I
just couldn’t leave well enough alone, after my ‘boondoggle’ adventure Monday
down along the Buffalo River just west of Carver (see: 205 Carver Boondoggle). When I gave up on
finding a route upriver after fighting with the weeds and underbrush down in
the flood plain. This morning I ‘thought’
I had it all figured out, I would gain the ridge and stay out of the flood
plain, should be a piece of cake, right?
 |
Autumn vista above the Buffalo
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Everything
started out just fine, I parked at the same place across from Carver Cemetery. From there I headed straight for the old
homesite and road that was found on the way out Monday. Soon leaving the old road I gradually made my
way up the hill to the top of the ridge, not bad at all open woods all the
way. Once on top I just stayed on the ridge
which sort of meanders through the woods in a southwest direction, pretty flat
on the ridge and easy hiking so far. |
foundation wall at old homesite
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Easy,
but not much in the way of scenery just ‘endless woods’. There is a sporadic trail on this
ridge, some places it’s nice, clean and wide.
Then it will just disappear, all the fresh dead leaves on the ground don’t
help. But then it shows up again, I’ll
lose then find this trail three or four times, along the way passing an old
tire then a nice folding camp chair and occasionally some rusty trash scattered
around. |
camp chair in the woods
|
After
almost ¾ of a mile on the ridge it turns to the north and ends on a bluff, not really
the way I want to go in my ‘pursuit’ of a route for a ‘future BRT’ but the
prospect of some nice views off the top of the bluff sure beats these ‘endless
wood’. So north I go staying on the
ridge, the hike is still quite easy crossing at least three fence lines and
even see a telephone pole along the way. |
view downriver
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At
the end of the ridge on top the tall bluff the views don’t disappoint (be careful). I’m about 200 feet directly above Blue Hole
with great vistas up and down river, straight down I see a car in the small
camp area. And at the downstream end of
Blue Hole is where I turned around and headed back into the ‘jungle’ on Monday. I hang out here a while taking a few pictures,
this will probably be the highlight of today’s adventure so best to take full
advantage while I’m here. |
down below is Blue Hole camp
|
I
eventually pull myself away from the fantastic views and head back south on the
ridge, it’s only about 400 yards back to where I turned north. Come to find out, going back the way I came
is a big mistake, I should have gradually headed downhill in a southwest
direction leaving the ridge. I don’t
realize it at the time but I end up deep into private property, and that’s
not the worst of it. |
above the beautiful Buffalo
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By
trying to stay on a level route I end up in the thickest jungle I’ve ever
been stupid enough to enter. I fight the
thick weeds and wild blackberry among the tall brush all of which I can’t see
over, I zigzag around trying to find a way through. Between the thick undergrowth and the
deadwood that has been bulldozed into an impenetrable barrier I find it
impossible to even bail out to the highway which is just 100 feet or less south,
I can clearly hear the traffic going by. |
fall color looking north
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There
is no ‘bailing out’ I give up on going any further west, turn around and go
back the way I came. It’s extremely slow
going, getting tangled in every kind of brier and ivy and weed imaginable. By the time I get through this jungle, the ‘endless
woods’ never looked so good, I stop for a moment to take inventory of my
condition. |
upstream end of Blue Hole
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The
backs of my hands are bloodied with scratches but worse than that every inch of
clothing from my ‘skull cap’ to my hiking boots is covered with seed. I don’t know what kind of weed this is, the
quarter inch long flat triangular shaped seed Kat has nicknamed ‘natures Velcro’
because it sticks to everything. I’m
sure I look a mess, but that’s okay you live and you learn, easy going from
here on the wonderful ridge. |
the vista rock isn't very big
|
I
stick with the trail whenever I can find it and make good time back to the old
homesite. And from there it’s nothing getting
to the truck, where I remove my boots socks and clothes leaving everything in
the back and drive home in my underwear.
Too much fun! I’ll probably come
back, I think I know where I went wrong, but it won’t be anytime soon, I’m
going to stick to ‘real trails’ for a while.
Today’s
second boondoggle in a week, was 3 miles with 347 feet of elevation gain. Most of that was easy and enjoyable hiking through
the woods, but about ½ a mile was truly miserable. When I
wandered outside the BNR boundary that’s when the conditions went ‘bad’ I mean
really bad. I found the best thing for
removing the thick layer of natures velcro seed from clothing and boots is
a wire brush the kind you use on pets.
 |
well? at old homesite
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Boondoggle II Statistics Chart 206 The parking across the road
from Carver Cemetery is easy to find, just 1200 feet or about 0.2 miles south
of the SR 123 bridge over the Buffalo is NC 4500 with sign ‘Gene Rush WMA’ head
east just 400 feet to Carver Cemetery and park on your right.
 |
| base map before fair use alterations is property of USGS--licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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