Mingus Mill Hike 1/12/22


The hike for Wednesday, January 12, 2022 hike went from the SMNP's Mingus Mill parking lot, bypassing almost any sight of the Mingus Mill operation and its productive January icicle making charm, and continued over 2.9 miles to Deeplow Gap.


 It follows Mingus Creek initially, then branching left, follows Madcap Creek for a while before hikers climbed the switch-backing slope to the gap. The trail is part of the 1,100 mile Mountains to the Sea Trail.



The morning below-freezing temperatures enabled creeks and contributing rivulets to be busy with their own popsicle-stick-making designs. If you don't hike in the winter you always miss these wonderworks of nature.

 Many "winter-green children",  many in symbiotic-like collages of multiple species, lined and enriched our route. A few examples follow.

Woodland Stonecrop sedum

Dog pelt lichen

intermediate wood fern

scarlet elf cup (a fine catch by sharp-eyed J. Smith)




club moss


The hoar-frost was putting on quite a show.


partridge berry


No escaping the edelgid pest in nymph form.

 At the gap where we lunched and then turned back, it branches into other trails, some descending or climbing to new heights.



There were long shiny patches of running cedar on the highest slopes.

This was also a very "musical hike" with a wide variety of pitches and rhythms from different sized cascades along the route that contrasted with and often were drowned out by the symphonic roar of Mingus Creek. Turn up the volume when you play the "tune" of this delightfully special stream & pool.


galax (lower left) & trailing arbutus (upper right)


And after I had returned to the parking lot I could not resist a quick visit to the glorious winter icicle-making machine of the mill's leaky water race (channel).




























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