January 16, 2016 - Back to DuPont State Forest

It's been about 3 weeks since Cindy and I have hiked in DuPont, so that was out destination today.  Cindy had figured that we've done just over half of the trails she will include in her DuPont State Forest guide book so far, but that means we still have over 40 to go!  Today we headed back to Pinnacle Mountain Rd to access the Turkey Knob Rd and Poplar Hill trails.

The Turkey Knob Rd trail head is 1.5 miles up Pinnacle Mountain Rd.  The road is in so-so shape after all the recent rain, but I would be hesitant about taking a 2 wheel drive car up that road.  The trail head signs are missing, but there's a cable gated road on the left with a very faint 'Turkey Knob' stenciled on one of the poles.  This actually accesses the trail at about the mid point.  It was the beginning at one time, but a newer section of the trail has recently been added that connects to the Briery Fork Trail.  Today we just hiked the section that connects with the Reasonover Creek Trail which is about 1.8 miles one way.

The trail is an easy hike through mostly a mixed hardwood forest.  At 0.4 miles in we passed the Poplar Hill Loop, but would hike that trail on the way back.  At 1 mile in Cindy spotted what appeared to be an old chimney on the right about 25 yards or so off the trail.  We stopped for some shots, then continued on.  There wasn't really much else interesting, but the trail is still a nice stroll through the woods.

old chimney

lichen with fruiting bodies

Reasonover Creek Trail intersection

We took a little break at the Reasonover Creek Trail intersection then headed back to do the Poplar Hill Loop.  Both ends of the loop are within eye sight of each other along Turkey Knob Rd.  We took the first one and did the hike clockwise.  The hike is about 1.5 miles and is also fairly easy with just a little bit of elevation change.  The hike begins by passing through a maintained wildlife clearing, then reenters the woods and passes through a beautiful section of forest that is mostly poplar trees.

We knew that there was an old abandoned 1957 Nash Rambler along this trail from reading Meanderthal's Blog - we just weren't sure where.  We were getting worried that we had remembered this wrong when the GPS showed us getting close to the end of the loop, but finally came across it about 1.3 miles into the loop.

We had also been noticing some animal tracks in the mud along the trail, so I snapped a couple of pictures of those before we headed back to our vehicle then home.

raccoon tracks

coyote tracks