Hairpin Turns, Oh My

Through fog or clear skies, mountain views are spectacular at 2-4,000 feet when you arrive there - somehow.

All of the wonderful details of Muddlety have been told so I will be brief and say Muddlety Strips was dreamy and captivating in the rain.

I had some alone time at this Muddlety pond. Here, just me and the hush of a gentle rainfall, mud suctioning under foot, and the songs of a dozen species of birds that were all foreign to me. I’ll never forget this spot and how rudely the hush was broken by what I heard a half mile up from behind where I stood. At this tranquil place, powerful buzz saws continued to fell trees – I sadly imagined the immediate loss of habitat at the first, in a series of cracks, echoing, the crashing fall, then silence. It’s a disaster and I hate it.

Susan’s find. Her eyes are as sharp as her raptors’.

To the mountains of West Virginia I brought my fear of heights. It’s only a minor phobia, I thought, and didn’t become unnerved until we set out on our Sugar Creek trip, ascending a mountain, in a van, on mud and gravel.

The road pictured above is a good road, wide and paved. Not like the dinky ones I saw... One look to my left through the window and I knew the van’s wheels were about five feet from a 2,000 foot drop. Yes, we were eye-to-eye with warblers and the treetops that held them! My imagination is way too overactive in situations like this and I held back my desire to scream, “Oh, let me drive, please, or we’re all gonna die!”

From behind I heard a very kind person say, “The trees will stop us from falling too far.”

Well, thanks a lot.

No one else seemed to be concerned and I wondered why school buses were allowed to carry children up and down a mountainside.

I would have preferred to sit on the floor of the van and stare at everyone’s muddy feet but instead I focused my wandering eyes on the seat in front of me or the backpack on my lap. Head low, I sang a song lead by Kathy,

"...The other day I met a bear, out in the woods, a way out there..."

Thank you, Kathy. We saw a black bear that day and poor Susan was thrilled beyond words.

Lynne, who sat beside me on our short bus trips, kept me giggling and I do believe she and Susan were laughing at the long, wet, vertical cowlick on the back of my head one day. It’s alright. They all helped me through to the end of the week and got me through those scary hairpin turns. For that, I'm thankful!

Hawk’s Nest Overlook

Muddlety and Sugar Creek were speckled with great birds, however, this is the way I see it.

We all gathered at New River for the birds and nature

but it soon became very apparent that we were most significant.

Sunset at Smokey’s on the Gorge, where I won birdJam software. I need all the help I can get!

For me, the birds during this trip were secondary – albeit an exquisite, colorful sideshow. We held center stage.

And, I kissed Chet Baker. The real Bacon. Dreamy.

Chloe & Bella are very jealous and they should be.