Active Thankfulness

My sister-in-law said it is her favorite holiday because the world has done little to add to or subtract from it. Of course, a large portion of the culture does not know to Whom to give thanks, but it is less fraught with secularism than most all other holidays. Traditions can be a deterrent to worship and thanksgiving to God, but they do not have to be. Our family's thanksgiving celebration is strong on tradition and may need some tweaking, but by in large I think it is filled with feasting of food and fellowship and fresh air mindful of God's good gifts. We are certainly blessed with grandchildren. Between my oldest brother and me, we have 27 grandchildren and two on the way. For this reason, larger vans are becoming the vehicle of choice in the family. Here my oldest son and his wife arrive along with their oldest daughter.

And here is their youngest doing what he does best.

Their second oldest and his older brother are really enamored with baseball at present. We tossed ball and did batting practice. They couldn't persuade enough cousins to play a game.

It is so good to see cousins having fun together. The one in white is so good with the younger cousins and loves to play with them.

The cousins range from 27 down to less than a year. Here two brothers and their uncle hang out. I have a few less than flattering pictures of a few people but I think they all have better pictures at other places. How else would you react when interrupted from a concentrated texting?

If you don't know these people, then my relationship references will make little sense. In the last picture, I am the uncle of the texter and great uncle of the two young men. The texting nephew's daughter was facetiming her oldest brother in Vermont.

I have Turkey and bread and I am happy.

Some of my grandchildren move too fast to get a sharp picture, but you can definitely see that he is happy and cute.

My daughter has never really been happy on the light collecting end of a camera lens, but she was there and happy in the occasion.

Some people seem to purposely sabotage their own image as my nephew has done in this picture with his wife.

Cool as a cucumber.

Sister-in-laws and daughter-in-laws are common in this family for which we are thankful.

My oldest brother is this patriarch of the family. We have been meeting at his house for Thanksgiving for over 40 years, I believe.

This picture tells you much of what you should know about my sister-in-law. She loves nothing better than telling or hearing a story and grandbabies.

When I asked my oldest granddaughter what she liked about Thanksgiving, she said, "Cousins." Here they are being quite crafty under the watchful eye of my older brother.

More crafty moments

Another perspective on the story

I don't think that this great niece doesn't smile very often.

The better view of my nephew

We had children as young as 4 years old and others as old as 75, and yet, everyone walked the whole way on this 3-mile hike. This is my oldest son's contingent.

If you count you will see that there are 23 people in the picture, but there were 24 on the hike. This was supposed to be a 10-second delay shot so that I could get into place. Evidently, it didn't work. I was not even caught on the way there.

All that this tells you about our hike is the trail we were on for part of the hike. My brother veered us off onto an unmarked trail for the return trip.

We came upon one patch of ground covered in mosses and ground cedars.

The woods were very pleasant, having very little underbrush in most places and the trail was never steep. 80+ years of no logging has produced mature forests. This wind protected draw had a preponderance of Yellow Poplar (Tulip Tree, if you prefer).

The leaf litter is thick this year but still the forest floor has its greenery in ferns and other herbaceous plants.

I have never seen Little Brown Jug (also called Arrowleaf Ginger) blooming in late November. Do you see the bloom at the stem base of the leaf?

Rattlesnake Plantain

Galax

Maidenhair Fern

Black Locust logs don't easily rot. This Yellow Poplar fork has held this Black Locust trunk for perhaps several decades based on the growth around it.

My grandson and I pose beside what may be the largest live Black Locust tree I have ever seen. Since they are so shade intolerant, they do not usually last so long in a mature forest.

Have we two species of shelf fungus here or an earlier manifestation of the same mycelium turning dark?

I thought that I knew what kind of leaf this is until I got home and couldn't find it under that name I presumed. Then I thought otherwise but the leaf edge is entire (smooth, not serrated). I'm going to have to think on this one.

So many things to learn!

"Come up here and sit with the cool guys", said one of the great nephews. Was I to be honored or chagrined? It made for a great photo op with my granddaughter.

He certainly is enjoying himself.

My wife asked me why I would take a picture of bear skat. Well, it had persimmon seeds in it and I used it as a teaching opportunity for the young ones.

Lunch break log

I wish that I had added something for scale. I think these must be Pileated Woodpecker holes on this large Yellow Poplar.

Catawba Rhododendron

Bigleaf Rhododendron

????

At one point we came across half a dozen quartzite boulders somewhat bigger than softballs. Do you see the golden spot on this one? The picture is not quite so clear as I would like it to be, but this is a spider egg sac.

You would think that we just sat around rather than hiked, but of course people are easier to capture when still.

I tell you, she likes the little cousins.

Time to start off again.

There were alternating gray and yellowish-brown patches up the bark of this small tree- interesting.

Puffballs! My grandson was beating them with a stick to watch the green powder emerge. I requested that he leave a few unbattered so that I could take a picture. He complied with a smile.

It was another memorable Thanksgiving with family strengthening relationships and traditions that we hope might extend in some form to the next generations. God has given us so much good to enjoy and utilize for His glory. May we always be thankful to the One to whom praise and thanks is due.

The Channels

It is amazing how fast we transitioned from beautiful Fall colors to Winter bare branches in the mountains. A combination of exceptionally fast change in temperature that were in the teens last week along with a few windy days brought down most of the leaves. The woods we hiked in yesterday were nicely clear of underbrush and the predominant green harbingers were ferns scattered abundantly about the forest floor.

We had taken two vehicles with five of us, but there was only one parking spot when we arrived at the shorter route into The Channels. You were not even allowed to park legally down slope and walk up to the trail entrance per the posted Ranger. We opted to not go that route. Instead, we went around to the longer route. This other, older trail, The Great Channels Trail, was reported to be 11 miles roundtrip. However, it is hunting season, so two gates were open, and we were able to drive 2.1 miles (4.2 miles roundtrip) up the gravel road. My hiking partner GPS measured that we hiked 6.7 miles in total, barely farther than from the other end and far less traveled. Part way up slope, we came upon this curiously shaped limestone boulder. My first thought was that some giant hand had plunged into the soft, wet clay to form the large "eye socket" hole.

It appeared that there may be some good climbing on this boulder.

The way was not steep be it was continuous. Here we take a break. You can see both how young and how open the woods are which is an odd combination. Usually, young growth has abundant briars and brambles and all such herbaceous and low, woody stemmed varieties. Perhaps it is a function of this being the northern aspect or perhaps the trees grew so thickly as to shade out the understory. I don't know.

He turned before I could take the picture. The sky was absolutely cloudless when we started, but it slowly clouded up.

My son's map informed us that the flat-topped mountain is Clinch Mtn.

It would take very little to restore this tower for climbing, but I guess most people can't be trusted to take care, so the bottom run of steps is missing and the next run is missing the risers.

For all of the clearness of atmosphere, there was a haze down low, partly Nitrous Oxides (brown combustion haze that reaches up to 4500') and partly a forest fire off to the South.

The top of this mountain on which the tower stand is significantly flat and yet the sides are steep sided.

Picture of the Day! Brother and Sister on the left, me, my son behind me, and my most frequent hiking partner on the right

What is our next move?

There are so many parallel ridges in the Ridge and Valley Province. The sign reveals that we are at the entrance to The Channels which sits just off the peak of the mountain.

The sandstone cap to this mountain is cracked at right angles into a maze of passageways 10 to 20 feet deep and inches to perhaps 8 feet wide.

Bro and Sis stand in what I would call the entrance and main hallway of the maze. 

Some of the passageways are just wide enough to tempt you to explore and some even needful of removing you pack to penetrate. I was fascinated by the pancake shaped plate over some of the passageways and chocks jammed here and there in the gaps.

One pancake covering rock induced me to go up top to inspect. On top I saw this little tree prospering where it was planted. It is a little hard to discern from my picture, but the base of the tree is perhaps 15 feet below the foreground moss.

You see my friend is at the edge of the boulder field.

Other places it was not so easy to immediately find the way out.

Did years of my picture taking cause my son to pose so uniquely? (see earlier fire tower picture)

I wished that I had backed off a bit. Through this curiously shaped hole I could see white sandstone stained with iron oxide.

At the bottom end of the boulder field the height was more than 25'.

These two chock stones look very precarious.

The definite plane at top and bottom of this odd column are singularities between sandstone at the top and bottom and limestone in the middle.

Somewhat protected from rain and sunshine, it is still amazing how well the year of construction and elevation (as well as foreman on another angle) have stayed intact. 

Perspective is everything in photography.

Here probably placed by another explorer is a second example of the white sandstone with an iron oxide layer.

Following are the good pictures taken by my hiking partner. A combination of his superior camera, the unique natural lighting at just this moment, and the crazy chockstones make for some really good shots. My son suggested that I kick one of the chockstones. Though weighing many tons, you feel as though you could dislodge them upon yourself.

I wondered when I was taking my picture why the rest of the group was taking pictures of me. I think it was the startling lighting.

I observed to my hiking companions that even at 63 years old, I still feel excited like a child about curious new places to explore, observe, record, and play in. Perhaps I have a heightened sense of curiosity, but I feel as though when unblunted it resides within all of us, a God-given desire to discover Him through the beauty of what He has created. Because "The heavens are telling..." (Psalm 19:1ff) and "since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen" (Romans 1:20), I guess I'll keep looking and enjoying it and Him.