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Mikinzie Pond Trip

Ozzy

SirKristoff is a poopiehead
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One good thing about geocache is that it takes me to places that I wouldn't even know about otherwise. Some of these places are perfect CP habitats. On Friday I went after a geocache that hasn't been found in over 5 years. I was very doubtful that it would even still be there. Two friends decided that they wanted to tag along. To get to that cache you had to make a 3 mile trip up a river to a giant pond.

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I got to the meeting point before the other guys, so I thought I go through the drive thru of a near by Hardees and get breakfast. The girl at the drive thru pointed to the kayak tied to the top of my jeep and asked "Are you going out in that as cold as it is?" I said "Yes" She said "Wow you're crazy!" She was probably right.

We got to the bridge where we planned to launch at about 10:45. The trip was almost over before it started. We parked and while the guys were unloading, I walked toward the bridge to see the best way to get the boats in the water. I first looked to the east side of the bridge, it was really muddy. We would have had to walk a few hundred feet carrying a canoe, kayak, and all our supplies though deep mud. I walked through the mud to check out our options and the only thing that kept me from sinking up to my knees was stepping on the thick marsh grass. It would almost have been impossible with 3 guys and two boats.

While I was checking out that side one of the other guys was looking on the other side. That side was a way better option., Very little mud and a shorter distance to the river. Needless to say we choose the west side.


Pink canoe LOL
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We put our boats in and we were off. The first part of the trip is through a brackish marsh. I imagine that in warmer weather you'll see thousands of little crabs on the bank as you float by, but as cold as it was we didn't even see one.

It the middle of the marsh, is what appears to be an old railroad bridge.

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Soon the marsh gave was to a swampy river forest, with cypress, pine and oak trees. There was so many dead trees at the edge of the river full of woodpecker holes.



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Check out the size of those woodpecker holes.

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Not long after we entered the swampy woods we came upon our first challenge.
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A log across the river. We managed to move it out of the way without too much trouble.

Then we came up on the second one.
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We worked trying to get it out of the way for about 45 mins.I made it over the log in my kayak but it wasn't deep enough for the canoe to make it over. After hacking on the log with a machete, and trying to pull the log out of the way, they finally decided to try and step out of the canoe, onto the log and lift the canoe over it.
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That worked and again we were on our way.



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A little farther down the river, I saw something floating in the water, I stopped and paddled to it. At first I thought that the Town Creek Bandit had struck again. You can read about that in the Town Creek cache logs.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=99bcffe0-f8c9-4ffa-af28-fbf173e7ef75

I thought if this the work of the Town Creek Bandit he is defiantly getting freaky. This thing was almost two feet long and it had diamond shaped spikes all over it.
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I took the pic after I got home, It was more green when I first pulled it out of the river. I don't know for sure but I think it may be some kind of root and not a "toy".
 
I could tell by the gps that we were getting close. We turn a corner and I saw a white chair sitting on the bank. It was the first man made object that we've seen since the bridge that was falling down in the marsh. As I got closer I saw this bridge support.

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This was the area of the cache and I was anxious to start looking for the cache. So I grabbed my gear and took off towards the waypoint It lead me to a small patch of bushes in a wonderful pine savanna.

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Look at the size of this pine tree. To get an idea of the size of this tree here is a pic of one of my buddies. For size comparasance he is 6'6.

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LOL He's not really 6'6. His name is Peewee and he about 5'5, but that tree is still huge. Neither pic does it justice.
 
This tree had woodpecker holes covering the whole tree. There was not a place on it that didn't have a hole on it.

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I know it's had to see in that pic, but here's a close up.

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We then headed towards the lake. There is an area just passed where the lake is connected to the river that I wanted to explore. For weeks before this trip had been studying satellite pics to isolate areas that I wanted to explore. The area of the lake near the river is one I couldn't wait to get to. They was something there that can be seen in the satellite pics and I wanted to see what it is. Here is a close of from space.

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As I was getting closer I could see the lake was different in the area I wanted to search. It was a windy day and the whole lake was very ripply except for this area, it was smooth as glass.
Here is a pic that somewhat should what I mean.

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At first I thought it was like a little island that was covered with an inch or so of water.
But it wasn't. Here is what it is.

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It was so think it was hard to paddle through. It felt like somebody was under the water pulling my paddle under water.

Here are some pics of the lake.

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I paddled all the way to the mouth of the river that is on the other side of the lake.

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A new river to explore on my next trip.

The next pics were taken in this area.

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The trip back was pretty much uneventful except crossing the log again. It took us about 30 minutes to get past it on the return trip.

I can not wait until my next trip to this location. I am planning to go back in late spring for an overnight trip. If anybody on the forums want to have a great adventure, you should make plans to join me. There are a lot of land that surrounds this lake that I am sure have plenty of cp's. Trust me it'll be worth the trip.
 
So you didn't find it?

Dude i'd want to find it SO bad if no one else could.


That place is spooky.
 
where is this?
that sounds like a lot of fun.
I go kayaking every summer for like 2 weeks and i love it.
 
Yes and no.

It was no longer there, but I found all the clues and I was prepared in case that happened. I brought along a new container and log book. I replaced it, signed the log book, so technically I found it.
 
  • #10
It's in NC.
 
  • #11
Oh, then I deffinately can't make it, but it sounds like fun.
please let us know of any of your trips and findings while there.
 
  • #12
Neat. It looks like the dead trees are baldcypress, do you think the swamp got inundated with salt water for a period and killed the trees? It would have killed the cp’s too, atleast there
 
  • #13
The trees were cypress, pine and oak. Most of the dead trees were old. There were dead trees all over, not only in the brackish marsh. The tree in the marsh was all dead and they were all very old. So I think the marsh for what ever reason expanded
upriver. The reason there were no young trees was because the seeds couldn't grow in the brackish environment. There dead trees farther upriver I think is just a natural death of old trees. They even though they are dead they are very important to the environment. They are homes to woodpeckers and the also provide food for them.
 
  • #14
Well...20 minutes and the pics are still downloading. :-( But from what I've seen so far, it looks like an AWSOME trip. I wish I could have gone. Areas like that have been little touched by human hands so you are seeing nature in her raw beauty. The photos are beautiful. I like the pics of the bridges no longer functioning. Makes you wonder what it was like back when they were being used...by whom and what for.

That's a GREAT travelogue. I enjoy hearing about and seeing the pics of your adventures. Best thing next to being there. But I'd rather have been there!
 
  • #15
The girl at the drive thru pointed to the kayak tied to the top of my jeep and asked "Are you going out in that as cold as it is?" I said "Yes" She said "Wow you're crazy!" She was probably right.

but it doesn't GET cold in NC! you're both crazy. :crazy:


looks so beautiful and tranquil out there. thanks for posting, ozzy!
 
  • #16
It doesn't get cold in NC? I live in the most southern part of NC, right next to the ocean. I'm sure it's safe to say that I live in the warmest part of the state. In 89 the temp dropped to 0f . I don't care where you are, that's cold. It's been down to 12f this year. That's cold
 
  • #17
I wanna Geocache! but a Car GPS wont do it.

:censor:
 
  • #18
That railroad bridge is too dinky for a railroad and looks like a water control structure. Boards can be dropped down those slots to pond the water upstream. Maybe they did do that while logging downstream and dragging everything to the river. Then the water would be released to carry the logs to navigable water.
 
  • #19
Great photos!
Hey Ozzy, How far from salt water are those dead cypress? The large number of dead ones makes me think that salt water intrusion killed them. Cypress are normally a very hardy species of tree but they have an extremely deep tap root and are the first to show the effects of salt water.

Jonathen Dickson State park here in Florida is experiencing the dying of a large bald cypress forest. State Wildlife Officials blame it on draining of wetlands, for housing developments, for the intrusion of the salt water.
It is pretty complicated how this takes place but a Conservation Officer explained it to me and it makes perfect sense. It would/is a shame to lose a whole cypress forest like that. It ruins a whole ecosystem.

You seem to have had a great adventure. I'll bet that would be a spooky place on a hot summer night...A full moon, mosquitos, bats zooming past your head, owls hooting, Hippagillarunners and Crockapotimis bumping the canoe... probably need a wee bit of Wild Turkey to steel your nerves.
 
  • #20
wish i was closer to yah Oz............looks like the kinda thing my wife and i would enjoy........hoping to use our canoe more this year......i would like to paddle the Missouri between the face of Fort Peck Dam to the bridge just south of town here.........not going to see any CP's but should make for a fun day. other than the major rivers here(Missourii and Yellowstone) there isnt much paddling, definatly nothing like you show above
 
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