Deep Pink Seven Sisters Rose growing along Darrow Ridge Road
Woo Hoo Weekend -Memorial Day House Sitting
Friday May 24 through Monday May 27, 2019
Kenny & Dana Koogler
Pictures are here starting with frame #421
Woo Hoo Pix
Above: Mountain laurel blooms along the trail
Below: View out over Laurel Fork Gorge in Big South Fork.
Woo Hoo Pix
Friday evening when Kenny got home from work we quickly packed up our things and headed toward Jamestown. He was very hungry so we stopped in Rockwood on the way to have dinner at Cracker Barrel. Once we had gotten back on the road we kept rolling along until we arrived about
7:45 p.m. Otey the dog greeted us with lots of barks in the driveway. I unlocked the house and went in. I got the feeling the animals were hungry so I went ahead and fed the dog and cat. Both of them were happy and safe. It surprised me pleasantly how easy it was to remember what to do for them. I had no trouble recalling where things were. I called Sharon on the landline to let her know all was well and we had arrived. It was a nice evening here on the plateau, but we were tired from the drive. We didn't have a very exciting Friday night since we are old and worn out. We went to bed
before 10 pm so we could get up and get going. I had Gabriel until midday on Friday so I was frazzled from dealing with a toddler.
Saturday morning we got up and planned to do an early, short hike to Hippy Cave before it got so dreadful hot. The weekend called for heat in the mid nineties. Friday had been hot and miserable.
Neither of us had been able to bear the thought of shopping for groceries Friday night. We had cereal for breakfast and got on the road heading for Big South Fork. I wanted to take the dog on the hike, but I could not take him in Wal-Mart to shop afterwards. The vehicle would be too hot to leave an animal in there so he had to stay home.
Below: View out over Laurel Fork Gorge in Big South Fork.
We drove out to Darrow Ridge Road and got started looking for the trailhead for Hippy Cave.
We unloaded the RZR to ride out the road since it is rough and Kenny didn't want to take his truck down it. We found it and pulled the RZR off the road just into the edge of the woods. It is a 0.2 mile one way hike. We found it with no problem. You cross Darrow Ridge Trail on the way. Just after crossing the Darrow Ridge Trail the Hippy Cave Trail arrives at a clearing where there is a hitching post for horses. Riders are supposed to tie up their mounts here and walk the easy 0.1 mile that remains to get to the rock shelter. Evidence of horse manure and hoof prints indicates that rule is not being followed at all. Trifling is not even the word. There is one view on the way to the rock shelter. It was a pretty forest with big leaf magnolia in bloom, mountain laurel, and lots of blueberry bushes. Hippy Cave is a rock shelter that resembles many others like it in Big South Fork. It has a fenced area to protect the sandwort growing beneath it. I saw a plant on the rim of the rock formation that may be green dragon, but I still cannot be sure. John and Sharon were here about a week or ten days ago and took a photo of it. It has put out one more small shoot, but the primary stalk has done little to change. I don't think it gets enough sunlight to grow very fast.
Above: Kenny ahead of me on the trail.
Hippie? who taught you to spell?
swirls of color and carved rock in the ceiling of the shelter
Hippy Cave looking out into the forest past the horse barrier fence.
Above: Kenny ahead of me on the trail.
Possibly green dragon
It was actually very cool and comfortable here at Hippy Cave and on the shaded portions of the trail. We hiked back and thankfully did not see any snakes. We had passed two black snakes lying in the sandy muddy road on the way in. The day was growing hotter. It was too hot and dusty for me to care a whit about any further hiking. We got in the RZR and drove out the rest of the road to do some exploring. It had been awhile since we checked out lots of these side roads. Some we had never checked out. We went out past Cactus rock. I did not recall there being such an abundance of trails connecting out in this area on previous trips. I probably wasn't paying enough attention. I seemed to remember the road dead ending at Cactus Rock before, but the road keeps going. We did not follow it much further. We did ride out to Christian Cemetery only to find loads of horse riders and torn up ground. It stunk of horse manure so we left quickly. We went out a trail across Darrow Ridge. There is somewhat of a view here. We saw yellow and pink goats rue! Lots of it. I saw a deep pink seven sisters rose. White and pink goats rue galore. I also saw gattingers prairie clover. Mountain laurel was blooming.
Tiny yellow blooms of whorled loosestrife
The usual white and pink form of goats rue
Dark Pink seven sisters rose.
Above: view of the plateau across Darrow Ridge on a clear day
Above: First time for me ever seeing the yellow and pink type of goats rue.
Pale pink form of Seven Sisters Rose blooming at the end of Boatland Road
White milkweed
Indian pinkroot
River is deserted this evening.
Above: Start of the Big Piney Trail
Forest canopy heading up Big Piney
Sunlight pierces the forest canopy to make it through to these flowers.
Above: close up of Indian Pinks
Below is a short video clip of the rattlesnake buzzing.
The ride round the back of Skinner Mountain and up over the top was fun. We saw a fair amount of flame azalea in bloom there. On the way down I really kept a lookout for a trail leading into the drainage of Mill Creek. I think we spotted one heading down. It was not where I thought we'd find it, but a lot closer to the intersection with the overlook trail. It needs to be checked out. I have many questions about the Mill Creek area.
Once back at the house we were hungry so I whipped up dinner real quick with Kenny's help. We had pasta parma rosa with grilled chicken. It was yummy! I was starting to notice how fast this weekend was flying by.
Sunday morning we slept in. We went for a ride up the river trail since our plans to do that the previous day had changed. We did this and saw the most people ever on that trail. I think it was just so hot and miserable everyone wanted to get where it was cool and enjoy some swimming. I can't say I blamed them. We did see a river otter on today's ride. He was swimming across with a fish in his mouth! Went right into a den. We did a little riding and headed back to the house to swim in the quiet of Woo Hoo. We spent the afternoon in the water lounging and tubing.
Stopped to take a photo of the spring along Boatland . This nice young couple was getting water.
The Blue Hole
River otter swims carrying a fish
Above: Woo Hoo Beach.. back to its normal beautiful self.
Above: looking downstream
above: looking upstream.
I walked up into the rapids and tubed down. This is so pretty. You can see all the way to the bottom. Royal ferns and water willow on the shoals. Sycamore trees, maples, sweet gum, oaks, and the deep dark green hemlocks. Sharon has worked so hard vaccinating them to protect them from the adelgid.
Today floating and swimming in that cold aquamarine water under blue skies was a little chunk of Paradise! Otey swam with us and played fetch alternating with no.. YOU fetch!
He was hilarious to watch. He felt so great from the river he would run up and down the shore like a race horse and then stop. He was in and out of the river having a grand time.
The river shimmers on the bluffs here making crazy patterns of light. Not a soul around, but we would now and then hear riders pass out on the road.
Above and below: Otey playing in the river and giving me a funny look.
The weekend flew past and before we knew it Monday rolled around. We packed up our stuff. Squared the house an animals away and headed for home. We got in a hurry and left behind Kenny's keys to his work truck. Just an excuse to come back I suppose. We left with that feeling of wishing the stay was longer. It is always better to have that feeling leaving a place than being glad to get out of somewhere!
We shall return soon to retrieve keys and see our buddies and have some more fun.
**Edited to Add** On Sunday evening we were dismayed to find serious changes to the end of Bills Creek trail that is on Manson Road. The spot where it went up over a sandstone rock was blocked with logs and downed trees pushed up in a pile.Past it was a gravel area and pushed out trees. Just before it was the same. We tried a couple different ways to make it down Bills Creek Trail following the now graveled paths. We had little daylight left and when it became very confusing we opted to turn around and go the way we knew would get us home. It would have been shorter and quicker to go down Bills Creek trail. Monday morning we went to the lower end and came through that way emerging on the graveled path and back out onto Manson Road just as before. The only change is to the entryway and part of the trail has been resurfaced with gravel. This is actually not a bad thing since there were two dozen work arounds that avoided large, deep mudholes before the improvements. We were just glad access was not being lost. We were relieved.
Not a whole lot to see along Bills Creek Trail. Synandra was blooming. Indian pinks. Waterleaf and some flame azaleas. Stinging Nettle Falls was running, but just barely.
Close up of synandra
Synandra
Heading up Bills Creek Trail
Virginia waterleaf
massive limestone bluffs surrounding Stinging Nettle Falls.
Forest gloom around Stinging Nettle Falls today. Lower Bills Creek trail
beautiful flame azalea blooms on upper Bills Creek and Skinner Mountain today.
Below is a video of what Stinging Nettle Falls is like when we've had plenty of rain.
It is about10 feet high and sits down in a mossy pit at the base of those bluffs.
It was actually very cool and comfortable here at Hippy Cave and on the shaded portions of the trail. We hiked back and thankfully did not see any snakes. We had passed two black snakes lying in the sandy muddy road on the way in. The day was growing hotter. It was too hot and dusty for me to care a whit about any further hiking. We got in the RZR and drove out the rest of the road to do some exploring. It had been awhile since we checked out lots of these side roads. Some we had never checked out. We went out past Cactus rock. I did not recall there being such an abundance of trails connecting out in this area on previous trips. I probably wasn't paying enough attention. I seemed to remember the road dead ending at Cactus Rock before, but the road keeps going. We did not follow it much further. We did ride out to Christian Cemetery only to find loads of horse riders and torn up ground. It stunk of horse manure so we left quickly. We went out a trail across Darrow Ridge. There is somewhat of a view here. We saw yellow and pink goats rue! Lots of it. I saw a deep pink seven sisters rose. White and pink goats rue galore. I also saw gattingers prairie clover. Mountain laurel was blooming.
Above: a pretty spot in the forest on some side trail on Darrow Ridge
Finally we were hot and ready to head back to town for lunch and to get our errands over with.
We had lunch at the Plateau Cafe and I am sorry, but I was not impressed. It was not much better or different than when it was the Garden Cafe or whatever it was called before. Yuck. just yuck.
We got our grocery shopping done in town and headed back to Woo Hoo to put stuff away. It felt good to be done with the chores. The animals were ready to come in and cool off. I got sleepy and couched out for a nap. I told Kenny that despite my many plans for the weekend I had lost all ambition. I did not care about any of it really. It just felt good to be able to relax and have some down time. No demands. We went out for a ride in the RZR later in the evening and played with Otey and Coon. I did some reading and we watched a movie.
Above: Big leaf magnolia blooms along the shores of the river
Sunday morning we woke and I prepared a nice breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.
It turned out perfect. I realized from my cooking efforts how much I had missed being able to cook a meal and really focus on cooking. My meal preparation has suffered over the years of chasing a toddler and trying to keep him occupied while cooking. You just get to the point where you are eating to live not living to eat. You whip up something and just try not to burn it or ruin it completely.
The mindset is There! That's good enough. I enjoy cooking when I can focus on it without too many distractions.
Kenny asked me what I wanted to do. I had no ambition still so he said let's go over to Stockton Road and try to find the stuff you wanted to visit. I wanted to see Patience Falls and check for additional waterfalls near it. We tried from two different directions only to be thwarted both times.
The road is no longer open to access. I have such a long list of stuff I am curious about when one thing doesn't pan out access wise.. I just scratch it off the list and let it go. I'm done fighting it.
It was growing hot already today. I was more interested in heading to the river. We turned back to the house and went to do just that. We took a quick ride on the RZR. The river was filled with people riding and swimming to escape the heat. We went up a short ways to see the trail and the Blue Hole. Kenny turned aside and wanted to check out Big Piney. I had never been up that trail all the way to the top. It comes out up on Manson Road. We had not planned on it, but we ended up going all the way through and around making a big loop back to the house. We came back down over the top of Skinner Mountain and back. It turned out to be fun. It was a Buck and Jody approved style trail. Very rough, rocky and difficult! It was exciting and beautiful though. We passed through the birthplace of all Indian Pinkroot. It was amazing! We stopped so I could get some photos of them. While stopped the forest was so quiet and still. It was far cooler here. We heard a hoot owl!
We saw several places that bear further investigation. I always like riding up a place like this where I can see rock cliffs and big hollers falling away to the sides.
Huge patch of Indian Pinks. These were everywhere!
Once up top we kept going until we popped out of the forest gloom into the golden evening light of sunset. Back up on Plateau level we didn't have far until we were out on Manson Road. We poked along at first. Stretched across the road was a rattlesnake! First one I'd seen this year. First one I've seen in the past two years or so. He was not real big, but he was highly agitated. I couldn't blame him for being mad. When its hot I am mad too. I had forgotten how far it is around Manson Road.
Watching the scenes of farms and hayfields rolling past in the evening sun was quite an experience.
It is a dark, dusty place that has lagged way behind the times. I am very glad such places still exist. I don't care if they never catch up with the rest of the world. We passed many abandoned houses. We passed another roadside spring. The scent of honeysuckle was overpoweringly sweet in some spots.
The moldering scent of hay would knock you down in others. All of this is part of the same time capsule.
Rattlesnake crawling cross the hot gravel of Manson Road.
The ride round the back of Skinner Mountain and up over the top was fun. We saw a fair amount of flame azalea in bloom there. On the way down I really kept a lookout for a trail leading into the drainage of Mill Creek. I think we spotted one heading down. It was not where I thought we'd find it, but a lot closer to the intersection with the overlook trail. It needs to be checked out. I have many questions about the Mill Creek area.
Once back at the house we were hungry so I whipped up dinner real quick with Kenny's help. We had pasta parma rosa with grilled chicken. It was yummy! I was starting to notice how fast this weekend was flying by.
Sunday morning we slept in. We went for a ride up the river trail since our plans to do that the previous day had changed. We did this and saw the most people ever on that trail. I think it was just so hot and miserable everyone wanted to get where it was cool and enjoy some swimming. I can't say I blamed them. We did see a river otter on today's ride. He was swimming across with a fish in his mouth! Went right into a den. We did a little riding and headed back to the house to swim in the quiet of Woo Hoo. We spent the afternoon in the water lounging and tubing.
above: looking upstream.
I walked up into the rapids and tubed down. This is so pretty. You can see all the way to the bottom. Royal ferns and water willow on the shoals. Sycamore trees, maples, sweet gum, oaks, and the deep dark green hemlocks. Sharon has worked so hard vaccinating them to protect them from the adelgid.
Today floating and swimming in that cold aquamarine water under blue skies was a little chunk of Paradise! Otey swam with us and played fetch alternating with no.. YOU fetch!
He was hilarious to watch. He felt so great from the river he would run up and down the shore like a race horse and then stop. He was in and out of the river having a grand time.
The river shimmers on the bluffs here making crazy patterns of light. Not a soul around, but we would now and then hear riders pass out on the road.
The weekend flew past and before we knew it Monday rolled around. We packed up our stuff. Squared the house an animals away and headed for home. We got in a hurry and left behind Kenny's keys to his work truck. Just an excuse to come back I suppose. We left with that feeling of wishing the stay was longer. It is always better to have that feeling leaving a place than being glad to get out of somewhere!
We shall return soon to retrieve keys and see our buddies and have some more fun.
**Edited to Add** On Sunday evening we were dismayed to find serious changes to the end of Bills Creek trail that is on Manson Road. The spot where it went up over a sandstone rock was blocked with logs and downed trees pushed up in a pile.Past it was a gravel area and pushed out trees. Just before it was the same. We tried a couple different ways to make it down Bills Creek Trail following the now graveled paths. We had little daylight left and when it became very confusing we opted to turn around and go the way we knew would get us home. It would have been shorter and quicker to go down Bills Creek trail. Monday morning we went to the lower end and came through that way emerging on the graveled path and back out onto Manson Road just as before. The only change is to the entryway and part of the trail has been resurfaced with gravel. This is actually not a bad thing since there were two dozen work arounds that avoided large, deep mudholes before the improvements. We were just glad access was not being lost. We were relieved.
Not a whole lot to see along Bills Creek Trail. Synandra was blooming. Indian pinks. Waterleaf and some flame azaleas. Stinging Nettle Falls was running, but just barely.
Below is a video of what Stinging Nettle Falls is like when we've had plenty of rain.
It is about10 feet high and sits down in a mossy pit at the base of those bluffs.
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