Mark's Mythosphere

During the forty-some years I've been writing and publishing fiction, I have developed what amounts to a unique mythos, largely consistent with (if not necessarily part of) H.P. Lovecraft's so-called "Cthulhu Mythos." Like many writers from my generation—not to mention generations before and after—I came up as a fan of Lovecraft's works and many of my earliest stories qualified as little more than pastiches. None of them were publishable, but I consider them valuable practice runs for the works that would come after.

I've been asked on more than one occasion if I've made a definitive list of my stories and novels that fit into what I call the "Mythosphere," and the answer is no—until now! While some of my works definitely meet its (rather loose) criteria, others are harder to categorize; many might be called outliers, in that they share some common elements with my more overt Lovecraftian tales but don't fit neatly into any particular niche.

 

So, what is this Mythosphere? One of my earliest stories, titled "Threnody," latched onto the concept of sound—specifically music—as a means of bridging dimensions, inspired largely by HPL's "The Music of Erich Zann." In this story, I introduced a "music grimoire" titled The Spheres Beyond Sound, authored by one Maurice Zann. This volume served as a backdrop for a number of my early tales, and even some of my later ones. I never explored the character of Maurice Zann beyond describing him as an unspecified relative of HPL's character and stating that he vanished while experimenting with the musical formulae he devised.

 

The name Maurice Zann had what I'd call rather odd roots. When I was a youngster, I had a record album called A Child's Introduction to Music, and it was produced/narrated by one Maurice Zam. However, because this name was printed in a flowing script on the album cover, for many years, I read his name as "Zann." Thus was born Erich Zann's lesser-known relative.

 

I've written many stories over the years specifically for Lovecraftian/Cthulhu Mythos publications, though my preference has always been to shy away from specific Lovecraftian entities/settings/characters whenever possible. In any event, these overt Cthulhu Mythos stories comprise the earliest building blocks of my personal Mythosphere. As I continued to create fiction, I developed a few settings and characters that have appeared in numerous works. With my long history in the Piedmont and Appalachian regions of Virginia, I naturally gravitated toward them as atmospheric settings. The fictional Sylvan County and town of Aiken Mill are loosely based on the Martinsville/Henry County area where I grew up (and to which I've retired). Beckham College is based on Ferrum College in nearby Franklin County (Benjamin Beckham was Ferrum's first president). Barren Creek is based on Henry, Virginia, located between here and Ferrum. Also, since I lived in Chicago for several years, it has served as the setting of numerous stories and books.

 

In short, those works that I include in the Mythosphere are always rooted in cosmic horror to some degree or another, and most of them fit neatly into a fictional history of the regions in which they're set, occasionally with shared characters. One example of an outlier might be my second novel, The Lebo Coven (1994), which is set in Aiken Mill, though I consider it more an occult-based mystery than a true example of cosmic horror. The town sheriff in this novel is named George Parrott; in my recent novel, The House at Black Tooth Pond (2025), which is a distinct blend of folk and cosmic horror, the sheriff is Bryce Parrott, George's son (and he also appears in my new sequel to The House at Black Tooth Pond, titled Broken Barriers, to be released later this year by Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink).

 

And so, with no further ado, I will present here my list of stories and novels that I consider bona fide entries in Mark's Mythosphere. The year shown is when the works were written, and the bulleted entries denote the places/years of publication. Make of this what you will.

Mark's Mythosphere:
1985

“Smiert Galgalith”
   • The Haunted Journal (magazine, 1987)

“The Grey House” (short story)

   • Crypt of Cthulhu (magazine, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

1986
“The Arms of Doom” (short story)
   • Deathrealm (magazine, 1987)

1987
“Threnody” (short story)
   • Deathrealm (magazine, 1987)
   • The New Lovecraft Circle (anthology; published under the title "The Spheres Beyond
         Sound"; Fedogan & Bremer, 1996)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

“The Red Depths” (short story)
   • Revelations From Yuggoth (magazine, 1987)

“The Spheres Beyond Sound” (short story)
   • Tales of Lovecraftian Horror (magazine, 1987)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

“Rapture in Black” (short story)
   • Crypt of Cthulhu (magazine,1987)
   • The Innsmouth Cycle (anthology; Chaosium, 1998)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

1988
“God of Byzantium” (short story)
   • Aberations (magazine, 1991)

“Symphonia Maledictus” (short story)
   • Dagger of the Mind (magazine, 1990)

“Chameleon” (short story)
   • Eldritch Tales (magazine, 1990)

1989
“Spiritual Radio” (short story)
   • Chills (magazine, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

“Misfits” (short story)
   • Midnight Zoo (magazine, 1991)
   • Quick Chills (anthology; Scream Factory Books, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

“The Last Trumpet” (short story)
   • Limited Infinity (magazine, 1991)

“Return of the Navigator” (short story)
   • Fugue Devil & Other Weird Horrors (collection; Macabre Ink, 1992)

1990
“Fugue Devil” (novelette)
   • Fugue Devil & Other Weird Horrors (collection; Macabre Ink, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

1991
“The Last Show at Verdi’s Supper Club” (short story)
   • After Hours (magazine, 1992)
   • Song of Cthulhu (anthology; Chaosium, 2001)

“The Herald at Midnight” (short story)
   • Not One of Us (magazine, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

1992
Balak (novel)
   • Wildside Press (paperback/ebook, 2000)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (audiobook, 2010)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (revised edition; paperback/ebook, 2026)

1993
“Stalker of the Wild Wind” (short story)
   • Terminal Fright (magazine, 1993)
   • The Ithaqua Cycle (anthology; Chaosium, 1999)
   • Legends of the Night (collection; Wildside Press, 2001)

“Sabbath of the Black Goat” (short story)
   • The Shub-Niggurath Cycle (anthology; Chaosium, 1994)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

1994
The Lebo Coven (novel)
   • Thomson Gale/Five Star Books (hardback, 2004)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (paperback/ebook/audiobook, 2010)

“S” (short story)
   • The Azathoth Cycle (anthology; published under the title “The Pit of Shoggoths,”
         Chaosium, 1996)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

1995
“To Be as They” (short story)
   • Miskatonic University (anthology; DAW, 1996)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000

“The Devil’s Eye” (short story)
   • Midnight Shambler (magazine, 1997)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

1996
“Shudder Wyrm” (short story)
   • Singers of Strange Songs (anthology; Chaosium,1997)

“The Fire Dogs of Balustrade” (short story)
   • New Mythos Legends (anthology; Marietta Publishing, 1999)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

1997
“Orchestra” (short story)
   • October Dreams (anthology; CD Books, 2000)
   • Legends of the Night (collection; Wildside Press, 2001)

“Pachacutec” (short story)
   • Deathrealm (magazine 1997)

1999
“The Children of Burma” (short story)
   • The Spook (magazine, 2001)
   • Legends of the Night (collection; Wildside Press, 2001)
   • The Cthulhu Mythos Megapack: 40 Modern & Classic Lovecraftian Stories
     (mega-anthology; Wildside Press, 2013)

2001
“Epiphany: A Flying Tiger’s Story” (short story)
   • Dead But Dreaming (anthology; DarkTales Books, 2001)
   • Dark Homage (series; Delirium Books, 2004)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

2002
Blue Devil Island (novel)
   • Thomson Gale/Five Star Books (hardback, 2007)
   • Marietta Press (paperback, 2012)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (paperback/ebook/audiobook, 2015)

2003
“The Violet Princess” (short story)
   • Eldritch Blue (anthology; Lindisfarne Press, 2004)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

2004
“The Transformer of Worlds” (short story)
   • Daikaiju (anthology; Agog Press, 2005)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

2005
“Other Gods” (short story)
   • Cemetery Dance (magazine, 2006)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions, 2008)

2006
“Contact” (short story, with John Pelan)
   • Black Wings of Cthulhu IV (anthology; PS Publishing, 2016)

“The Ghost Lens” (short story)
   • Horrors Beyond II (anthology; Elder Signs Press, 2007)
   • The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2011)

“Messages From a Dark Deity” (short story)
   • Return of the Old Ones (anthology; Dark Regions Press, 2016)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

2007
“Signals” (short story)
   • High Seas Cthulhu (anthology; Elder Signs Press, 2007)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

“Abroyel” (short story)
   • The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2011)

2010
“Beneath the Pier” (short story)
   • Lovecraft eZine (webzine, 2013)

“The Warlords of Leng” (short story)
   • Secret Asia’s Blackest Heart (anthology; Timaios Press, 2021)

“The End of Henry Switch Road” (short story)
   • Dark Discoveries (magazine, 2012)

2011
“The Danforth Project” (short story)
   • The Mountains of Madness (anthology; Celaeno Press, 2015)

“The Gods of Moab” (novelette)
   • Damned Rodan Publishing (ebook, 2012; paperback, 2024)

“Ecstasy of the Gold” (short story)
   • Lovecraft eZine (webzine, 2012)

2013
“The Game Changers” (short story)
   • World War Cthulhu (anthology; Dark Regions Press, 2014)

“When Jarly Calls” (short story)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

2014
“Masque of the Queen” (short story)
   • In the Court of the Yellow King (anthology, Celaeno Press, 2014)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

“Short Wave” (short story)
   • The Summer of Lovecraft (anthology; Chaosium, 2019)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

2016
“The Diaries of Henry P. Linklatter” (short story)
   • Through a Mythos Darkly (anthology; PS Publishing, 2017)

2017
“The Veil of Dreams” (short story)
   • Tails of Terror (anthology; Golden Goblin Press, 2018)

“Clicks” (short story)
   • Tales From Arkham Sanitarium (anthology; Dark Regions Press, 2022)

2018
“Pons Devana” (short story)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

2022
“Nimbus” (short story)
   • The Weird Cat (anthology; WordCrafts Press, 2023)

2023
“The House at Black Tooth Pond” (short story)
   • Shunned Houses (anthology; WordCrafts Press, 2024)

2024
The House at Black Tooth Pond (novel)
  • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (paperback/ebook/audiobook, 2025)

“Throatwarbler Meets the Vampire” (short story)
   • Eldritch Force (anthology; Weird House Publishing, publication TBA)

“Foragers” (short story)
   • Witches and Witchcraft (anthology; Hippocampus Press, 2025)

2025
“Trial Phase” (short story)
  • Shoggoths (anthology; Crossroad Press, publication TBA)

2026
Broken Barriers (novel)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (publication TBA)

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A Busy Season

It's been a busy — and very successful — summer and early fall for promoting and selling my scary books. Some big venues and some not-so-big, but this year in particular, my book sales in what I'd call non-traditional outlets, such as local breweries, specialty shops, and festivals, have been healthy indeed. I've got a few more coming up for the fall season. This weekend, I'll be in Elizabeth City, NC, for a four-author booksigning event at Seven Sounds Brewing Company (see yesterday's post for details). On Saturday, September 21, I'm attending another multi-author event, hosted by Martinsville/Henry County Is for Book Lovers at the Spencer-Penn Centre, in Spencer, VA, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There will be lots of food and craft vendors as well, so there's plenty of fun even for folks who might be too scared to visit with the scary author. Ha-ha!

Next month — Saturday, October 5 — come visit my vendor booth at the 43rd Annual Martinsville Uptown Oktoberfest, in Uptown Martinsville, VA. I'll have plenty of scary books on hand — Fugue Devil: Resurgence, Deathrealm: Spirits, Gods of Moab, Blue Devil Island, West Virginia: Lair of the Mothman, and several others. Ms. B. may bring along some of her art journals, watercolor paintings, and other nice items for sale as well. Oktoberfest features a passel of vendors with artsy-craftsy things, foodz, a beer garden, and other goodies of all sorts. It runs from 11:00 a.m. to 4 p.m.; admission is free.

In November, Ms. B. and I will be attending a somewhat belated Dark Shadows–themed Halloween event at Seaview Terrace (a.k.a. the Carey Mansion) in Newport, RI, which served as the exterior of Collinwood in the original Dark Shadows series. I've been to numerous Dark Shadows events, and I've visited Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, NY, and the Lockwood-Mathews mansion in Norwalk, CT, both of which appeared in House of Dark Shadows way back when, but I've never been to Seaview Terrace, so this will be a first. Ms. B. and I are both very much looking forward to it.

Scary Things at Magnolia & Main Books

Hey, local Southern Virginia Folks!
Magnolia & Main Bookstore is a brand-new, indie bookstore in Ridgeway, VA, a few short miles south of Martinsville. It's been a long while since there's been a physical bookstore in the area, so it's great to see this little boutique open its doors for business. It's a small shop, to be sure, but it's warm, welcoming, and easily accessible. Proprietor Traci Morton carries books by several local authors, including a bunch of mine, and I anticipate a booksigning happening here in the foreseeable future.

If you're in the local area and you'd like autographed copies of my books, Magnolia & Main is for you. They have copies of Deathrealm: Spirits, Fugue Devil: Resurgence, Blue Devil Island, and all five of my Ameri-Scares novels for young readers — West Virginia: Lair of the Mothman, Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior, Ohio: Fear the Grassman!, New Hampshire: Ghosts From the Skies, and Georgia: The Haunting of Tate's Mill.

Come visit Magnolia & Main Books, 810 Main Street, Ridgeway, VA 24148.

WIP Excerpt: The House at Black Tooth Pond

Not very long ago, I wrote a haunted house story, titled "The House at Black Tooth Pond," for an upcoming anthology, which will be appearing later this year. I've made blog posts about the place I call Black Tooth Pond, which is inspired by an honest-to-God location here in Martinsville (the most recent blog being "Black Friday at Black Tooth Pond," Friday, November 25, 2023). For the story, I combined that real-life setting with another: an ancient, crumbling house my brother and I discovered not far from Martinsville in the early 1990s. I called it the House of Cabiness because, inside the place, I discovered a massive cache of old mail, all addressed to members of a certain Cabiness family. I suspect that place is long gone, since so little of it remained intact even then, but the memory of it has haunted me ever since.

The drawing above is one I did back when Brother Phred and I found the place.

I believe the story makes for a fine stand-alone tale, but the more I contemplated the idea, it felt like one that could be expanded into a full-length novel. So, quite recently, I set about scheming and plotting and plotting and scheming, and I came up with a workable novel project. At the moment, I'm roughly 30k words into the writing, so I thought I'd offer a little excerpt. Here she be:

#

As Martin sauntered along the walkway, mostly looking at his feet, he heard a deep, booming voice rising above the soft student babble around him. The voice was shouting, “Sinners, take heed! The end times are near! Take heed, all of ye!”

Oh, hell. One of the endless supply of proselytizers that seemed to target the campus more and more lately. They’d always been around, maybe even more so back in his university days, but there recently seemed to have been a resurgence.

The voice came from a huge, black-suited man, with wide, glittering eyes beneath a heavy brow. He stood on the walkway just shy of the stairs to Reynolds Hall. Unless Martin diverted around to the side door, he couldn't avoid walking directly in front of the fellow. In one hand, the man held a thick sheaf of papers—flyers or tracts, no doubt. None of the students passing nearby appeared to take even the vaguest notice of him.

Good for them.

As he approached, he kept his eyes down and walked by without the fellow taking any special notice of him.

Until he reached the stairs of Reynolds Hall. And then the deep voice bellowed, “Beware, Dr. Pritchett, the doom that came to Eden, the country of the snake!”

Martin whirled around, incredulous, and saw the figure standing on the walkway with one arm outstretched, pointing directly toward him.

“Do you not know what you have disturbed, Dr. Pritchett?"

He took a few steps back toward the towering figure. He’d never seen the man before in his life. How could he know his name? Maybe a former student? No. He didn't think so.

But those words. Martin knew them. They came from the pages he’d taken from the House of Cabiness. But no one besides his brother could be privy to what he’d done. No one else could have been out there to see him. Who could possibly know what was written on those ancient sheets?

No one.

No one alive.

#

Dark Corners of the Old Dominion Is in the House... or Woods

Dark Corners of the Old Dominion is in the house... or in the woods, as the case may be. To be even more precise, the “Fugue Devil's Woods.” Features my story, “Doom at Dragon's Roost,” along with 23 other tales set in Virginia. Now available from Death Knell Press.
 

"Within these pages, Virginia authors explore twenty-four dangerous destinations, myths, and monsters from the commonwealth’s past, present, and future.

“Dark Corners of the Old Dominion is edited by Joseph Maddrey and Michael Rook, with a foreword by Brian Keene. Every author in this anthology has strong ties to Virginia and it is clear in the stories and poems they’ve created. They are steeped in the salty waters of the Chesapeake Bay, pulsing with the thrum of the beltway, and bleeding from old battlefield scars.”

Proceeds for Dark Corners of the Old Dominion go to the Scares That Care charity.

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Order Dark Corners of the Old Dominion

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Release Day: Dark Corners of the Old Dominion

It’s release day for Dark Corners of the Old Dominion from Death Knell Press. This one features my story, “Doom at Dragon’s Roost,” which is gonna scare the pants off of you. It will too!

What’s so scary about Virginia?
From Edgar Allan Poe’s Ragged Mountains to the shores of Tidewater’s Seven Cities… From the blood-soaked battlegrounds of the Civil War to the shadowy political arena of the D.C. Beltway.

We have four hundred years’ worth of ghost stories, folk horrors, small-town terrors, urban legends, backwoods monsters, otherworldly secrets, and down-home Southern Gothic.

Within this idyllic landscape, there are many dark corners. Within these pages, Virginia authors explore twenty-four dangerous destinations, myths and monsters from the commonwealth’s past, present, and future. Read on, if you dare.

Dark Corners of the Old Dominion is edited by Joseph Maddrey and Michael Rook, with a foreword by Brian Keene. Every author in this anthology has strong ties to Virginia and it is clear in the stories and poems they’ve created. They are steeped in the salty waters of the Chesapeake Bay, pulsing with the thrum of the beltway, and bleeding from old battlefield scars. 

Foreword by Brian Keene. Proceeds for Dark Corners of the Old Dominion go to the Scares That Care charity.

Table of Contents:
• “The Bride of Dream Lake” — Catherine Kuo
• “Keep It Civil” — Clay McLeod Chapman
• “A Holler You Can’t Call Home” — Paul Michael Anderson
• “Doom at Dragon’s Roost” — Stephen Mark Rainey
• “The Woods Behind My House” — Sonora Taylor
• “Room 1968” — Nicole Willson
• “By a Thread” — Querus Abuttu
• “Notches” — D. Alexander Ward
• “New World Order” — Ella B. Rite
• “Chesapeake Bait and Hook” — Sirrah Medeiros
• “The Girl Who Sleeps in the Room Next to Me” — Charles E. Wood
• “Cave Kisses” — William R.D. Wood
• “In the Mountain Mist” — Margaret L. Carter
• “The Wrong Time” — Ivy Grimes
• “The Flooded Man” — Michael Rook
• “The Bunnyman of Clifton” — Brýn Grover
• “The Song Between the Songs” — J.T. Glover
• “A Mischief in Gordonsville” — Valerie B. Williams
• “Lost Soul” — María Badillo
• “Odditorium” — Sidney Williams
• “This is How Your Garden Grows” — Joseph Maddrey
• “Beach House” — Bryan Nowak
• “A House’s Tale” — Brad Center
• “The Path to Freedom” — James L. Hill

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Order Dark Corners of the Old Dominion

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What’s So Scary About Virginia?

Author/Editor Red Lagoe has posted on HorrorTree some nice, brief author interviews by contributors to the upcoming Dark Corners of the Old Dominion anthology, due very soon from Death Knell Press.

An example of one old dude’s responses:

Q: A paranormal investigation team has only one night to spend in a Virginia location. Where would you send them and why?

A: St. Albans Sanitorium in Radford, I expect. It’s reputedly the most haunted site in Virginia, and though I’ve not yet visited the Sanitorium itself, I know the area well from many sojourns in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and the surrounding vicinity. The haunted vibe in this part of the state is near and dear to me, as the southwestern Virginia mountains serve as the backdrop for a significant amount of my fiction. The Sanitorium is on my bucket list of sites to visit, and I reckon I’d be obliged if investigators were to check it out in advance.

Q: Without giving away any spoilers, where does your Dark Corners story take place and what inspired the idea?

A: “Doom at Dragon’s Roost” is set in the mountains of southwest Virginia, very near the real-life location known as Dragon’s Tooth in the Catawba Valley, northwest of Salem. Over the years, I’ve created a fictional corner of the state — sort of “tucked into” the mountain region between Martinsville and Blacksburg. Many of these stories involve several families over a long period of years. Although it is a standalone story, “Doom at Dragon’s Roost” could be considered a chapter in the ongoing saga of the fictional Sylvan County. Many of my stories — including this one — involve music as a means of bridging the gaps between natural and supernatural realms.

On a perhaps less scary note (unless you happened to cross my path), I woke up to a beautiful morning, so I decided to take a walk around nearby Lake Lanier before the heat and humidity set in. There were a good many people out walking and a few boating and fishing on the lake. It’s gonna be another scorcher today, so that was probably the extent of my outdoor activities today.

Be goot.

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Read “What Are the Scariest Places
in Virginia” Here.

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A purty view of Lake Lanier from the Blue Heron Trail

Dark Corners of the Old Dominion Now Available for Pre-Order!

DARK CORNERS OF THE OLD DOMINION, coming in September from Death Knell Press, is now available for preorder!

Edited by Joe Maddrey & Michael Rook, this one features my story, "Doom at Dragon's Roost" as well as frightening tales by 22 other Virginia authors. Dangerous destinations, myths, and monsters from the Commonwealth’s past, present, and future lie in wait for you here...

Forward by Brian Keene. Proceeds go to Scares That Care!

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Pre-order Dark Corners of the Old Dominion at Death Knell Press here!

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Dark Corners of the Old Dominion

I’m pretty excited about this one! My new short story, “Doom at Dragon’s Roost,” will be appearing in Dark Corners of the Old Dominion in the fall of this year. Edited by Joseph Maddrey and Michael Rook and published by Death Knell Press, Dark Corners is an anthology of stories set in Virginia, the proceeds of which will go to the Scares That Care charity organization. Author Brian Keene, who heads up the wonderful Scares That Care AuthorCon event, provides the foreword.

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Check out Dark Corners of the
Old Dominion here.

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Extreme Way to 52 and Others

Another Sunday, another day of fairly extreme geocaching with Team No Dead Weight — today's personnel consisting of Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), Fishdownthestair (a.k.a. Natalie), Tbbiker (a.k.a. Todd), and Old Rodan (a.k.a. Me). Not contented with last weekend's mostly aerial acobatics (see "Sunday Morning High," June 16, 2019), Todd invited us to join him today in the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia to hunt a few physically challenging caches. Our primary target was "Extreme Way to 52" (GC12ZVQ) a cache dating back to 2007. It's still in place, although the cache owner has apparently not been active for some time. It's been quite a while — a couple of years  — since anyone has logged it, so we didn't have any idea whether it would be in decent condition. (Ironically, we discovered that another group was out there today, but they failed to make the find.)

We anticipated a roughly two-hour drive from Greensboro. However, on our way to our target, an accident on US 52, apparently severe enough to close the entire northbound lane, caused an extensive back-up just this side of Pilot Mountain. We ended up having to detour, but rather than follow the endless line of cars moving at slug speed eastward, we opted to go west, take a couple of deserted back roads, and get back on 52 farther north. This route took us past an interesting-looking cache (TOM-TOM, GC5EW6F) at a bridge over Tom-Tom Creek. When we arrived at ground zero, a relatively brief search turned up the cache, but what really caught our interest was literally hundreds of clearly new cigarette packs rushing past us in the river. On and on they came, and after a few moments, it struck me that the mostly likely explanation was that they almost certainly came from a cigarette truck that had been in an accident — indeed, the very accident that forced us to detour, quite a few miles east of us. Once back home, a perusal of the local news proved that our supposition was correct: "Multi-Vehicle Crash Closes Part of US 52 for Several Hours"

Not so easy to see in the photo, but there are hundreds of cigarette packs racing downstream,
result of an accident on US 52, several miles away

Thanks to the detour, we ended up a little late meeting Tbbiker, so we immediately set out on our quest for our primary target. It took almost no time to locate the entrance to the Underworld as described on the cache page. We had all come prepared for the subterranean trek, so we switched on our flashlights and made our way into the Stygian darkness. Since it goes under I-77 and comes out on the other side, we had anticipated a relatively short underground excursion. As it turns out, the tunnel bends and follows the length of the interstate for some distance rather than going straight across. Happily, the tunnel was mostly large enough to walk upright — only a short section of the passage a couple of hundred feet in was low enough to gong Old Rodan right in the head. On and on we went, and after some 900 feet or so, we saw dim light ahead in the distance.

We booked it to our exit, but here, there was a ten-foot incline of about 45 degrees, with water pouring down it. The concrete looked slippery. We tested it. It was slippery. But our boots had just enough traction for us to monkey-crawl up the incline and out to dry land. Now we faced a daunting, prodigious mountainside leading to the roadbed of Old US 52, several hundred feet above us (which is the basis for cache's name). Shades of Bald Mountain (see "Temple of Doom," June 9, 2019), a couple of weeks ago! A couple of us struggled more or less directly up the incline, while a couple of us sought and found less rigorous alternatives. Eventually, we all met on the roadbed, some of us aching and spent, some of us laughing at those of us who were aching and spent. We marched on for a while, and soon enough, Diefenbaker spied our quarry: a nice big ammo can... way the hell up on top of a steep, rocky cliff. Happily, we found a fine enough way to achieve that altitude, and — at last — we settled ourselves, took a breather, and scribbled our monikers in the 12-year-old, almost pristine logbook.

Of course, now we had to turn around and retrace our route back to the beginning. Returning to the tunnel was far easier, now we had a better frame of reference for the location. Along the way, we discovered the remains of an old car in the woods, which Diefenbaker attempted, unsuccessfully, to drive back to the tunnel. Once back at the entrance, Diefenbaker and I opted to negotiate the treacherous slope back into the tunnel, while Tbbiker and Ms. FDTS opted to utilize a much smaller, tighter pipe that connected with the main one. I'm sure we all had fun, though I think Diefenbaker and I had more.

Gathering coordinate information and contemplating our escape

Signing the cache log

Baby, you can drive my car!

A couple of wet puppy dogs make their way out of the tunnel, now facing a long,
slippery incline one must negotiate in order to escape the Stygian darkness.

Back at our vehicles, some of us got out of our wet clothing while others of us remained a little drippy (I might have left a puddle). From there, we headed down toward the Appalachian Trail and a cache called "Low Water Trail" (GCBDE1). This one proved far less challenging overall, and the journey took us through numerous tunnels of mountain laurel, through streams, and over little waterfalls. At GZ, we found ourselves once again staring up a massive incline, and the cache turned out to be a hundred feet or more straight up. Lord have mercy! By now, we're needed more and longer rest breaks, not to mention some extra water, but... so far... we old people are all still holding up.

Our egress called for us to pass a cache called "Acrophobia at 3,000 Feet" (GC1BF11), which, as you might guess, requires achieving a certain elevation in order to find the cache. Happily, while the point where the cache is located is at an elevation of 3,000 feet, we start out after it from an altitude of about 2,950 feet. Relatively easy to get to, far more difficult to find. This one took us a little while, even though it turns out its hiding place and method really weren't much beyond the obvious. The cache was enjoyable, but our views of the highway, valleys, and mountains from this altitude were staggering. From the trail, if you go a few feet to the south, you fall about 30 feet. If you go a few feet to the north, you fall over 100 feet. We took great care not to fall. Tbbiker took a photo of me standing perhaps a little too close to the higher edge, but since you can't see my feet in the pic, you don't quite get the full effect. Oh, well... it was exhilarating.

I-77, seen from "Acrophobia at 3,000 feet"

A precarious spot with a beautiful view

We ended the outing proper with a couple of more easy-to-find caches, and then an early dinner at Sagebrush Steak House in Wytheville. It was acceptable.

I know not what geocaching plans may be hatched between now and next weekend, but let us hope it is something we can all get a charge from. Maybe some kind of electrical gadget cache. Join us again next time for another step in the walk of the unknown. Until then, I'm your host, Damned Rodan, saying —

Team No Dead Weight: Old Rodan, Diefenbaker, Tbbiker, Fishdownthestair