Sweedey Hollow revisit

The excellent fall weather prompted me to do another hike at Morgan-Monroe State Forest.   I got to the Low Gap trailhead on Sunday afternoon at about 4 PM, too late to go very far with the shorter days.  I hiked to the top of the ridge and down the other side to a bottoms area where some creeks intersect.  This is where most of the backpackers put up for the night.  This area is isolated from the roads and usually has reliable water from the creeks until July.  I’ve walked the dry creek beds and found a few geodes in the past.

 A few of the trees are changing, but peak color is another week away.

On Tuesday I went back and hiked the section of trail to Sweedy Hollow.  About a month ago I hiked the hollow and wrote a post about it.  The camera batteries were low and I only got a few pictures before they went dead.  This time the batteries were fresh but the shadows were long.  I reached the hollow about 4:30 PM and found sunlight in short supply.  Most of the pics were blurry from poor exposure with my basic point and shoot camera, but a few shots were OK.  The weird rock formations in the hollow make it an intriguing place to visit.

This picture was taken standing underneath the largest overhang.  It’s a very dark and damp place.  I always think about all that mass of rock overhead.

I didn’t stay long.  The sun was getting low and the trail was sometimes hard to see beneath the leaves.