Mississippi

One of my goals on my journey is to take photos of the major rivers I cross. I had already crossed the Shenandoah River as I do every day so I didn't stop for that one. So on December 17 when I reached the Mississippi River I hopped out of my camper at the visitor center along the river and to my delight I saw a barge going down river. I made the mistake of deleting the video I took but I do have a good photo as you can see below.

I stayed at the visitor center to take a few more photos.

General Lee is still highly regarded in these parts.

I crossed the Mississippi and drove onto Texas.

Fairfax Stone, West Virginia

Fairfax Stone is one of those places I like to visit every now and then because it is a nice quiet little park. I love to take friends there to see if they are impressed...but they never are.  It is a couple of miles off Route 219 near Thomas, West Virginia and easy to find.

The marker reads:

This monument at the headspring of the Potomac River marks one of the historic spots of America. It's name is derived from Thomas Lord Fairfax who owned all the land between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. The first Fairfax Stone marked "FX" was set in 1746 by Thomas Lewis, a surveyor employed by Lord Fairfax. This is the base point for the western dividing line between Maryland and West Virginia.

Below is the stream flowing out of the spring that eventually ends up as the Potomac River. I actually find that fact rather awesome and love to straddle the river here with one foot on each "shore".  Of course there are a lot of other headwaters that go to make up the Potomac and they are equally important. Many of our headwater streams are being endangered with chemical pollutants from farms and mining and need protection.  This little spot is protected but much of the waters journey is not.

The original stone was destroyed by vandals in the 1880s, and later replaced by a concrete marker on August 12, 1910.  Then again in 1957 that stone was replaced by the one you see here.

King Charles II of England granted a loyal follower Lord Culpeper the land as a reward for service. Eventually it was held by the 2nd Lord Culpeper and his only child, Catherine, who married Thomas the 5th Lord Fairfax. Until that time the land was basically ignored. Eventually in the early 1700's the land boundaries came into question between Lord Fairfax and the Governor of Virginia. So Lord Fairfax hired surveyors to settle the matter once and for all. What I read of their trek across West Virginia sounded like it might make a good adventure movie or at least an interesting documentary.  When you think about it you realize what a hugh amount of land is involved, almost the whole state. Now we have Fairfax county in Virginia, Fairfax malls and the like. The name is very common, especially in Virginia.   I had a friend who's family owned land in Hedgesville that was given to them by Lord Fairfax and she had a framed document to show the grant given to her family. She has since died but I believe the land is still in the family and will eventually be donated to the Nature Conservency, at least that was her wish.

I write a lot about natural history and often forget the role of people in the development of our land but every now and then when I scratch the surface I find the origins of these little monuments. We have a tremendous influence on the land we live on and it is not something to be ignored.  Thomas is almost a ghost town now and this little marker is all just a tiny spot on the map, it makes me realize how fragile our efforts are and yet how destructive they can be.

Check out other watery scenes at Watery Wednesday.

Foggy Minds

We were up early to see the ducks on the river, to name them, to swoon over their delicate colors. But the fog was thick and we could not see what was before us. So we stood and quietly admired the fog and how it softens the edges and diffuses the light. Someone remarked,  that soon the sun will burn off the fog and we will be able to see the much anticipated migrating waterfowl.

I wondered what burns off the fog in our minds.

Knowledge?

But you know, some times ignorance is blissful and calm,
just not all the time.

See more and learn more about water by visiting Watery Wednesday.

Waiting

Great Blue Heron waiting for fish to fall over the dam along the Shenandoah River.

Still waiting.

See more water adventures at Watery Wednesday.

Fall walk along the river finding caterpillars

By the time I get home from work it is usually dark this time of year so I have not seen much of the fall colors and was surprised at how everything had changed in just one week. Not wanting to waste time in the car, I went to the closest place to my home which is the Shenandoah River. I took the path that runs along the river so I could have the best of both worlds, the river and the forest.

Be sure to click on all the photos for a better view.
The water is low so I was able to walk out into the river onto an island and there I found several wild flowers still in bloom. I have no idea what they are. I think one is a fall aster.
Update: Woodswalker says that they are Knapweek, a Aster and a Mustard.

Surprisingly I found about ten Wooly Bear caterpillars, all with different band widths. Kind of blows all theories out the window but it is still fun to speculate.

I watched the whirly gig beetles for awhile. Every time I would get close they would scatter and then slowly come back toward the shore. They are unusual because they have eyes that are split with part on top and part on the bottom so they can see both in the water and out of the water.

Back on the shore I slowly walked down the trail inspecting leaves and the ground for anything unusual. First off was a nice Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus) mushroom next to one of the big Sycamore trees that line the water way. The mushroom made a pretty picture but I don’t think it is edible, at least not by me.
Update: Woodswalker wrote that Shaggy Mane is very good to eat when it is young. Hummm, I think I will let her pick and cook up a bunch for me.  I'm still timid about eating them.

On down the trail I spotted another caterpillar as large as my index finger. It was a Giant Leopard Moth caterpillar (Hypercompe scribonia). I think it is one of the more interesting moths that come to my porch light in the summer. It was hanging upside down and not eating which makes me think it might be getting ready to pupate. It didn’t move at all while I was taking photos.

This trail goes along the river and then into a meadow and I was inspecting flowers and galls on “wing stem” all along the way. It had already taken me about an hour and half to take the normal fifteen minute walk.

Then I saw the most unusual thing. A stink bug had stabbed a green caterpillar and seemed to be stuck. I wonder if the bug thought the caterpillar was a fat leaf.

Near that battle was a male spider on wing stem. I could tell he was a male because he had large boxing glove like palps. I moved in to take a photo and he charged at the camera making me jump back for my very life. Usually spiders drop down onto the ground or run back into their holes and hiding places. Enough of Mr. Spider, I was outta there.

I moved to the other side of the trail to see if it was more normal. Inside a bent Paw Paw leaf I found a Banded Tussock Moth (Halysidota tesselaris) that is very common around here this time of year. But this one had been parasitized and had three eggs attached to it. I thought the caterpillar did look a little sickly.

It seems to be caterpillar season because my next find was very tiny and something I had never seen before. I think it is a Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus) caterpillar but I am not certain. It was so small and was attended by three ants.

By now it was way past lunch and I could have used a couple of ants to attend to my needs so I turned and walked back down to trail. My last parting shot was this photo of a walnut shell stuck in the mud. Doesn’t it look like the face of an owl?

Be sure to visit other great places at My World Tuesday. 

Morning Mist

Like well-worn soft cotton sheets, the morning mist keeps us covered while we recover from the night’s storm. We can linger in this cool moist place and stay a little longer in our dreams. The mist says not now, holding back the daybreak and demands of the sons of mankind.

Technically mist is the suspension of fine droplets of water in the air near or touching the ground. It is common in cold air, just above warmer water. Yet, somehow it has the power to change our view and to hide our fears until we can face the day. The mist follows the water course, creating corridors for our minds to wander, wonder. Dreamily floating. Too soon the mist is burned off and the wild creatures of our dreams retreat once again to hide, softly in the underbrush of the day’s activities, until the evening when they are safe to return and sip from the streams of the mountains and our dreams yet to be fulfilled.

This is a photo of the Shenandoah River near Charles Town, WV.

Discover more Monochrome Weekly photos here.

Here is the color version I have included in response to Carolyn's comment.

Click on photo for a larger view.

Confluence

Confluence, isn’t that a grand word. It describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water, the point where a smaller river or tributary joins a larger mainstream river. I recently stopped at the confluence of the Cacapon and Potomac Rivers located near the stream access point at Great Cacapon, West Virginia. Along the path to the river, an unexpected Indigo Bunting sang a melodious greeting. Just around the bend, under the bridge and voila, there it was – the confluence of these two beautiful rivers. The Cacapon, meaning Medicine Waters, and the Potomac named after a tribe that inhabited the upper reaches of the river near Fredericksburg, Maryland. Their names are a reminder that we are never far from our connection to the native people who first lived in these hills and heard the musical notes of the Indigo Bunting as they canoed these waters. Here, the connectedness of all things came to mind. The Cacapon runs to the Potomac, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay, and then out to the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, the water evaporates and then it returns to the earth as rain, flowing down the hollows and creeks, making their own small confluences, eventually returning to the river.


Drowning out the calls of American Toads, a train went roaring along on the bridge overhead. It is now the CSX Line, but once it was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) connecting the east with the new frontier of the west. The C&O Canal on the Maryland side made the same connection by different means. Their confluence was in the Wild West, where the adventurous connected with new opportunities and families made a fresh start.

As I left, I took a moment to photograph a spider on its web. It was a visual symbol of the web of life we all share. In my own body, which contains fifty-five percent water, I can imagine tiny confluences through out my arms and legs forming a liquid web.

Confluence, a word to describe a point of connecting … wouldn’t it be grand it we all had a little more confluence in our lives.