Mountain West, a PBX Hike.

[Teegate]

All,

Today was going to be a hike that Hewey (Chris) had planned for the Bamber area; however, due to the "angry" river we were going to cross we postponed that hike until the fall. To replace it Chis came up with today's hike at the last minute. Here is an edited version of the announcement from Bob we received two days ago.

3 April Forked River Mountain Trip

My Pine Barren Brothers,

Not wanting to waste a good day, Chris has worked up a nice little trip for this Saturday that is mostly in the uplands, with a couple crossings of the Factory Branch, far upstream, where the water level should be doable. We are going to rough it through the famous piney woods of Greenwood Forest, from the area of the old fire tower all the way to Forked River Mountain and back….about 5.5 miles.

If you are game, meet us on 539, at the clearing on the right side of the road 2.78 miles north of the junction of 539 and 72. That is the road to the mountain from 539. Meeting time is 8:30 AM on Saturday morning, just 2 days from now.

Hope to see you there!……….bob


So at 8:30 this morning the list of participants were Hewey, bobpbx, RednekF350 and his dog Murphy, Oji, me (Teegate), and Mike Baker from MikeBaker.com. Arriving at the starting location I learned they had found this.

Be warned, do not click on this if you do not want to see a dead animal. You have been warned.


http://home.comcast.net/~teegate1/04032010/IMG_4262.JPG

http://home.comcast.net/~teegate1/04032010/IMG_4263.JPG

http://home.comcast.net/~teegate1/04032010/IMG_4264.JPG

http://home.comcast.net/~teegate1/04032010/IMG_4265.JPG


In a Cedar Swamp.

A photo and a close up of some sort of bug in a mud puddle. Any idea's?

Because it was such a tough day, and we spent most of the time trying to stay focused, I did not get many photo's. The others should be able to add more. Scott has a nice one of me and Murphy that he may want to share.


Guy

 

[dragoncjo]

What kind of cat is that??? Is seems to be some sort of exotic...odd looking.

 

[oji]

 

[Hewey]

It was indeed a tough one today. Very thick and slow going, some areas the scrub oak was so thick you almost had to crawl, but we were rewarded with a view from FRM.

Guy in the upper reaches of The Factory Branch swamp.

One of the three small branches we found. We will name this one the Murphy Branch.

Bob, Murphy and Guy pushing through the thick stuff.

Guy in an area that I call inkberry jungle.

This was my first trip I planned for PBX. It was a hard one. In the end we scored it a 8.125 out of 10.

Chris

 

[Teegate]

Tom,

I suspect you are correct with your choice. Jessica and I tried to find what kind it was last night but your's appears to hit the mark. Well done!

Chris, nice shots for being in the dense woods. Thanks for posting them and for the last minute submission of the trip after the first fell through.



Guy

 

[RednekF350]

Well boys, that was a good one and it let us know we have some training to do.
A simple five mile waltz through the woods on paper ended up being a nine miler by the end of the day in the real world. It had all of our asses dragging.

This was the first major PBX'er for my springer Murphy who is just 8 months old. He runs a few hard miles every day in the woods at my house with my son's dog and I felt that he was in good condition for this.
Temps were supposed to be in a good range for this kind of work too so off we went.
The recent rains provided plenty of cooling off opportunities and good drinking water throughout the early legs of the hike.

At the end of the day, he was the only one left with any energy and he led the way back to the trucks with a smile.
He didn't slow down until we tailgated a few cold ones and he laid down in the road to soak up the sun and some jerky handouts.

It was a beautiful day and a welcomed chance to hit the big woods with a good bunch of guys.

Here are a few photos.

Murphy near the end of the waltz, eyes half shut.

Here's Bob on his cell phone tersely questioning the pizza delivery man who got stuck in mud hole trying to deliver our lunch to Forked River Mountain's west side.
Murphy can be seen asking Oji if Bob remembered the pepperoni.
The pizza never did arrive.

And lastly, Guy and his new found buddy, Murphy at the end of the hike.

 

[Teegate]

Thanks Scott! Murphy was a nice addition to the day and I hope to see him on other PBX hikes.

Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

Hah, I thought this would have ended up being an easy one! Glad I sat it out and chopped up the fallen trees in my yard instead.

 

[bobpbx]

Bobcat; named because of the stubby tail. But if it crossbred with a house cat? I can't get over how the ears and colorings were bobcat-like.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...&ndsp=21&tbs=isch:1&ei=OhG5S5OUB4P78Aax7Z3FBA

I suppose crossbreeding would be possible.

 

[glowordz]

Bobcat; named because of the stubby tail. But if it crossbred with a house cat? I can't get over how the ears and colorings were bobcat-like.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...&ndsp=21&tbs=isch:1&ei=OhG5S5OUB4P78Aax7Z3FBA

I suppose crossbreeding would be possible.

I had to research the question for a book I was writing and found the subject both fascinating and speculative.

Here's an interesting article with a long answer that is summarized in the first sentence: "The Bobcat (F Rufus) will mate with domestic cats and there are several breeds that have claimed to be descended from such matings; none have stood the scrutiny of genetic testing."

http://www.messybeast.com/small-hybrids/rufus-lynx-hybrids.htm

For my fictional purposes, I decided that the answer is yes, possible.

Glo

PS Enjoyed the trip report and photos. Gotta love that Murphy!

 

[oji]

Bob, Google Bengal cat they have many pictures and some look just like the one we found. Also, I woke up this morning and the back of my thighs were sore, I guess it's from dragging my feet through the underbrush. this week I'll start doing my short walks through the woods after work to get the legs back in shape.

 

[bobpbx]

Also, I woke up this morning and the back of my thighs were sore, I guess it's from dragging my feet through the underbrush.

I slept a full 11 hours that nite. Very rare for me to do that. It was extreme back there.....has not burned back there in 15 years, and in looking at the arials, even in the '95 fire, some of it was not burned.

By the way, Chris was not that far off in his original straight line estimate. I got 5.99 miles in USA Photomaps. Problem is, we had so many heavy brush walkarounds, and 2 steps foward--3 steps back, that we ate those miles up.

PS: Does anyone have the tracks....Guy? I'd like to see them.

 

[Teegate]

Everyone from PBX already has the tracks. Do you want the actual GPX file?

Guy

 

[Hewey]

Chris was not that far off in his original straight line estimate.

Google Earth had me at 5.38 miles, I guess it is not as accurate as USA Photomaps. The route we used for the end added some milage to it, plus the thick areas we had to dance around brought us up like you said.

I felt good Sunday morning.

Chris

 

[Teegate]

I sent the file to you Bob.

Guy

 

[Teegate]

Google Earth had me at 5.38 miles, I guess it is not as accurate as USA Photomaps. The route we used for the end added some milage to it, plus the thick areas we had to dance around brought us up like you said.

I felt good Sunday morning.

Chris

"Dance" seems to describe it as fun I found those woods to be all work.

I can say I am still feeling it today. My face looks like I was in a knife fight I never knew trees could jump out at me Luckily, my teeth seem fine. I am going to have to walk with my head up from now on, I never did that before

Guy

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Nice lookin' outing. I'll see you gentleman in a month.

 

[Hewey]

"Dance" seems to describe it as fun I found those woods to be all work.

Your not a big fan of the scrub oak twostep or the green brier shuffle? Only kidding. It was a tough one and you have the wounds to prove it! Hope you are felling better.

Chris

 

[Teegate]

Your not a big fan of the scrub oak twostep or the green brier shuffle? Only kidding. It was a tough one and you have the wounds to prove it! Hope you are felling better.

Chris

I'm fine ........... now. I was really hurting at the end of that hike. My hips were sore. The snow kept me from riding my bike and a hard hike without a little exercise was a problem. I am now riding and will be in much better shape for the big hike. I weighed myself and I am 167 fully clothed, and expect to be close to 160 by May 1.

Jessica is getting tubby at 104 The heaviest she has ever been.

Guy

 

[Hewey]

I would like to drop a little weight for the big one. It would do me good to drop 15-25 pounds. I shed 60 pounds a few years back and was down to 187 but I am back to 210-215 now. I also used to drink Coke like it was going out of style and I think that was most of my problem. I felt awesome at 187, I would be happy at 200 pounds.

Glad you are felling well.

Chris