Today, we all slept in a little... the kids were very tired last night after the aquarium and went right to sleep as Deb and I stood out on the pavilion deck and enjoyed another full moon! Deb needed a few things from the store, so I took Ammon and we went to Walmart and then to Micky D's for some lunch... While we were gone, Deb went swimming in the pond with Kaleb and Hyrum (It was back in the low 90's today)...
I have always been curious about how well Brandyn and Jen's house can be seen from the valley floor in Dunlap, so I took Kaleb (it was his turn to go for a ride), and we drove down to a spot that can be seen from the pavilion deck and took photos back in the direction of the house... I hung a yellow flagger's vest from the corner of the back porch to make it easier to spot the house... actually, it is the only house visible on the bluff... and it is not too hard to see where the gianormous boulders in there front "yard" came from...
I have always been curious to know what is on the top of the mountain, above the bluff which is the back wall of their property. I saw an old topo map with some old coal mines on the top edge of the bluff and wondered if they were still accessible. So, with my GPS and Kaleb in tow (a decision he later regretted because I explored quite awhile), I set out to see if I could find a road that would take me to the spot above their property...
I knew from the old map that Fredonia Road, which starts about 6 miles away in downtown Dunlap, goes up the ridge far to the north of the property. When i got to the top of the ridge, I found a road called John Lewis Road (right across from the Volunteer fire Dept.). For some reason, this road also sounded familiar from when i studied the map over a year ago, so I started south down the road.
I came to a fork called Hobbstown Road and decided to take it because it continued in a generally southward direction... I immediately entered a very exclusive resort area of consisting of huge homes behind gates and a very long white fence lining the road on both sides for miles. Though, it felt like someplace I should not be, I decided to continue down the road.
As I passed the last gate on the left, the road soon ended at a dead end, where there were two homes... one home had an incredible small gauge railroad filling the entire property... I soon found out the property is over 100 acres...
The exciting thing was seeing the waypoint that I had set for Brandyn's home directly southwest of my location at about 0.3 miles distance... the only catch was the 700 foot cliff between the two spots!
As I sat entering the waypoint for the end of Hobbstown Road, a woman who was the owner of the house at the end of the road, and a relative of the owner of the house that had the miniature steam railroad. I told her why I was there and asked her if the old coal mines still existed... she said they had been collapsed years ago, but remnants of the operations still existed if you were rugged enough to make the hike down the heavily rutted road to get to them. She said the mines were about a third of a mile hike past her home down a very steep incline, and she recommended that it only be attempted in the morning when it is cool.
I thanked her for the information and told her we may attempt the hike at some point. Kaleb and I then started home... but when I found a road called Bluff Drive that cut right through the resort, I decided to explore it. It took me in a very large loop that dumped me right back a few hundred yards above the spot that I was talking to the woman at the end of Hobbstown Road... It actually brought me to a gate that was closed as I passed it before... fortunately, it let me out when I approached it, so I did not have to go clear back around the way I came... there are some incredibly huge log homes (lodges) in this resort area and they look very expensive... but there are a lot of lots that are vacant... I am curious what they sell for...
I took a photo of the plat map of the resort that is on a board as you enter Hobbstown Road... The resort covers the entire top of Fredonia Mountain (the name of the mountain that Brandyn's home sits on the southern side of... on a bluff at 1200 feet... the top is 1900 feet at the south end of the road above there house). The enlarged view shows the relationship between Brandyn's property (30 acres below and to the south of the bluff... His house is slightly to the left (about 7 o'clock) of the compass rose between the distance scale and the creek that feeds their water fall...
The woman's 100 acres is the cove shaped property surrounded by the "Picnic Rock Future Development"... The end of Hobbstown Road is barely visible just to the right (2 o'clock) of the compass rose... It was kind of strange to know that when Igot back to Brandyn's house, I was only 0.3 miles SW of the point where I sat and talked to the lady, but I had to travel over 18 miles one way to get there! I should have honked the car horn to see if Deb could have heard me.
One interesting thing that the woman told me is that she thinks the mines have slowly opened back up a little and have become the residences of some new wildlife that they have recently spotted... she says they have had many coyotes, and deer (we saw some nice deer driving through the resort) on the property, but the most exciting thing they have seen is a very large mountain lion walking the bluff... she said it stands easily three to four feet tall at the shoulders... awesome.
I would really like to take the hike down to the mines if I get a chance.
After Kaleb and I got back home, I grilled some steaks and deb made some Kraft Mac & Cheese (does it get any better? After dinner we had a Wii bowling tournament, wherein the Wii Bowling Queen Debra was dethroned by six-year-old Hyrum the Great! The kid would spin around, release, and fall to the floor, and get a strike every time! Then he would dance around in a circle in celebration... it was awesome... a little annoying to his older brothers... but awesome!
We got a call from Brandyn and Jen today... they were in St. Thomas UVI and were wondering if we had tried to email them with any questions... phffff... really?? This is old hat... she forgets that we raised Brandyn! (Actually, we had six kids when we were their age)... have fun Jen and don't worry about us... we are doing just fine.
Kind of curious what tomorrow will bring... Goodnight.
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