Frank's Ford, Ives Branch, and Amatol
My buddy's Mom said we were crazy as we headed out the door this morning, and maybe she wasn't far off. We'd been looking at the forecasts and wrapping optimistic words around the number "28", but once we got out there we realized that with the wind we were looking at closer to 19 or 20 degrees. Still it was an absolutely beautiful, clear, crisp, bitingly cold, numbingly freezing day in the pines. My wife let me borrow her camera, so for once I get to post a real trip report without waiting for my friends to process and forward imagery. Onward!
Our first stop was a place Guy has written about recently: Frank's Ford. My friend had scouted it last week looking for a way across that didn't involve Guy's method of donning waders. What a gorgeous spot, and although the opposite shore beckons temptingly, we opted to return in the spring with the yaks.
Looking across the West Branch of the Wading just about where I think the ford and bridge were.
A sandy beach just downstream of the ford, which looks like it could be the new ford, or maybe was the old ford, or perhaps is just a beach. At the very least it looks like a good put-in.
Looking across the wetland that lies between the beach and the river as it bends around behind. Just beautiful.
Not sure if this is just inundated land, or if the river is in the process of pinching off a lake. The main stream flows behind the spit of grassy land in the background. [Edit: having looked at this more closely in the aerials I think it's just a small inlet.]
From Frank's Ford we headed south and caught Washington Pine Swamp Rd. out to 563, then south toward Harrisville. I had been wanting to check out Tub Mill for a long time, and with the temp now a balmy 22F as noon approached, this was obviously the day to do it. Our first attempt was to take Tub Mill Road north. Not happening. After fighting our way up what is basically a trail for 3/4 of a mile we halted at this:
It wasn't the water that deterred us. There are quite a few other respectable puddles on that 3/4 mile of former road. Some were as deep as perhaps 18". Maybe more. This is no road for a car, and we decided that the road you see in the pic above was no road for our trucks either. It basically disappeared into brush.
The Taco is not pleased.
The FJ licking her paint wounds.
Time for plan B, so we backed out and took Prince's Place Road north, which is what we should have done all along. Arrived at the pond on Ive's Branch and was struck by the beauty of the location.
[Edit: I've changed the title and the description of these slides because I misinterpreted the location. More in the reply on this thread]
A shot across the pond from the SE end of the dam.
Looking at the dam. This is interesting because while the fill has long-since washed away most of the turfing is still present on both sides, and people have layed planks across the gaps. The water at the lowest point looked about 20" deep to my eye. Could have done it with the trucks but we left them parked on the other side.
The outflow of Ives Branch from the mostly-broken dam. I think the appliance in the right rear qualifies as an artifact.
On the west side of the dam is a sandy rise to a high meadow. Here's a shot looking back down toward the dam from about 3/4 of the way up.
I haven't been able to find out much of anything at all about Tub Mill. It doesn't show on the old maps I have. About all I know is there's a dammed pond, and roads going to it that name it Tub Mill. It's all guesswork, really, and if anyone knows more please enlighten me. We had hoped to find some evidence of habitation or works on the high ground to the NW, simply because it was where we'd want to build auxiliary structures if we had works down by the pond, but we found nothing to the northwest, except beauty.
[Edit: I've clarified the location further and had it wrong. We were on a dammed pond on Ives Branch, not Tub Mill Branch. See reply on this thread.]
Here's a shot looking across the high meadow. There may be a dog on the left of this image, if you look closely.
To the NW of the high meadow the ground falls away in a series of hollows filled with brilliant white sand.
Walking back along the shore I grabbed this shot across the pond from a different angle.
There is another rise to the south of Martha Road, SW of the dam, which is quite prominent, and almost seems artificial, but I suppose it is an offspring of the high ground to the north of it. Again we hoped to find some sign of habitation, and did discover some concrete, but I can't say much about it other than that the second one is clearly from a block.
At last we did discover positive evidence of habitation, possibly human. No, we did not check the pockets.
From Ives Branch, to which we will certainly return in warmer weather, we headed West on 542 toward Batsto, and thence on down Nesco Rd. to Columbia, to Moss Mill, to a place I have been wanting to check out since I started visiting here and learned about it. We arrived by forging our way up an overgrown road that used to bear the place's name, not really having a clear idea of what to look for. It was getting late, the cold was now pretty much a moral force every time we stepped from the warmth of the vehicles, and we had just about decided to come back another time when the texture of concrete was spotted off through the trees.
The lighting got really, really tough at this point, and only a few shots had reasonable sun. I've tried to tweak some of the best of the rest, but without a whole bunch of success.
Looking in the end of that same concrete structure. Notice something about the wall on the left. The walls are formed from cast concrete blocks. They're big. On that wall the top two courses are offset from the bottom one by almost four inches. It's easier to see in the full-size version. Something hit them pretty hard.
One of the few well-lit shots I obtained there. The framing of the trees in the window caught my eye.
A broken pine in a small space. I wish I knew how it was broken. I thought perhaps lightning, but someone could have climbed up there and pulled it down I suppose.
My friends Jack and Jon looking around. You can see the offset in the top two courses of blocks that I mentioned above.
Interplay of light and shade along a wall, just because it caught my eye. There's a notable difference between this place and Brooksbrae, which is so startling I don't really want to go into it here. I don't know what accounts for that difference, but I'm glad of it and wouldn't want it to change.
Here's a low shot of a row of anchor bolts behind one of the structures. Whatever they anchored there is no longer any sign of it. Perhaps it was sold off in 1922, or burned away.
And lastly, I thought Stu would be pleased to know that both the chair, and the toy, are still there. We didn't pose the toy on the chair, I swear. All is as we found it.
My buddy's Mom said we were crazy as we headed out the door this morning, and maybe she wasn't far off. We'd been looking at the forecasts and wrapping optimistic words around the number "28", but once we got out there we realized that with the wind we were looking at closer to 19 or 20 degrees. Still it was an absolutely beautiful, clear, crisp, bitingly cold, numbingly freezing day in the pines. My wife let me borrow her camera, so for once I get to post a real trip report without waiting for my friends to process and forward imagery. Onward!
Our first stop was a place Guy has written about recently: Frank's Ford. My friend had scouted it last week looking for a way across that didn't involve Guy's method of donning waders. What a gorgeous spot, and although the opposite shore beckons temptingly, we opted to return in the spring with the yaks.
Looking across the West Branch of the Wading just about where I think the ford and bridge were.
A sandy beach just downstream of the ford, which looks like it could be the new ford, or maybe was the old ford, or perhaps is just a beach. At the very least it looks like a good put-in.
Looking across the wetland that lies between the beach and the river as it bends around behind. Just beautiful.
Not sure if this is just inundated land, or if the river is in the process of pinching off a lake. The main stream flows behind the spit of grassy land in the background. [Edit: having looked at this more closely in the aerials I think it's just a small inlet.]
From Frank's Ford we headed south and caught Washington Pine Swamp Rd. out to 563, then south toward Harrisville. I had been wanting to check out Tub Mill for a long time, and with the temp now a balmy 22F as noon approached, this was obviously the day to do it. Our first attempt was to take Tub Mill Road north. Not happening. After fighting our way up what is basically a trail for 3/4 of a mile we halted at this:
It wasn't the water that deterred us. There are quite a few other respectable puddles on that 3/4 mile of former road. Some were as deep as perhaps 18". Maybe more. This is no road for a car, and we decided that the road you see in the pic above was no road for our trucks either. It basically disappeared into brush.
The Taco is not pleased.
The FJ licking her paint wounds.
Time for plan B, so we backed out and took Prince's Place Road north, which is what we should have done all along. Arrived at the pond on Ive's Branch and was struck by the beauty of the location.
[Edit: I've changed the title and the description of these slides because I misinterpreted the location. More in the reply on this thread]
A shot across the pond from the SE end of the dam.
Looking at the dam. This is interesting because while the fill has long-since washed away most of the turfing is still present on both sides, and people have layed planks across the gaps. The water at the lowest point looked about 20" deep to my eye. Could have done it with the trucks but we left them parked on the other side.
The outflow of Ives Branch from the mostly-broken dam. I think the appliance in the right rear qualifies as an artifact.
On the west side of the dam is a sandy rise to a high meadow. Here's a shot looking back down toward the dam from about 3/4 of the way up.
I haven't been able to find out much of anything at all about Tub Mill. It doesn't show on the old maps I have. About all I know is there's a dammed pond, and roads going to it that name it Tub Mill. It's all guesswork, really, and if anyone knows more please enlighten me. We had hoped to find some evidence of habitation or works on the high ground to the NW, simply because it was where we'd want to build auxiliary structures if we had works down by the pond, but we found nothing to the northwest, except beauty.
[Edit: I've clarified the location further and had it wrong. We were on a dammed pond on Ives Branch, not Tub Mill Branch. See reply on this thread.]
Here's a shot looking across the high meadow. There may be a dog on the left of this image, if you look closely.
To the NW of the high meadow the ground falls away in a series of hollows filled with brilliant white sand.
Walking back along the shore I grabbed this shot across the pond from a different angle.
There is another rise to the south of Martha Road, SW of the dam, which is quite prominent, and almost seems artificial, but I suppose it is an offspring of the high ground to the north of it. Again we hoped to find some sign of habitation, and did discover some concrete, but I can't say much about it other than that the second one is clearly from a block.
At last we did discover positive evidence of habitation, possibly human. No, we did not check the pockets.
From Ives Branch, to which we will certainly return in warmer weather, we headed West on 542 toward Batsto, and thence on down Nesco Rd. to Columbia, to Moss Mill, to a place I have been wanting to check out since I started visiting here and learned about it. We arrived by forging our way up an overgrown road that used to bear the place's name, not really having a clear idea of what to look for. It was getting late, the cold was now pretty much a moral force every time we stepped from the warmth of the vehicles, and we had just about decided to come back another time when the texture of concrete was spotted off through the trees.
The lighting got really, really tough at this point, and only a few shots had reasonable sun. I've tried to tweak some of the best of the rest, but without a whole bunch of success.
Looking in the end of that same concrete structure. Notice something about the wall on the left. The walls are formed from cast concrete blocks. They're big. On that wall the top two courses are offset from the bottom one by almost four inches. It's easier to see in the full-size version. Something hit them pretty hard.
One of the few well-lit shots I obtained there. The framing of the trees in the window caught my eye.
A broken pine in a small space. I wish I knew how it was broken. I thought perhaps lightning, but someone could have climbed up there and pulled it down I suppose.
My friends Jack and Jon looking around. You can see the offset in the top two courses of blocks that I mentioned above.
Interplay of light and shade along a wall, just because it caught my eye. There's a notable difference between this place and Brooksbrae, which is so startling I don't really want to go into it here. I don't know what accounts for that difference, but I'm glad of it and wouldn't want it to change.
Here's a low shot of a row of anchor bolts behind one of the structures. Whatever they anchored there is no longer any sign of it. Perhaps it was sold off in 1922, or burned away.
And lastly, I thought Stu would be pleased to know that both the chair, and the toy, are still there. We didn't pose the toy on the chair, I swear. All is as we found it.
.
