Umstead Ruins Hike 2019

Saturday, Pete led a Ruins Hike at William B. Umstead State Park, the first one since Rod passed away.  This was always Rod's favorite hike and I know he would be happy knowing the tradition was carried on.  We started at the Reedy Creek side of the park and started off hiking down Company Mill Trail.  A couple rock piles were just off the trail.  The families living here before the park tried to remove the rocks from the soil to improve farming conditions.  Children would help move the rocks after school as part of their chores.  Continuing on down the trail, we next stopped at the Company Mill dam remains along Crabtree Creek.

It was really flowing with the recent rains we had.  The bridge over Crabtree Creek was recently repaired and just opened back up.

We crossed over to the other side and stopped at the mill stone.  A little further was the remains of a bridge that was destroyed in a flood in 1927.  Leaving the trail at this point, we bushwhacked up to the magazine that was used to store explosives during the park's construction.

From here, we got on the old Mill Road and went to the Grissom home site.  Several years ago, Joe Grissom would join us for part of these hikes as he was one of the last people to have been born in what is now the park.

The most impressive foundation was the old chicken coop.  Continuing on Mill Road, we went out to Camp Craggy, a scout camp that operated in the 1920s.

There was a lot of water in the pond.  A solar panel was set up here to power some sort of air monitoring device.  Heading north on another old road, we stopped at the Archie Black home site.  According to Joe, Mr. Black was not a very nice man and he once used his children as mules to till the field.

Not much was left of the home site, but there were the remains of a very cold car, maybe a Model A or Model T and the Champion spark plug sign.  The ruins of an old tobacco barn was not far from here.

Tobacco farming was not successful in this area and the barn lasted less than a year before burning down.  From here, we got on Reedy Creek Trail and stopped at the Teal home site.

Mrs. Teal was an older woman and kids at the time were scared of her.  Joe and his sister were walking by one day and she offered them some apple pie and milk.  They liked her after that.  Her house was painted white, most houses weren't painted.  At Company Mill Trail, we stopped briefly at the Danpierre home site, one of the most wealthy families though not much was left to see.  We took Company Mill Trail down and crossed the Sycamore Bridge.

Following Sycamore Trail, we went up a small tributary where the CCC had build several check dams to reduce erosion.

The old Log Cabin Theater was just above this though not much remains at this spot besides glass bottles.  On Graylyn Trail, we went back down over the bridge and back up to Reedy Creek Trail to start heading back.  Right at the intersection was the Dickinson home site.  This family owned a store in the area.  Past here, we got off to see the old CCC Camp.  An old outhouse was in remarkably good shape.

The headquarters were between Graylyn and Cedar Ridge Trail.

Further down, we went off trail again to see the old water tower.

There were a couple old well holes in the ground.

We made one more stop on the way back to see the bench dedicated to Rod at Reedy Creek Lake.

A fitting end to a hike that he enjoyed so much.