5/20/2014 Bartram Trail – Buckeye Creek – Wolf Rock – NC

HIKERS – Geri Barrios, Wayne Barrios, Karen Brown, Phil Brownrigg, Greta Driggers, Jim Driggers, Stephen Gales, Tim Hale, David Hinson, Dick Metzgar, Tony Presley and Carole Wintle.

TRAIL INFORMATION – A beautiful section of the Bartram Trail near Otto, NC. Starting at the Buckeye Creek Trailhead, it is around a 4.5 mile hike up to Wolf Rock Overlook. The 2,000 ft. gain in elevation makes the hike somewhat strenuos! Total hike 9 miles.

We rate the hike mostly strenuous as you gradually gain the 2,000 feet of elevation.

Directions: Take Highway 441 N. thru Clayton, GA and continue to Otto, NC. Turn right on Tessentee Rd. and go several miles and turn left onto Buckeye Branch Rd. (there is a Bartram Trail sign here) and drive this gravel road to the dead-end parking lot just before the Forest Service locked gate.

Another great day for a hike! Sunny to partly cloudy and mild with temperatures ranging from 58 to 78 degrees F. Hiking distance – 9 miles.

WILDFLOWERS IN BLOOM:
Large Bluet, Mountain Bluet, Cow Wheat, Wild Comfrey, Purple Phacelia, White Clintonia, Perfoliate Bellwort, Meadow Parsnip, Golden Alexanders, Common Blue Violet, Canada Violet, Pipe Vine, Virginia Spring Beauty, Mt. Saxifrage, Common Cinquefoil, Wild Strawberry, Wild Peanut, Woodland Vetch, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Robin’s Plantain, Common Fleabane, Vasey’s Trillium, Catesby’s Trillium, Large-flowered Trillium, Multiflora Rose, Blackberry, Tulip Poplar, Flame Azalea, Mt. Laurel, Small-leafed Rhododendron, Mapleleaf Viburnum, Sweet Cicely, Lyreleaf Sage, Squawroot, Puttyroot, Shooting Star, Yellow Stargrass, Blue-eyed Grass, Fourleaf Milkweed, Wild Quinine, Beardtongue, Rattlesnake Weed, Southern Bush Honeysuckle, Fire Pink, Spikenard, Pink Lady’s Slipper and Small Yellow Lady’s Slipper.

BIRDS IDENTIFIED: Carolina Wren, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, Yellow-throated Vireo, White-breasted Nuthatch, Cardinal, Ovenbird, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Pine Warbler, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Scarlet Tanager, Pileated Woodpecker and Downy Woodpecker, Hooded Warbler, Black & White Warbler, Blue Jay, Rose Breasted Grosbeak, American Crow, Northern Flicker and Junco.

OTHEER: Box Turtle and Fence Lizard