Backpacking the Uwharrie Trail Day 2

Curtis in Wilmington, NC | Backpacking the Uwharrie Trail, Day 2 | December 2022

I woke up with the sun on my second day feeling fairly rested and much less sore than the night before. I had even slept better despite the continued irritation and discomfort I had from my poison ivy. Since I planned/had to finish hiking today, I left everything except for snacks and water behind in the tent, intending to pick them up on my drive back to Wilmington. Slack-packing isn’t laziness, it’s energy conservation.

I followed the spur trail back to the Uwharrie and then continued my way North. Due to some poor planning, both my work phone and personal phone were very low on battery, so I was only able to record about half of the trip and get only the occasional photo. Fortunately, this was one of the best marked trails I have hiked. Despite continuous leaf litter covering the ground, I did not lose the trail a single time. Blazes were liberally placed without being confusing, and I only used the digital maps I had downloaded to estimate distances.

The morning was cool and foggy, but it wasn’t raining and I made good time. But as I lamented before, there was no view. I could see the other hills through the trees, but at each minor summit I would talk to the air and say ‘we should put a viewing platform or fire tower here’. As I approached ‘Jumping Off Rock Trailhead’, I got my hopes up. Maybe I’ll see the eponymous Jumping Off Rock. Maybe it’s like a cliff over the road. Maybe there’s a view! But I was wrong, the trail came down to the trailhead, followed the road across a bridge, and then went right back into the woods. But it turns out there is a view from Jumping Off Rock…a quarter mile down the road.

The trail followed a stream for about a mile at this point and was actually quite pleasant. Then the trail started to climb up the side of yet another hill. But this one was different. Up until this point, the trail had been going through almost exclusively deciduous forest. Lots of Live Oak, Maple, and Sugar Gum with the occasional thicket of Holly or Rhododendron. But on the flanks of this peak I was in pine forest. More than that, I was in a pine forest that had been maintained with fire. The understory was relatively clear and there was pockets of open grasses, almost meadow like. It was tantalizingly close to having an almost unobstructed view. But no, I would not get my hopes up. But yet as I approached the ridgeline the openings got larger and sure enough at the top of Little Long Mountain there was unobstructed views, a camping shelter and a place to sit.

I turned my phone on in the hopes of getting a couple of pictures before my phone completely died, and then sat down and polished off my remaining snacks. It was warm in the sun, but not hot. An excellent spot and the single highlight of my entire 30+ mile hike. And as I found out on my way down the opposite side of the mountain, it is only a mile from a trailhead. Take it from me everyone, if you want a low cost-high reward hike in the Uwharries, Little Long Mountain is it.

The remainder of the trail was frankly uneventful. I soon crossed over the highest point on the trail at the forest covered King Mountain where my phone provided one final picture before dying completely, and then it was just a walk through the woods. Completion anticipation made the last two miles seem to stretch on forever, but I still made great time and reached my rental car by 2 PM. I texted Jess and my shuttle driver to let them know I was alive and off the trail, then returned to West Morris Mountain Campground to pack up camp.

Before driving back to Wilmington, I stopped in Troy to grab some lotions to help with the blisters all over my body as well as some snacks and made the drive back to Wilmington where I ate too much pizza.

The remainder of that week was spent in classes and letting my body heal. I went metal detecting occasionally both in town and at the beach and made sure to clean myself thoroughly after each dig, but I didn’t find anything worth noting.

I made some routines for the evenings and frequented several restaurants multiple nights. My second weekend in Wilmington was much less eventful. Saturday I went back out to Wrightsville beach for some metal detecting with the intention of going bowling with work friends that evening. But I gave myself some extra time and stopped at the New Hanover County Arboretum for some PokemonGo and because it is free. Some of the camellias were in bloom, and the Japanese garden was pleasant to walk through. But most exciting was the small exhibit on carnivorous plants, featuring a variety of pitcher plants and Venus Flytraps. I was very surprised to learn that the Venus Flytrap only grows in the area around Wilmington – I knew they didn’t have a large range, but it is literally only the area about 100 miles around Wilmington. Wild.

On Sunday I made more of an effort to be outside and drove down towards Carolina Beach and Carolina Beach State Park. I went for a long walk among the Long Leaf Pines, dunes and down to the banks of the Cape Fear River, saw some deer, and even an Eastern Fox Squirrel (this is notable because these squirrels are huge compared to the common grey squirrel, and have a pretty patterned face. Unfortunately, he got away before I could get a picture). That evening while grabbing dinner, I was surprised to find police barricades being put up along 2nd St, and when I asked the shop clerks what was going on, they said that the Christmas Day Parade was that night. And so, despite the cold drizzle, I grabbed my pizza to go and watched the parade! Probably the first parade I’ve watched in a decade if I’m being honest, and definitely my first Christmas parade…something tells me Iowa would be a bit too cold to try something like that.

My last week was different in that my classes were in the evening, which left me with not enough time to do anything in the morning, and no time to do anything in the evenings. So I decided to become a ‘regular’ customer at The Basics, showing up every morning for the same breakfast (biscuits are different in the south, it’s almost scientifically proven), and would sometimes double dip and show up for lunch as well.

But the end of the week finally came, and on Saturday I flew out of Wilmington, dodging winter storms and advisories to return to Cedar Rapids just in time for a week of single digit weather and the Holidays.