Whites Mill Refuge

New York Ironweed Close Up

Whites Mill Refuge 

Dana Koogler

Thursday Sept. 6, 2018

   I had been wanting to go see a place that is about ten minutes from my house.

It is a waterfowl refuge.  It did not look like much on satellite view, but seeing as how

it was that close I figured it was worth a look.  It was not a complete waste of time, but

this time of year it is so overgrown there is no walking in there.  Unless you want to plow

endlessly through weeds as high as your head that is.  It is also supposed to be a marsh.

I did not have any plans to wade out into that mess without being able to at least see

the ground to tell how firm it was before stepping.    I found the ruins of Whites Mill.

I like old grist mills.  I am not sure how this one was powered.  Crooked Creek is right

near it, but not beside it.  They had to pipe water from the stream somehow in the past.

   Also there is no longer a mill wheel here.   I'd love to learn some history of this structure.

I've not run onto any thus far despite having looked online.  

 Sign at the entrance

 Whites Mill Ruins.

 Broken piece of pottery

Steps still standing but the floor of the top part is largely rotted out. 

 Cement structure behind the mill that makes me wonder if this was part of what powered it way back when?

Back side of the ruins

 Partridge Pea, goldenrod, new york ironweed,

Spotted Jewelweed growing by Crooked Creek

 Above and Below muddy old Crooked Creek

Cluster of purple New York Ironweed

Gobey in August

Cardinal Flower growing in Sang Branch creek

Gobey in August 

Kenny & Dana Koogler

Sunday August 26, 2018

Gobey Photos starting with frame 96

  Back in Spring we went four-wheeling and exploring at Gobey.  Kenny had  been before, but it

was my first time.  I loved it this Spring.  We went back a second time later in May.  It was not nearly as pretty seeing as how the Spring wildflowers were finished blooming and the Emory River was now dried up to holes of water.    We have been intrigued by it just the same and have been wanting to learn all there was to see.  I recently figured out we were very close to a lookout tower, but had not

gone to see it. We didn't know of it until the past week or so.   We also wanted to go back after August first when they reopen the gates to travel.    Sang Branch had been such a glorious Spring wildflower trip.   I was just sure it must be holding onto some secrets for late Summer.   I wanted very much to find out if I was right?    We needed to do something close and something we could 

curb shortly because we had plans to come home and eat supper with Adam, Crystal and our grandkids.     I told Kenny we would have to avoid what I call rabbit hunts.  Aimless spells of wandering just for curiousity's sake.   

     I had not been completely thrilled about the idea at first.  I wanted to go where we could fill a day

of great views, beautiful Summer wildflowers, butterflies, riding, tunnels, swimming holes and all kinds of fun stuff.     I sat down Saturday night to see what we might get into while in the area?

In no time my perspective changed and I realized we could easily fill and overflow a day in Morgan County.    Now we really wanted to go. 

    We headed out to Gobey early Sunday morning.  We parked and unloaded deciding that we'd try Sang Branch Trail first.  Next we'd move on to finding the Pilot Mountain Lookout tower.  Both of us
wanted to see both, but we were extremely curious about what that trail would be like in Summer. 
We set out in that direction.   On the way Kenny realized he had lost a strap to hold the cooler in place.    We had passed the most beautiful, enormous field of New York Ironweed.   I asked him to drop me off there to take photos while he went back to retrieve the lost strap.  He obliged me.
I walked down through a farm field absolutely full of New York Ironweed that was eight feet high.
Amidst the deep purple spires were also found bright yellow clusters of wingstem.   I also saw lots of
white dots of Virgins Bower clinging to the plants down low.   Cardinal flower was growing in the middle of it all.   The edges of the field were lined with spotted jewelweed of deepest orange and
pale jewelweed of light yellow.   I stood in the middle of all that beauty listening to the songs of
morning insects, quiet and then the low mournful sigh of a passing freight train.   Around me the blue mountains and hills shone in the mist of a new day. It was a little piece of Heaven on earth.

 Above and below... the season of purple and gold has begun!

    Kenny arrived to pick me back up so I had to get going.    I spied a late trumpet flower in the fence row as I left the field.     He had found the missing strap and so we motored on. 

      We soon came to the turn for the first gated trail.  Sang Branch is gate #1.  They are closed May 15th thru Aug. 1st, Not sure why, but the gate stood wide open today.    The Emory River here flowed with water and Sang Branch came down to meet it. The river looked more like a creek and the creek like a tiny trickle of water.   It is still a pretty spot. A dry stone wall runs along both side of it for a distance until it enters the woods. 

 Above: Looking upstream on the Emory River
Below: Looking downstream on the Emory.

       We pulled up into the trail and were astonished at the Joe Pye Weed towering nine feet tall here.

Butterflies flitted everywhere.   New York Ironweed, sundrops, cardinal flower, blue lobelia, and green headed cone flowers were other Summer wildflowers present in the field and in the stream.

 Cardinal flower was profuse in the stream along its edges.  Fox grapes grew interspersed with the cardinal flowers.

 Fox grapes growing at Sang Branch. Still green as grass.

Tall Joe Pye Weed and Greenheaded Coneflowers were thick.  Sundrops are also in there, but they are hard to pick out in this view.  A little bit of honeysuckle persisted here.

Above:  Blue lobelia was all along the stream and up the trail.

    We continued into the forest on the trail.  It was deep and dark in a hemlock glade.  Barely any water in the stream here.   Nothing blooming to speak of.  It was rather boring scenery wise and flower wise.    The rank vegetation of Summer heavily encroached the trail making it like a green tunnel.    Tiny poplar trees, sweet gums, sycamores and beech trees were thick anywhere from the diameter of a pencil to thick as a child's wrist.    Too thick for any of them to be very successful in growing.   It is clear that this area is one that has been disturbed in the past due to logging or some other man-made activity.      The trail continued and eventually opened up some.  More of the same types of wildflowers bloomed here as were present in the stream.    The higher we went the less there was to see in bloom.      I found it to be a real perfunctory ride since there was disappointly little blooming.  The black pond way up high was still there, but had hardly any water in it.  I had hoped for some orchids blooming ,but none did.    

   Finally we came to the rock forms above the trail.  Here the ground was soft and squishy.  Water seeped from every nook along the trail flowing down, Not enough to be a stream, but enough to drip and make a muddy mess.   I can't help wondering when some of these large rocks are going to have the ground softened up enough that they roll down into the trail or on down the mountain? 

      We approached Ross Gap and as we grew close we got briefly stuck on a log. The RZR bottomed out.  Kenny tried to jump over it instead of using the work around made by others.  A few minutes with the winch and we were on our way again.   

 Below: Sang Branch trail as we approached Ross Gap.  It is a rather pretty scene.

Below: Ross Gap itself was full of weeds way higher than our heads.  It is not a place that makes you want to stick around in Summer for sure.  

Below: One of the things that was noteworthy about this trail was the presence of massive grape vines. They are the size of trees in their thickness.   

       We did not linger at Ross Gap thanks to the weeds and how ugly it is during Summer.

We turned and headed back down the mountain.  We thought we'd head on and find the fire tower next.     We went down Scutcheon Creek Road heading toward Hwy 27 and missed a turn.   We had to double back.   Once we got to the cut across trail for the tower we motored on pretty good.  Until we encountered a massive tree freshly fallen over it.   It was lapped down over the entire trail with no way around it.    It was our sign to turn around and leave.  We would have to try again another time to find it.  There are at least two or three other approaches, but we did not have time for them today.

     On the way back to the truck we spotted a spring that is set up with a bucket and a pipe.

Someone's engineering project beside the road.   

     It was a little bit of a let down, but I was still pleased to have gotten to keep a plan. 

We had both wanted to find out what the trails were like after August 1st reopening.    We now knew what at least one was like.  I had held out little or no hope of actually following through the way things have shaken out lately.    

    We had so much we wanted to see out in this area.  I have decided to post a page about what we did NOT finish today for my own benefit in the future. It may prove useful to others for trip planning.

There is far more to see and do in the area than the tiny bit we did today.

Below is the only video I shot today.  It is a walk through all that field of New York Ironweed.

**Edited to Add**  February 1, 2021

Heard from a reader Michael H, who reached out to say that ATVs are not permitted on the right side of Gobey toward Frozen Head SNA.   The gated roads are left open for hunting purposes only during certain times of the year.  They allow hunters to use ATVs to retrieve kills, but other than that it is off limits.  We were incorrect in our interpretation of the signage out there.   We can still go riding at Gobey, but will have to contain it to the opposite side.  The riding on the side toward Frozen Head is actually VERY limited anyway and certainly not worth getting in trouble over.  The good stuff we're finding out is on the opposite side and there we will stay. 

Ballplay Falls in August

Great Spangled Frittilary Butterfly on New York Ironweed at Ballplay Falls

Ballplay Falls in August

Kenny & Dana Koogler 

Saturday August 25, 2018

Ballplay Falls Pix starting with frame 119

(The photos in this gallery are from multiple trips. Current start with
frame 119)

Kenny got to come home from Nashville this weekend after all. I was thrilled to have him home. 

We were both tired so we slept in Saturday. You really appreciate this privilege when you don't get to do it often. We wanted to get out and do something fun, but neither of us wanted to go anywhere with a  long drive. I was indecisive so he suggested we go visit Ballplay Falls. It had been years since he was there.  We had long discussed the possibility of trying to find the upper falls. We decided to do this today.  We drove down there and stopped off at Subway to pick up some lunch to take along. It was a beautiful morning in late August. The skies were clear and the day was not quite as hot as it has been.

Kenny could not recall exactly how to get to Ballplay Falls, but I have it down now sowe made it there easily.   I will include directions at the bottom of this blog entry.  It can bea bit confusing for anyone unfamiliar with the area.    We pulled up to the old house wherewe park.  A white pickup truck with Monroe County plates was parked out front of the house.Parked facing it as if the person maybe lived there.   I won't get into it on this blog, but I hada rough evening on Friday with someone yelling at me.   I didn't think my nerves could take anymore of that.   I wondered if we'd best leave?  Kenny said no just hang on.  He went up to the door and knocked.  He said we'd just ask.   No one came to the door.  The drivers side window was down on the truck.   We sat in the jeep and thought it over.  I said  we had always parked here and walked to the falls without any trouble.   He said he thought we should just go, so that is what we did.    We chanced it.  The falls is on national forest land, but you have to park and walk from what is now private property.   

 above:  Ballplay Creek.. the old barn is really sagging.  Wonder how much longer it will stand?

Above: Beautiful Summer wildflowers were one of the first things I saw as we got out of the jeep.  

   We walked behind the house through the yard and entered the woods where there is an opening in the weeds.  It heads up to an old logging grade that takes you all the way to the falls.

Paul Gamble had long ago shown me a photo he took of an upper falls.  It was beyond the falls of Ballplay Creek.    It was not a huge falls, but pretty and would easily have been worth the additional walk to see.    I put a waypoint on the creek where I believe they might be. We took the GPS with us today to try to help locate them.   Paul was not 100% sure where the falls were to the point he could tell me how to find them. He had given me all the info he could recollect at the time.    He also told me that were he to go back to try to see them again he'd stay with the old logging grade and then leave it and come down the bluff to the upper falls.   I had studied 

the topography and felt it was a logical plan. Probably much easier than creek walking to try to find it.  I had done my share of creek walking here. It is pretty, but it can be tricky too!

    

     
Above: a very over exposed shot of one of my favorite homesteads.  I have a much better photo I took of this framed on my kitchen wall.  

     The trail to the falls is not  maintained and in rough shape, but it does look like someone is keeping the grass cut on the lawn at the house.    Someone is also keeping cows on the farm there.   The trail is weedy and overgrown in spots. It has a massive downed tree you have to go under.  It has a narrow spot where the entire trail is trying to slide off the side of the hill.   I hate to say it, but it looks like one of those spots where a big rain is going to finally cause a landslide.
The trail is fairly straight forward. Only one turn to make to reach the main falls.   At the point where the trail rounds the natural curve of the ridge  you bear right.  I noticed here that  it appears someone has been going down over the point toward the creek.   I see a definite path there now.  I don't know if it is a person or animals.   Looks to be people.   Hang onto that tidbit  of info because its going to be on the quiz. :-)

   We kept going and soon came to an intersection where you can either keep going or turn down to the left.  The left turn here is toward the main falls.    We kept going to try to find this so called upper falls.   The logging road is easy to follow for the most part.  It does have a few spots where you briefly go around fallen trees or brushy spots.  You pick it back up again immediately past those.    We may have hiked 0.2 miles further past the turn.  The road became harder to follow or even see.  The GPS was indicating the falls was to our left and the stream.
We decided to leave the logging road and work our way toward the creek.  We followed a drainage down.  It got so overgrown toward the creek it was like a wall of rhodo.  I could see off in the distance the roads continuation.    Kenny and I both had that feeling we were screwing up.    We went back to where we left the logging road to think on this.   He went ahead and I waited on him.   He was gone a couple minutes and then turned back.  He said the road continued and was easy to follow but it just kept going round the contours of the mountain.  He came to a side stream but never saw or heard anything that indicated a falls.  

   We sat down and ate our lunch on a log.  We cooled off and thought on this.   It was hot and humid.  Neither of us felt like fooling with this any further on such a hot day.   Once we were done eating we walked back to the intersection and followed it down to the main falls.   Once you get to the stream at the bottom of the ridge you have to work your way through a snarl of
rhododendron and fallen trees to reach the base of Ballplay Falls.  It has two drops. You can't get a good look at the upper one from the lower one.   There is no vantage point currently that affords a clear view of the upper falls period.  

      

 Above: looking down from the top of the falls.  

 Ballplay creek above the main falls

 Grassy clumps of island and cardinal flower below the falls.

 Ballplay Falls front on.. tall joe pye weed is growing up there! 

        Mossy rocks of Ballplay Falls.  I am standing to the far right. 

   We crawled down through the rhodo and in and out of the logs to reach the bottom. Down the slippery slope.. literally.  The rock leading to the base is sloped and very slick!  It is worse than ever as there is a log jutting out where you have to be a contortionist to get round it without falling.   Once we were at the base I was pleased to see there was enough water on the falls today to make it really worth the visit.   I have never been here before in August.  It was quite nice.   The falls was mossy and green. The water glittered with minerals and the rocks of various colors shone in the creek bed.   Below the falls tussocks of grass and cardinal flower waved.   I waded around in the water getting video footage with the Go Pro and taking lots of photos.    Kenny sat down to rest and cool off.  The water felt great.   We enjoyed a nice visit at the falls soaking up the beauty of it.   

   Finally we packed it up and climbed out of there.   We were supposed to do some things with 
Crystal and Adam and the grandkids so we did not tarry as long as usual.    It was an easy hike back to the jeep.  It is mostly downhill or level from here.     This is a pretty Spring wildflower hike. Not a lot of flowers along the trail in Summer, but did see a cranefly orchid and some rattlesnake orchids.  We also saw lots of cardinal flower, greenheaded cone flowers, joe pye weed, new york ironweed and Summer butterflies.    

    Once back at the house we noticed the truck that had been there was gone.   I am betting someone was up the other part of the creek fishing.    Whatever the case they did not bother us and vice versa.     I walked out into the field to take pictures of the New York Ironweed field. 
I was also pleased to get some nice butterfly shots.   I looked on the ground and saw it littered with pawpaws!  I glanced up and the tree in front of the jeep was full of pawpaws!  I ate one and enjoyed the squishy banana custard taste.    I managed not to get electrocuted by the cow fence today!    

  

 Above: Great spangled frittilary on joe pye weed

 Above: great spangled frittilary on new york ironweed

 Above: pawpaws growing in the tree in the yard!

 Field of New York Ironweed and cows! 

 Swallowtail on New York Ironweed

Some sort of metal bracket or handle 

Below is a short, pretty video of Ballplay Falls from today.

End of Summer Wildflowers

Bright orange butterfly milkweed 

End of Summer Wildflowers 

Dana & Kenny Koogler

Saturday August 29, 2015

     

 I can remember being a child and hating to see Summer draw to a close. I did not look 

forward to going back to school, the end of swimming weather, or the shorter days.   I maintained

that even as a parent for a long time.  I liked having my kids out of school and having them with me

more.  I liked the longer days and most things about Summer.  I am not sure exactly when I 

grew to really love this time of year, but I know it was after I moved to Tennessee.   I call it

the Season of Purple and Gold.  It is to me a season of its own. It is not quite Summer, yet not

quite Fall either.  It is the season of the last of things and has a color scheme all its own.  

I enjoy it every year.   

   I think part of what makes anything sweeter is knowing its the last of something. 

The last piece of chicken on the plate or the last slice of watermelon is always going to taste better

than the rest.   I look at these days.. this last month from the end of August through the 

end of September the same way. It is the last of the swimming. The last of the long days.

The last of the butterflies for the year.  The last of the deep green leaves on the trees.  The last of the Summer wildflowers.   

      Everyone in the bright and sunny south welcomes this time of year in some way.

It brings with it cooler days. Big, bright blue skies with soft breezes.  The leaves to turn that pale

chartreuse color and dropinto the river.   The fields and roadsides fill with tall spires of deep purple New York ironweed and mustard colored goldenrod wands, sunflowers, pink thistle blooms, 

pink and white gaura.   Jewelweed of orange and yellow hang on.   It is a beautiful time of year it is own way.   The butterflies feast upon late Summer flowers and prepare to either lay eggs and die or migrate South. It has its own smell too of fish, river water, sweet dried grass and hay, 

and decaying leaves.  

        I went into the Cherokee National Forest this past Saturday with Kenny to visit a special place.

I did not want to go alone.   I found what I had looked for so long. Monkey faced orchids.

I also found a lot of other beautiful wildflowers.  It was a pretty day and the end of a long hunt.

I felt grateful to finally see them, but the experience was tainted by a sadness I don't want to write about.   I will suffice it to say that in opening up and allowing myself to be vulnerable and accept help... I have also gotten hurt.  It may or may not have been intentional.  It was a learning experience.

It didn't do anything to cause me to lose my belief that many kinds of "help" have a hook in them.

         I can feel my body healing and getting stronger from past illness and deficits.

That is a good thing.  I stood in the forest and a thought crossed my mind.   I wondered if as I 

heal I will lose the synesthesia completely?  I felt a pang of sadness for the end of things.

I hope that God will let me keep green.  I hope that if lose the synesthesia for all the other colors...

I will retain the ability to smell and taste green.  Sounds crazy, but that is how I feel.

       

      This time of year is an end to things that are fading and tired.  It just reminds me to savor it.

Stay in the moment.  Keep my eyes forward and look to better times ahead.

 Purple lobelia

Bright red cardinal flowers in the forest

 

Pinesap

Monkey Faced Orchid. past peak for the season, but found a few still blooming.

View out over McMinn County