Wading River Raceway, A PBX Hike

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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Wading River Raceway, A PBX Hike

All,

Today began our PBX season for this year. Attending this short hike was:

Jessica
Me (Teegate)
Bob (Bobpbx)
Chris (Hewey)
Scott (RednekF350) and his wife Dotty
Mark
Ron (Rooftree)
John (smoke_jumper)
Mike


Our main goal was to travel the complete distance of the raceway or canal located along the Wading River south of Evans Bridge. We learned of this raceway from a member of PBX who learned about it from a FFS employee who at some time in the past had fought a fire there and noticed it.


Raceway.jpg




We began our day along 563 where member "Turtle" showed up and greeted us before we headed off. We then walked to the Wading River before heading into the woods. Eventually we arrived at the beginning of the raceway.

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As we really don't know the reason for the raceway, we came to a few conclusions. The area there appears to have been altered to hold back water and the raceway may have been used to bypass the river and or release the water. This dike which appears to have been opened in more recent years may have been used to retain the water.

DSC_4028a.jpg


You can see the dike surrounding the area. Mark was thinking it may have been an ore bed and the raceway drained the area for them to dig. He may be correct but we really don't know.

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In our travels we stumbled on a hunters stand and his elaborate access to it. Quite a bit of work went into this. The wood even was coated to increase traction.

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The stand.

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Hewey explained the reason for this home made contraption that was bolted to the tree in various places with a rope and a can that contained something inside it to make noise. If the hunter was up in his stand and deer were in the clearing nearby that he didn't want hanging around, he could pull the rope from far up in the tree which yanked on the can making a loud noise. The deer would run off allowing deer that he was more interested in to take their place.

This shows the home made brackets, the top .... and the noise can he could control from above.

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He even left his old rusted game camera for us to examine. It was full of ants.

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This was our lunch location and our last real stop for the day.

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In the end we walked the complete length of the canal/raceway, visited a few nice plant area's as well as spent time with PBX members we don't see often enough. Jessica rated it an 8 out of 10 and everyone else agreed. A great day in the big woods.
 
Last edited:

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
5,062
3,338
Pestletown, N.J.
Great photos Guy. Here are a few of mine.
One of the interesting finds for me was a NOAA Radisonde. It appears to have been in the woods for a lot of years.
Here is a NOAA fact sheet on them. Pretty cool.
A very good day with good people.
 

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Apr 6, 2004
3,620
564
Galloway
Yes it is Gabe. There is a 15'+/- wide gap blown through it. My guess is that there was a control structure at that point. My picture was taken looking along the top of the dike. Downstream is to the left.


View attachment 17216
Scott, that is the old road from Green Bank to Harrisville. There would have been a bridge there, but some sort of sluice gate possibly existed there as well. However..... I doubt it was a millrace, since it is way longer than necessary. I also doubt it was for drainage purposes for the same reason. I don't see any reason to think there was once a reservoir immediately above the road. This ditch is a head-scratcher. I've failed to come up with a logical explanation for its existence since I noticed it on the 1931 aerials some years back.
 
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