Stokes County – Page 4 – Into the Woods

New bike routes in Stokes

Winston-Salem Journal

I’m sure a lot of the locals don’t much like outsiders bicycling through the county, but just consider how much nicer it is to have flocks of bicycists rather than flocks of bulldozers. The two modes of economic development are mutually exclusive.

4 bike routes get N.C. recognition
Stokes County hopes to have state signs up along roads by late spring, manager says
By Lisa Boone-Wood
Winston-Salem Journal
Friday, January 18, 2008

Drivers in Stokes County will soon be reminded to share the road with bicyclists on some of the twisting curves of narrow two-lane highways throughout the county.

County officials have completed work with the N.C. Department of Transportation for officially designated bicycle routes in Stokes, hoping to increase safety for bicyclists and drivers.

It’s difficult to think about cycling on a dreary winter day such as yesterday, but better weather will be here soon enough. County Manager Bryan Steen said he hopes that share-the-road bicycle route signs provided by the DOT will be posted before the end of this fiscal year in late spring.

Bike routes in the county have already been informally established, Steen said. The formal routes will help the county’s economic development by drawing visitors to the area and will also improve safety for bicyclists, he said.

“We have a lot of bicyclists that are interested in the county,” Steen said. “We have a beautiful area here. We have a great interest in all parts of economic development and view this as another element as an economic development strategy.”

The Web site of the DOT’s Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation lists about 30 cities and counties across the state as having designated bicycle routes.

The routes are developed with the help of city or county officials and experienced cyclists, said Tom Norman, the director of the division. The division tries to make sure that residents and visitors can safely walk and bicycle in the state.

Marc Allred, a rural planner for the Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments who reviewed and sent the bicycle-route plans for Stokes to be approved by the DOT, said that bike plans are becoming more common in rural counties in North Carolina.

“A lot of bikers like to ride out in the rural areas because it’s more scenic, so the counties have gotten together to show bikers which way to go,” Allred said.

The right kind of rain

USGS

Now here’s the kind of rain that’s so badly needed. Nice rains on Dec. 23, Dec. 26, Dec. 28, and Dec. 30, with the rain on Dec. 28 and Dec. 30 pushing the Dan River above its median. This is the kind of rain that soaks into the acquifer and beats back drought.

Delicious in Danbury?

Winston-Salem Journal

The Winston-Salem Journal has a featurette this morning on Artist’s Way bakery and cafe in Danbury.

My vote for the best eats in Danbury, though, would have gone to the cafe across the street that had amazing hot dogs. Unfortunately that place has closed. In my opinion, Artist’s Way tries just a little too hard to be fancy. But it’s always good to see local entrepreneurs doing well.

Cooking oil: an unsolved problem in local living

As a thought experiment, imagine what you would eat if you lived in Stokes County and could eat only foods grown within 50 miles. If you had a good garden, you could eat quite well. However, local sources of vegetable oil would be a problem. Our ancestors in these parts relied on butter and lard. However, keeping cows and pigs takes far more land (and effort) than most people can manage. Not to mention that butter and lard aren’t the healthiest fats.

A number of crops can be grown locally that produce good, healthy oil — sunflower and peanuts would be easy. Flax seed would work. Walnuts, if you can get them. But how do you get the oil out of the seeds?

A little research turns up fairly big, expensive, motor-driven units aimed at the biodiesel market, but small, hand-powered devices are almost unknown in the United States. It would be easier to buy a hand-powered oil press in India or Africa than in the United States.

Some people have tried to solve this problem. At www.journeytoforever.org, they have plans for an oil press that uses a simple jack with a piston and cylinder that could be easily and cheaply built in a machine shop. The plans originally came from Organic Gardening magazine in 1979.

www.journeytoforever.org

Hmmm. I wonder if I could barter a little computer work to get a machinist to build me one of those. Press the oil out of sunflower seeds and feed the rest to the chickens.

Google Earth'ing my land

I’d been waiting for something like two years for Google Earth to get high-resolution images of Stokes County. Finally they do!

Here’s a Google Earth view of my land. The property line is the white triangle in the lower left foreground. That’s Hanging Rock State Park looming high in the background. The elevation of the park is exaggerated a bit by Google Earth (the park’s actual altitude is over 3,000 feet, compared with 910 feet for the highest part of my land).

For scale, my road frontage along that gravel road is 763 feet. As you can see, I’m on the south-facing side of a little valley. A small stream runs across my property and intersects with another small stream at the lower end. The conjoined streams then run to the Dan River about 1.5 miles farther down.

Dan River Basin Association

Do you know where the Dan River begins and where it goes a few counties downstream?

The Dan River Basic Association‘s web site is a good source of information on the Dan River — including its history, geology, and the way the river is today.

Their free PDF book, “Adventures in the Dan River Basin,” also is quite good.

More on broadband Internet in Stokes [updated]

In the Oct. 8 minutes of the Stokes County commissioners meeting (available online) Mike Rothstein of Sandy Ridge pleaded for the need for broadband Internet access in rural parts of Stokes where broadband is not yet available. This prompted me to email the Stokes commissioners and the county manager. Here’s my email:

Dear Commissioners,

I took note of this paragraph in the online minutes of the Oct. 8 meeting:

“Mr. Rothstein spoke to the Board regarding the need for high-speed connectivity in their community in Stokes County, which has 4-5 businesses that are starting up and need high speed internet. Mr. Rothstein presented a petition with 40 signatures that need and want high-speed internet services. Mr. Rothstein noted that only 68.07 percent of homes in Stokes County have the ability to access high speed internet, which places Stokes County in the lowest quartile of connectivity in the State. Mr. Rothstein urged Commissioners to continue to work for high speed internet for the citizens of Stokes County and to help bring in economic development into the County.”

Late last year, the board approved a new 199-foot tower for Alltel on Mission Road. I believe this tower is now in service for ordinary cell phone service. Alltel, however, is capable of providing broadband Internet access through this tower using EVDO technology. This type of access already is available from Alltel in many parts of North Carolina. It is my understanding, from informal communication with people close to Alltel, that Alltel has not yet made a decision when it will offer this service in Stokes. Perhaps the commissioners could encourage Alltel to accelerate this type of service? EVDO broadband access through existing towers is probably one of the most efficient and least expensive ways of delivering broadband access to rural areas such as my property on Wells Creek Road. I believe it would be very helpful if the commissioners would communicate with Alltel and encourage them to offer this service as soon as possible. I believe the petition submitted by Mr. Rothstein confirms that Alltel would find many customers.

Best regards,
David Dalton

Update: Below is the response to my email from Jimmy Walker, vice chairman of the board of commissioners:

Dear Mr. Dalton

Thanks for this email, too.

I just read it and found the information you provided to be both interesting and useful. High speed internet is also a component of economic development for our county.

I am following up on your email by forwarding it to the proper people in our county who can hopefully move forward with this information.

Thanks again.

Jimmy Walker

The Dan River's looking good

Now here’s the kind of Dan River chart I like to see — a steady rise over 24 hours, well above the median. And it’s still raining. These rains should go a long way toward making up for the long drought.

Finally, rain

WXII.com

The winter weather patterns have returned, and rain is finally happening. During the summer, most of North Carolina’s rain is from thunderstorms. During the winter, moisture is pushed in from the Gulf of Mexico, and much more general rain happens. That’s what’s happening today. My neighbors-to-be in Stokes County tell me that the drought caused the little branch on my property to stop flowing completely. Now, of course, it’s flowing again, and the Dan River is running much stronger:

USGS

Photographer David Rolfe from the Winston-Salem Journal checks out the fall foliage. This photo is from Raven’s Knob:

Winston-Salem Journal

Trying to rain?

www.sehazecam.net

If you’re a drought watcher, as I am, here are a couple of good resources. The “haze cam” is on Sauratown Mountain looking toward Pilot Mountain. The United States Geological Survey maintains a real-time water-level gauge on the Dan River at Francisco. Francisco is up near the Virginia border, so the Francisco gauge reflects rainfall in Patrick County, Virginia, more than in Stokes County. But still it’s the only Dan River gauge in the area that I’m aware of.

Triad Haze Cam
USGS real-time water level gauge, Dan River at Francisco

United States Geological Survey

In the graph above, the little triangles represent median flow for 64 years, so you can see the Dan River is running low. The small storms on Oct. 18 and 19 weren’t enough to even bring the river up to the median.