The Uwharrie Forest

Originally Published November 20, 2021

We’d heard the dogs howling until past midnight, tracking under the moonlight.  Most in the Canebrake Horse Camp did not appreciate it, having settled their horses down for the night, they were not in the mood for interruptions. Ensconced in the front quarters of their horse trailers, they turned up the radio.

“How did you guys do last night?” we asked Willy Trent when he walked by in the morning.  “Oh…just one possum in a hole.”  We gathered this was not success.  Still, he seemed unperturbed.  Cautious at first, he paused, waiting to see if there was anything else.  We asked about the dogs.  Black and tan, he said. We asked some well-meaning, uninformed questions.  No, that would be a blue tick.  Yes, those are blood hounds, but that’s something else. They all do something different. 

There are many things that go on in the Uwharrie Forest. One hears shotguns in the distance all day, and sometimes at night.  It might be a good idea to wear blaze orange when hiking, they said.  Wait, aren’t there designated hunting areas?  Yes, they said…

During the day dust covered jeeps stream down the dirt roads with military style trailers in tow.  At night, ATV’s ride back and forth. On the roads during the day we brace ourselves at every curve, waiting for an encounter.

On our first day we got lost in the woods. Paint slashes, plastic triangles, colored reflectors, numbers and names mark the trails.  Some trails remain unmarked.  Few correspond to the map. This is common in the national forests, and it appeared to be the fourth or fifth iteration here, creating an archeological and disorienting accumulation.

We came across two men trying to drive a jeep up a steep ravine.  No they weren’t stuck, just seeing if they could do it, and no, they had no idea where the horse camp was.   A motorbike approached, lost as well.  We looked at his map together and surmised our location, then headed back to the nearest forest road.

Eventually we were saved by two women on horseback who guided us back to the camp, just before sundown. 

Today we bought a compass.