West Branch Peshekee - Day 361

  Today I filled in the section that I've started two different times and bailed out. Not today! I did it. The day was somewhat defined by the West Branch of the Peshekee River. You might remember that the Peshekee River, oddly, flows south. The west branch is sort of a bunch of branches.

This is the main West Branch. It is a serious waterway.

Connie assured me the bridge is fine even though it's really under construction. The stringers for the new decking are in place above the old bridge. The hardest part was climbing up to walk between the new stringers.

However, this bridge belongs to someone else. The current owner did not think I had any business crossing that bridge!

The weather was warm- almost 50 degrees- and the wildlife had been out. I saw tracks of moose, bobcat, showshoe hare, (squirrels, mice, grouse, rabbits-all ho hum), and I'm pretty sure, wolf tracks too. I was thinking it was probably just a large coyote, but I found a pile of scat and it sure looked wolfish to me. The tracks were also very large and the animal was loping along. I"m not a tracking expert by any means, but it was all pretty darn big for a coyote.

There are two other crossings of various channels of the West Branch of the Peshekee. These are much more tame- really sloggy wetland drainages of all the little lakes along here. These both have nice solid bridges.

These water crossings are wide, and definitely require a bridge, but the streams aren't as active as under that first bridge. It's weird, I don't remember any of these crossings from our first trip here, although I think the route is essentially the same.

By this time, I'd entered Craig Lake State Park. I really had forgotten how rocky and hilly it is there. That was a surprisingly tough ending to the day, but I made it!

This fills another gap I had left behind.

Miles today: 9.7 (plus a little extra at each end to get from/to the car, maybe another half mile). Total miles so far: 4158.2.

See Through the Woods