Nomad Life - Day 197

After a busy work week, it felt great to have a full day to explore and get some outdoor exercise.  In anticipation of the adventure, I woke up at 0615 (no alarm clock required).  Before getting ready, I spent time reading, doing puzzles and completing Duolingo exercises.  Because it was raining, I looked for breaks when it might be possible to load up my car.  I found such an opportunity at 0820 and, afterwards, went to breakfast in the Lobby of the Super 8 (High Point).  Due to yesterday's "Lenten Friday Reset", I made sure to avoid meat.  Once I finished my meal, I returned to my room and spent time researching the MST online, figuring out how many miles I'd previously completed and planning out my drive for the day.  I finally departed the hotel at 1000 - by then, it was partly cloudy and 74 F.  Hoping to resume my Mountains-to-Sea hike from the previous day, I began driving (via NC-68) back towards the town of Oak Ridge.  Suddenly, I started thinking about how close I was to some counties where I hadn't done any birding (the eBird website keeps track at the county level).  For this reason, I made a small detour (via I-73) to NC-65, where I was able to reach a corner of Rockingham County (1010).  Almost immediately, I saw several species of birds - the detour was worth the effort.  Following NC-65 for a bit longer, I intercepted NC-68 (from the north this time) and made my way to Haw River Road.  This reminded me that I'd wanted to research a nearby track (Haw River Trail) I'd seen on maps and road signs...  Before long, I reached Goodwill Church Road and this led me to the parking lot for the Cascades Preserve (arrived at 1025).  Like the parking lot I'd found the previous evening (on the "Beaver" side of the local trail system), the trailhead gave me access to a "walking section" of the MST.  Blessed with beautiful weather, I geared up and headed into the woods ("westbound").  There had been several cars in the lot so I expected to see a few folks out for walks and I encountered some almost immediately.  By then, I had started to wonder at the term "Cascades" because there was almost no water in the little stream along the trail.  Oh well...  A bit later, I came to ominous warning signs about a local shooting range and, right at that time, heard the sounds of loud gunfire.  Obviously, I stayed away from that area...  Instead, I walked all the way (following signs that kept me on the MST) until I reached the point on Pepper Road where I'd started my backtrack from the Oak Ridge side the day before.  There were SO many birds!  From there, the heat started to bother me a bit and I hurried from the main roads and back into the trees.  After a mostly uneventful walk of nearly two miles, I finished up my morning walk (1145).  Very glad I completed the entire trail section!  Just about that time, I heard from Brenna (she had questions about some outdoor activities of her own) and, moments later, I learned about the arrival of a new (grand)-nephew: Baby Levi!  Knowing I would soon lose cell signal, I was careful to take care of all communications and business before starting the next phase of my day: logging as many MST "road sections" as I could!  Initially, I drove west on Goodwill Church Road, which soon became Freeman Road.  I entered Forsyth County at 1215 (birding checkpoint).  At Pine Grove Road, I turned north and followed the pavement until I was able to turn west at NC-65.  During this window, I entered Stokes County (1225).  Otherwise, I continued on NC-65 until I reached the town of Walnut Cove.  At that point, my map and "reconstructed reality" (major rerouting of the road) caused some issues but, fortunately, I was soon able to use South Main Street and First Street (became Old Town Road) to reach US-311.  After a short jaunt back to the east, I was headed north on Tuttle Road, which I followed all the way to the Hemlock Golf Course.  At that point, though, the road turned to gravel and I clearly had entered a more remote area - the road was lined with log cabins and ground hogs.  I completely lost the use of my online MST map and was forced to use my own intuition to keep following the trail.  Fortunately, I made good decisions, including turning right (onto Dodgetown Road) just after the Meadows Baptist Church and then following Pitzzer Road along the Dan (after my first crossing of that river).  At Priddy's General Store, I had to think very hard but, ultimately, chose correctly in following Sheppard Mill to the town of Danbury.  Once again, I crossed the Dan and then got on NC-89, which took me (and lots of motorcycles) to Hanging Rock Park Road.  As the name implies, I soon found myself near the entrance to the eponymous State Park.  The trail disappeared ("walking section") into the woods as I was approaching Moores Spring Road - this terminated a long, frustrating "road section" that measured about 31 miles!  Feeling a bit relieved that I no longer had to track the trail, I drove to the Visitor Center area of Hanging Rock State Park (arrived at 1315).  Almost immediately, I was completely turned off from the HUGE mobs of people in the area.  There was a bathroom shortage (only two for what appeared to be close to 1000 people within line of sight!  I picked up a paper map and looked around nearby.  Sadly, I was feeling overwhelmed by all the people and almost gave up any thought of exploring further.  However, when I moved to a nearby lakeside parking area, I found far fewer folks.  In the end, I actually did a bit more walking on the MST near the (closed for the season) bathhouse - I logged 0.1 miles there.  I encountered some serious birders and then used the limited Internet I had to confirm their suspicious with the Merlin App.  I found some completely ignored (and empty) rest rooms in that area too - whew!  Before long, I was ready to depart and backtracked (on the pavement) to Moores Spring Road, which I used to cross the park (following my paper map) until I was on the western boundary (Mickey Road).  After locating the parking lot for Troy's Falls & Den Cave (on Charlie Young Road), I started measuring a new "road section" of the MST.  This time, the constant "in woods / out of woods" nature of the MST nearby only yielded 2.1 miles but I was happy to be able to track the trail all the way tot he Heaven-in-the-Hills Campground on NC-66).  Once it was clear that I'd be chasing the trail a lot more than before, I only made small attempts to track it.  In the end, I got 0.5 driving miles on Rockhouse Road, visited the historic Rock House (1430), logged 0.2 driving miles on Old Mill Road near Flat Rock and then finished 1.3 driving miles near the town of Volunteer (Bradley Road to Coon Road to Volunteer Road).  Throughout this timeframe, the rock formations on the surrounding mountains were very interesting, as were the many farms and homes that I passed.  Eventually, I started seeing evidence (from signs and certain vista angles) of something called Pilot Knob - this gave me one more chance to finish (driving) a short section of the MST (1.9 miles on Pilot Knob Park Road to Old Winston Road).  Note that some of these descriptions are listed in "reverse direction" (west to east) for the MST.  The ultimate goal of my efforts was the entrance of Pilot Mountain State Park.  When I arrived at the Visitor Center (1500), I lost the MST (did it turn up the mountain?).  Any thought of climbing (by car) the landmark was dashed when I saw signs that the Summit Lot was closed (too many cars).  I did look around in the VC and talked to the ranger but, otherwise, decided to resume my search for the MST again.  The good news about this idea was that there was another unit of the State Park in the vicinity of the closest "road section".  In search of this, I drove into Surrey County at 1520 and started driving on Perch Road.  Along the way, I passed the Home Creek Living Historical Farm.  At 1545, I arrived at the Yadkin Section (Bean Shoals) of Pilot Mountain State Park.  There were a few views from the parking lot there) of the Yadkin River and the MST passed through the park boundaries.  By that point, it was 81 F and I had miles to go before I slept.  After exiting the park, I located the nearby Corridor Trailhead (on Hauser Road) at 1555.  From that point, the MST had great signage and I ended up driving for nearby 30 miles (eventually ending up on NC-268) while only encountering two "walking sections".  Along the way, I encountered heavy (but intermittent) rain.  In the end, I only made one stop - at Friendship Trailhead (at 1640).  When I drove into the town of Elkin, I lost the signage for the MST and had to give up on logging mileage.  But I felt pretty good about what I'd seen and done through the day.  With my MST exploring complete, I headed towards the northwest on US-21.  I'd thought I'd find a good place to turn east to get on I-77 but that didn't happen.  Part of the problem was that I wasn't using any maps because the weather was so nice and I was tired of staring at online information.  With the compass in my Subaru showing that I was heading further and further to the west, I eventually (at the Wilkes County Line, near signs for Stone Mountain State Park) gave up my non-App driving and followed Google (via back roads) to the east.  The route to I-77 took me past a significant number of chicken farms/homes.  Once I got on the Interstate (still in NC), it was only a short drive to the Virginia State Line (crossed at 1745).  By then, I was pretty hungry so stopped for dinner at McDonalds.  Even with my aging mind, I successfully completed my "Lenten Friday Reset".  While eating in the car, I made hotel reservations.  At 1820, I got back on I-77 and headed north.  Brenna called again (making plans for the following day).  As I approached the I-81 merge, I exited the freeway and got on VA-69.  Because it was still raining, I didn't make stops at New River Trail parking lots that I passed.  Just before 1900, I reached my hotel, a Super 8 in Fort Chiswell (located on US-52).  After quickly checking into my room, I got a shower and spent time on the phone with Eileen.  For the rest of the evening, I spent time catching up on eBird entries and doing some blogging.  There was just barely enough time for some reading before I went to bed (2330).  It was a great day in the Tar Heel State and along the Mountains-to-Sea Trail! MST Today = 67.1 miles / Grand Total MST = 109.3 miles