Hazel Creek Trip- 2009
Click links below to view:
Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four Day Five
The following press release is the five part series written by Mountain Discovery’s eighth grade students about their five day camping trip to Hazel Creek.
The Mountain Discovery Charter School 8th grade set out on their week long journey back in time to the town of Proctor (NC). On the first day of the enlightening trip to the historic area of Hazel Creek, the MDCS 8th graders canoed miles up to the mouth of Hazel Creek. Once they arrived, they began the 5 mile hike to the town of Medlin (campsite 84). On the way to the camp site they stopped by the river to get a drink and in the process, saw a mother black bear and her two cubs about 50 ft. away. That was somewhat frightening but exciting too. Towards the end of the day, they were presented with and journaled about the question “What it would have been like to be settlers and endure the hardships they had?”
MDCS 8th graders, Ben Ogletree & Wil Shelton said, “While we were able to take canoes over the lake, for the settlers that was not an option. While we were able to pop up a tent, settlers had to find the supplies, and gather the tools, required to build a cabin.” With only the supplies they could carry, the first settlers, Moses and Patience Proctor settled Hazel Creek and started the community that would later be known as the major lumber town of Proctor. That night, around the campfire, the students were read a quote by Horace Kephart, “People do not go into the wilderness to rough it, they go to smooth it.” Students enjoyed learning about the rich history of the area while sitting around the campfire.
On Tuesday morning, after waking up, students re-started the fire. While cooking breakfast, everyone voiced that they had an alright night’s sleep. Breakfast was fried bagels with cream cheese and jelly. Plans for the day were to hike the two miles from camp up to the old copper mine. Before hiking, everyone spent about two hours listening to the history of the Everett copper mine and working on a writing prompt for the day.
Students packed daypacks with notebooks, GORP (good old raisins and peanuts) water, and Fontana history books. The hike was pretty leisurely up until leaving the trail. There were multiple patches where nothing was growing, and puddles of water that were covered in oil. Everyone walked through the trees for about a quarter mile and then came to a steep hill with nothing growing on it. The climb up the hill was very strenuous for some people, especially for those carrying day packs. The entrances to most of the mines were covered by metal grates, but you could walk into them for a few feet. There was a fence around one of the larger mine entrances, to protect bats from white nose syndrome which is transmitted from people. Inside one of the mines, students saw a bat, and some tiny white mushrooms.
After finishing at the mines, students hiked back down through the woods and spent some time looking for the place Horace Kephart’s cabin once was, and everyone believes that Ben Ogletree found the actual site. Before now, Mountain Discovery Charter School had only a general idea of where his cabin used to be. After getting back to camp, students spent around an hour playing capture the flag. Eventually the game disintegrated as people began to get hungry, so everyone started cooking dinner. Dinner on Tuesday night was rice. After eating, students had a “party” at the hammocks. They all sat, talked, and goofed around. Eventually, Mr. Carter decided everyone had enough fun, so all sat by the fire and told ghost stories to calm down. After ghost stories, students sat around the fire for a little bit longer, just thinking. Everyone was tired from the hike and from being out in the woods, sleep was calling. All in all it was a pretty good day.
On the 3rd day of their eye-opening “fieldtrip” to Hazel Creek MDCS (Mountain Discovery Charter School) eighth graders hiked from a small town called Medlin five miles back to Proctor where they would spend the next two days. Before they began their venture to Proctor they went on a morning birding watch. After a couple of stops, a long hike, and a lot of collaborative story-telling, they finally reached campsite 86. On one of those few stops they investigated the old Ritter Lumber mill. They walked into the dry kiln and the pump houses in order to further understand what it was like logging the Hazel Creek. The structures were in surprisingly good condition, with walls and roofs mostly intact. After about 30-40 minutes they left the mill to finish their hike to Proctor’s campsite 86.
When the Eight graders went on their bird watching jaunt, they discovered how diverse the bird populous can be in an area like Hazel Creek. They saw cardinals, woodpeckers, blue jays, and heard a number of other birds in a mere 40 minutes. The short trek in the early morning better prepared them mentally and physically for the long hike ahead. They divided into three groups, each taking a different route into the woods. Once they returned they prepared lunch, packed their bags, and set off to Proctor.
On Thursday morning the students and teachers woke up in Proctor. Proctor was the town where they stayed for two nights and three days. Everyone got up and started to make a fire. After breakfast, everyone went to do tree studies in different spots in and around Proctor. By doing the studies it would show the areas that were cut first. Students would look at what type of trees were in the areas, and if they were trees that would come up after a fire or trees that came up slowly underneath the first ones. Some trees that would come up first would be pines and tulip poplars.
Students split up into five groups and went into different directions to do their tree studies. There were five groups of two and everyone went into different areas and measured trees to see how big they were and to see how old they were. One of the groups would go out of Procter and one would go next to the lake and one would go to the mill and one to the lumber field and the last group would go to where the rich people lived, better known as “Struttin Street.” Students would also see what type of tree it was and see if it was old growth or new growth.
Later students went to the graveyard and saw many infant’s graves as well as other early settlers including the grave of Moses Proctor, the founder of the town of Proctor. Students saw that most infants died the day they were born.
At the end of that day everyone went and played in the lake, enjoying swimming and jumping off rocks 10-20 feet above the water. After everyone got out of the water they went back to camp and wrote in their journals. Finally after a tiring day, students enjoyed a warm fire while cooking their food. After that everyone had to get fire wood to make a fire cook food. Students prepared for the next day which would be their last day in Proctor.
Friday was MDCS student’s last day in the Hazel Creek area. The schedule was very simple: eat, pack up, and hike down to the dock where the canoes were located. Along the way, everybody was very happy to be going home to their warm homes. Everyone was looking forward to sleeping in their own beds while happily moving down the trail. Once students reached the dock, they loaded and secured gear, and set off for the dock at Cable Cove.
Unlike the first day, the current was going with the canoes. The wind had also picked up, so sometimes the boats just glided at a moderately fast pace. What was so surprising was that the water level had dropped four feet from the time the group had canoed across on Monday. Sometimes, the current turned sideways and rocked the boats left and right. On Monday, students had parked on a rocky outcrop that had been mostly underwater. However, upon arriving at that same spot on Friday, it was mostly out of the water. Eventually, students made a quick stop at a sign pointing to Hazel Creek then headed on to Cable Cove.
Upon finally reaching Cable Cove, students wasted no time loading gear onto the bus. After the short period of reloading, Mr. Carter began the bus ride over to Fontana Dam. The students were so happy to be back that they sang and played games the entire way to Fontana Dam. The dam has been a huge controversy for the past 63 years. Issues such as the North Shore road and the sulfuric acid in the hills dominate the priority of this dam. It is a true behemoth, considering how much work was put into this monolith and what it does. Some students got the goose bumps just looking at the spillways. The lookout also provided a wonderful and amazing view of the valley below the dam and the mountains around it. While at the dam, students had the fortunate opportunity to meet a nice elderly woman who used to live in Proctor and had been an eighth grade teacher. She briefly shared some of her memories of the area.
Once arriving back at the school, everyone went to the outdoor classroom to unload gear. Almost everybody was loading their own gear into trash bags and school gear into storage crates. Finally, students hung the tents up around the chairs of our science classroom to dry and called parents for the message that everyone had finally returned safely. All around, it felt glorious to be back in civilization.