Beard Cane Backpack With Dan
Tuesday April 21, 2009 through Wed. April 22, 2009
Dana Koogler and Dan Heimsoth
Ace Gap Trail to Beard Cane CS 3--Hesse Creek
Planned to exit from Ace Gap out Hurricane Mountain Manway
to Goldmine Gap.
16 miles total hiked distance
My friend Dan Heimsoth and I put our heads together to figure what to do for a Spring trip while he was in the area? He had heard me tell about how pretty Beard Cane Trail was and how much I liked campsite 3. We decided to try a backpacking trip to that spot for Spring wildflowers. We'd also try a shuttle hike with one vehicle at the Ace Gap Trailhead in Dry Valley and another at Goldmine Gap Trailhead. We would attempt the Hurricane Mountain Manway as our exit route.
We met up and set our shuttle vehicles and put our plan in motion. It is worth mentioning that I was so over eager to do this backpack trip I did it a month earlier solo. I did it as a shuttle then also.
My daughter Crystal helped me set the shuttle and dropped me off. It was not a complete bust, but way too premature for wildflowers in bloom. It also rained on me much of the time. I made the best of it. I spent the time hiking out from the camp exploring between cloud bursts. I managed to have a camp fire for awhile despite the rain. I also rested after a long stretch of shifts at the hospital and read a good book. The second trip with Dan was perfect weather and made up for the first one.
We took a short side trip with just cameras down to Bull Sink which Dan had never visited.
The wildflowers there were very pretty. Green violet, deep purple and pale lavender dwarf larkspur, yellow trilliums, mossy velvet green boulders. It was a blue sky and sunshine day. Mild temperatures and a nice breeze. The Bull Sink is a deep cave system with a wet weather cascade dropping into it. White trilliums bloomed on a rocky ledge over the cave entrance. It is a dramatic setting. Purple phacelia also graces the slope heading into the mouth of the sink. The previous Summer a dog had to be rescued who had fallen into the cave. He was saved by some men working construction nearby who heard him barking.
Above: Bull Sink was our initial side trip minus heavy overnight packs.
Below is a short video clip of Bull Sink made in Spring of 2021 while the cascade was flowing. I walked down into the rocks at the brim of the sink very careful to get this footage, but I did not put myself in danger to do it.
Below: a close up of Dwarf Larkspur. Such a pretty color!
Below: Ace Gap trail was essentially bare in most places.
We hiked out Ace Gap trail and still didn't see much in bloom. It is a pretty trail and not too difficult.
We stopped on our way at the now closed CS 7 for lunch. Dan remarked he could hardly wait until he was out of cell phone range so he'd not have to worry about work phoning him anymore. We arrived at Blair Gap and that was when cell service was no more! At Blair Gap the trail goes in four directions. Hurricane Mountain Manway heads west along the ridge. Blair Gap Trail heads down onto the Blackberry Farm our Mountain Homes property running along Blair Branch. Beard Cane Creek Trail heads due south to CS 3 and behind us was Ace Gap Trail we just finished heading east. We turned left along Beard Cane Trail the mere 0.60 miles to the campsite. The valley to our left was a forest of pale, Spring green poplars beginning to leaf out. The sky was a cloudless cerulean blue. The air was just right. Fresh and clean. We did not see a lot of flowers along this section of trail either. It was still appealing scenery for the forest itself and the yellow trilliums, a few gaywings, catesbys trilliums, dwarf iris and wild geranium. The blooms were improving the further we went.
Below: trailing arbutus was one of the early blooms and one of few things in bloom along Ace Gap Trail
Below: before we made it off Ace Gap Trail entirely we did see a few gaywings in bloom
Below: We finally arrived at Hesse Creek which has to be crossed within sight of the camp.
It was beautiful today. Today we were able to rock hop the stream without donning water shoes or getting wet. Quite a different story from a month earlier!
We took time to drop our packs and pick out our tent sites and set up. Camp Site 3 is situated by the creek on a nice level, soft pine needle carpet. I can't think of a more perfect time to camp here than we chose. It has wildflowers in and around the site. If you didn't do anything more than stroll around the immediate area you still come across plenty wildflowers. Across from the camp the forest floor was laden with gaywings that looked like hot pink polka dots on the rusty red pine needles. Stands of fluffy white foam flowers and bright purple blotches of wild geranium were scattered around. We saw so many catesbys trilliums in camp we had to watch where we walked not to trample them. Once we established camp and stowed our gear we packed a few things in one pack and set off down Beard Cane trail again to see what we might find?
Above and below are scenes from just after set up of camp. My tent on the left and Dan's on the right. I was so envious of his Eureka tent I went out and bought one shortly after this. We went camping again along Goshen Prong and by then I had mine and used it.
Above: Loved this scene of Hesse Creek flowing on past camp . It is so sparkling and clear in the afternoon sun.
Below: our camp fire later that evening. You can see the salt shaker sitting on the rocks. My trip report says we fixed chicken and rice and beef stew for dinner that evening and that it was good.
I never used a lot of pre-packaged backpacker food. I usually made my own in the dehydrator or some other way.
Below is the same spot a month earlier on my rainy backpack solo trip. What a difference, eh?
Above: close up of the air plane with propellers look of gaywings.
Below: the forest floor littered with these near camp!
Below: Dan taking wildflower pictures
Below: close up of dwarf crested iris
Below: unfurling fiddleheads of Christmas ferns
Above: a bit further out Beard Cane Trail look how gloomy it was in this spot!
Below: a close up of foam flower with its little peach highlights and super sweet scent.
Below: a pretty spot along Beard Cane Trail out from camp. By the time this reaches campsite 11 out the trail is ugly from a past hurricane.
Below: a pale yellow trillium on Beard Cane Trail.
Below: Catesby's trillium on Beard Cane
We hiked about half the 3 mile distance between CS 3 and CS 11 ogling wildflowers. It was and will always been one of the prettiest wildflower displays in the park. The variety is not as great, but the quality and quantity of flowers and the scenery make it extra special. It is the stuff of dreams and fantasies. The other nice thing is that it is so remote you don't encounter many people if any others at all. We never saw another soul. You have it to yourself except for whoever came with you. We saw large clusters of barren strawberry, gaywings, purple and blue dwarf iris, white foam flowers, chickweed, fiddleheads on ferns, catesbys trilliums in many shades of color, and a few wake robin trilliums. Yellow trilliums were present of course and were the palest shade of yellow I'd ever seen.
Had we hit this area about two weeks earlier there would have been abundant trout lilies and spring beauties. Poison ivy grows all along this trail so we had to watch out for it.
Below: close up of barren strawberry
Below: leaves of three let it be! Poison ivy
One of the things I noticed on this trip was the difference in a type of Catesby's trillium.
I had seen it before at Tallassee. They are the only two spots I have seen this variation. I believed and still do that it is a sub type of Catesby's trillium. I have since found research by others supporting that hypothesis. One scientist suggested that this may represent a hybridization between T. catesbaei and T. sulcatum. I doubt this as the one's I am seeing have no T. sulcatum anywhere within several counties of them to hybridize with. Plus I have seen the photos of those hybrids and they more closely resemble regular Catesby's trillium than this subtype.
Above: standard, text book sort of Trillium catesbaei with the bloom hanging down and the petal edges curly and deeply recurved.
Below: what I believe may represent a subtype of Trillium catesbaei. It has wider petals, no curly edges on the petals, and the petals appear shorter and less recurved than is typical.
It is noteworthy that I have seen the subtype in white and shades of pink.
Beard Cane Trail has numerous creek crossings. Today recent rains had the streams along this stretch flowing high enough they could not be rock hopped. This was a bit surprising since Hesse Creek was doable without water shoes. Still they were easier than a month ago hiking during the rain storm.
We rambled along enjoying the scenery and wildflowers for a couple hours. Finally Dan turned to me and said "We should head back. Just one more flower?" he kidded me. I have never had anyone handle my wildflower rabies with anymore tact. It can be both a blessing and a curse to be so well known by your friends. He was right though. Back in camp we were tired and hungry. We built a good camp fire and started dinner. We cleaned up our dishes and sat round the fire chatting and had a few good laughs. Around 8:45 p.m. it grew dark and chilly. We doused our fire and turned in to our respective tents for the night. We laughed at ourselves in our funny looking sleeping garb. Long johns and neon orange tobaggans.
The next morning we rose and had a leisurely breakfast and gradually packed up. It got down to 38 ° during the night. I didn't rest quite as well as Dan. He had been up for about an hour before me.
I got cold during the night and woke to put on an extra layer of clothing. Once we packed up we forded Hesse Creek once again and reversed course up Beard Cane Trail to Blair Gap.
We picked up the Hurricane Mountain Manway and began our hike out in earnest. It wasn't the hardest hike, but we did have to climb over and under downed trees. The manway climbed to a ridgeline and then was a little more open. We had pretty views of the mountains to our left from up here. The pine forest smelled great! The woods through here were pretty dead. Bellwort, gaywings, and vernal iris were along this manway. We came to a trail intersection. We found a Blackberry Farm trail map box here. We each got us a map. I think the trail that descended here was called "Horse Slide" or some such. There were a few moments on this bushwhack that we had to take backpacks off and crawl under downed trees then gear up again. Not exactly smooth going or ideal for a backpack trip.
I believe it was about halfway through this manway when we made our mistake. We were gabbing, we were gawking around at new scenery. We encountered a large downed tree with the top part over the trail. No way around it or through it. I believe it was here we messed up. Once around that tree we spotted another trail with markings. For some reason we began following the trail markers. I think our reasoning was that the Hurricane Mountain Manway was fairly well known border trail. We believed the Blackberry Farm was maintaining it and possibly marking it for their use. We happily followed the trail blazes. The scenery was gorgeous. I can't forget the elation we both felt at the beautiful scenery on a perfect morning. We roamed along. We were encountering beautiful wildflowers, a stream, a wild open green area. We also found a lot of morel mushrooms. We got out a plastic bag and went to morel picking. That was like finding treasure. We thought we'd go by Dan's chalet and fry those up and eat them when we got out of here.
I am not sure at what point we figured out we were off course. We never got upset. You're never lost long as your somewhere you want to be! And we wanted to be here. I later learned we were in the former logging camp of Eldorado! At last we arrived at a grassy open meadow. I knew where we were. I knew we were on the far back edge of the Blackberry Farm. We were seeing side trails taking off and up the bluff to our left. Dan was of the mind we should try one of them to attempt to regain the Hurricane Mountain Manway. I disagreed. I looked out and could see Hesse Creek to our right.
I tried to think how I was going to reason with him. We had never had a falling out as friends.
Not once. I didn't want to start now. I told him "You do what you need to do, but I'm not doing that. You see that over there? That is Hesse Creek. That much is certain. It did not get up and move since this map was put together. If we follow it we are going to come out near buildings and probably a trail. Let's stay in this grassy field and follow it and see if we can get ourselves sorted out that way. If we have to we can stop at one of the houses for assistance and directions. We've never fought before. I am growing tired and hungry. We still have a good distance left to go. Let's not waste time or energy."
He conceded my point and we walked along the edge of the grassy field. Before long I saw the glint of metal through the tree canopy ahead. I knew exactly where we were! Our situation was not bad at all. Matter of fact we probably would come out of this easier than had we remained on the manway.
We were heading straight for Cane Creek manway. It is a continuation of the official Cane Creek Trail. It lies just outside the park boundary. By staying straight we ended up walking right onto it and turning left and were on the trail we needed.
Below: One of the flat, pretty, open areas we encountered back in Eldorado.
Below: One of many, many crossings of Cane Creek on our hike out to my jeep.
Cane Creek Trail is beautiful any time of year. Today was no exception. We enjoyed it, but were growing tired. We forded the stream many times. We grew weary of donning water shoes. We hiked for stretches in the water shoes trying to skip some of the changes. We both got punchy from fatigue. We sat down to whine a little bit and eat a snack and rest at CS 2. After some rest and food we were a little better. We knew then we only had about 2 miles left to the car. It was still a lot of uphill walking, but I have hiked it often enough I know where the climbs are. It helps me to know how much further to get to the end and how much climb is left. While we were on a brief rest break I checked my pack to see that my keys were in there secure. They were.
We both were glad to see the jeep at the end. We loaded up our gear. I had dry clothes and deodorant in the vehicle. We quickly changed shirts and shoes and tidied up a bit. I told him I thought we had worked off way too many calories and that since I was driving I was calling the shots! We were heading to Little River Barbecue for supper! It was 5:30 p.m/ and we weren't going to argue about it!
He laughed and was happy to go along with that. I took us to dinner on me. Once we were cleaned up and rested a bit and bellies full we felt better. We checked on those mushrooms. Those poor morels were beat to hell. They were only fit for the trash! We laughed about it and tossed them out.
Back round to pick up Dan's jeep at Ace Gap Trail. We said our good byes for the trip. He is an excellent friend. Not many like this guy. He was a nice Christian gentleman always. We got along great since sometimes we talked a lot. Other times we traveled in silence which was also nice.
A trip to remember for sure!
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