gold mining and mountain climbing

Rain came to Pisgah this past weekend, or perhaps I should say that the forecast was for rain came to Pisgah this past weekend. So, after Friday's short ride I decided to lay low and just walk the dog some for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday afternoon I stopped in at The Hub for a pint, of course, before taking Duma for a little exploration. We picked the first mountain you get to once you enter the forest: Johnson Mountain. We started out by going up Sycamore Cove but immediately left the trail and headed straight for the top. It was steep but only a few hundred vertical feet so we were there in no time.



From the top we headed down off the back ridge to make a loop out of it. Along the way we found this hunter's stand:





Then we found this old post and brackets but no other signs of past development. Of course we were only a quarter mile from highway 280 so I'm sure there used to be something up the creek.



I guess old rail is common marker.



The fog moved in and for a second we got turned around and it seemed like we were headed the wrong way but compasses and gps's don't lie so I followed the course and we made it out just barely alive. Our route looked like this:



Sunday it was supposed to rain but of course didn't but that didn't stop some wndc members meeting at Turkey Pen for a little fun time on foot. Our destination was one I've been looking at for a long time: the Forge Mountain gold mines. We took the hard way, including a side trip to the top of Tarklin Mtn. but it was a fun day to be out walking in the woods. We started on the trail and then just had to plunge down the side of the mountain.







Successfully bushwhacking down to the site of rumored abandoned mines is not necessarily an easy task but with both Zach and I navigating both by map and compass as well as gps and altimeter we did indeed find the gold mines. If you go out there looking for some old wooden entrance to a secret mine, well you are likely to find it, as we did.



That is just a spring, but if you find it take a step back and look around you at the mine. Strip mine that is. Not much to see, much less photograph.



If you are looking for something a little more concrete, well, there is this:



And of course more of the now ever so common old rail:



Then back up sort of the same bushwhack way we came and then off to The Hub! Lots of fun, thanks for the adventure everyone!

I rode Bradley Creek from the North Mills Campground today. Maybe I'll tell you about that tomorrow.