Fresh Start

I recently started working with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a great organization whose mission is to preserve and maintain the Appalachian Trail, one of the greatest footpaths and natural wildlife corridors we have stretching over two thousand miles between Georgia and Maine. But we'll get into that soon. I just finished Week 2 and have had a blast so far.

Spring is here in full effect, the flowers have been blooming for the past month, the trees are finally leafed out again, transforming the mountains back to their greenly state, and things are finally starting to heat up. During our break last week we came back to Blacksburg, the home away from home (basecamp is in Sugar Grove, Va, close to the Grayson Highlands and Mount Rogers, the tallest mountain in Virginia). It was a nice day so we decided to go visit the 2nd oldest river in the world, which is ironically enough labeled the New River.




















We soaked up the sun basking on some rocks out in the middle of the river while thousands and thousands of gallons of the nectar of life flowed and rippled by. The sound is that of serenity, and it was a nice recharge for sure.

Here's a cool shelf fungus alongside the river. I also saw my first two orioles up close as they flew down the river while dragonflies hovered above the water roving for food and fish swam by below, unaware and unamused, living their own lives inside their own little bubbles like we all sometimes tend to do. Nature can help restore that always needed refocusing of perception that keeps us fresh and aware of our actions and surroundings. A fresh start.

Besides restoration and reflection, recreation is another important aspect of the great outdoors that in all reality is nothing more than what is our home, yet in this modern age of technology we somehow detach ourselves from it and perceive it as something seperate from us. Nothing could be farther from the truth. That is a growing problem and until the societal mindset undergoes a paradigm shift we will continue to have some serious problems stemming from this and rippling into serious environmental impacts and catasrophies as will always occur when treating a finite system in an infinite manner.

But back to the matter at hand, recreation is an important aspect of nature, and Ted is doing that well as we tried floating down the rapids.