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| Hall Cabin in Bone Valley |
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| click to enlarge |
October 3, 2006 @ 4 pm
Being adjacent to the Bone Valley trailhead and with about 3 hours of
daylight remaining I decide after making camp, bathing in the cold creek and having a small but quick meal
that I'll explore Bone Valley. On my last trip here I'd decided, because of approaching darkness and one too many creek
crossings for my bare feet, to turn back when only a few hundred feet from the end of the Bone Valley trail.
Today with the aid of my Salomon water shoes and plenty of time I make it all the way up the trail to the Hall (Kress)
Cabin--another of the few structures that escaped the 1950's razing of this area by the NPS.
I didn't see any bones in Bone Valley during my visit. The stories I've read
generally agree that back in the 1800's a cattle herder drove his cattle into this area for early summer grazing and they
were caught in a late spring cold snap. The cattle died of exposure and for years afterward their bleached bones lay
all around the area thus resulting in people calling the area Bone Valley.
| Craten Hall Gravesite |
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| click photo to enlarge |
This area had been used as a private hunting and fishing preserve during
the period after logging operations ceased and the Hall Cabin (1880?) is one of two cabins built by Crate Hall,
the other being a herder's cabin near present-day Derrick Knob shelter on the AT. Just south of his Bone Valley cabin
would have been the site of a big hunting lodge-style mansion built by the Kress family of New York (Kress 5 & 10
department store fame) for entertaining of wealthy sportsmen who visited this area to enjoy its legendary trout fishing.
The hunting lodge also had escaped the NPS torching spree only to be accidentally destroyed by fire in the 1960's. I
also visit the Hall family cemetery located about 1/2 mile up the hill from the cabin.
| Bone Valley Creek Has No Footbridges |
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| click photo to enlarge |
Making my way back down the two miles of trail and those five shin-deep
creek crossings to my campsite on Hazel Creek I'm thinking about a much anticipated dinner of Mountain House brand freeze-dried
spaghetti with meat sauce (yummy!) and a cup of hot herbal tea before crawling into the sleeping bag.
Coming next: Tomorrow (day 3) I'm climbing steep and rocky Cold Spring Gap trail back up to the top of Welch Ridge where I plan to explore High
Rocks--a site where in the 1930's the CCC built a fire tower. Although the tower was removed in the 1980's, the
old warder's cabin is reported to be there still.
Click here to view a gallery of all photos for Bone Valley.
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