[Guest]

The weather was perfect! It got a little chilly the first night, but thanks to Coleman's new "PROCAT" tent warmer, I was just as comfy as at home! We ate like Kings and I got some stress out on the trails and basicly took it easy the rest of the time. I also discovered that my Jeep Tailgater tent will act as a front porch to my Hillary tent, using the bib that you'd normally use to strap onto the Cherokee. This allowed me to walk out and stand up on the dry ground, even in rain. They are going to CLOSE the OHV trails after the 15 of Dec Till March. It started looking like a dang race track out there around 4 O'clock, Sat, so we doubled back to Yate's Place and made dinner, and popped down a few.

 

[Guest]

Glad to hear you had a good time... Hope your buddy is doing better. I hate that I missed it, but I had all kinds of crap to do over the weekend. I hope I can make one last run before they close down for the season, but I don't think its going to happen before the end of November (both remaining weekends are packed). Maybe we can have a last bash the last weekend?

Peace out!
JH

 

[Guest]

I know I'm going back up there, It's just a question of "WHEN"? It really helped this week go by so easy...Just not enough time.I took a big pot and 3 kinds of fresh sausage and made "Red beans and Rice" and it was absolutly AWESOME. The beans stole the show! (Remember "BLAZING SADDLES"?)
I also noticed a small display in the Outpost with mining and panning gear for the local tributaries and creeks off of the rivers there. I knew when I kept seeing black flint, black sand and white quartz, that these are STRONG signals for gold to be present. I know when you went up the back trails, you saw all that white Quartz up there too. A good metal detector would make short work of finding it. I spoke to an old man about that area and he said they were pulling nuggets the size of his thumbnails off the east side of Morrow mountain, right off the top of the Mtn! This was in the late 40's early '50's but I'll bet there's still some up there......

 

[Guest]

Yeah, you'll see a lot of rock hounds and prospectors up there in the off season. Panning would be fun, but I'd like to get down into some of those creek beds and see what I find under some of those big ole rocks. You know that the Uwharrie trail system was originally a series of old mining roads? Some of the folks that have been going up there for years say that the place is criss-crossed with tons of old trails (way more than the 13 miles they have right now).

Another big thing is indian artifacts. You can find arrowheads just walking through the woods, but don't let the rangers find you with that kind of stuff in your vehicle. It seems people have been finding that stuff on the NF lands and turning around and selling it on the "black market" which is a big no-no. They've got laws against that stuff, and with Town creek indian mound (largest burial site in NC) less than 15 miles away, this is considered a protected area.

I don't know when I'll get up there again. I really want to make it again this season, but its not looking too good right now.

Hank