Big Hill Pond Backpacking Trip Aug 7-9 2009

Temps 90's HOT
Day 1 total 7.22 miles
Day 2 total 7.91 miles
Total This Trip 15.13 miles

J and J Total 26.83 miles

WOW this was a great trip. I went with my son and my friend Bob and his son went. Bob showed up at my house about 10am on Friday and we drove out to Big Hill Pond. We started hiking about 12:30. We started at the boat dock and head down the East side of the park to Big Hill Pond. Once we got to the pond we decided to stop and eat and fill up our water using out pumps. Well the pumps did not like the scummy dirty water and they both clogged quick. Luckily I brought water treat tabs as a backup. So we used iodine tabs all weekend long. We had planned to go to the Dogwood Shelter but once we hit the railroad tracks we figured, since we hiked in the heat of the day and we would have about 7 miles for the day, we would stop at the first shelter instead which is Pipe Rock Shelter. We knew we were close to the Pipe Rock Shelter trail but we didnt see a sign or a trail marker or anything. We finally saw a sign that said Dogwood Shelter 1.9 miles, then we knew we went too far so we turned around and started looking for the sign to Pipe Rock Shelter that we obviously missed. Well we walked a very short way back when my son saw two wood posts sticking out of the ground and some rocks leading up a BIG HILL. SO we figured that was the sign posts for the Pipe Rock Shelter sign. SO we headed up and finally got to the shelter. Nice shelter but we sure are glad we brought tents. We looked into the shelter and saw about 40 bats hanging from the rafters and HUGE piles of bat droppings on the floor. Once we got the tents up and the fire going we sent the two boys down the hill to fill all out water bottles up with water from the creek. My son and I had spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner and Bob and his son had Ramen noodles. Boy where we tired. We ended up doing 7.22 miles the first day in the heat.

Well we woke up early and Bob had what looked like fire ant bites all over his body. Hundreds of blister looking bites that oozed clear fluid when they popped. Not much we could do since we where several miles from anywhere. We had a quick breakfast and broke camp and headed out. WOW a good nights sleep sure makes you feel good even when your hot and tired. So Saturday morning we took the shortest router back to the truck which was 3.5 miles. We loaded up in the truck and drove to town to get some ointments for Bob and by then Bob's son and my son and myself all had some itching starting on our legs, so we got some anti-itch cream. We headed back to finish up our hike. When we got back we headed to the board walk and then to the 73 foot tower. WOW what a view from the top of the tower. We did another 4.41 miles which gave us our 15 miles minimum the boys needed for their Boy Scout Backpacking merit badge, so we camped at the camp ground had a good dinner on the backpacking stove and went to bed. We got up on Sunday and had a great breakfast and packed up and headed home.

We learned a lot of things on this trip and we saw several deer and a turtle.