Caching in Avon, Buxton and Frisco 9/18/2008

We left this morning to do some of the few caches here in the Avon area and also to do a little sightseeing. Our first cache was right up the road from the campgrounds at the Mad Crabber Restaurant which we found easily. Next was a cache located at the Avon DQ, next was another cache in Avon located in the woods off the road to a beach access. We drove along RT 12 headed toward Buxton, NC and the next cache wa sin a local sports/community park which again we found quickly. Next cache was a multi-cache where we had to go to a phone booth and figure out the final stage coords from the numbers & letters on the dial pad. We went to the final stage and it was located in a patch of under growth along the beach. It was very close to a beach house and there were people sitting on the porch drinking their morning coffee so we had to go on and we came back later and they had gone so we were able to find it quickly. We drove down the road to the entrance to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and turned in and found the next cache along the drive into the lighthouse in a hollow tree. The next cache was in Buxton Woods Coastal Reserve. We walked in as the cache was about 525 feet from the parking area and when we got to the site we were very careful as some of the logs had mentioned a 5-6' black snake around the cache area. We found the cache after a few minutes of searching and then got out quickly.
At 2,500 acres, Buxton Woods is the largest maritime forest remaining on North Carolina’s barrier islands. Located on the cape of Hatteras Island near the town of Buxton, the forest has an extensive area of relict dunes stabilized by a maritime evergreen forest of mixed hardwoods and pines. The preserve also contains such unique natural communities as maritime swamp forest and maritime shrub swamp, open water interdune ponds, and unique marshy wetlands known as sedges. The forest’s great natural diversity can be attributed to the sheltering effects of the ancient dunes and the moderating temperatures on the cape. Over a dozen rare plant and animal species occur here, some at the northern end of their range. At least 135 species of birds have been recorded in the woods. Buxton Woods is an important resting area for migratory songbirds and raptors during fall migration. You may spot swallow-tailed kites here in May when they overshoot their South Carolina nesting sites.
Then we drove down the road out to the end of the island and saw the lighthouse over the dunes and the marsh which was a great picture. The beaches out there also were lovely and very peaceful and calm. The we headed back toward the lighthouse and stopped at the British Cemetery a graveyard for 3 British soldiers killed during WW 2. Much activity took place off the shores of Ocracoke Island during World War II. In May of 1942, the H. M. S. Bedfordshire, one of the armed British trawlers on loan to the United States, sailed out of Morehead City, NC along with her sister escort, the H. M. S. Zeno and joined a convoy of merchant ships to escort them to safe anchorage at Hatteras, NC, some 60 miles away. Exactly what happened next is uncertain, but the last communication from the Bedfordshire was on May 11. It is thought that the Bedfordshire was torpedoed and sunk. On May 14, the bodies of two of her crew were spotted in the surf off Ocracoke Island. The bodies were subsequently identified as sublieutenant Thomas Cunningham, Royal Navy Reserve, and Ordinary Telegraphist Stanley Craig, Royal Navy. They were buried in a small plot of ground adjacent to Alice Wahab Williams family cemetery on Ocracoke. A week later, two more bodies were found, but not identified, and were lain to rest next to Cunningham and Craig. The small cemetery, its grounds kept beautifully landscaped and manicured by the U. S. Coast Guard, perpetually flies a British flag provided each year by the Queen of England.
Then it was on to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and a tour of the grounds and another cache, this time a web cam cache. The web cam today was not operating so we took a picture of ourselves with the GPS so we could log the cache. Then we wandered around the grounds looking at the lighthouse, museum, the civil engineering landmarks and the gift shop. We didn't climb to the top of the lighthouse as it was a longgggggggg way to the top and discretion is the better part of valor. The gift shop was great as it had many displays of life in and around the lighthouse and on the beaches.
Our next cache was called Dipping Vat: The Royal Cow Series which was located high on a street sign which we couldn't even hope of reaching so we took a picture to send the cache owner. The story behind this cache is very interesting and follws: The people of Hatteras Island were sustained through fishing, gardening and raising livestock. Cattle and pigs were let loose on the island to graze the natural vegetation, including marsh and flatland grasses. In the 1930s, the federal government started the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever tick-eradication program. Islanders were forced to round up their cattle and run them through what was known as a dipping vat. The dipping vat, according to Currituck Cowboy Bowden, “was a dunking system where the cattle were forced up a chute that dropped off into a six-foot deep pool of foul-smelling, oily green insecticide. A dark-colored cow would plumb disappear, then it would come walking up the steps on the other side.” A visiting government veterinarian would inspect the cattle for signs of deadly parasites. If one tick was sighted, the cow was taken once again through the dipping vat. The dipping vats were generally filled with an Arsenic solution that killed the ticks. It is now known that the solutions used in these cattle-dipping vats are harmful to humans and areas with the vats may have contaminated ground water in their vicinity. Other possible contaminants are BHC, DT, DDE and toxaphene. Ideally, vats were to be emptied yearly, generally in the early spring. Disposal of the old dip solution was done by one of two ways: 1) running it into a nearby pit where it eventually seeped into the ground, or 2) precipitating the arsenic out of the solution with iron sulfate plus quicklime, then burying the resulting sludge in a pit. The government’s mandatory dipping vat program ended before the 1940s. In 1933, a pair of hurricanes occurring less than a month apart destroyed houses and killed much of the livestock. With an eye on the potential development of a tourism industry, a national seashore park was established and hundreds of New Deal Civilian Conservation Corp workers came to the Outer Banks to build more than 100 miles of oceanfront dunes, from Corova to Ocracoke. Shortly thereafter, shoots of Carolina beach grass were planted to stabilize the dunes. To protect the dune stabilization work of the CCC, North Carolina passed the Livestock Act of 1934, outlawing free roaming livestock or open grazing.
We then drove back to the coach and on the way we stopped and saw several interesting sights like the Orange Blossum Bakery, the home of the Apple Ugly a special breakfast bun that are made here and unless you get to the bakery before 8:30 you won't get any as they sell out daily. They were already closed for the day when we stopped. We also saw several historical markers, an old barn now used as storage for a local grocery and the "space ship" we posted on another blog entry. We got back and had lunch, Mom did our logs and I worked on our blog well into the night. We had dinner and watched TV for awhile till it was time for bed. Well time to say until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1-Historic marker for the British Cemetery near Hatteras Lighthouse, 2-The British Cemetery, 3-Commonwealth War Graves Commission Marker, 4,5,6-The British graves themselves, 7-Mom at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse sign, 8,9-Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, 10-Life at the Light historic marker, 11-Osprey Nest, 12,13,14-Sea turtle display, 15-Civil Engineering Landmark, 16-Museum and houses at the lighthouse, 17-Protect the North Atlantic Right Whales marker, 18,19,20,21,22,23,24-Buxton Woods markers, 25-Beach near lighthouse, 26,27-Views of the lighthouse over the marsh, 28-Beach near the lighthouse, 29-View of the lighthouse over the beach, 30-USS Monitor HM, 31-Billky Mitchell HM, 32-Radio Milestone HM, 33-Diamond Shoals HM, 34-Cape Hatteras Lighthouse HM, 35-Old barn, 36-A beach house with an old lighthouse attached and in use with rooms in it, 37-The Seed Shack Cache.