Back in August, this article was posted in a local newspaper.
I know that this is an area that has plenty of cp's even though I had yet to search the area myself. This was a perfect reason to plan a trip. So on my next day off I packed my equipment and headed to the area.
When I first got there I saw that the side of the road where I think the first stage will take place was not a good site for cp's. It looks to be farm land.
On the opposite side of the road, there was a sign that said something about the sheriffs dept and Oak Island police are monitoring the site to prevent trespassing. No unauthorized vehicles. So I walked a little farther down the road and entered the woods where there were no signs. 100ft from the road I spotted the first cp. A D.intermedia, or is it a D.capillaris trying to be a D.intermedia?
A plantlet on the flower stalk.
The black thing in this next pic is a pollution barrier that construction sites have to have around wetlands.
You can't see it here but there is a path that was cut into the woods.
In this pic you can see the path better.
Along this path where there are wet spots, where more sundews are growing.
This cut path, goes into a very dark wooded area. In this area, across the path there were a lot of spiders.
This is the strangest spider I have ever seen. It seam to have swept back wings. It almost looked like a jet. On closer look the wings were thorns.
The next spider was very big. You can't tell by the first pic. On the second I put my hand next to it to show it's size.
This path opens up into a classic pine savanna. Prime cp land.
I know there was some cp's in this area, I could just feel it. The hard part was finding them. The savanna borders the main road. So I walked up to the road to look in the ditches.
I saw a cardboard box and I can't resist the urge to see if there was a snake under it. I picked it up and this venomous creature popped out.
There was also a male black widow that crawled away as soon as I picked the box up. I probably saved him from being eaten.
I walked all the way across the savanna without seeing any cp's.
There was a cut path about 20 feet wide that made it's way behind the pine savanna so I continued on the path.
I came up on a big clump of dried spagnum.
Apparently, they have also done some draining here too.
All down this path I found clump after clump of dried sphagnum.
Off to the side I saw a little path leading to a wet sunny area. When I got to it I could feel that the ground was soft. I was on a bed of pure peat. With my size 13 boots the ground had no problem holding me up. My snake hook is 5 ft long and it sunk right into the peat.. Take a look at these two pics.
I stuck the hook all the way down into the ground without any trouble at all. All but about a foot of it was in the ground. I could have stuck it farther but I wanted to be able to pull it back up. Just imagine how much rain this areas holds. With the ground at least 4ft of peat, this area soaks up millions and millions of gallons. If they pave over this area, we lose that buffer and there will be major flooding the next time we have multi hurricanes.
On farther down the path, the woods open up.
By looking at the land features I realize that I must be on the rim of a Carolina bay. CP's are known to grow in and around these bays. I start looking around and I find sundew after sundew.
Notice the white sand. This area seems to be very dry. The only cp that would even attempt to grow here is D.brevfolia. This white sand is a classic marker of a carolina bay. So what ever created this white sand also created the bays.
The cut path goes farther but I had to make it back to my van and I was getting really tired. It was a hot August day with temputures in the mid 90s with humidity of 100%. 'So I headed back the way I came. When I got to the pine savanna, I decided to take a different path, hoping to find something. I was walking near the road and I saw this sign from the back
I start walking back towards the cut path and just behind this sign here's what I saw.
I knew there was some nice cp's here. I was within 20 ft of these vfts when I walked through this area the first time. And when I found them they seemed to be everywhere.
Unfortunatly I didn't find any pitcher plants, but they are probably here somewhere. Every marker plant was there. It was the right conditions for them but I guess I'll have to do some more searching.
This land is for sale. I don't know how long these plants will be here.
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