Queen Creek Mountain and the 5th Point

Saturday Zach I went out for a Pisgah ride. We hit Lower Sidehill starting at The Hub (of course). At just 98.5 miles it is hardly worth mentioning except for the fact that I put the gears back on the bike as my singlespeed wheel was awaiting a part. The gears are interesting. They make riding much faster out on the flats and make climbing easier but slower. I had been thinking that I would do the TNGA singlespeed as it is usually my preference but I foresee a lot of steep, but relatively short gravel climbs that would mean a lot of my time would be spent walking with my bike. Then there are likely going to be a lot of flat paved and gravel stretches where I am hopelessly spun out and going nowhere fast. I'm guessing singlespeed could take me a full day or more longer than 1x8 so I'm undecided. What do you think, brave readers? Should I do it singlespeed or 1x8? This is not a rhetorical question, please post your advice via comments!

Sunday I took the dog out for a mini adventure. We drove to Yellow Gap and hit a trail I'd always wanted to check out and in the process knocked off another mountain - Queen Creek. At the top of the first knob we found this survey marker that had been interestingly chewed or filed down by something:



We were following a property boundary and all the signs had similar damage:



I checked the back and whatever was doing it was also hitting the backs, if ever so slightly:



I've never seen anything like this before. It has to be from an animal, duh, but what animal eats metal? Anyone know?

I also found some painted over boundary blazes. I've been told by a local surveyor that this is a standard correction technique for when they discover errors during retracement surveys. Interesting!



It was just a short walk but along the way we did find the top of Queen Creek Mountain. Here is Duma looking up at it:



And proudly at or around the top:



Yesterday I was up around Candler for work and during my lunch break I headed out to check out a gated forest road I had never been on but have wondered about - FR5096. It was short but pleasant and along the way I found something interesting: Have you ever wondered about Five Points in Bent Creek and why there are only four points there? Well, there aren't! As I was making this discovery the thunder started roar and the lightning cracked so back to work I went.