14Sep2010 Rockjock

Date: 14Sep2010
Workers: 1 Ken Crump
Trail: Rockjock (from south entrance)
Time spent: 8.5 hours including commute

Work Done:

Last time Jim and I worked a short way into the southernmost part of Mossy Canyon. My plan today was to hike straight in as far as the Mossy Cave, or possibly on around to just above Mossy falls, and work my way back out. Well, everytime we say we'll hike in and work out, we end up breaking that plan. I did it today too. I started clipping when I got to the point we left off last time. There were a few places that didn't need much. Over all, I think there are
fewer weeds and briars this year than last year. Maybe the fact that the bushes are getting taller is helping to shade out the briars and weeds. I sure hope so. I hit a patch of the spiny locust stuff just before Balanced Rock that was quite thick. A lot of the bushes on the side needed some trimming back, and this is only normal. The path across the flat "blueberry ridge" above Balanced Rock was fairly clear, but I trimmed a lot of the bear grass and it's flower stalks.

From there you head back into the deepest, darkest, wettest part of Mossy. Things were looking good at first, but then I started hitting more and more nettle and briars. This slowed things down quite a bit. The nettle was thick, and it took many cycles of the shears just to move along a foot or two. By the time I had cut to the far side of the canyon where the trail turns east toward the cave, I was at my turn around time and my left elbow was complaining quite a bit. So, since I was within a few hundred feet of my possible goal for the day, I decided that was close enough. I knew I'd find things to clip on the way out. It always looks different going in the other direction, and I had a hill to climb. I turned, and slowly worked my way out, stopping to take a break and eat a snack, just before heading up the hill.

I guess the big event of the day is the fact that the road is being graded. I noticed going up that the ditches had been pulled out. Then just north of Dobson road there was a grader parked in a pull off, and everything north of that had been graded. I heard them up there working all morning, even going up on Dogback for more work. As I came down the road, a second grader had worked well south of Pinnacle, and trucks had brought in new gravel for the bad places. I'd say they'll finish up down to the pavement tomorrow.

I saw no hikers today. Saw two different groups of turkey while going up the road this morning. Just the usual birds and lizards while in the woods.

I took some pictures. PHOTOS



Oh, the weather! It was cool this morning, but I left the truck with only a T shirt. I was feeling the sun before I was half way down the hill, but there was a good breeze. It became hot later, but the humidity was low, and the breeze kept up all day. Not too bad. Nuther great day in the woods.

Ken