Daily Archives: May 16, 2014

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So many things to see, so many things to learn about The Crossing. Like this tree: Is this Marked Tree? At any rate it lies within what I’m calling Weed or perhaps The Weed, for obvious reasons. And the weeds are sprouting up quickly in the greening forest.

A central limb formation of The Weed, as yet unnamed like much else in the area. I’m tempted to call it The Angel or Winged Angel.

The Angel is actually another upturned root of a tree, twinned in this case, and perhaps of the tulip/poplar species I’m guessing because of their straightness.

And here are more obvious tulip/poplar trees, at the heart of the Contemplation Loop.

This flower, found just off the Contemplation Loop, may be Gay Wings, but that’s just a guess.

Looking down the length of Little Whitehead Stream, as I’ve done so many times before now.

Another classic Whitehead X-ing photo: the pot near Rock’s Meadow from the personal trail connecting The Crossing with Maine Trail.

The rock I use to cross Whitehead Stream, still on the way to Maine Trail.

Another shot of Hucka D.’s old Beehive entrance.

Back on Maine Trail.

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Other oddities now: The multi-colored yarn left in the tiny Rainbow Forest between First and Second Trees has created kind of “children” clusters of thread. I don’t know how this happened on the surface, but I’ll leave a small place for rational explanation here. But I don’t think there is one. The Other has left yet another calling card.

Here’s another, similar example, this time of a blue-green hue.

Peculiarly symmetrical stick laying on the forest floor nearby.

Looking toward Long Branch and The Aardvark/Double A. Also you can better see the crossing effect this Aardvark has with a neighboring tree: a distinct “X”. Pendulum Branch is right center; we are looking from the position just in front of First Tree here, I would suspect.

This is First Stick (pointing to First Tree), which has been doubled by another, similar sized fallen branch sometime during my 4 year interaction with Whitehead X-ing oddities. This makes a distinctive “V”.

Another peculiarity: a perfectly balanced stick on a log was found just east of First Tree.

Carolina hemlocks of 4 Sticks.

Pocket Rock, Grey Feather, and First Hole. An oracle rock? (probably)

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A quartz formation on one of the larger rocks of this line-up, perhaps the largest overall. Again: no name yet.

Close up.

Split second later comes this close up in sun.

Old, rotten pots near Hucka Doobie’s 50 bottles.

And here we come to another oddity. How did this pine cone get trapped by these 2 branches simultaneously? Fact is, it most likely couldn’t; someone or something placed it there. We must first turn to an alien style explanation of course. Yes, I believe it to be (yet another) sign from The Other in The Woods.

This is the east part of the larger of the 2 sticks holding the cone. The upturned end of the stick at the top of this photo creates a more unusual Crossing formation called The Aardvark, or perhaps just Double A.

Here’s the same from a slightly higher camera angle. To the right is The Pendulum Stick already discussed before here.

Longer cone trapping stick looking the other direction, or toward the west. Pine cone itself exists upper left center.

Long Stick (think I’ll just name it that) bends several smaller trees with its weight. Interesting effect.

The Aardvark accompanied by a little white rock, on the other side of the small tree from it. Just to note: together this tree and Aardvark make an “X”, as in The Crossing itself. Microcosm of some sort?

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More interesting rock found on the way down from Howl’s Knob and back to the Maine Trail.

‘Nother object (star-like piece of wood) found in same area.

More tombstone rocks. Things are everywhere!

A neighborhood of mayapples.

Another potentially important rock of the Whitehead X-ing area: Crushed Man Rock. It exists just up the Howl’s Knob ridge from the Main Trail, a bit west and north of The Crossing proper. We’ll come back to that.

Bright orange tree trunk rot.

Back on the edges of Whitehead X-ing now, on the old road formerly leading into it.

The road is totally clogged with rhododendrons in several spots, including toward its beginning where it forks off from Maine Trail.

Perhaps the remains of an old toy avatar fort just off this road.

Line of rocks leading into the heart of The Crossing. We’ve discussed these rocks a bit before here. Still no name for them yet.

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Tombstone rocks once more.

Central tree once again. This appears to be the tip top of the peak.

Looking down the length of this tree toward the roots.

On the other side of it, I spied what seemed to be a purposely positioned pile of bark. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

There were some vines in the region, and the same species that inhabits Whitehead X-ing’s Vineland or Vinland.

I took two rocks up to the peak, both found just off the Maine Trail, at what might have been the old entrance to what I’m calling the Dogpatch cemetery. I decided to leave one of these rocks, a more rounded one, on this peak, placing it in a depression in the ground and making sure I wasn’t crushing any small plants.

Then I decided to move to rock under the base of a nearby fallen tree. It was only then that I realized this tree was the same one with the seemingly carefully placed pieces of bark upon it.

I don’t think this to be an accident. It is a message. I’m not sure if the message is “merely”, “We knew you would come here,” or if there’s something deeper to it. I’m thinking the former. Two pieces might not have cut the deal. 3 pieces of a similar size, arranged like this, is beyond suspicion to me.

The tree’s orange-y underbelly from more of a distance.

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A pointing branch indicated a quite peculiar pattern on one of the trees of this “Howl’s Peak”. Not sure still what this is. I’ll have to take a closer look soon, maybe this coming weekend.

This root formation is found on the most central and fallen tree of the peak, basically bisected by the top.

Another tombstone rock…

… and more.

More peculiar root formation perhaps, like an amorphous ghoul wearing some kind of hat.

I couldn’t get a really good picture of what could be the largest, exposed root system on the peak. But here it is anyway.

‘Nother one.

I believe this is the end of that central peak tree again.

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We now move into the heart of Spring hiking season, and a more detailed look at The Crossing. What interesting things discovered this year! I’ve been looking back on WH X-ing notes from before, and they all seem to come mid to late Spring, and build upon each other in ways still not completely understood. We start with a hemlock near Maine Trail. And already I am unsure about a terminology: Is the *main* path around Martin Knob and past Whitehead Crossing the *Maine* Trail? Or is the Maine Trail just the pseudo-trail running through Whitehead X-ing itself, an offshoot of this overarching main trail? Decision time, then.

Or not.

Nearby rock to the above pictured hemlock. No name for this either.

Smaller rock next to it looking like a tombstone, one of many such rocks in the area.

Just turning around in my place, I believe, I took this picture of rocks in rhododendron. I’m always on the lookout now for hidden cemeteries, gasp! But this isn’t one of ’em.

Another rock in the same area. This is also just west of the old, grown up road that leads to Whitehead Crossing.

Okay, what’s the name of the trail, baker? I ask myself. Is *this* the Maine Trail? Alright, I think it has to be. I’ll just have to rename the Whitehead X-ing trail something else. Hey… what about, duh, the Whitehead X-ing Trail? Or just Crossing Trail? At any rate, the latter is not quite fully mapped out. But the below pictured trail is now definitely (?) the Maine Trail. It passes through these rocks just uphill from the hemlock and accompanying stones in the above photos.

This day I was confident enough in the healing progression of my back to hike up to the ridge above The Crossing, a climb of maybe 150 feet or so. On the way up I took this picture of another “tombstone” rock.

Hiking up. Directly ahead is the Woods of Howl pine forest, traditionally haunted.

On the crest of the ridge, with a bramble of briars clogging the far side. No possible way down through that.

This is the top of the ridge, which forms a small peak separate from the main thrust of Martin Knob to the north and west. No name for it yet, unless I decide to call it Howl Knob. There are many fallen pines on this peak, and the upturned roots with their embedded rocks tend to form very interesting displays.

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