ALAMANCE
(#10/100 county highpoints)
This looks easy. Too easy?
After such a grand adventure last week, this seemed disappointing. Oh well, we could make a day out of it by combining the highpoint with some birding along the Haw River near Saxapahaw.
But, GOOD NEWS! Reading previous highpoint trip reports, I learned that Fire Tower Road was impassable with ordinary vehicles AND there were unleashed Rottweilers discouraging any foot traffic!
The alternative was a 5-mile hike beginning at the Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area. So instead of this:
We would do this!
THE PLAN.
Bird on one day, then go back to Alamance County later in the week to hike to the highpoint. Fortunately, it’s only a 30-minute drive to this area, so doing two round-trips in one week is reasonable.
PART ONE: Birding
Besides finding some cool birds…
…we found a place our grandchildren would enjoy!
And we learned a little about Saxapahaw.
PART 2: Highpoint
We made our return trip a few days later. Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area doesn’t open until 8 a.m., so we decided to check out Fire Tower Road anyway, just to see how bad it was.
It wasn’t.
Wasn’t bad, that is. The road was perfectly drivable, with not a single Rottweiler in sight. We drove all the way up and parked within 40 feet of the abandoned fire tower.
There was a new cell tower nearby, which explains why the road has been improved.
Ok, that was nice.
BUT I WANT TO GO HIKING!
In fact, we were even commanded to leave and go hiking!
So we drove around to the Cane Creek Mountains entrance and arrived there just as it was being opened up.
The route was one mile on the park’s maintained trail, and then a little bit on a flagged trail, with another mile just following directions–using a compass and GPS. Thanks to that big old cell phone tower we had perfect connectivity!
Then we had a long mile of orienteering through the forest with lots of criss-crossing unmarked trails and random ribbons and cairns and downed trees and boulders-where-I-hope-there-aren’t-any-copperheads.
Here is Loren with a long stick to knock down 250 spider webs. And yes, we wore long pants, long sleeves, and boots for this adventure, despite the heat.
We did it!
After TWO HOURS of hiking and bush-whacking, we were back exactly where we were earlier that morning! Much Sweatier…….and MUCH MORE SATISFIED!
And now we had to find our way BACK TO THE TRAIL.
We had noted some memorable features on the way in:
…which we never found on the way back.
But no matter, we returned, nonetheless. (And we offered up to God heartfelt thanksgiving, for sure!)
(And yes, I know most Rottweilers are as gentle as Carl…)
My.Bird.Walks. 