making this a ‘wet’ crossing, I hop across on some round slick rocks and almost stay dry. Maybe fifty feet past Cecil Creek the road crosses what looks like a big mud-hole but fortunately off to the right on higher ground is an obvious trail which I follow up to the bluffline with Fitton Spring flowing out the mouth of a small low cave.

spring flows out of low cave

It looks like two small side-by-side caves, but I stay out since it’s wet, slippery and would involve some crawling on hands and knees to enter. Back down the trail about halfway to the road is a stone pedestrian bridge across the spring creek, I take the bridge then down to the road continuing west.

stone pedestrian bridge

Right away on the left in the woods are remains of a house, the home footprint consisting of cut-stone foundation suggests this was a fairly good-sized place with a partial basement (or root cellar) on the west side. There’s a wringer from an old washing machine out front near the road, and a truck door out back propped up against a tree (for target practice), but the most impressive remains of this residence is the stone fireplace and chimney.

Fitton Spring emerges under the bluff

Continuing west the road now begins to climb gradually, and on my right to the north up in the mouth of a steep dry rocky canyon I see what appears to be a nice multi-tiered waterfall (if it only had some water). The grade uphill gets steeper and the road swings around to the north with the rugged dry canyon down below on my right with lots of big sharp rocks everywhere.

remains of a home

The steep uphill road provides me with an intense cardio-workout and I’m soon ready for a rest, finding a convenient large flat rock perched above the steep canyon I stop for a break. After my rest stop the road crosses over a non-descript ridge now with views down into another steep rocky canyon on the left still quite steep the road continues north.

lots of rocks as the road heads uphill

One thing I’m noticing about this road; it’s quite a bit wider than most old roads seen in the Ozarks, it even has drainage diversion channels occasionally and a total lack of old rock walls. Oh, there are lots of rocks along the road but not any ‘walls’ these rocks look to have been pushed by a bulldozer. At a sharp turn to the west, I get a brief reprise from the climb.

wide road up the hill

At this left turn the road crosses the steep canyon and a big (3-4 foot diameter) steel culver, now this is more like it, nice flat easy hiking for almost 200 yards first west then south. Then as the road curves back to the west and later north the climb resumes, but not nearly as steep as earlier between the canyons. Still definitely uphill but not bad, I can handle this. It’s almost half a mile to the top at an intersection.

the big culvert

Here at the intersection left of the road is a game camera strapped on a tree and next to that a stacked stone bench, if you need a break. The faint old road trace east (right) goes to Tom Thumb but doesn’t look to get much use. Staying on the main road going west is now mostly flat and easy, there are a couple round steel culverts along this section of road.

much easier ascent

Then above me on the hillside I notice what looks to be a pond, I head up about a hundred feet off the road to check it out. This little pond lined with cattails and iced over this morning is very pretty, I’ll call it Cattail Pond just because. Back down on the road about 200 yards on the left is a moss cover rock outcrop with partially obstructed views to the south.

Cattail Pond

Another couple hundred yard the road curls around to the north then slightly downhill crossing a small dry side drainage and back uphill on the other side, and there comes to another intersection. Here the road left goes downhill about half a mile near the mouth of Beauty Cave, the road right crosses a muddy little creek before reaching Reavis Cabin.

approaching Reavis Cabin

I don’t know about you, but for me the word ‘cabin’ implies a small structure two rooms at the most, Reavis Cabin is not what I would call a cabin. This is a log house with a crawlspace underneath back steps made of stone and concrete, and a nice big screened front porch. Other than the screened porch the house is closed to public entry, but maybe camping is allowed out in back is a picnic table and steel fire-ring.

Reavis Cabin

This marks the turnaround point for today’s hike, but I’m not quite done yet, around in the northeast corner just outside the ‘yard’ I find the faint old road trace shown on some maps that continues north into rough and scenic Lamb Cove. I won’t be attempting that one today, but I would like to see the spring up above Reavis Cabin, so I head up the steep hill.

on the front porch

All uphill and no trail whatsoever, the spring is up quite a ways beyond where most maps show it. I try to stay out on the steep ridge above the rugged rocky moss covered and steep little creek, continuing up and up until I no longer see any flowing water below in the creek. From there I backtrack down to where water first appears, this is about 100 feet below the shear rock face of the bluff. The spring itself isn’t too impressive, just a sudden small pool about the size of a car tire with water flowing out and down the steep rocky hillside.

rugged climb up to spring

Considering the amount of effort involved getting up here I probably won’t visit the spring again although it will be much more impressive in the springtime when there’s a lot more water flow. Going back down to the road in an attempt to keep the slope of the descent easier I cross the low ridge into the next little (dry) drainage to the south. This works out well as I’m able to zig-zag down the hill back to the road where I turn left, and head south.

Cavers Camp

On the way back I stop for a short rest at the top intersection with the camera and stone bench, going down naturally takes a lot less time and I’m back to the bottom and Cavers Camp parking area before you know it. The hike just to Reavis Cabin and back I’d call a ‘moderate hike’, my little exploratory trip up to the spring above the cabin would have to be considered a ‘difficult bushwhack’. The totals for this hike were 5.1 miles with 877 feet of elevation gain.

For driving directions to the Erbie area see: (155 Horse Camp Loop) and (82 Exploring Erbie) and (47 Cove Creek and Tom Thumb). Read all three for some insight to how much the roads have changed over time. Erbie is always a great time in the outdoors no matter how you get there.