Great Dismal Swamp Hike 12/20/22
On Tuesday we hiked the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge on the Chesapeake side of the
refuge. Although some people still drove to the other side of the refuge, they caught up with us
about 10:30. We had 23 Tuesday Groupers to show up there on the Portsmouth Ditch gravel
road. Bill B. and I stopped at Hardees at 7:30 for our breakfast there in Deep Creek. We drove
over to the trail head about 8:15 and parked alongside the gravel road and it wasn’t long after
that the cars started driving in. I asked each to pull in behind us and it wasn’t long we had 16
cars and trucks lined up, taking up about all of this parking area.
It was Sandra birthday and Margaret gave me a card to take to her, Margaret couldn’t make
this trip, and I got everyone to sign it without Sandra knowing anything about it. I was going to
buy a cake for her, but didn’t have any way to carry it, so I bought a container of Pineapple and
one of Cano lope. Both of these went fast as we stopped for our lunch and decided to have the
party before we ate, after all we are adults, at a little spot called The Wood Duck Pond. We all
sang Happy Birthday to Sandra and I gave her the card and she gave a speech, thanking
everyone. I guess the singing chase the bears away, right Ellis?
There was one small tree that was a “high step over” about one mile into our hike and I wanted
to remove it. John O. had a small electric chain saw, John couldn’t make this hike, and Jane
brought it with her so we could cut this tree out of the trail. With the help of Steve, Bob, and
Bill L. we removed it in short order, and some of the group said they had never seen anyone cut
a tree with a chain saw, so we had a small class on tree removal, the Tuesday Group is not only
a fun thing, but it is educational also.
I had a contest with a few prizes set up for all of the kids that had sign-up for this hike, but out
of the 10 that sign-up only 3 made the hike, more prizes for the 3 right?
The hike was right at 5 miles and that is what I told everyone it would be, and they were not
Julian Miles either. I had worked on 2 of the bridges and replaced the boards on both of them
to make it easier to walk over on Monday that is how I knew the tree was in the trail. After all
the rain we had I thought we would be walking through water but the trail was dry all the way
through. I am sure we will be going back to this area and do another hike there in 2023 because
I still need to show Ellis a bear in the Great Dismal Swamp, one of these days Ellis, one of these
days…………
Bruce
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Thanks Bruce for leading this hike! I'm glad you celebrated Sandra's birthday on the hike. It was nice to have some young hikers too. Some of the hikers had not seen trail maintenance with a chainsaw before so that was a bonus for them.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sg4RCsMxmYEazueDA
Bill B