Monday, February 24, 2014

A SPLENDID SUNDAY WALK: RAVEN ROCK TRAIL



As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged by a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens.
                                Stephen Graham, The Gentle Art of Tramping 


After several bruising weeks of winter weather, the temperature has risen in recent days, the ice in higher elevations has melted, and the trails of the Blue Ridge mountains are once again beckoning the winter walker.  For those of us who have suffered from a bit of "cabin fever" lately, the prospect of spending more time outdoors is a welcome relief.

Early yesterday morning, I drove up to the piedmont area of the mountains and set out on the Raven Rock Trail, an interesting circuit hike that offers moderately challenging ascents and descents, as well as magnificent views of Lake Keowee. From the moment I entered the trailhead, I became a different person — no judgments, no analysis, no anxiety, no resentment — just pure, unadulterated peace and joy.  How liberating it is to be in the woods, far from the material world and the maddening crowds!

A few photos of my walk are set forth below, along with some observations about the importance of our connections with the natural world.




I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Thoreau 




Keep close to Nature's heart . . . and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.  Wash your spirit clean.
John Muir



Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.
George Washington Carver 



Until we understand what the land is, we are at odds with everything we touch.  And to come to that understanding it is necessary, even now, to leave the regions of our conquest — the cleared fields, the towns and cities, the highways — and re-enter the woods.  For only there can a man encounter the silence and the darkness of his own absence.  Only in this silence and darkness can he recover the sense of the world's longevity, of its ability to thrive without him, of his inferiority to it and his dependence on it.  Perhaps then, having heard that silence and seen that darkness, he will grow humble before the place and begin to take it in — to learn from it what it is.
Wendell Berry 





In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things.  In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me.
John Fowles



Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
John Muir 






The poetry of the earth is never dead.
Keats 



                                           What would the world be, once bereft
                                           Of wet and of wildness?  Let them be left,
                                           O let them be left, wildness and wet;
                                           Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

                                                         Gerard Manley Hopkins












I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
Walt Whitman




And this our life, exempt from the public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running books, sermons in stone, and good in everything.
Shakespeare












The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening.  It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.
Thoreau 

29 comments:

  1. You certainly 'caught a little star-dust' on your glorious walk and I leave this post feeling refreshed and renewed! I am also reminded by your photographs and accompanying quotations that Nature teaches us everything we need to know. Delightful, George.

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  2. Thanks for your lovely comment, Bonnie. One could do worse than catch a little stardust each day. Glad you liked the photos and quotations.

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  3. Hello George:

    We have discovered your beautifully illustrated blog in the first instance through the comment which you left on Friko's latest post. And then, of course, to see the quotation from Tennyson, well.....

    This is a wonderful account of your walk and we are both fascinated and intrigued with the commentary along the way which draws from many different directions. You clearly live in a very attractive area.

    In order to travel with you further, we have signed as Followers. If you wish to know more about us, then we are merely a click away.

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    1. Thanks for your lovely comment, Jane and Lance, and welcome to my blog. Thanks also for signing on as followers. I will be taking a look at your blog later today and look forward to learning more about you. I also look forward to having you join the conversation here at Transit Notes.

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  4. A pure delight, George! Loved the rocky outcrops in the woods.

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    1. Thanks, Robert. Great rock formations are pervasive throughout the Blue Ridge area, and they add significantly to the beauty of the natural landscape. In the original draft of this post, I had a lot more photos of the rocks, but deleted them to avoid what seemed to be redundancy.

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  5. These wonderful photos just reinforce my feeling that Spring is on its way everywhere.

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    1. Thanks, Pat. I hope your weather is improving as well!

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  6. You've captured it quite well, both in photos and in words - the peace and solitude of a forested path that is a balm for the soul. The forest calls to me daily, and I gladly answer. I like seeing your pack overlooking the lake - a good place to rest. A great deal of snow in my world, but I snap on the touring skis and head up the trail.

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    1. Thanks so much, Barb. With respect to that photo with my pack and poles, that is where I had lunch. It was nothing more that a fine, Fuji apple, but at the moment, it seemed to be the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. That's was being in the woods does for one — it keeps you in the moment and allows you to experience everything as if it is totally new.

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  7. I've been reading again the quotes you cited, and enjoyed them even more! BTW, I was intrigued by the name George Washington Carver, whom I'd never heard of. I looked him up. What an extraordinary agricultural scientist (amongst other vocations) he was.

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    1. Thanks for the follow-up, Robert. Glad your discovered George Washington Carver. Carver was one of the few prominent African Americans we studied during my early years in Mississippi. He was not only an accomplished scientist, but a visionary.

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  8. I can almost feel the sun through your pictures. The words and thoughts flow into me also, as more than those, but actual Life. I think that's what I hear from this marvelous post: When we get into this place with nature — in the woods, on a mountain pain, in the meadow, by the ocean or lake — we become the door ourselves, and nature flows into and through us.

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    1. Thanks, Ruth. Glad this resonated with you. Yes, I think that what I was reflecting upon in this post is the undeniable fact that I find more liberation, more peace, and more joy in the woods, the mountains, the meadows, the oceans, the rivers, and the lakes than in any other place on earth. When I'm there, far away from the shackles of worldly concerns, I have this sense that anything unauthentic in my life has been left behind, that I am where I should be at that point in time, and that, if I should die at that moment, it would be with a lovely sense of belonging to something marvelous.

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  9. You went to commune with nature and found wisdom and peace. A wonderful day’s work.

    But where is the Zen Master?

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    1. Alas, Friko, the Zen Master remained at home. She has arthritic knees and, as a result, she's not too keen on any kind of long, strenuous walking these days. She's usually quite happy with a few daily loops around the neighborhood. Her daily dispensation of wisdom, however, continues unabated.

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  10. I think I must be in baby brain and unable to articulate my thoughts. :) Should be a "mountain path" of course. And I hope the rest makes sense. It did at the time I wrote it, but now I'm not so sure.

    I do know that the lake is stunning, and the paths and woods full of open life.

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    1. There was nothing wrong with your original articulation, Ruth. Rest assured that "mountain pain" is often part and parcel of a "mountain path," though it's one of the few good kinds of pain.

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  11. Hi George.
    "From the moment I entered the trailhead, I became a different person — no judgments, no analysis, no anxiety, no resentment — just pure, unadulterated peace and joy."
    I read your words and realized I must get to the woods ASAP. Thank you for reminding me!

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    1. Thanks, Maureen. Glad this post resonated with you.

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  12. What striking landscapes you live in - there are, I think, worse ways to spend a Sunday than this.

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    1. Thanks for the comment, Nick. Just read your final blog and was very moved by your own truth, as well as that of Ryonen. Hope you will return and participate in the conversation here, with the caveat, of course, that it's the experiences, not the words, that form the bedrock of life.

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  13. Wendell Berry, Keats… :) Was this trail near Boone? We are about 1-1/2 to 2 hours away and I would love to do this trail this weekend. I googled it - is it at mile marker 302 or 303? Did you go to the Falls? Another hike you might enjoy is on the Moses Cone property. It is super easy as it is the old carriage trials (one can horse back ride on these as well) and I am sure dogs are allowed… but you should check on that. It is beautiful - and I think a total of 25 miles if you did the whole thing! Here is a link http://www.blueridgevacationcabins.com/hiking-trails.php

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    1. Thanks for the comments, Margaret. No, this trail is not near Boone. It's in South Carolina, bordering on Lake Keowee and near the North Carolina border. Thanks for the recommendation on the Moses Cone property. I will definitely check it out when I get the chance.

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  14. I have been absent too long from many of my favorite blogs ... a long winter, but the light came through today and I see you have one gorgeous trail to hike in your new neck of the woods ... beautiful images of it!

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    1. Thanks so much, Teresa. Sorry for the late reply, but I just discovered your comment in my span folder. Still don't know why this is happening, but your comments seem to get caught by the spam net. Will see if I can find a way to fix that.

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  15. George what a peaceful place to be in. places to breath in the openness, the space, the nature of it all. It must lure you there often... it would me.

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  16. Thanks, Gwen. It is a peaceful place indeed, and, in fact, I was on another hike very near this place yesterday, introducing my 8-year old grandson to the pleasures of hiking in the mountains.

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