Stokes State Forest, 8/13-15/2004

It was supposed to be a rainy weekend, but it didn’t rain much. However, the "rain" scared off most of the people who had called during the week. Only four of us camped.

When we arrived at Group Site H of Stokes State Forest, it was cloudy. As we were setting up the tarp over a picnic table it started to rain. But because our site was so wooded, we hardly got wet.

Once the tarp was up, the rain stopped. The air was misty for a while, but that cleared too. Later in the evening, the stars came out. I spent some time at the river that borders the site just listening.

We got up late on Saturday and went hiking. We drove in one car to Sunrise Mountain Road and parked near the western end of Coursen Trail. We hiked on Coursen Trail to Stony Lake, had lunch and relaxed. Then we continued on Coursen to Tower Trail and walked back to Sunrise Mountain Road. At this point, we split up. I wanted to go on a longer hike than everyone else, so I continued on Tower Trail, turned left on the Appalachian Trail, walked to Sunrise Mountain, turned around and came back along the Appalachian Trail to Tinsley, walked on Tinsley to Swenson, turned left on Swenson and took that to Stony Lake, and then walked along park roads back to group site H. I ended up walking 14 miles. I nourished myself on blueberries and blackberries that I found along the trail.

The other group also hiked up Tower Trail but turned right on the Appalachian Trail, which led them back to Sunrise Mountain Road. As they walked on the AT, a poisonous copperhead snake crossed the trail in front of them. It was not clear who was more scared, the hikers or the snake. The encounter was respectful, and no one was injured. When the hikers reached Sunrise Mountain Road, they turned right and walked back to the car.

Because of all the rains, the woods were full of mushrooms of all colors and sizes. White mushrooms, purple mushrooms, orange mushrooms, white mushrooms with red dots, red mushrooms with white dots, etc., etc. We didn’t eat any of them.

We all got back late, cooked dinner and made a campfire. Around 11 PM, it started to rain. The prediction was for rain all day Sunday.

However, on Sunday morning it was only cloudy. By mid-morning, the sun came out and we were able to dry off our gear before packing it away. I had seen a sign on the AT advertising a barbecue for "trail hikers" at 2 PM Sunday, so we drove back to Sunrise Mountain Road, parked at the trailhead for Tinsley, walked up Tinsley to the AT and turned left on the AT to Sunrise Mountain. But by 2:30 PM, there was no sign of a barbecue, so we left and drove to a restaurant. Because of a mix-up, our cars got separated and I spent some time searching for the other driver. We called each other when we got home and I found out she made a wrong turn.

David Levner