Muddy Sugar Hollow

Today was a gorgeous day!  My river trip for work was cancelled due to just enough rain last night to raise the headwater streams and make the water too turbid to look for mussels.  Ah well.  So, I headed home.  When I stepped out of the car, I swear it felt like May!  "Too nice to sit inside all day," says I.  I grabbed the camera and off I went to Sugar Hollow Park.

We've gotten quite a bit of rain lately, and I tried looking up numbers, but it was an epic fail.  I digress.  If you've been to Sugar Hollow, you know there's a wetland in the middle of it.  Well, it works.  Recent rains flooded the wetland, and when the water receded, it left about 4-6" of mud on the trail.  It was a little nutty.  Anyway, here are some photos I took along the way.

 Here's a good shot showing just how muddy it was.  Man!  Lots of people had braved it, though.  So, onward I went.

There was lots of debris on the wooden walkways across the wetland.

The sun was out in full effect today!

This tree stuck out to me for some reason...

I love reflection shots... it's hard to get a good one sometimes.

The mallards have taken the wetland over after the rains.  I can't believe I got this picture!

This guy kept cocking his head at me, but I could never snap the pic at the right time.  Dangit!

Another accidental shot of my hair in the wind...

I wanted to take a picture of my muddy boots and pants, but my SD card was full.  Ah well, some things aren't meant to be.



Snowmageddon 2013

We finally got some snow!  I'm guessing we had about 6-7 inches.  It may be all we get this year, so we decided to take advantage of it...

Stay warm! ~A

The Fat of the River

Today, I visited the Clinch River at Speers Ferry and Clinchport in Scott County, VA.  It seems like it's rained for a month... so, as you might expect, it's up... and muddy.

While I was there, the water was at 21 feet high with a discharge of 20,000 cfs (cubic feet per second).  That's a lot of water.  When we go snorkel there, it has to be below 1,100 cfs.  Wow, that really put it in perspective for me.

Anyway, I took the camera and jumped in Maddie the Mazda and off we went.  Roads were closed in three directions, so my adventure was cut short... but an adventure is judged on what you see and do, not by how long you're gone... right?

The road to Copper Creek at Speers Ferry was flooded.  

Clinchport

Swinging bridge at Clinchport.  

Big brown water.

Wonder what the trees are thinking?

Foggy hillside along the way.

North Fork Holston.

Road 627 that parallels the Clinch into Tennessee was flooded, too.  Bummer.

Train trestle in the sky.

If you look closely, you can see they already had one lane of  SR 65 closed.

This is how close the water was to the swinging bridge.  I got there just in time.

Double trestle.

The flag stood out so well in the gloom.

Those are the best of my pictures.  It was raining so I tried not to keep the camera out too long.  I was listening to "The Fat of the Land" on my drive over, so it seemed fitting to name this post in a similar way.

Hope you've enjoyed!  Next time, you can go with me...

Laurel Run Park

My mood has been glum as of late, but a weekend full of outdoor adventures has perked me up.

Saturday, we worked on the new trail at Steele Creek Park.  It was warm and muddy!  Then, we had some friends over for a fire and some dinner.

Sunday was reserved for a hike up to Laurel Run Falls with my friend Christiana.  It was a day of few words... a nice time for reflection!  Keeping in that spirit, hope you enjoy the pictures...