Despite the frigid early morning temperatures, a few hardy souls showed up at the Gum Pond trailhead at 8AM, Saturday January 9, 2010, to begin a new year of maintenance on the Mitchell Ridge trail.
Charlie, Owen, Larry and I enjoyed the half mile hike to the trailhead, marveling at the icicles covering the bluffs. We passed over the Hagood Creek bridge and hit the trail to find a Sleeping Beauty like mass of Muscadine vines forming a curtain right over the entrance to the trailhead.
We hiked up the trail passing “Ivan” along the way. Ivan is a three foot chunk of sandstone which fell from the top of the bluff wall during hurricane Ivan in 2004 and henceforth so dubbed by the club. This southern end of the trail has particularly dramatic scenery.
We stopped to photograph the next challenge for our trail maintenance crew and one which will require many more folks to help out. A whopper of a tree had fallen but was hung and frozen in place along a small ridge in the rock face of a 25 foot bluff, which is of course directly over the trail. We took a photo and carefully skirted our way around it and proceeded to the first and only steep climb along the trail. It was icy with powder snow everywhere so we took it easy and safely gained the top of the ridge.
The trail was in good shape, just some small blowdowns. Although the ground was frozen we were able to kick apart and toss the small dead branches aside. We used the bow saw to successfully whittle down and eliminate the rest. Larry swept up after the three of us, hand pruning all the more aggressive briars and tough whippy little shrubs in the path. We managed about three miles in and came across one big pine directly in our path where we stopped to cool down and have lunch. We turned back there and enjoyed the hike back to the trail head with Charlie and Owen scouting out a good campsite near the creek, perhaps for next month’s work day. We sure could use some help.
Come and enjoy the scenery and bring lunch. Our next maintenance is February 6th and details will be posted on the club website.
Thanks ya’ll.
