THROUGH THE EASTATOE VALLEY TO TWIN FALLS

Like many other days this fall,
I left early this morning and drove northward
to the Blue Ridge mountains.  Give me a day like this, 
my hiking boots, and my camera, and there is no happier man on earth.

While my destination was the Eastatoe Valley, 
I stopped by one of my favorite spots, Pinnacle Lake, 
which is located below Table Rock Mountain. The sun was
still relatively low at that point and there was hardly any wind, 
all of which created perfect conditions for catching wonderful reflections in the lake.

This patch of woods was especially beautiful, 

and it reminded me of a large, abstract impressionist painting.

I often find that looking up through 
the trees, especially when the leaves and limbs
are backlit, provides lovely perspectives which are easy to miss.

The fields and forests of the Eastatoe Valley
are beautiful in any season, but they are especially vibrant in the fall.

The people who settle in this valley
tend to be rugged individuals.  This is 
a perfect spot to live for those who want to
live the simple life in a simple cottage, 
surrounded by the beauty of the natural world.

Look in any direction, 
and you're sure to find something magical . . .

. . . perhaps the textured, colorful woods of November . . .

. . . or a trail like this one that leads one through a beautiful forrest . . .

. . . to the peace and tranquility of Twin Falls.


Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.

W.B. Yeats, The Land of the Heart's Desire

AN OCTOBER WALK IN THE MOUNTAINS

I spent yesterday 
walking various trails of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
which are always resplendent in the colors of late October.
This image is of a colorful cove of Lake Sequoyah, near Highlands, North Carolina

When walking through the woods, 

we usually look straight ahead or to the sides.  

Over the years, however, I've discovered that some 

of them most wonderful sights can only be seen by looking up.

I love the abstract patterns created by tree limbs from this angle.

There are many large lakes in the Blue Ridge Mountains,

but one also stumbles upon tranquil small ponds like this one off the beaten path.

I'm especially attracted to the beautiful abstract designs found

 in nature.  This image is a reflection of some of the autumn foliage in a slow- 

moving section of the Chattooga River, just to the west of Highlands, North Carolina.

This is a stretch of the North Fork of the Chattooga River.

As I walked along a trail

that followed the Chattooga River, 

I came upon a man and his two sons out for a day of fishing.

This was one of the trails I walked yesterday, 

a four-mile loop around Lake Fairfield, near Sapphire, North Carolina.

Looking across Lake Fairfield, I could see 

the sheer rock face of Old Bald Mountain, wrapped in the warm colors of autumn. 

On one of the high look-out points between Highland and Cashiers

North Carolina, I had a great view of the lush foliage that saturated the valley below.

Just outside the town of Highlands, my eyes fell upon 

this little section of woods, which reminded me of an impressionist painting.

A section of woods between Highland and Cashiers

On the edge of Lake Fairfield, with Old Bald Mountain in the distance

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 own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.

John Muir, The Mountains of California 

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 

MOVING ON, HOPEFULLY FORWARD

Blue Ridge Mountains Landscape

(Photo by Gafoto, Wikimedia Commons)

After more than eighteen years of living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Margaret and I finally closed on the sale of our house nine days ago and embarked on the next phase of our planned relocation — the search for a place in the Carolinas that will permit Margaret to keep her two horses.  We have stored our furniture in Maryland and taken a short-term rental apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, which will be our base as we explore the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains between Greenville and Asheville, North Carolina.  

Radical changes like this are always stressful because they increase exponentially the uncertainties that accompany "normal life," whatever that is.  I am hopeful, nonetheless, that the future will unfold in a way that will allow both Margaret and me to return soon to the activities that nurture our respective souls.  For the moment, however, we must spend most our days searching for something quite different from what I usually search for.

Unfortunately, the demands of the past few months have left me little time to read and reflect.  I have tried, however, to keep the ideals of two pieces of writing at the forefront of my crowded, overburdened mind.  The first piece of writing is Charles Bukowski's wise poem, The Laughing Heart, which I discovered by reading one of Ruth's elegant postings on Small.

                                               The Laughing Heart

                               your life is your life

                               don't let it be clubbed into dank submission.

                               be on the watch.

                               there are ways out.

                               there is light somewhere.

                               it may not be much light but

                               it beats the darkness.

                               be on the watch.

                               the gods will offer you chances.

                               know them.

                               take them.

                               you can't beat death but 

                               you can beat death in life, sometimes.

                               and the more often you learn to do it,

                               the more light there will be.

                               your life is your life.

                               know it while you have it.

                               you are marvelous.

                               the gods wait to delight 

                               in you.

The second piece comes from the Talmud and has its inspiration in the writings of the prophet Micah:

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief.  Love mercy now. Walk humbly now.  Do justly now.  You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

So what's the relationship between this moving challenge and the quotes from Bukowski and The Talmud?  I suppose it has something to do with what Pascal once said:  "In difficult times you should always carry something beautiful in your mind."