Longleaf pine restoration in NW Georgia

Hat, Shirt and Crocs number four with a Longleaf Pine seedling planted early this year next to the Pinhoti Trail on Taylor's Ridge - it's a major effort to re-establish this special species at the far NW edge of its range.

"Florida or Bust" - Days 17 and 18

Longleaf Pine is a species I became intimately familiar with when I moved to coastal North Carolina.  The Coastal Crescent section of NC's Mountains-to-Sea Trail passes through many fire-dependent savannas in which old Longleaf prevail.  Here's a prime example from Holly Shelter Gameland - a stand that had recently undergone a controlled burn.

I had always assumed Longleaf had a range restricted to the Southeastern US coastal plain, so it was a shock and pleasant surprise when I rounded a bend on Taylor's Ridge at 1000 feet elevation on the Pinhoti Trail and encountered this sign at the beginning of a huge clear-cut area:

I had just crossed into the northernmost range of a mountain variety of Longleaf.  The US Forest Service is making a major effort to restore Longleaf, a historically important species that had been heavily over-harvested to produce pitch to waterproof wooden ships.  The production of this tar is why North Carolina came to be called the Tar Heel State.  That industry faded with the industrial age, but was replaced by other threats to Longleaf:  increased efforts at fire suppression, the general clearing for agriculture, harvesting for timber, and replacement of Longleaf by the faster growing Slash and Loblolly pines as the cash timber crops of choice.  The result is that Longleaf now occupies less than 3% of its original range.

I was excited to see this project in its early stages.  The trees were planted in winter 2015 roughly ten feet apart over hundreds of acres.  The clearing provided me with fine views.  I always love hiking under the open sky.

As this photo shows, it was a cloudy day.  I got a late start because of lingering morning rain that day and also the day before because of the same storm system.  So I hiked only 21 miles over these two days, and am combining them into one report.

The section I hiked covered the northern half of Taylors Ridge from US 27, the walk along and beside Narrows Picnic Road, and the climb over another ridge from there to East Armuchee Road.

It was nice to have the varied scenery.  There wasn't any overall theme to the sights along the way, but as is evident from the content of the headline photo, I'm creating a theme.  Hat number four was a chance find along the Mountains-to-Sea trail in North Carolina, Shirt number four proclaims my current ambitions, and crocs number four are one of several pairs of RealTree branded camo-crocs that I've bought because they seemed to fit better than others.  These have been my work-horse pair of hiking shoes, but now they will just become part of the rotation - I've found that the newer Crocs have a more consistent size, so most styles now fit me perfectly in the same nominal size.

So to wrap up the clothing theme for this two-day report I need to display set number three:

This shirt is a recent bargain purchase made at a truck stop on my drive from Topsail Beach to Dalton.  The hat was purchased to support the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail, and the Crocs are one of two orange Mario Batali signature 'Crocs for Work' that I have, and I'm likely to buy more as others wear out because I love these for hiking.  They have a tough non-slip tread and have no vent holes so that dew and mud can't get to my feet as easily as they do with regular crocs.  Also in the photo are a cluster of matching mushrooms and the Go-Lite umbrella that I carry when rain threatens.

Okay, enough about gear.  Mushrooms were out in force because of the recent rains.  I saw a trlue blue one, and another that was textured in an interesting way, especially on the stem.

Okay, now you may want to hide the kids' eyes.  The next pic shows a little bit of risqué action, box turtle style.

I've never seen box turtles mate before.  It seems nearly an impossible feat.  The male (they always have more orange/yellow coloration than the female) has stretched his hind legs beyond what seems believable.  And I suspect that other parts need to have similar capabilities for extension (ahem).  I took my photo and left them to their business.

And that's about everything fit to print today.  Below, as usual is a map of the route hiked with links to quite a few more photos of admittedly lesser note.   But hey - much of the time the weather was dreary.




Pinhoti Trail - US 27 to E. Armuchee Rd. at EveryTrail
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Keown Falls - one of my all-time favorite trail experiences

Saguaro National Park, east of Tucson AZ, March 1973.  There had been an unusual rainy spell in the desert.  My friend and I scrambled up several hundred feet of steep rock in time to witness sunset through a curtain of falling water from behind this waterfall that is usually dry.

"Florida or Bust" - Day 16
There is something very special about a waterfall that you can walk behind.  You're cut off from the rest of the world by a moving wall of water.  The gush of the cascade echoes off the rock behind you, enveloping you in sound. 

It's not easy for me to explain why, but waterfalls have always been my favorite single geological phenomenon.  So a waterfall that has a trail behind it is, for me, the ultimate destination.  Keown Falls, on the Pinhoti Trail, is such a place.  Sadly the trail that goes behind that cascade is not the Pinhoti but the Keown Falls loop trail.  They ought to consider rerouting!  Anyhow, I've only hiked behind a waterfall on a formal trail in one other place--Kapaloa Falls via the Kohala Ditch Trail on Hawaii's Big Island--and that trail has since been destroyed by an earthquake.

So, as far as my resume now goes, Keown Falls is the one-and-only.  It doesn't have the volume of that waterfall shown above--it's really just a trickle by comparison, but the cavernous space behind it has room not just for a trail, but room to live--to set up camp or even build a shelter.  In my novel series, Eden's Womb, I have the main characters spend their honeymoon in a little cave dwelling behind a waterfall because that's where I wish I could.  I've always loved the artificial waterfall grottoes at water parks and hotels.  You get the idea.

Okay, so here are three views of Keown Falls - face on, from the side (looking along the trail), and looking up.

I reached the falls in the evening after a fifteen mile day, and the light was fading.  It faces east so would be best experienced in the morning.  Perhaps I'll go back.  Other special sights today included an abundance of sunflowers at man-made Pilcher's Pond (two views) and a man-made clearing on top of John's Mountain.

The simple things are not man-made, like thistle down and snail shells.  This area must be snail Mecca, because I've never seen so many of their shells in one hike--I saw hundreds.

But when the natural sights and sounds don't stimulate me enough, I do tend to consider making things happen.  Today I decided to decorate my shirt.

And that started a dangerous trend.  Be forewarned: I'm travelling with lots of clean shirts--like to do laundry in big batches and seldom.  I also have a collection of seventeen hats and a growing collection of new and old Crocs--the 'shoes' I now do all my hiking in.  I rotate through these hats and shirts, and will now rotate through the Crocs too.  Here are today's hat and Crocs, which I've labeled as number two because my I started yesterday's hike with all clean laundry and thus wore shirt number one yesterday.

Hat, shirt and crocs number two

Shirt number one happened to be the shirt I decorated to celebrate the completion of my '4368.4 miles or Bust' AT double in 2012.  And that got me thinking about decorating shirts.  The flood gate has opened. You have been warned!

Hat, shirt and crocs number one.  The cCrocs are the very first pair I ever bought - back in 2007 when I was buying gear for South America mountain climbing.  Still very comfortable and functional but the tread has worn completely away.  Photo is taken on the trail to Keown Falls - somebody spent a very long time hand-setting these stones in perfect straight lines and laying down the pea-gravel.

I hiked between Snake Creek Gap and E. Armuchee Road today - much less ridge walking and much more variety.  Quite a bit of elevation change.  Below is a map of the route with links to many more photos:


Pinhoti Trail - Snake Crk Gap to E. Armuchee Rd at EveryTrail
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Back to the Pinhoti Trail - a Ridge Walk overload

"Florida or Bust" - Day 15

The section of Pinhoti Trail between Dug Gap and Snake Creek Gap is 15.2 miles.  The map of the route looks like the angry scribble of a psychopath.  It's a compressed, slightly tilted 'W' with an extra leg (see below).  The trail goes south for five miles from Dug Gap and then accomplishes two miles of westward progress by hiking 8 miles in an "M" shape - north for two miles, south for two, north for two and finally south for two followed by two more miles going south then a little west to drop off the ridge and reach Snake Creek Gap.  The vast majority of the distance is on top of ridges with names like Rocky Face Mountain, Hurricane Mountain and Mill Creek Mountain.  The only section that wasn't on a ridge was the second northward piece of the "M".  There the trail drops down and follows Swamp Creek, crossing it three times before ascending fairly steeply.

It's the stuff of haunted nursery rhymes:

There was a crooked man

and he walked a crooked mile

He found a crooked six-pence

Upon a crooked stile ...



I didn't find six-pence, but I did find a treasure that pays much richer dividends and, for me, buys something much more fundamental than a 'crooked cat, who caught a crooked mouse'.  More on that in a minute.

Before I tackled the long crooked walk I had picked up my second vehicle and hiked up to Dug Gap from I-75 in Dalton.  For more details of my two-vehicle 'leap frog' hiking plan, and the logistics of getting two vehicles from Topsail Island, NC to Dalton, GA, check the end of this post.  But first, it's back to the main focus -- the 'Total Immersion Ridge Hike'.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this hike immensely, crooked or not.  The ridges are pleasant walking, the weather was bright and sunny and warm (maybe a bit too humid).  But honestly, after fifteen miles of it I was craving something different.  Even though I was on top of a mountain continuously, there were no views because of the trees.  The two exceptions were a burn area on Mill Creek Mountain and a popular rock outcrop within a half mile of the Dug Gap trailhead.

The relentlessness and the rockiness of the trail reminded me of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania, but it didn't seem nearly as intense as that.  The ridges are mostly very narrow, with visible steep slopes on both sides much of the time.  That wide picture is hard to capture in a photo - the one up top is my attempt.

So now to the treasure--worth far more than six-pence, if you ask me. 

Symphyotrichum georgianum, the rare Georgia Aster

When I'm in the 'green tunnel', deprived of expansive views, my attention turns to the smaller details - flowers are a favorite.  I passed a bazillion pale lavender asters--the 'common blue wood aster'.  They're a fixture of the autumn color palate all across eastern North America.  But among them I spotted a few blooms of the far more rare Georgia Aster, shown above.  The latter is known to exist in only 118 remaining populations in four states (Alabama, North and South Carolina are the others - see This US Fish and Wildlife species assessment for all the details) so it was a special treat to spot these.

The Georgia aster has a much more intense petal color than its cousin the common blue wood aster, though the common aster wins the prize for showy yellow central florets, as in this example:

But when you photograph the two together, the difference is clear.

And so although the crooked walk wore out this crooked old man, the haunted nursery rhyme ended well:

... he took a crooked photograph

and smiled a crooked smile.



*****************************************************************************
Okay, now a bit about logistics. 

Chattanooga Airport before dawn

Atlanta airport control tower with city skyline behind.  Yes I was flying Delta!

To get from point A to point X a thru-hiker simply straps on his pack and goes.  I'm not a traditional thru-hiker.  I'm a serial day hiker.  I get off the trail every night rather than camping on it.  When I did my AT "double" in 2012 I supported myself with one vehicle, which I would park at a trailhead then hike a piece of trail both ways.

But to hike the "Florida or Bust" hike, I'm opting to hike each piece of trail just one way using a 'Leap Frog' scheme with two vehicles.

Starting at point A where two vehicles are parked:  Drive vehicle one to point B.  Hike back to point A.  Drive vehicle two past point B to point C.  Hike back to vehicle one at point B.  Drive to point D ... etc. ... until you reach destination point X.

In my case point A is the Pinhoti Trail at Dalton, GA and point X is my newly purchased place in Florida where I want to eventually deliver my two vehicles.

Of course there are easier ways one person can deliver two vehicles to Florida.  There's the auto train.  There are plenty of auto shipping services.  Or I could just recruit a friend.  But my way is more fun because I get to extend my 'Personal Continuous Footpath' too - deliver one car, walk back to the other, and deliver it.

The added complication was that one of the vehicles was not at Dalton but at my former residence on Topsail Island, NC.  To get two vehicles from there to Dalton, I drove one vehicle to Chattanooga where I parked it for free at the Groome's Transportation parking lot, walked 4.2 miles to the Chattanooga airport, flew to Jacksonville, NC via Atlanta (Delta offered a super cheap fare - $119),  took the $5 public transport to Topsail, drove the second vehicle to Dalton, took Groome's Transportation shuttle ($35) from Dalton to Chattanooga and picked up the first vehicle, and drove it to Dalton.

Voila!  That odyssey took two days and was an adventure of its own.  But now the focus is on hiking.  The map of the crooked hike appears below:



Pinhoti Trail - Dalton to Snake Creek Gap at EveryTrail
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Lewes, DE and Ocean City, MD hikes

The Ocean City Boardwalk at about 7th Street.  It runs from the inlet to 27th--a length of just under 2 1/2 miles.

Wrapping up two weeks based in South Bethany Beach, I hiked a bit more of the American Discovery Trail through Lewes, DE and starting west from there, and I hiked the length of Ocean City MD's beaches and its 2.45 mile boardwalk.

Lewes is a quaint old town with crafty/touristy shops in its downtown and a Fisherman's Wharf where the main north-south street through town crosses over the Lewes-and-Rehoboth Canal. 

It is that north-south street, Savannah Street, that the American Discovery Trail follows as it leaves the Delaware Bay shore and begins its long westward course.  I hiked only about five miles of that, but hope to return another time for more.

On the other end of my complete Delaware Beaches hike, reported elsewhere, I extended my walk through all of Ocean City, MD to the inlet.  Ocean City features a 2.45 mile boardwalk, and as I walked it on a warm early fall morning most of the shops were open and offering deep end-of-season discounts.  A typical scene is shown up top.

Ocean City is commercially developed along its entire length.  If there is a vacant oceanfront lot, I didn't see it.  The buildings fronting the boardwalk are roughly equally divided between various commercial establishments such as restaurants and shops and places to stay--hotels and rental condos.  There is always plenty of activity, with people renting bikes seemingly at every corner and even a horse drawn carriage for hire.

Between 94th Street and 118th Street there is a continuous row of massive high rise condos and hotels.  These monoliths seemed to loom over the beach on the cloudy hazy day I passed them.

Other than that, I don't have much to show or to talk about.  The American Discovery Trail is a road walk west of Lewes on flat ground that was once farmland but is now increasingly being developed into residential neighborhoods, and Ocean City presents endless beaches lined with multi-unit dwellings.  Let's just say that if you're looking for a single family home on or near the beach, Ocean City isn't your bag.

Below are maps of the two venues reported in this post, with links to more photos.


American Discovery Trail thru Lewes, DE at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Cape Henlopen State Park

Ocean City MD, end to end at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Maryland

Hiking Delaware's Atlantic Beaches - end to end

From a quiet walk here on Delaware Seashore State Park to the bustling Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk, Delaware's Atlantic Ocean beaches feature plenty of variety for the foot traveler.

Beach hiking is something I do a lot, having lived on the beach since 2011.  I love being out in the open where I can see the sky, monitor the evolving weather, and stay in touch with the 'big picture' of the landscape that surrounds me.  So often in wilderness hiking in the eastern US, you are encased in the 'Green Tunnel' of the woods.  Beach hiking provides a counterpoint to that - For me it creates Balance, and Balance is good.

Delaware has about twenty-five miles of Atlantic Ocean beaches.  I happened to be spending a couple weeks visiting with family at an oceanfront cottage in South Bethany, so I undertook to hike all of them.  I've already reported about the beach hike in Cape Henlopen State Park.  This report is about the rest of it.

Let's start at Deauville Beach, just south of Cape Henlopen State Park.  This is a public park in the northern pert of the popular resort town of Rehoboth Beach.  Hiking south from there for about 3/4 mile brings one to the mile-long Rehoboth Beach boardwalk, shown here early on a September weekday before most of the joggers and walkers were out.

The focal point of Rehoboth is where Rehoboth Avenue meets the Boardwalk.  There's a big gazebo-like bandstand there and a Veteran's Memorial further back on the median.  And of course there are plenty of shops and restaurants to browse.

I did my usual out-and-back hike segments, so besides walking every inch of beach, I had a chance to walk the other way on bike paths, roads, and highways.  In south Rehoboth that means skirting around the west side of the wonderfully picturesque Silver Lake, which is just a strip of sand away from the ocean.

Adjacent to Rehoboth, the next town south is Dewey Beach.  It's town-center feature is on the sound side--the faux lighthouse and restaurant and enough sandy beach for volleyball.  The lighthouse is a replica of the old Cape Henlopen light.

South of Dewey Beach I left civilization and started the first leg of roughly eleven miles of public beach in Delaware Seashore State Park.  Tide had been high, washing away all signs of other footprints, so my trail was easy to identify--see the photo up top.  This quiet five mile stretch of beach north of Indian River Inlet does have several access points.  The first is the Bathhouse on Tower Rd.  There you find two of the eleven WWII military observation towers built to protect the mouth of the Delaware Bay.  The bathhouse architect took full advantage of the situation.

There's only one other ocean-side structure on this five mile beach before it is interrupted in the by Indian River Inlet.  That's the historic lifesaving station.  Here on the quiet beach, away from the crowds, nature took center stage.  I passed gulls feasting on what looked like a prehistoric creature--its huge white back and side plates gave away its identity.  It's a 200 million year old species--the Atlantic Sturgeon.  This is a rare find.  Because of persistent over-fishing and pollution this species has been listed under the Endangered Species Act.

This time of year the birds love to congregate on the beach.  Here's a crowd of common terns.  I'm tempted to caption this "One good Tern deserves another".

The bridge over Indian River Inlet was replaced in 2012 by a state of the art cable-stayed suspension bridge that reminds me of a fleet of sailboats.

The distinctive blue color of the cables was chosen in a referendum by the people of Delaware.  The bridge is wonderfully hiker friendly, with a wide pedestrian walkway with night lighting that is separated from traffic by a concrete barrier and guard rail.

To me this bridge is more than a utilitarian structure.  It is a work of art.

South of the inlet there's another couple miles of State Park beach, followed by three miles of "private beach" with no public access and a continuous line of expensive homes, and then you come to Bethany Beach, with its 1/3 mile boardwalk.  I passed there during the annual Bethany Triathlon and the downtown area was abuzz.  The parking spaces along central Garfield Parkway were all filled with the 850 bicycles of the race participants.

I got to see the swimmers emerging from the ocean--plenty of lifeguards and emergency personnel on hand.

And if that was not enough excitement, there were a couple of whales spouting and breaching out beyond the surf.  I tried, but didn't get any decent photos.  Later I was passed by the first of the runners.  The race route came right by our cottage in South Bethany.  Beyond I passed WWII observation tower number one - the southernmost - with a bit different architecture.

Then there is York Beach, another short stretch of public beach, which allows vehicle access and was packed with fisherman on a warm Saturday.

Finally the trek ended at 146th Street in Ocean City, MD.

There, right on the state line and inland a few blocks, is the Fenwick Island Lighthouse.

On the way back, I caught a lone Great Blue Heron fishing in the sound.

It was a fun-packed walk, done over several days and in a variety of weather conditions from stormy, with some serious beach erosion ...

to sublime.

Well, that was a pretty long report.  Thanks for persisting to read this far.  Below is a map of the route, with push-pins marking many more photos.



Delaware Atlantic Beaches at EveryTrail
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