Cape Henlopen State Park - a comprehensive hike

Snazzy new half-mile boardwalk on the Gordon's Pond Trail, just opened in June 2014

At over 5000 acres, Cape Henlopen State Park has a lot to offer.  It's an ocean park with miles of sand beaches on both the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay.  It's a wildlife haven, for both education and conservation.  It's a fisherman's mecca with a huge long fishing pier.  And it's a military history park.  During World War II it was not a park at all but a base built to protect the Delaware Bay from invasion by the enemy.

Best of all, Cape Henlopen State Park has a comprehensive network of walking and biking trails, the crown jewel of which is the 3.2 mile Gordon's Pond trail.  And the crown jewel of the Gordon's Pond trail is the nearly half mile of high-tech elevated boardwalk built with a special aluminum treadway that allows light to pass through, so that it has minimal impact on the environment.  It's ten or twelve feet wide with sturdy handrails the entire length.  Just opened in June 2014, it makes the Appalachian Trail's famous Pochuck Swamp boardwalk look like a kiddie ride by comparison, though the latter is five or six times the length.

As a fit hiker on a budget I chose to park my vehicle outside the park itself and walk in.  The Cape May-Lewes ferry has a vast foot passenger parking lot that is just 3/4 mile from the main park entrance, and down on the north side of Rehoboth beach, the Deauville Beach parking area is the same distance south of the southern park entrance.  It may be important to note that there is no vehicle road connecting these two park entrances.  The only way to comprehensively experience the park from end to end is on foot or by bicycle.

My exploration of the park went in three phases:  A long distance trail hike, a beach hike, and an inland hike via the bike trails.

The first phase followed the route of the American Discovery Trail, which has its eastern terminus in the Atlantic Ocean beside the Hawk Watch--a unique spot that combines all three of the park's features.  The hawk observation point is set on top of an old Bunker.

The trail skirts the bunker on what looks like an artillery pad and then heads over the dune where I took a 'trail terminus selfie'.

Then it was time for feet in the Atlantic waters.

I have plans to hike nearly all of the ADT from here to Colorado, and perhaps eventually to get a companion shot--feet in the Pacific--at its western terminus at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County just north of San Francisco.

Part Two of the three-part hike then commenced--the beach walk.  It came in two sub-phases.  From the ADT terminus I headed north to the tip of Cape Henlopen proper where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean and I met a flock of seabirds.

The 1926 vintage Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse is just offshore here.

I rounded the cape, took a detour around a closed (for bird nesting) section of bayside beach, and continued on west all the way back to where the beach ends at the ferry terminal.  This whole section is presided over by the much older Delaware Breakwater Lighthouse, built in 1885 and still using the original fourth-order Fresnel lens installed that year.

Now I hiked a bit more of the ADT to the town of Lewes, then returned and got in my borrowed vehicle and drove down to Deauville Beach, where I resumed my beach hike by going north toward the ADT trail terminus.  Immediately I encountered these two venerable old sentinels.

They are two of eleven watch towers built in the late 1930's and early 1940's as part of the effort to defend the Delaware Bay from invasion.  They're the only ones now stranded on the beach, threatened by ongoing erosion.  Several of the towers come in pairs like this in order to perform precise triangulation on suspicious targets.  Here's an interpretive sign - full of great info.

The beach walk finished soon after I passed the elaborate bathhouse with its boardwalk to the beach.  Then I began phase three, heading inland on paved bike paths.  I passed Fort Miles--the nerve center of the WWII operation, with its Spartan barracks buildings and examples of artillery on display.

They're upgrading this section of the park, with completion scheduled next spring.

I visited the one observation tower that is open to the public -- view from the top, looking north toward the cape, is above -- then started down the Gordon's Pond trail, travelling north to south.  The first thing I encountered was the boardwalk, discussed above.  Then came the pond itself, resplendent on this sunny breezy afternoon.

Across the pond were those two observation towers standing on the beach.  And in the foreground of this shot is what looks like a mini-savanna -- an open forest of tiny trees all decked in their fall color.

In fact, these are the little salt-marsh plant called American Glasswort, Salicornia virginica, a succulent which puts on this display in the fall.  It's edible.  The stems are pickled and considered a delicacy.  Here's a close up of one of the little saltpan-loving plants.

There were birds in abundance and quite a few photographers out on this perfect afternoon with their huge telephoto lens rigs.  But even with my little hiker-friendly Canon Elph (it has an 8x zoom) I managed a nice shot or two.

It was a twenty mile hike in all, but I never felt tired.  I was too busy enjoying the day.

Below is a map of the route, with links (the red push pins) to many more photos.


Cape Henlopen State Park at EveryTrail
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Pinhoti Trail, the Trail of Tears road walk

Chief Vann House, a focal point of Cherokee entrepreneurship and success until gold was discovered in Cherokee autonomous lands near Dahlonega in 1828.  Ten years later, 4000 Cherokee tribe members were killed and thousands more were forcibly evicted from their homes and made to march to Oklahoma through one of the most bitter winters in memory.  The Cherokee people called this "nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i" -- The Trail where They Cried.

"Florida or Bust" - Days 13 and 14

My surname is Wetzel, and although I know of no direct relation, the most famous person named Wetzel was an Indian hunter named Lewis Wetzel, who ranged the Ohio Valley in the late 1700's.  He was a loner who took pride in his hatred of native Americans.  He scalped his victims.  The Indians gave him the name 'Deathwind' because of his skill at reloading his rifle while running at full speed.

Lewis Wetzel was accused of murdering peaceful native Americans, but he escaped to New Orleans before he could be brought before a court.  In the south he spent several years in prison for counterfeiting.

In all, this is not a person I am proud to be associated with.  And my walk through pre-1830's Cherokee Nation autonomous territory on the Pinhoti Trail reinforced the shame I feel for the way these people were treated by people of my ethnic background.

The 'Indian Removal Act of 1830' began the process of stealing Cherokee Lands and forcibly relocating those who would not assimilate to Oklahoma.  The resulting journey has been dubbed the Trail of Tears because of the hardship the relocation caused.  It's beyond the scope of this hike report to go into the history, though it's fascinating and, to me, deeply saddening.  This Wikipedia Article, might be a good place to start to learn more.

The Pinhoti Trail goes several miles out of its way to visit Chief Vann House--built just after 1800 by a wealthy Cherokee leader named James Vann.  Here's another view, the out-buildings, and the interpretive plaque. 

Vann was also instrumental in establishing the Old Federal Road, which the Pinhoti Trail also follows for several miles.

For me, the house, and a nearby memorial also along the Pinhoti trail in the town of Spring Place served to open the door to my awareness of this episode of local history.  I'm sure that's why the trail went there, and why it was more than worth the extra few miles.

Overall, between Dennis Mill Road and I-75 in Dalton, GA, the Pinhoti Trail follows paved roads for twenty five miles.  Dennis Mill Road is a quiet country lane, with this creaky one-lane, vine-adorned bridge over Rock Creek.

And there are some nice views of the Cohutta Mountains that I just hiked through.  Here's a view at sunrise in the little crossroads of Ramhurst.

And here's a daytime view from beside the Spring Lakes Golf Course:

But by the time you get to Dalton, the route along Walnut Avenue is a bustling four-lane commercial highway:

Fortunately there's a sidewalk here.  And I was delighted to see the turns well marked with those big green trail signs with many more of the small white diamond signs at intervals between.  Other trails, including the Appalachian Trail, don't do this good a job of marking their road walk sections.

I covered the road walk in two hot days, getting very early starts -- we're talking 4AM -- when the only light was that of the waning moon and the occasional porch light or business.  Here's what the bridge over Coahulla Creek looked like to my camera, illuminated by an adjacent gas station.

The early start worked.  I got the vast majority of my miles accomplished before the temperature reached 80F, though even in the pre-dawn hours the humidity was an issue.  I'm taking a break now for a family vacation and to accomplish some business in Florida (in a round-about way, it's the reason I'm hiking to Florida).  When I get back to Dalton in early October, I'm hoping for a bit more of a fall feel to the air.  Stay tuned.

A map of the route appears below.  I walked one way and used my bicycle for the return trip, dividing the 25 miles into ten small out-and-back segments.



Pinhoti Trail - Dennis Mill Rd. to Dalton at EveryTrail
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A special new section of the Pinhoti Trail

This is a female Tiger Swallowtail, yellow morph, photographed along the trail today.  And I have a confession to make.  All my life I've believed this was a Monarch Butterfly.  In previous posts I've incorrectly labeled it.  I'll try to make the corrections where I can find them.  Now that I've learned my mistake, I'm not even sure if I've ever seen a real Monarch.

"Florida or Bust" - Day 12

Having hiked the Pinhoti Trail through Mountain Bike territory and then ATV territory, today I came into butterfly territory.

It was a new section of Pinhoti Trail, just opened about two years ago.  About 2.5 miles of it are newly built trail where none existed, running through a newly acquired conservation property just purchased from private hands in 2008.  Part of this new section runs from FR 3 (Peeple's Lake Road) along a gated grassy (and recently mowed!) old forest road.

This wide former road follows the south slopes of the Rock Creek watershed for three miles or so, then the trail leaves it and strikes off along steeper side-slopes, crossing several small streams, including this one with a small cascade adorned by the water-loving Cardinal Flower - Lobelia Cardinalis (also a favorite of butterflies).

Eventually the trail climbs a few hundred feet, crosses over the ridge and begins to descend steeply, offering this view of the countryside to the southwest.

This section of trail comes out at a massive new trailhead parking area on Dennis Mill Road south of the town of Chatsworth.  When I describe this parking area as massive, I do not exaggerate.  It has room for close to 100 vehicles or dozens of horse trailers.

But before I emerged from the woods and reached the trailhead, I passed this newly placed granite monument, which celebrates the effort to open this wonderful new section, and honors those who made it happen.

The butterflies were concentrated along the grassy woods road.  Here's the other morph of the female Tiger Swallowtail--the all black one.  Several times I saw the yellow and black engaging in areal sparring.  It seems each is jealous of the other's fancy gown.

I managed to capture photos of two others, the big, showy Great Spangled Fritillary ...

... and the much smaller Northern Crescent:

Finally, after I left the grassy woods road, I came across the tiniest, cutest little mushroom ever.  For scale I snatched a goldfish cracker from my snack bag.  The mushroom looks like it was sprinkled on top with tiny kernels of popcorn.

It was a hot, steamy day.  The week of unseasonably fall-like weather had come to a close.  Even in the shade of the woods, I was uncomfortably sweaty.  I've abandoned my backpack in order to let my back breathe freely.  I carried my snacks and water in a small grocery bag that makes me look like a homeless vagrant.  - - -  Come to think of it, that's probably a step up from 'Hiker Trash' :-)

For today's hike I did a loop, following the old Pinhoti route along Peeble's Lake Road eastbound and then taking the new trail westbound.  Here's a map of the full route:




Pinhoti Trail - FR 3 to Dennis Mill Rd at EveryTrail
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Tatum Top and things unwanted on the Pinhoti Trail

When Tatum Lead Road descends off the high point (which I'm calling Tatum Top) and enters Chattahoochee National Forest it becomes a designated ORV (or OHV -- Off-Highway Vehicle) trail.  It is also the Pinhoti Trail (look closely at the slender tree on the left side of the trail, behind and to the right of the yellow diamond on the foreground tree.  Look between the green leaves for the white 'turkey foot' trail marker.)

"Florida or Bust" - Day 11

This is a tale of a multi-use forest.  Chattahoochee National Forest has established trail networks for many purposes, and the Pinhoti Trail traverses several of them.  When the westbound Pinhoti Trail leaves the Mountain Biker trail network at Bear Creek, it begins heading toward Rock Creek, which has an ORV (Off Road Vehicle) trail network.

ATV's are ORV's.  Dune Buggies are ORV's.  Motorcycles are ORV's.  And to get technical, so are military tanks, farm tractors, forklifts, cranes, backhoes, bulldozers and golf carts.

The one thing ORV's have in common is that they are motorized.  And the one thing about motorized vehicles in the woods (with the blessed exception of golf carts) is that you can hear them from miles away.  Inseparable from the fun of wheeling around in the woods on an ATV seems to be making loud noise.

And seemingly inseparable from the psyche of the ATV rider, is the challenge that the vehicle's name (ALL-terrain vehicle) implies.  Wherever there's a sign that says ATV's are prohibited, somebody on an ATV is bound to tear it down and roar on through.   Wherever property owners put up physical barriers to prevent ATV's from entering, somebody on an ATV is bound to consider it a personal challenge and find a way over, under, around, or through the barrier, no matter how elaborate.

So this report is about a part of the Pinhoti Trail that seems incurably infested with motorized vehicles.

In my last report I covered the trail as it crossed over Turkey Mountain.  Here my report continues as the trail crosses GA Highway 2/52 at the somewhat neglected (unwanted? certainly un-loved) Cohutta Overlook ...

After a half-mile road walk along Highway 2/52, the trail makes a short jog through the woods on foot/mountain-bike trail, then joins Tatum Lead Road - a public gravel road that climbs up over the section's high point (Tater Top ... uh ... Tatum Mountain) and follows the 'lead' - a long continuous ridge that extends for many miles along the Murray-Gilmer County Line.

Much of this ridge is private land, but eventually the road enters national forest property at the point shown in the photo up top.  After another mile the Pinhoti Trail turns off Tatum Lead Road and drops down to Rock Creek on a section that is nominally closed to motorized vehicles.

The yellow sign says 'Closed to Vehicles'.  Steep mounds and vertical-sided trenches and two sets of deeply embedded concrete posts were in place.  None of them worked.

But there were fresh motorcycle tracks when I passed through, and plenty of evidence that ATV's had transgressed.  And the sound of distant ATV's echoing through the woods was a constant part of my audio experience.  It seemed inevitable, because on the other end of this 'closed-to-vehicles' section, the trail comes out on open public road again, and that road leads directly to the main Rock Creek ORV parking/staging area (what we'd call a trailhead).

Rock Creek itself is one of those beautiful, rhododendron-lined, tumbling mountain streams in a deep, cool ravine.  It was a wonderful natural place to hike beside.  I can see why those who go into the woods, via whatever mode of transport, would want to come here.

But for reasons perhaps subliminal, the only photo I took through the Rock Creek ravine was that of a plant so thorny that some people consider it the ultimate in unwanted species - that noxious weed, the common thistle - in a wildlife clearing.

What else caught my attention today?  The Kudzu was in bloom along the half-mile road walk on GA 2/52.  It was interesting to me that, although Kudzu is a dangling, twining vine, its flower clusters grow upright on their stalks.

There is probably no more pernicious invasive in the Southeast US than Kudzu.  Here is what Kudzu does to the forest - this scene was also right along the Pinhoti road-walk.  It smothers every tree and shrub to death, leaving a mono-culture ground cover where nothing else can grow.  Nice view, huh?

Elsewhere along the same road-walk there was an unwanted bicycle.  Can you spot it?  They say it's been there for years.

And where the Pinhoti left the pavement and entered the woods there was another reminder of things unwanted.  It had been wet lately here in North Georgia, thankfully, but I just left NC's Mountain's-to-Sea Trail because a section of it had been closed by fire (see that report here). 

I promise - my next report, covering the next section of the Pinhoti as I work my way west toward Alabama, tells a much more uplifting story.  New trail has been built and opened within the past couple years.  It was butterfly country, and it's all for us non-motorized travelers.  Stay tuned.

Here's the GPS track of my out-and-back hiking adventures on this Day 11:



Pinhoti Trail - Cohutta Overlook to Rock Creek at EveryTrail
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Turkey Top - a flower hike on the Pinhoti Trail

Common Jewel Weed - one showy jewel!

"Florida or Bust" - Day 10

On my second full day of hiking the Pinhoti Trail, I continued on trail more often frequented by mountain bikers than hikers.  The evidence was in the tracks - it was a weekday and I didn't actually meet any live bikers, except on Mulberry Gap Road a road walk section through private land in the middle.  It was a weekday and school was in session, so not prime time for day trippers.

I hiked from Holly Creek Gap (where there's some road walk, too) to the far side of Turkey Mountain.  I'm calling it 'Turkey Top', and my lasting memory is not of turkeys.  Rather, it was the moments I spent in the presence of the 'Throne of the Mountain King' -

It's a giant-sized chair made of stone blocks, complete with a massive canopy.  It allows the mighty king to survey his domain, including all the Pinhoti hikers and bikers who pass by beneath, then switch back and ramble by unseen on the other side of the summit.  But when the Giant King is holding court, no passer-by goes un-noticed by the Monarch of Turkey Top.

As further 'proof' of the bicycle-orientation of this part of the trail, I present this maintainer's mark.

It appears that this section of the trail is maintained by the 'Ellijay Mountain Biker's Association.'  And they do a first rate job.  No blow-downs across the trail, no weedy overgrown sections, no gnarly eroded footpath.  It was smooth, well designed trail.

Other than the Turkey Top cliffs, of which the Giant-King's throne is part, I had no expansive views, so my focus turned to the smaller sights.  Late summer in North Georgia provides plenty of interesting wildflowers, including several that I'd not seen before.  Foremost among these was the Starry Campion, also called 'Widow's Frill'.

I wish the shot were in better focus.  I was fascinated by the way the petals emanate on tiny stalks and splay out, almost like little hands.

Then there's this little ball that looks just like exploding fireworks.

It's a close relative of the 'sensitivity plant', Mimosa pudica, which is a tropical plant, native to South and Central America, though it is said to grow in Georgia.  But this is probably a native relative, Mimosa nuttallii, 'Sensitive Brier' which had a more intense color to its bloom and is native to the central US.

Then there's one of my old favorites.  Despite the fact that this is an invasive, the Chinese Dayflower, or Asiatic Dayflower, wins my heart because it is the 'bluest' flower there is, in my opinion.

Now ... ahem ... I strive to keep this blog G-rated, but my imagination takes me to rather lascivious thoughts when I look at this particular flower.  It's the 'Spurred Butterfly Pea', Centrosema virginianum, and even the soft lavender color adds to the erotic effect.

Hmmmm ... maybe I'm just a dirty old man.  But in any case, this flower, like most, does an excellent job of directing the haphazard, near-sighted pollinator insects to its prize.

For me the prize was simply capturing the image.  I'm a voyeur.  "Leave nothing but Footprints and take nothing but photos" is sage advice.  My Personal Continuous Footpath has now left an unbroken trail of footprints through Fifteen states, and the Pinhoti Trail is leading me quickly on to a sixteenth, Alabama.

And then it's on to Florida.  I'll get there on foot or I'll bust myself trying.

Here's a map of the day's travels.


Pinhoti Trail - Holly Crk Gap to Turkey Mtn at EveryTrail
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