Headed out today with my buddy Jack and his dog. After poking our noses up Moores Meadow Rd. a little we headed back to Carranza, went south a bit, and hung a right on Glossy Spung. From there we drove down to Hampton and took a right on High Crossing, heading down toward the bridge near where I believe the upper forge used to be. Immediately after the bridge is a road leading south that is unmarked in Google Earth and Google Maps, but which the Teleatlas maps in my GPS labelled "4WD Road," which as you'll see proved an apt name. We took that south, and immediately saw a beautiful bog lying east of the road. It just happened that when we arrived in this area the light was perfect. We didn't have much of an agenda today other than to breathe some crisp air and get a few pictures.
Another shot across the bog. For some reason dead trees kept catching my eye today.
See? Everywhere I looked... dead trees.
Additional strikingly dead trees. These two were standing west of the road a little south of the bog.
On the east side of the road there is a large area of what appears to be young pitch pine. You can see evidence of fire all around, and we assumed this is an area that is growing back, but don't really know the history.
This shot gives a better impression of how wide the area of new growth is. We noticed that some of the trees that survived with fire damage had sprouted a lot of new growth from their roots.
And then of course, a dead tree. I did warn you.
Somewhere off to one side, inhabiting one of many irridescent patches of cascading sunlight, a couple of old crates lay slowly mouldering. They look agricultural, but there was no real evidence of what they had once been used for.
4WD road is not car-able, by any means. We encountered one deep hole after another. In this shot Jack is negotiating one just north of the JCRR tracks in his Tacoma. You probably can't clearly see Gouda's "WTF, master?" face.
Just south of here, but still north of the tracks, we ran into a group of three trucks heading north on the same road. We walked up and they kindly offered to back out to a cut-off they had passed. They warned us that deeper water lay ahead. The lead truck was an F-150, I think, with a mild lift, and he had water and mud in the cabin. After getting around them and shouting thanks, we crossed the tracks and encountered the water they had warned of.
Aside from the recent warning, the other reason we didn't feel good about this is that we couldn't see the drive-out, despite walking as far out on the left-hand side as we could before getting into actual standing water.
Gratuitous shot of venerable, but still good-looking, dog.
On the way back north I snapped this shot along the JCRR tracks.
After this we headed back to High Crossing and took it East to Tuckerton, then dropped down Tuckerton to Mt. Sandy Ridge, which we took south. All this stretch was in pretty good condition, although wet and with plenty of small mud holes. Tough conditions out there for cars right now.
We took Mt. Sandy Ridge to Devious Mt. Rd., and when we got to the turn-off to Jemima we saw this.
When we got over to the hill it was pretty freshly torn up, so I guess someone had a hill-climb party here or something. Jack climbed it, while I drove around. I was getting tired, and I climbed this hill a couple months ago. Didn't really feel like it today, so I spotted for him. The road to the hump from Devious Mountain Rd. is in very rough condition, with numerous deep mudholes that have been recently chewed out. 4WD territory in several places.
In the process of cresting I tried to drive around Jack's taco, but the angle of the approach hid a stump from me, and I knocked in the cheapo plastic front bumper on the FJ, so now I am in the market for a metal aftermarket replacement. Other than that little mishap (just adds character I guess) it was a truly outstanding afternoon if you didn't mind the mudholes.
Another shot across the bog. For some reason dead trees kept catching my eye today.
See? Everywhere I looked... dead trees.
Additional strikingly dead trees. These two were standing west of the road a little south of the bog.
On the east side of the road there is a large area of what appears to be young pitch pine. You can see evidence of fire all around, and we assumed this is an area that is growing back, but don't really know the history.
This shot gives a better impression of how wide the area of new growth is. We noticed that some of the trees that survived with fire damage had sprouted a lot of new growth from their roots.
And then of course, a dead tree. I did warn you.
Somewhere off to one side, inhabiting one of many irridescent patches of cascading sunlight, a couple of old crates lay slowly mouldering. They look agricultural, but there was no real evidence of what they had once been used for.
4WD road is not car-able, by any means. We encountered one deep hole after another. In this shot Jack is negotiating one just north of the JCRR tracks in his Tacoma. You probably can't clearly see Gouda's "WTF, master?" face.
Just south of here, but still north of the tracks, we ran into a group of three trucks heading north on the same road. We walked up and they kindly offered to back out to a cut-off they had passed. They warned us that deeper water lay ahead. The lead truck was an F-150, I think, with a mild lift, and he had water and mud in the cabin. After getting around them and shouting thanks, we crossed the tracks and encountered the water they had warned of.
Aside from the recent warning, the other reason we didn't feel good about this is that we couldn't see the drive-out, despite walking as far out on the left-hand side as we could before getting into actual standing water.
Gratuitous shot of venerable, but still good-looking, dog.
On the way back north I snapped this shot along the JCRR tracks.
After this we headed back to High Crossing and took it East to Tuckerton, then dropped down Tuckerton to Mt. Sandy Ridge, which we took south. All this stretch was in pretty good condition, although wet and with plenty of small mud holes. Tough conditions out there for cars right now.
We took Mt. Sandy Ridge to Devious Mt. Rd., and when we got to the turn-off to Jemima we saw this.
When we got over to the hill it was pretty freshly torn up, so I guess someone had a hill-climb party here or something. Jack climbed it, while I drove around. I was getting tired, and I climbed this hill a couple months ago. Didn't really feel like it today, so I spotted for him. The road to the hump from Devious Mountain Rd. is in very rough condition, with numerous deep mudholes that have been recently chewed out. 4WD territory in several places.
In the process of cresting I tried to drive around Jack's taco, but the angle of the approach hid a stump from me, and I knocked in the cheapo plastic front bumper on the FJ, so now I am in the market for a metal aftermarket replacement. Other than that little mishap (just adds character I guess) it was a truly outstanding afternoon if you didn't mind the mudholes.
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