What the heck is that? Or, help me identify strange things noticed along the trail

[Stubby]

Hi everyone, first post.

I've been section hiking for several years, and it seems I often find something unusual along the way.

Can anyone explain what those capped pipes are? They look like iron water pipe, are usually around 3 inches in diameter, stick up about 4 inches, and are capped. They usually have a hole on the side about ground level. They stick straight up out of the ground. I ran across 3 of them this past weekend, between Allen Gap and Devils Fork Gap, NC.

My guess is a property line marker, but that seems odd out in the middle of a National Forest.

Does anyone know for sure?

-Stubby

[pyroman53]

First guess is a survey marker. Not very familiar with eastern stuff, but in the west those could be section and quarter section markers installed by surveyors, in some cases 50 years ago. I suspect they could be found in the east as well. They can also be found marking high point elevations, which I have seen many times in the east.

[Ashepabst]

there used to be a resort up there... could have been the remains of their water infrastructure.

[Ashepabst]

up there = camp creek bald (or whatever it's called)

[Stubby]

First guess is a survey marker.

I wondered, but I also saw several "standard" survey markers with the surveyor organization info and some pertinent numbers. I couple years back I saw one from the TVA dated 1941.
I guess these could have once had a little plate on top with the useful information on it, that had since been knocked off or something. Come to think of it, at least one of them was pretty close to a relatively new survey marker.
Thanks for the assist.

[BirdBrain]

there used to be a resort up there... could have been the remains of their water infrastructure.

Air vents for drain pipes or sewer system?

[Stubby]

up there = camp creek bald (or whatever it's called)

Ok, one of them was definitely on Camp Creek Bald... and I saw no other sign of a building, but I guess depending on the construction technique and materials, I wouldn't. Interesting. Another of them was up on Big Butt mountain.
This also makes me wonder about long ago homesteaders as well. So I checked wikipedia, Pisgah national forest was created in 1916. And then determine that iron water pipes were in use in the 1800s and 1st half of the 1900s... although I suspect most of the regular people in that area did not.

Weird to think that any of what seems like unspoiled wilderness was once developed and inhabited.

[Traveler]

A photo might help. They could be a lot of things, from water infrastructure as Ashepabst suggested, to something underground like measuring equipment that needed electrical wires to it, venting of something underground, pollution tracking, or just simple junk pipe property boundary markers.

[Stubby]

Another strange thing seen on the trail... Ice hair.
I've done a bit of winter hiking in the southern AT, and I will often see these patched of what seems like hair growing up out of the ground. And it is ice. The strands are quite separate, and very tightly packed - think locks of hair. And they usually come up straight out of the ground.

I know "what" it is - its ice. But, how is this formed? They can get as high as 2 or 3 inches.

[Stubby]

Ok, had to switch browsers to get an image up.
IMG_1731.jpg

[nsherry61]

I know "what" it is - its ice. But, how is this formed? They can get as high as 2 or 3 inches.

Ice crystals on fungal hypha. Totally awesome.

[nsherry61]

Old vent shafts for Hades.

[BirdBrain]

That looks like a threaded cap. Hard to see on my phone. It was likely not originally a vent. If it is a threaded cap, it is likely a fill pipe, not a vent pipe. The hole could have been drilled into it after it was abandoned so as to not allow pressure build up. I am wildly guessing. Like I said, hard to see on my phone.

[Stubby]

Ice crystals on fungal hypha. Totally awesome.

Thanks! That's it! Here is a link to a cool video of it coming out of a rotting branch. I guess there is a lot of fungus in the dirt along the AT (not surprising, considering the number of mushrooms I see).

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-him072115.php

[Stubby]

Ice crystals on fungal hypha. Totally awesome.

Since you got me started, found more links. Another site calls it Needle Ice when it comes up out of the ground.

Link: http://my.ilstu.edu/~jrcarter/ice/needle/

Thanks again!

[gsingjane]

Or it could be frost heave. That's when water in the layer of ground near the surface freezes, crystallizes, and pushes the earth up and out. It's neat to see but not so to walk or run upon.

Jane in CT

[nsherry61]

Or it could be frost heave. . .

This hair ice is longer and thinner fibers of ice than the ice crystal expansion that makes up frost heaves. That being said, fungus is everywhere and a significant part of pretty much all soils, so maybe it's involved in some frost heaving also.

[Another Kevin]

Another strange thing seen on the trail... Ice hair.
I've done a bit of winter hiking in the southern AT, and I will often see these patched of what seems like hair growing up out of the ground. And it is ice. The strands are quite separate, and very tightly packed - think locks of hair. And they usually come up straight out of the ground.

I know "what" it is - its ice. But, how is this formed? They can get as high as 2 or 3 inches.

If you're at an altitude where snow forms, then the water will crystallize the same way on any surface. It will sometimes form needles, and sometimes elaborate feathery formations. Since it's on a surface, it doesn't fall out of the air while it's still small, the way snowflakes do. But 'rime', as it's called, is essentially the same stuff as snow.

[Venchka]

I've fog moving through widely spaced deciduous trees. At night. Amazing. Unforgettable.

Wayne


Sent from somewhere around here.

[elray]

Another pipe picture just south of DamascusIMGP2505.jpg