Leprechaun Rock Garden

I think we will continue to find new places and features on the property for a while still. When the Mudricks visited the property a few weeks ago they found the "leprechaun rock garden:" an area of the lower hillslope with large moss-covered boulders. We will need to explore this area more but it seems like a great playground!

Pasture

 We want to use this property as soon as we can and that means we need to get something built, or at least a toilet onsite ;) From the county road we have a LONG driveway (~850 ft) along a ridgeline that opens up to a 1.5 acre pasture area. The entire pasture is sloping but along the top it is not too severe. We think the highest spot at the back of the pasture will be the best site for a house. We have no idea what it will look like or how big - we have a lot of research and work to do! 

Water features

 There are many small springs on the property - water just comes out of the ground or out of a rock face, but then quickly disappears again. The geology of the area is so interesting. We have one defined channel with a persistent creek that for now we are calling "Muddy Toe Creek" after our family names (Mudrick & Toman). But even this creek disappears underground for some stretches! Here we are in a "dry" section of Muddy Toe Creek although there is water in the channel just upstream of us. You can tell by the width of the channel that this section of the creek gets a lot of water at some points of the year!

The southern border of our property is a private dirt road that we will have some responsibility for upkeep. That road follows Laurel Creek which is just on the other side (off our property). We are hoping to become fast friends with the neighbors across the road because our kids DEFINITELY enjoyed the swimming hole we found and the critters they saw (and caught).

Plants

 We visited the property last weekend and the flowers were out in full force! This was the kids' and Eric's first in-person visit - yes we bought the property without Eric seeing it in person. There were fiddle heads for ferns all over the ground, especially nearer to Muddy Toe Creek. 

Trillium also liked the wet areas:

In sunnier spots we found columbine, blue flag iris, violets, wild geranium, some white pea (unknown name) and yellow asters.

Asher was super stoked to find these guys - Jack in the pulpit:

I'm going to keep a journal to try to track of all the different tree species on the property (time to sharpen my eastern deciduous ID skills) but this weekend the flowering dogwood and redbud were especially evident. It was crazy to see the ways that different trees and shrubs have adapted to all the rock formations. Rhododendrons were particularly adept at growing on boulders: 

There is one section of hillslope that we have labeled "Hemlock hill" that is thick with massive Eastern Hemlock with an open understory at the top of the hill and dense tall rhododendron downslope. I don't know how old these guys are but they are impressive. Here is Dan Mudrick on Hemlock Hill:

Our most exciting find was paw paw saplings! (No pictures yet)

Evidence of Early Settlers

 I wish the rocks and trees could tell us more about the history of the land and the humans that have been here before us. We have some evidence that the land has been occupied but by who and when we don't know. There is a small cave along the Cliffs of Insanity with a spring running out of it. Climbing into the cave we find the ruins of a steel barrel - evidence that the cave was at some point likely used to make moonshine. 

For about 200 ft along the west side of Muddy Toe Creek we can find these stone alters. Most are small and free standing but one was as tall as Cadie (5'7") and probably 8 feet in diameter. Another was built on top of a boulder. Perhaps they were part of a road or used as a fence line -although they don't seem to be in a straight line. If anyone else has better ideas of what they could have been used for, I'd love to hear!

 

In some of the rock shelters along the Cliffs of Insanity, the roof and walls are charcoal black. The owner told us that he believes these shelters were used to make saltpeter for gunpowder. (The process involves burning limestone.) A quick google search brought up a number of publications that reference saltpeter production from cave shelters in Kentucky in the years leading up to the war of 1812!

In one of the blackened rock shelters, there is this larger boulder. On first inspection you would think that it fell off the cliff above hundreds of years ago, but when you look underneath it we found wood logs with ax cuts - the boulder fell on top of some man-made structure. 

Cliffs

 While the waterfalls are cool, what really attracted us to this property were the cliff faces and many rock formations throughout. Along the western property boundary is a cliff face that is probably 50-80 ft tall (we'll get better measurements soon) and nearly 1000 ft long that we have named the "Cliffs of Insanity." Across the ravine (Muddy Toe Hollow) from the cliff face there are crags with shorter faces and lots of large boulders. We are all really excited to set up some climbing routes. 

Cliffs of Insanity:

Below Eric is looking into a "head cave" that opens up into a 6' tall chamber within the Cliffs of Insanity.

Crags on the east side of Muddy Toe Hollow:

The rock face behind the trees in the picture below is actually free-standing, there is about a 1 foot gap between it and the rest of the cliff. The view from the top is amazing (see next photo).

View from the top of the rock, looking across Muddy Toe Hollow to the Cliffs of Insanity in the distance.

Waterfalls

 The previous owners named this property "Twin Falls Overlook" after the two beautiful waterfalls at the ends of two draws on the property. I have visited the largest waterfall, pictured above and in the movie below, but still haven't seen the smaller one in person. 

This is the how the sellers advertised the property, with a wintery picture of the smaller waterfall:

The waterfalls still need names! The streams are the headwaters of Muddy Toe Creek and located in the far north corner of Muddy Toe Hollow.

Exciting News

We are in contract for land (about 34 acres) in Kentucky! We are purchasing it with friends of ours, the Mudricks, and hope to close in June when the new survey is completed. The property is 20 minutes outside of Morehead, KY and the Daniel Boone National Forest and 20 minutes in the other direction from Grayson Lake State Park. We are going to use this blog to share our photos, videos and updates while we work on the property and build a cabin. This blog is private, so only those with the link can access. Here is a topographic map and aerial image showing the property boundary. The inner polygon is a 1.5 acre pasture on the ridge where we will likely build a cabin.