More Intimate Group

 When I speak here of the siblings, I mean the 5 sisters and 3 brothers that make up the oldest generation presently alive. Here is the oldest sister and third brother's wife catching up.

Aunt and niece are standing with two cousins of different siblings sitting. It strikes me how many of these people because of distance, time, and individual lives don't talk apart from this gathering. and at least two here present have not been around for several years.

My wife stands with her youngest sister's daughter whose daughter was seated left in the last picture. My wife is the seventh out of eight siblings.

The banjo player is the third-born's son. They tell me that he had not been to a family reunion in ten years. He played banjo, fiddle, and guitar while sitting around, giving his cousin in orange (the fourth born's oldest son) some pointers as he tries to learn the banjo. The youngest sibling observes.

I enlarged this one so you could see their hats saying something about outlaws. They are really aunt and nephew. Which would you guess is older? She is 4 years older than him and 3 years older than the banjo player. My wife had a niece who was nine months older than here, and therefore, about 5 years older than the 8th sibling. Imagine having an aunt 5 years younger than you.

Numbers 6 and 4 siblings

The orange shirt's wife

The thing about this smaller group was that there was far more and longer conversation than I remember in many a gatherings.

The fourth sibling's husband is in the foreground.

Cousins with the redhead's grandchild.

8th and 7th siblings

Someone suggested that we sing, so I googled, "Rocky Top", and sang it as my nephew (-in-law?) played it. A few added their voices on the chorus. Then I sang seven verses of "Amazing Grace" as he played, and many more including the oldest sister sang along.

Learned from their mother, each of siblings says, "Well" with characteristic accent and various sibling specific meaning. She has that far-off look in her eye that appears just before she says, "Well," meaning 'who would have thought it." 

My wife with her great niece. The Historic Gibbs Cabin in the background is actually an ancestor of the clan, which a good number of people from East Tennessee can say.

I hope we may have more of the siblings, children, grands, and great-grands in attendance in the future and retain the substantial conversations and music/singing. Family is a gift from God.

Deep in a Holler Thicket

The best and most reasonable way to negotiate a rhododendron/laurel thicket along a creek is to walk in the creek. Barring that, we plunged into the thicket. They were smiling. I knew what was coming. Lovely creek, I'll have to say.

A variety of Indian Pipe, I think

Galax a bloomin'

Escargot on a stick?

Pitch Pine owing to the three needles per bundle and medium spikiness of the cone (extreme spikiness would be Table Mountain Pine but not found in this habitat) 

New growth on a Big Leaf Rhodo is very pink and sticky.

Rats, I should know what it is but can't remember- covered the forest floor. Wintergreen?

Blue Spotted Salamander (1)

Slugous grossus

It's about the texture, man.

Matches my shoes, man. Somethin' is always tryin' to eat your lunch.

Spotted (Striped) Wintergreen, Chimaphila maculata in seed

 Dwarf (?) Rattlesnake Plantain

 I am determined to identify a species on these next three (2). Lichens come in many weird and fascinating forms.

Really, they do.

Even looking like some lettuce that I eat

A fern grove- He was at least a temporary fern lover, owing to the fact that he could stand upright and not be battered by bush branch and leaf for the first time in an hour.

All sunshine and openness for the present.

Pond Mtn Peak- Look carefully and you can see the word "POND".

Virginia Spiderwort, Tradescantia virginia- This was an amazingly tall, large-leafed specimen at about 3 feet tall with 1 1/2 foot leaves

Wet weather stream near the top of the ridge, obviously always moist

Early bloom

Flaming Azalea- I don't see much of that in these parts.

Mountain Laurel

Straight up fungus- Golden Waxy Cap (3)

Survival with a smile: The expected cruise back down the poorly maintenanced trail turned out not to be a cruise either. Hurricance Helene fell hundreds of trees along this ridgetop. Here we head down the ridge and things begin to lighten up abit. It was a fun but grueling adventure. As one of them said, "A memory made." These kinds of memories toughen and render appreciation and caution in the woods. I am thankful to have shared it with two accommodating brothers in Christ for the shared adventure and fellowship.

1. 29 Types of Salamanders in the United States! (ID Guide) - Bird Watching HQ

2. Consortium of Lichen Herbaria

3. 38 Yellow Mushrooms and Fungi (Identification And Edibility)

 

Little Stony Falls

 Young people are so positive and forward looking. And these five young people are followers of Jesus with a happy, but serious outlook, on doing life. It was a privilege and joy to take a little hike with them.

I do look out of place, gray hair and all (1), but we need more inter-generational interaction for the sake of both. We can, do, and did learn things from each other.

Enough philosophizing and making excuses. The trail to Little Stony Falls (2) is a 2.6 mile, moderate (3) hike through a lovely gorge. Only a few times do serious cliffs appear in this 400' deep holler. The trees are mostly young to middle aged and there is no real thick underbrush, allowing for a profusion of wildflowers along the path. As seen in this next photo, the cliffs shed boulders over time.

Though hard to see in this picture, the roof is sandstone and the underlayer is limestone. I took the picture because I wanted to remember the curious pocket-like projections on the limestone. I thought that it would be very easy to climb until you reached the roof.

Blue Flags grew in clumps of a half a dozen to dozens on boulders and between them.

Across one of the bridges was a ~30-foot waterfall upslope. I had to check it out, as did two of the guys.

Electronic zoom makes the water of the falls look like digital noise, but you get the idea.

Trillium grandiflorum

Some of the Flags had white stripes and others, like the one below were purple. I wish that I knew the other flower. The sinuous root and sand suggest the creek-side location of the garden.

The creekbed is quite different from most of them in East Tennessee. The bed is divided into platy shelves separated by pools, many of which would make excellent swimming holes.

I was pleasantly surprised by both the height (4) and flow of the falls.

You feel as though this must be quite a bit lusher during wet periods.

View from the top

A happy couple taking in the mist.

 

From down below, they took this picture. Between the backlighting and the day pack that I was wearing, it appears as tough Sasquatch was haunting the falls.

This little gem looked like the best example that I observed, until I looked back at the picture and saw the poison ivy sprouting over it. Thus is the tarnished creation we live in, full of beauty, revealing the Creator, and full of things gone awry because of the Fall. But don't blame the good Creator for things like blood sucking mosquitoes, for who knows what benefit and difference of operation they had before the Fall. Denature the protein in a poisonous snakebite, and it becomes a nutrient. We live in this world with the beauty and the spoilage of the world in nature and in people. Look for the beauty but don't pretend there is no oil that can get under your skin and cause irritation.

1. A silly side thought: My presence raised the average age from 24 to 31. The median age is 22.

2. Less than 10 miles outside of Dungannon, VA

3. Total: At 5.2 miles, it would be easy if it were not for two jaunts through boulder fields away from the creek, presumably to avoid creekside cliffs.

4. Little Stony Falls Height? Little Stony Falls | Hiking | Things To Do - Scott County Tourism 24' or 40'. I rather think that it is closer to 40, if not 45', check out the picture of Sasquatch.