WILDFLOWER ADVENTURES: MARCH 26

Our Fourth Day

life is a garden,
not a road

we enter and exit
through the same gate
 wandering,

where we go matters less
than what we notice
 ~ Bokonon ~

 (The Lost Book)

All of us look forward to this morning’s breakfast at the Mountain Laurel Inn.  And it is incredibly delicious.

 The conversation with Sarah, our host and a former teacher at Athens Academy,  shows us how committed she still is to helping young people become the best they can be. 

Plus she organizes a lunch program for Seniors! 







Earlier Don had asked me, “Where are we going this morning?”  Hunh?  I thought we were going home.   Apparently there will be time to have another adventure on this, our last day.  I got out my wildflower walk book by Carol and Hugh Nourse and selected one that is not far:  Cedar Glade Walks in Chickamauga National Battlefield Park.   Doesn’t sound thrilling; rather more in the interesting category.

But while I’m licking my plate of the very last molecule of French toast syrup, Sarah recommends Little River Canyon, a National Preserve in Alabama, and fairly close to where we are.  She heard the waterfall was vigorous because of recent rains.   Not hard for the three of us to decide to go there after paying our very reasonably priced bill.

I have an hour of panic because I can’t find my British Airways credit card which I’ve been using almost non-stop so I can fly to England this Fall on dividend miles.  Last place I used it…Hmmm.  The Grill, when I paid for our lunch yesterday.  (We were taking turns treating.)  You know the drill:  check every part of your bag, pockets, blah blah blah.  I finally find it hours later sticking out of the new book I bought on wildflowers at the Grill.  Good grief!  My very worst pet peeve in my world is “losing” stuff.   

Little River Canyon National Preserve Headquarters opens at 10 AM, so we enjoy the vistas from overlooks. 

  I am thrilled to see Diamorpha smallii growing in the boulders right where we stand!

This is a huge place (14,000 acres), set aside by Congress to safeguard the watershed and plants and animals. “Little River is the nation's longest mountaintop river flowing for approximately 30 miles in a southwesterly direction.  It flows for almost its entire length down the middle of Lookout Mountain before emptying into Weiss Lake.”  DeSoto State Park (where we were Wednesday night and Thursday morning) is in the northern part of the reserve.

We park at the Falls, which are vigorous from all the wonderful rain we’ve had.  Experienced kayakers tell the volunteer guide that the 45 foot drop is not the hard part (what?!) but the immediate three miles after that.  Marguerite and I both wonder whether our terrific Mac teacher, Paul, has “done” this yet.  [His answer:  not yet but it’s high on his list.]

Don and Marguerite are awed by the power of the Falls

The guide tells me that the reserve has recently been found to be part of the Trail of Tears.  Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830.  Leaders of the Cherokee Nation fought back in court.  “In Worcester v. Georgia the US Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice John Marshall, ruled in 1832 that the Cherokee held sovereign land rights.  President Jackson openly dismissed the ruling.”  Choctaw, Muskogee Creeks, Chickasaw, Seminoles, and Cherokee had to relocate west of the Mississippi.

The removal effort of Cherokee began (sometimes by bayonet) first to “round-up” camps, then to larger removal camps, then by boat.  When Principal Chief John Ross realized how many were dying of disease, he petitioned General Scott to let the Cherokee control their own removal.  They traveled by foot, horse, and wagon for 800 miles.  Of about 15,000 Cherokee forced from their homes, many hundreds died on the way during a hard winter.  Much of the early part of their trip was around and through Little River Canyon.

The river has cut into sandstone, limestone and shale rocks.  Here is a strange hole in one of the boulders.  My friend Don Hunter says, “That looks like what is called a concretion, and being in Little River Canyon, the rock type would be sandstone.”

 

Diamorpha smallii getting ready to bloom

Don't know what this is

Possibly Glade Sandwort

What makes this experience different from the other three is that when we stop looking down, we look out over a steep (about 1,000 foot) drop into the canyon below.  Look out, Marguerite!

Also, the other three have these colonies growing on granite outcrops whereas these are sandstone.   [There are three videos on Youtube which I made about the other trips.]

We go on a short walk on the Beaver Pond Trail because I am making a last ditch effort to find those previous pitcher plants.  Found other stuff, though.

Trailing Arbutus

Wild Ginger

Little Brown Jugs of the Wild Ginger (left)

Partridgeberry

Carolina Jessamine

On the way home we see this building at a traffic intersection. 

These four days of wildflower adventures I share with my gracious friends, Marguerite and Don (who drove us there and back safely), are so full of beauty it seems like a full two-week vacation.