Bird's Nest Surprise!

When we got to our camp site at North Mills River, I had to turn on the gas and activate both the refrigerator (which can run on gas) and the water heater. So I had to take the vinyl cover off of the dual gas tanks to open the valve on one of them. When I removed the cover I found a bird's nest carefully constructed around the valve of the left tank!

At first I was alarmed that we had perhaps moved the nest away from the parents, thus dooming the eggs. But when I looked in the nest I saw that the eggs had been cracked open....I suspect by some sort of small predator. It doesn't appear as if anything had hatched out of them--but I suppose it's possible.

Carole decided to keep the nest so that she can use it for an art project. And I took a closeup photo of the egg so that I could find someone who might be able to identify the species. (If you know--I'd be happy to hear it.)

The nest was under the white vinyl cover on the front of the Casita where the propane tanks are stationed.

Here's the nest with the two broken eggs.

Closeup detail of the egg coloring and patterns.

North Mills River Campground

Andy, Carole and I stayed at the North Mills River Campground in western North Carolina for a couple of days. It's a National Forest facility that's administered by the Cradle of Forestry concessionaire. I've never been completely happy with how Cradle of Forestry runs our National Forest campgrounds and this trip was no different. When we arrived the campground host wasn't even present, and we had to remove garbage from our campsite (left by the previous camper). And we never did more than see the host as he was always busy staying in his mobile home or entertaining his friends.

Oh, well.

North Mills River campground is a beautiful place. The campground is situated five miles down North Mills River Road from NC 280. There's a nice Ingles Grocery if you need supplies (located at the intersection). Half of the campground is on one side of North Mills River and half is on the other side. I would recommend the half accessible by bridge as that is where the showers and nicer bathrooms are located. On the side we used there are only smelly pit toilets and a bathroom that has only urinals and no toilet! So we had to trek across the bridge and uphill to use the showers and better bathrooms.

There are no hookups so you need to fill your onboard water tanks and bring your generator. We like to boondock, so this was fine for us. We filled our 24-gallon tank and took our Honda 2000 generator. There are water spigots located throughout the campground if you need extra water.

If you like to fly-fish, this is the place for you. We saw many people who had arrived just for that. Apparently North Mills River is known for excellent trout fishing. Lots of opportunities for horeseback riding, hiking, and mountain biking. We saw many doing all of these, and I took the opportunity to hit the trails, of which there are many, many miles convenient to the campground.

Also, Asheville is less than 20 miles away, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is just up the nearest Forest Service Road (albeit via a 30-minute rocky ride).

Despite a lukewarm judgment on the campground host, we can recommend North Mills River Campground. There's plenty to offer for any camper and just about any kind of outdoorsman.

Our campsite (#4) at North Mills River.

Who doesn't like a roaring campfire?!

The view from an overlook on one of my hikes.

My son at Looking Glass Falls, a short drive from the campground.

Looking Glass Rock, from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Also not too far to drive as part of a day-time jaunt from the campground!

The bathhouse/showerhouse at the campground. Two bathrooms and two showers on either side of the building for a total of four of each.

Retrieval

Well, I drove over to RL's house today to pick up my Casita travel trailer. He repaired the mountings for the propane tanks, fixed the step below the door (looks better than new), repaired the door itself which had deformed hinges and wouldn't open and shut properly, and he removed the old twisted, rusted bumper and welded me a new one and painted it.

The new bumper!

I asked him what he wanted for all of that work, and he insisted that all he needed was five gallons of kerosene to use to clean his tools. DAWK!

Yeah, I know. I owe him.

He hammered out the step and rewelded it.

RL and my son discussing the music he was loaning to Andy. RL's wife's rebuilt VW Beetle in his garage (he's restored two of them).

Got the Casita home where it's supposed to be (at least when we're not using it). I did some work grinding rust spots off the tongue and repainting with black gloss rustoleum paint. Looks much, much better. All in all, I have to say that the Casita is in better shape now than before I had the minor bump-up that resulted in the stuck door.

Our beloved Casita is back home!

While I was at my wife's mom's place, I inspected the two big hemlock trees that are in her back yard, planted over thirty years ago by my wife's dad. He dug them up near North Mills River in the Pisgah National Forest. A forest naturalist recently told me that just about every single hemlock tree in the North Mills River vicinity is now dead. So old Frank did a favor to that little patch of genetic hemlock material by replanting these two trees. Mere saplings when he nabbed them, now more than forty feet tall.



"I am not without sins. There cannot be an airborne assault general who has no sins. I spit on popularity ratings. I live and serve as I see fit."--Alexander Lebed