NC > Uwharrie Yates Place>11-13 March 2016 Trip Report

[gunner76]

Just got back from the hang and don't see that a trip report has been started so I will get it going..

good weather, good crowd, good food and only one crazed ax murdered.

Pictures and more details to follow.

[Ofemur]

only one crazed ax murderer

Bummer

[Gqgeek81]

A little warmer than I might hope for if I had my way but the weather didn't ask me for my preferences.
I got a lot of Land Trust challenge hikes in, got to see way more of Uwharrie than I realized was there, got to see some new and old faces and sleep well in a hammock. The Pik-N-Pig was pretty good too.

[gunner76]

Left Otway about 7 AM Thursday for the hang. Stopped at the Pig N Pik BBQ joint in Carthage for lunch and place was packed. Good Q.


Got to Yates Place about 1:15 and found Chigger, Old4Hats and PappyAmos were already there. Also saw the police in the area.


PappyAmos and I had plans to hike parts of the Uwharrie and Dutchman's Creek Trails and camp out on the trail and hike back to Yates Place on Friday to rejoin the hang in progress. So we loaded up our packs and took off about 1:45. We did about 4.5 miles and got to the campsite PappyAmos said we were stopping at. Nice secluded site off the trail next to a stream surrounded by brush and hills. Three other hikers where already there setting up their tents but we decided to be nice and share the site as there was plenty of room. While the others fixed dinner, I just hung out as I was still full from the BBQ lunch I had. We were all in our tents or hammocks come dark and soon asleep ( or at least I was ). About 1 AM I heard an animal by my hammock and heard something swatting my backpack which I had hanging from a tree. I did not have any open food in the pack so I was not worried. That morning when we got up Pappy said it was a raccoon and it bumped his hammock.


We all fixed our breakfast and I tried some Camp Chow that Shug speaks highly of. I had the Grits with PorkSausage. While it was easy to fix and tasted good, it had way too much black pepper and after finishing it, it took some time for the pepper taste to go away ( and I like black pepper ). I cooked it in a BatchStovez pot. Those silicone rings around the lip made it easy to pick up the hot pot.


Pappy's original plans were for us to retrace our route back to Yates but he keeps talking about a section with very steep large rocks so I said lets go that way. It was very steep and the rocks where large. If you fell there was nothing to keep you from going all the way to the bottom. Pappy would check our location against some maps and GPS on his phone to see how slow we were going because we were not going fast. I had to take lots of short breaks going up the hills as many of them were very steep.


Around noon we got to Dutchman's Creek and took a break. I set up my hammock to get off my feet and Pappy filtered some water from the creek to fill up our water bottles as we were going thru our water. Told Pappy I owed him a beer for taking care of the water bottles. When it was time to leave I went on ahead as the next section was suppose to be fairly flat and I knew once I hit a steep up hill, Pappy would catch up. Turned out it did not work out that way, I kept stopping and looking back for him but did not see him. A friend of Pappy's by the name of Firebird had already done the loop that day in the opposite direction we did it in ( we stopped and talked to him for a couple of minutes when we passed ) and he beat us back to Yates. Firebird was able to contact Pappy by cell phone and found out Pappy was having leg cramps and hiked back out to help Pappy make it back. Even with that Pappy was only about 10 minutes behind me.


I set up my hammock in the “ OldGeezers section consisting of Chigger, Old4Hats, PappyAmos and myself and I was the youngster of the group. Told them we need to get a sign saying “Welcome to Geezerville”


I then drove over to Morrow Mt State Park to take a shower ( and it felt good to get clean ). I then stopped by Food Lion to get some beer to fulfill my promise to Pappy ( plus an ice cold beer sounded like a good idea )


While I figured I would be very sore the next day I was not but I was a bit stiff. Old age is hell. But its better to be looking down at the ground instead of up at it.


One of the locals came by and wanted to know if we had seen a person who broke into her house. Apparently mom dropped daughter off from school and had to go back to school. Daughter called mom and told her someone was in the house and daughter did smart thing and got out of house at once. Person stole some weapons and other items and then came over to Yates Place carrying a hatchet and asked for a ride to his truck which some one gave him. The person is known to the police.


On Saturday we had a reporter from the local newspaper come by to take pictures and gather information for a story about the hang. A couple of us gave her our address and she said she would send us a copy of the paper with the article in it.


Friday night I was sitting with and talking to several hangers in the dark and mentioned I head TATO was planning on attending to show off his new stand. Turns out I was sitting next to him and did not recognized him in the dark. I got a chance to check out the stand on Saturday and looks like a very nice set up. If I remember correctly TATO said it will weigh in at around 22 or 24 lbs and the pieces will only be 44” long. Plus it has several other nice features.


I was using a new hammock from The Little Shop of Hammocks that I got a couple of weeks ago. So far Iam very impressed with the quality of the hammock. I hope to complete a review on it a a couple of weeks.


Sunday AM rolled around all to quickly and we all packed up and headed home.

I found out that the Uwharries have something we do not have here on the coast where I live and hike. Lots of rocks and hills and all the hills go one way....up.

Pictures....

PappyAmos
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Gunner76 ( me )

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which way do we go...

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trail signs

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one of many water crossings

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Pappy had a route map put together by FireBird

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Pappy setting up his hammock for night

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my rig

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our rigs from the fire pit

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two of our neighbors and their light weight 8 lb tent

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more pictures coming...

[gunner76]

A few more pictures

The trails are well blazed

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breakfast time

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my Camp Chow grits

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yes...LNT..we packed out our trash



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I think they had hot chocolate

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closer view of my rig

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felt like I was looking straight up at Pappy


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Firebird and his friend passed by us just before Lick Mt

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proof I was there

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We stopped about noon at Dutchmans Creek for a long break

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I kicked back in my hammock with a view of the creek

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[brianb]

Nice report and pics

[gunner76]

Some close ups of the new TATO stand

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[Maytag]

Hey all,
Was another great hang at Yates place. And by the way we did find my wallet in a hole in side the cab, thanks for all who helped look for it.

[Hiknhanger]

Hey all,
Was another great hang at Yates place. And by the way we did find my wallet in a hole in side the cab, thanks for all who helped look for it.

Whew! Glad you found that wallet!

My daughter Emma (who wants me to use the trail name Daddy's Girl) and I got in around 2 Friday afternoon and got set up in the sweltering heat. I have been to this hang many times and have never been that hot!

This was Daddy's Girl's first overnight in a hammock. She had a great time Friday evening playing with some girls her age named Regan and Avery daughters of like2hike, and we hung out around the fire with them until bedtime. Emma had a hard time getting to sleep, and eventually ended up in the hammock with me before it was all said and done. Kudos to RBTR 1.6 HyperD XL fabric for holding us both up in my DIY hammock!

We got up and had breakfast, and wandered around talking to everyone and explored around the Yates Place area. A special thanks goes to Maytag and his wife, as well as Groundhog for making Daddy's Girl feel welcome, as did all our fellow hangers. Maytag fed her some watermelon, and she lost a tooth that had been threatening to fall out for the last few days. We did manage an afternoon nap since the night before afforded few sleeping opportunities for two people in one hammock.

We ended up packing up and going home after dinner. I really needed to get some sleep! We had a great time as always. I am planning on letting Daddy's Girl and her brother get some practice sleeping overnight in the back yard this summer so we'll be old hands by the fall hang!

I enjoyed seeing old a new faces this time, and look forward to the next time change.

[miyanc]

A little warmer than I might hope for if I had my way but the weather didn't ask me for my preferences.
I got a lot of Land Trust challenge hikes in, got to see way more of Uwharrie than I realized was there, got to see some new and old faces and sleep well in a hammock. The Pik-N-Pig was pretty good too.

You know I completely forgot to be made and you and gunner for not bringing me the bbq. I will note this for the fall hang.