Little Fall Branch Falls Summer Clean Up and Hurricane Creek Trail

Flame azalea up close growing on the road at Harmon Den 

Little Fall Branch Falls Summer Clean Up and Hurricane Creek Trail 

Sunday June 6, 2021

Kenny & Dana Koogler

Todays Pix are Here

   

   One of the most positive things that I did in the sucky Corona Virus Year 2020 was joining Waterfall Keepers of North Carolina .   I adopted two waterfalls. Little Fall Branch Falls near Max Patch, and Lemon Falls in the Pisgah National Forest.   It means I have to visit each one at least four times yearly to pick up trash, check the falls, the trail and trailhead and file a report.   It has gone along very well. I decided I'd get Kenny to ride along with me to get my Summer 2021 trash pickup done over at Little Fall Branch Falls.   I plan to do the one for Summer at Lemon Falls in mid July while on a camping trip to the area.  

   I have had several things in that vicinity that I wanted to do.  One was to check out the Hurricane Creek Trail.  Another was to visit the Martha Sundquist State Forest.   I figured since the trash pick up was unlikely to take long, and there was not likely to be much blooming in the area we'd have time for both.   

     We decided we'd stop somewhere in Newport and grab lunch then continue to Harmon Den.   We just packed drinks, snacks, and the stuff I take with me to clean up and hit the road.  Traffic was light and we made excellent time.  We got over there around 12:30 p.m.    We checked the picnic area on the way in and the way out and it appears spotless.   The road on the way in and out past the horse camp was spotless.  We pulled into the trailhead parking and I began seeing some trash.

    I found half dozen items of trash total today. Anywhere.  So that is great. Most of what is being done is happening over a long period of use.   It holds with the pattern I saw at the start. Much of the trash I picked up the very first time had moss growing on it.  

        One thing I did find that I wasn't sure what to do about?  Little Fall Branch had a small area that had been dammed up.  I stood and looked at it.   I called Kenny over and asked him what he thought? We both agreed : It appeared it was done by children, it was not impeding the flow of the stream and most of it was already there and natural.... I decided to leave it until I spoke with someone in authority about it.   I later got hold of Kevin Adams who said take it down even if it doesn't appear to be hurting the stream.   I will do this next time over.   Gary Free offered to help. I took him up on it.  I hope we can batch this together with some other stuff that will be fun.  I need to hike to Chambers Mountain Lookout tower yet.  I have also wanted to visit Lake Junaluska nearby.   I wouldn't mind a side trip to Purchase Knob and some hiking.  Lots of possibilities. 

      Below: the dammed area of the stream.  

Verdant green forest around the creek looking downstream. Straight out of the camera like this. 

Above: Puttyroot Orchid just beginning to bloom.   A couple pollinators on it.

         We hiked on up to the falls next.  I had seen some puttyroot orchids along here and believed wrongly that I'd be able to spot them when they bloomed.  The foliage and underbrush was too much.  I did not see a single one.  I need to put a tiny piece of survey tape in the area near them when I spot the leaves or dried flower stalk.   That's the only way I'll be able to locate them in this mess.

    The trail was immaculate as was the falls.  No trash. Not one speck. There was one spot that was muddy last go round.  It was far worse today.   Horse hoof imprints deeply sunk into the mud.  It needs a water bar or a reroute.  Some work to repair the damage.  I reported this.   Also the Mondo Rock Cairn was back.  Someone is "extra" and they had reconstructed the cairn I took down in March exactly as before.    The only other thing I saw was one blob of horse manure in the middle of the trail.  I used a hoe to lift it and bury it out of sight. 

Above and below: horse hoof damage in the wet boggy spot of trail.  Horses are allowed here so there is nothing for that. The big problem is the trail has a spot that is wet all the time.  

Below: the Mondo Rock Cairn. Despite it  being pretty I took it down.  This is the equivalent of graffiti in the forest.   The woods belong to everyone... not just the cairn builder.  They need to build a fairy garden at home in private.  If they have that much time on their hands I invite them to join Waterfall Keepers and adopt a falls and put their talents to use in another fashion.  Kenny helped me remove the small pebbles in a bucket and place them back in the stream bed.  The rest of the stones we scattered in the creek, creek bank and forest.  I am betting my next trip back this is there again.  

  Below is a photo of Little Fall Branch Falls from another trip.  I guess I have gotten a little bored of this falls. I failed to take even a single photo of it today. 

It was running pretty good and looked almost identical to the image shown.

    The bloom report from what was flowering in the forest this time of year? 

Not much.   The list below is what I found along Cold Spring Road and all the way up to the falls. The area immediately at the trailhead and up to the falls was only ferns, putty root orchids and waterleaf. 

• flame azalea
• mountain laurel
• broadleaf waterleaf
• putty root orchid
• daisies
• buttercups
• lots of rattlesnake ferns 
• summer bluets
• krigia dandelion
• yarrow
• sweet shrub 

Broadleaf waterleaf up close 

  

 

Below common ox-eye daisy

Below: Krigia dandelion

Above: Yarrow

Above: Summer bluets

Above and below: flame azalea

     Hurricane Creek Trail 

      Next we jumped back on the interstate and headed east once more.  We got off at Fines Creek exit so we could approach from I-40 West.   Hurricane Creek Trail starts off the interstate directly.  It is at the end of a guardrail.

Hard to find and easy to miss.   It runs from there up into the mountains and you can go a variety of places one of which is Max Patch.  We thought we might take the trail through and come out up at the mountain top and then back down, hit the interstate once more at Harmon Den and home we'd go.

 

    We found the trail no problem thanks to this video.  Thank you Content Garage.   The bottom part of the trail was quite pretty. Hurricane Creek cascades down the mountain by it with a steep drop off on the way down.

Later the creek is closer to the trail.  There are a few wide spot pull offs, but not a lot.  I think we counted three total.   You pass a couple vacation residences on the right once you get back there a ways.  There was mountain laurel blooming and a few wildflowers.   We arrived at the ford of the stream, and this is where I decided I was done with this for today.  My jeep is stock.. not modified for technical four wheeling.  The suspension on it is also not designed well for this kind of thing.  I knew that it would be a snails pace and very boring to crawl along to the top of the mountain.   I quickly decided we'd have to come back and do this another time in the RZR if possible. 

    I was not in the mood to sit still that long.   We got out and stretched our legs.  I looked around a bit at the pretty stream.  We left out of there and headed on to the next thing.  I was glad to have at least found it and taken a look at the start of it. We're supposed to get with Marlene and GW Denton and go riding on this trail soon.

       

Below: my plain jane stock jeep

Nice cascade on Hurricane Creek

Here is the trail with lots of laurel.. it looks good here fairly smooth, but it gets quit a bit rougher on back. 

Above: large beautiful mountain laurel shrub

Above: Hairy Hawkweed in bloom

Above: smooth flowering raspberry 

Above and below:  beard tongue in bloom

Above:very beginning of the trail. There are three dirt roads that touch I-40 West.  This is one of them. 

Above: #233... Hurricane Creek Trail

Above: we turned around at the ford. My jeep would handle the depth fine, but the rocks were worse than they appear. Off camber and there is a definite drop off. My jeep has a skid plate, but was likely to drag up on this. 

The creek here is pretty. It looks misty because it was!  The rain that hit and then went away... caused mist to rise up off everything. 

Above: Looking downstream on Hurricane Creek... beautiful clear stream.

    

Martha Sundquist State Forest 

  Next we went toward Hartford and turned off to try to find Martha Sundquist State Forest.  We both had checked out the directions prior to leaving.  It looked fairly straight forward.  Exit the interstate and turn right at Hartford and go down the road... and turn right again and follow the road back to the state forest.  Oh how wrong we were.  It was not simple at all.  

There is a large sign for the state forest on the interstate and immediately when you get off at Hartford.   Once you get back in the country a short distance you are in the boonies.  The hills of Grassy Fork are steep and the hollers narrow.  Kudzu is king.  It coats everything in places along the road. Worst I've ever seen it.  No more signs for the state forest.  Just lots of trailers and abandoned buildings.   

      We wandered around and tried different roads for a spell. 

Finally we saw some folks out in their yard and pulled over to ask for help.

A very nice family was able to tell us to turn around and go back up the road for 3 bridges and to stay to the left and not cross the third bridge.   That did the trick.  Even then we had a little difficulty. We doubted we were going to find it.  It is way back in there.  You finally do see a sign or two.  You're not going to get a signal on your tomtom or phone so forget it. 

       We found it at last and drove through it and checked it out briefly.

It was kinda pretty, but not terribly impressive.   Nothing blooming except a little bit of mountain laurel.  Not much to see period.  

       I wanted to see it. I've seen it.  I was done.  We left outta there and headed home.    I am scratching this state forest off my list.   

      I am working out a plan with my friend Gary to go back to Harmon Den to knock down that dam in the stream.  We'll put our heads together and come up with a better plan for doing something fun in that area. Today's trip was productive.  It got my work accomplished.  It satisified my curiousity about a couple areas that had long been on my list.  I also learned that Max Patch and Harmon Den this time of year don't have a lot blooming so they are in the doldrums like many other areas.     

        It wasn't the best day, but it was better than nothing.  

  I realized I am very bored of Little Fall Branch and Lemon Falls cleaning up. I went home and adopted Alarka Falls, my spiritual center.  I  will finish the year out with these other two, then switch over to Alarka Falls and that will probably be it for the next bit.     I believe it is the right thing to do.