One of the blessings of my Appalachian home is that there’s always some little treasure to find. I’m the guy who always seems to be drawn off the pathway to examine whatever might be in bush. Insects, small flowers, animal tracks and odd shaped stones are irresistible to me. There are little treasures everywhere. We just need to slow down and find them.
The image above was taken in Jodie, West Virginia, Fayette County.
There are many crossings in this world. Places where one leg of life’s journey ends and the next one begins. Human beings are a funny lot. We dream about moving forward into adventure but don’t want to leave the familiar behind. We can’t wait to graduate from school but spend the rest of our lives in nostalgia.
I occasionally pull out a playlist of music from the 80s and play the roll of a silly middle-aged man for my twenty something and thirty something coworkers. I recount the days and tell the stories of the times that formed who I am today. It’s entirely for entertainment purposes. The truth is that our glory days are ahead of us not behind us. We need to take the next step if we want to achieve our full potential. We need to trust the bridge and cross over into that new territory.
The image above was taken at Hawks Nest State Park in West Virginia.
As a youth I spent a large piece of my life on and around Summerville Lake.
Wikipedia has all the statistics (click here) and there’s a funny story about how the government almost named it Gad Dam Lake after the ghost town on the bottom. (Read about Gad) . For me, the lake was a place to escape. There were boats that belonged to friends and eventually my dad got his own boat. Summers were spent fishing and swimming and trying to impress the ladies without falling overboard.
There are stories of catfish in the lake large enough to swallow you whole! Every fisherman in Summerville has a story about how they were almost the one who landed a monster. Some will even have broken poles and fish hooks that have been pulled straight as evidence.
Scuba diving is allowed on the lake however I was never certified.
I have swam from one side of the lake to the other. The lake is three hundred and twenty seven feet deep deep ( just under 100 meters). Young boys would see who could stay underwater for the longest time. This was a game that I was very good at winning. Now as an adult, a person has a fair amount of freedom, but if I could choose I’d be a kid on the lake for at least one last endless summer.
Sometimes everything just works for you. The image here was taken after a long day of finding absolutely nothing interesting to photograph. I had finally decided to call it a day. The sun was high in sky, the light was too harsh and I was frustrated. I gathered my gear up. Got in my truck and headed home in defeat. As I left the woods and back onto the pavement I caught motion in the stream just below the road. The doe and her twin fawns were splashing around and playing in the water. I stopped the truck and placed the camera on the hood and zoomed in as tight as I could. Just as I snapped the shutter the baby fawn reached up and gave mommy a kiss.
My lifetime has been lived between mountains and rivers. One of the things I love most is that the hills and ridges always seem to have some secret just waiting for us to discover. I eventually found the time to head across the river and explore only to find more questions on the other side. There are days when I wish I could just load a good ATV up with supplies and see how far down the tracks I can go.
The mountains in the background were once occupied by the Adena. Our local history says that there was a huge wall that stretched for miles. I have daydreams about what the landscape would have been in those times. What were they keeping out? What were protecting? Surely a culture that built a huge stone wall would also have buildings. Is there abandoned temple hidden somewhere in the deep forests? The Adena had copper tools. Is there also a golden idol tucked away just waiting for Indiana Jones to find? Maybe and maybe not. But I would love to find out.
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