Another quaint Southern city steeped in history, tradition and Southern charm. Beautiful green rolling hills, mountains and valleys. Miles and miles of backroads to wander through the countryside until we get so LOST on since most are not on any maps and we are forced to turn on the GPS to find our way home! Did manage to find a rare covered bridge, Bunker Hill bridge built in 1895 over Lyles Creek and an old gist mill somewhere deep in Catawba County.
After many more miles of wandering the curvy unmarked backroads wishing we were on the Harley instead of this big truck we through a minor miracle end up back in civilization in Mooresville, NC. After a quick lunch we visit the Dale Earnhardt Sr. museum which turned out to be a little more emotional than either one of us expected. A LOT of good old memories here.
SOUTH MOUNTAINS STATE PARK
A beautiful mountain park with miles and miles of hiking trails only 19 miles from our campground on 6 different back roads which I would NEVER have been able to navigate without a well written cheat sheet from our gracious campground host. Our first hike was the 2.7 mile round trip hike, or should I say climb as there were 400 plus stairs, to the top of High Shoals Falls. NO WAY was I climbing down all those stairs so we hike over a steep ridge to the Headquarters Trail and made an outstanding 5 mile loop hike back to the trailhead.
I apologize for the sideways stair photo but this blog site is WORTHLESS for re-organizing photos.
Hike # 2 in this park was a 1.8 mile strenuous climb up to 2,291 ft. Chestnut Knob. Did enjoy the rare views through the dense trees especially across the Jacob Fork River valley to High Shoals Falls where we hiked a couple days ago.
Once again looking over the map during lunch break I discover I could turn this into a 7 mile loop hike via the Sawtooth, Upper CCC and Little River Trails. Driving into the park I did notice some "control burn in effect" signs but little did I expect that 2 miles into the Sawtooth Trail I would find myself smack dab in the middle of that control burn. Of course every 100 yards on the hiking trails are "warning" signs for slippery rocks, don't climb on falls, steep ridges stay on trail so you would think a warning sign on the control burn would have been appropriate! Too heck with turning around so I just walked through smoking, smoldering fire and hoped I didn't run into a ranger or the winds would whip this back into a flaming fire. Gave me plenty of incentive to hustle the next 3.4 miles.
Boy was I ever relieved to finally reach the cool waters of Jacob Fork River!
HICKORY MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Everything is is historic in this area and the Hickory Motor Speedway is no exception. Built in 1951 (an exceptionally fine year I might add) with Gwyn Staley the first NASCAR champion followed by Junior Johnson in 1952, Ralph Earnhardt in 53, 54, 56, 57, & 1959. Other famous drivers to win championships were Ned Jarrett, Harry Gant, and Jack Ingram. Speeds on this tight high banked 1/4 mile track are deceiving until Annabeth Barnes (one of four ladies competing tonight) was involved in a grinding crash leaving her car crunched into the wall with the car of Matt Piercy sitting on top of her drivers side. Took the track crew 20 long minutes to remove Matt's car and to everyone's relief Annabeth crawled out unharmed. Happened right in front of us and had JoAnn just a little tense until she walked away.
