Color on the Millpond

Sunday, I woke up before sunrise and started breaking camp at Merchants Millpond.  It was supposed to rain and I wanted to get packed up before it started.  After finishing, I took the campground spur to the picnic area and got on Lassiter Trail.  A boardwalk crossed a scenic tributary of the millpond.

I was surprised there was still a good amount of fall color along the millpond.

I followed Lassiter Trail for a ways with a number of scenic views.

There was a new section of trail at the southern part of the loop with a spur that went out to a nice view of the millpond.

There was more nice fall color along here.

I continued on Lassiter Trail for a while until it split with the Fire Road.

I've never hiked the entire bike trail, so I stayed on this and hiked out to the parking area and around the loop.

It drizzled a bit, but never rained hard this morning.  When I finished up the loop, I headed back to the campground and took off.

Heading west, the rain picked up and was quite heavy at times, but lightened up again.  Just before Williamston, I stopped at the Kuralt Trailhead in Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge.  The short Kuralt Trail led through a bottomland forest towards the river.

Some hairy bracket shelf fungi were growing on a log.

The trail ended where it started getting swampy towards the river.

The area was very pretty and I had gotten lucky stopping during a break in the rain.

After some pictures, I made the short hike back.

Merchants Millpond Hike

Sunday morning, it was very cold when we woke up and it was tough getting out of the tent.  After we got our stuff together, we drove to the visitor center at Merchants Millpond State Park to park and hike the entire Lassiter Trail today.  First, we got Alex's passport stamp.

It was quite chilly this morning, but hiking at a brisk pace kept us warm.  We stopped again at the scenic boardwalk near the picnic area - I think this is the most scenic part of the trail.

After splitting away from the Fire Road, the trail led past Lassiter Swamp, where Merchants Millpond begins.

After this point, it looped back around and soon we were on familiar trail again.  Back at the visitor center, we headed down to the boat dock for a nice view of the millpond.

We couldn't paddle today since we had Alex, so got on Bennetts Creek Trail and followed it to a road crossing.  Across the road, the trail made a partial loop.  There was an overlook about half way through the loop with a view of the swampy Bennetts Creek downstream from the millpond.

The trail finished up back at the road and we crossed over the dam.

At the boat ramp parking, we hiked the Coleman Trail, another 2-mile loop.  We stopped for a break and spotted an interesting mushroom growing on a dead pine tree.

The trail led to another view point on Merchants Millpond.

After we finished the loop, we followed the road back to Bennetts Creek Trail and finished our hike back at the visitor center.  We were all pretty tired by this point and it was an uneventful drive home.

Flat Tire

Sandy had this past weekend off, so we took Alexander out for a weekend of camping and hiking.  Our plan was to head out to Dismal Swamp State Park and then camp at Merchants Millpond.  We left early Saturday morning and about 30 minutes from Dismal Swamp, we got a flat tire, conveniently in the middle of nowhere.  I was able to change it out for the donut and we continued to the park, which is right next to a rest area so hopefully a better location to deal with our tire issue.  I went into the visitor center to get Alex's passport stamped.

Since I was here, I asked the ranger where we might get another tire since we couldn't make it back to Raleigh on a donut.  He suggested a couple places that might be open on a Saturday.  Alex was getting very frustrated being stuck in the car for so long, so before we left, we took him for a short hike around the Swamp Boardwalk trail.

It makes a figure-8 through the Great Dismal Swamp.

Then we headed back across the bridge over the canal.

This canal runs from Virginia south and is part of the intercoastal waterway managed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

From here, we headed to Tom Perry's in Sunbury.  He had a used tire that he put on the car that would get us home and was a real life saver.  By this time, we were hungry so went to China King for take-out and had a picnic lunch at Merchants Millpond State Park.  After lunch, we checked in and set up our tent at the family campground.  It was still early and Alex needed to get some hiking in, so we took the campground spur to Lassiter Trail.  The trail crosses a tributary on a boardwalk at one of the most scenic parts of the millpond.

Further on, there were some more scenic views of the swamp.

We would be hiking this trail tomorrow so, used the fire roads to mix it up a bit.

As we finished up the loop, the sun was getting lower in the sky.

The pond was really pretty in the evening light.

Lots of cypress knees all along the shore.

When we finished up, we started a fire back at camp.  It was nearing sunset so I headed back to the Millpond for some last pictures.

It got really cold after the sun went down so we made a big fire to keep warm.  Even Alex wrapped up in a blanket to sleep - not too often that he gets cold.

Lassiter Swamp

It was very chilly Sunday morning when we awoke around sunrise. We layered up to get out of the tent and then packed our stuff up. Without the heavy firewood, we were able to get all our stuff on the boats and only have to make one trip back to the parking at Merchants Millpond. It was a lovely morning for a paddle, even if it was chilly, and the pond was beautiful in the early morning light. Back at the boat ramp, we packed up the car and got the boats back up on the rood, then set out for a hike before heading home. From the boat ramp parking, we hiked along Mill Pond Road over the dam, where a great blue heron was wading in the murky water.

Past here, a short spur trail led through the woods to the park office. After checking out, we started hiking the Lassiter Trail, the longest trail in the park. Almost immediately, we saw a deer on the trail, but she ran off before we could get a picture. The trail follows the millpond’s shore at first, crossing a wide section of the millpond on a boardwalk.

The water all around here was very mucky and this area looked like the epitome of a swamp.

Shortly after this point, the trail split to form a loop. Turning right, we soon passed the path that leads to the campsite where we had stayed the night before. We also saw some American Beautyberry growing here.

This bush makes pretty purple berries that are popular with birds. I have a bush growing in the backyard, but this was the first time I had seen it wild. The trail then crosses the old fire roads where bicycling is permitted and then heads past Lassiter Swamp.

Lassiter Swamp is located near the head of the millpond where Bennets Creek flows into it. This was another beautiful area of murky water and deformed cypress trees that were gnarled into the most bizarre shapes. Along this section here, we saw a marbled orb weaver spider. I was surprised that it wasn't too cold for it.

I don't particularly care for spiders, but these orb weavers have really pretty coloring and patterns. After Lassiter Swamp, the trail heads back, passing an area near private property and finishing up the loop.

There were several benches along the trail to stop and enjoy the view of the forest and swamp. We then hiked back to the car and started making our way home.

Kayak Camping at Merchants Millpond

Last weekend, Sandy and I headed to northeastern NC for kayak camping at Merchants Millpond State Park. This fall has been exceptionally wet and rainy, so we were excited for a dry weekend to take our boats out. We left Raleigh shortly after sunrise and began traveling east, making it to the park around 1030. First, we stopped by the visitor center to check in and get a parking pass for the car. They didn’t have any firewood here, so we swung by the family campground to pick up a bundle. Then we drove to the boat ramp and got our stuff ready to head out onto the millpond. It was our first time taking the boats out overnight for a camping trip. With the firewood, we couldn’t get all of our stuff in the boats. So we got the tent and most camping gear in first, along with a couple pieces of the heavy firewood, and planned to come back for the rest. Once our boats were all packed up, we set off paddling across the millpond.

As we got in the water, we had to paddle through some thick green “muck” along the surface of the pond that really made paddling more of an effort. But soon, we got past it and followed the orange trail towards the canoe campsite.

There were a tremendous number of beautiful bald cypress trees in the pond, though unfortunately, they had pretty much lost all of their leaves by now. I was able to find a couple patches of remaining fall color.

When we got to the campsites, we got out of the water at camp site 1. From here, we carried our gear to site 4 and got our stuff set up. I walked down to the shore here, so I would know how to paddle back to the right campsite. Once our tent was all set up, we headed back to site 1 and got back on the water. We paddled along the yellow trail towards the group canoe campsites and then continued further into the millpond and “enchanted forest”.

The many cypress trees sticking up out of the shallow pond were draped in beautiful Spanish moss and made for a beautiful and relaxing scene. It was too cold for any alligators to be out that we could see, but we did spot one lone turtle sunning himself on an exposed log.

We paddled around for a while in this area, then started making our way back to the boat ramp. We cooked dinner at the picnic area here so we wouldn’t have to hang food at the campsite and I did a quick loop around the Cypress Point Trail.

After dinner, we packed the rest of our stuff and firewood for the paddle back to camp.

There was about 30 minutes left of daylight when we got back to our site, so we spent that time gathering small branches and twigs to start our fire. Fortunately, there was plenty of downed wood all around the campsite. It got quite cold once the sun went down, but the campfire kept us warm until it was time for bed.