A mountain meadow along the Davidson River during the spring blooming season.
(Click on the images for a larger view. More photos and videos below.)
Secret Vistas
by Glynn Wilson
ASHEVILLE, N.C., March 25 — Sitting in a camp chair in front of the computer by the French Broad River, one of those rare stretches of water that flows north — from the Eastern Continental Divide through the Appalachian Mountains to Tennessee — I witnessed a true optical illusion, without the need of a magician or a television set.
While watching the cold water run fast over the rocks through the shallows, a section of river too treacherous for a man and a dog in a canoe, I watched a freight train loaded with coal for TVA’s power plants traverse the track on the other side of the river heading south. With the water running north and the train moving south, when I held my head and eyes just right I got the feeling I was moving sideways — while sitting still.
It reminded me of being a kid again, watching puffy pink and white clouds move across a cobalt blue sky on a beautiful spring day, while laying back in a moving swing looking at the world upside down.
You can’t experience something like that sitting in the suburbs watching television or staring at the news feed on Facebook. Although I guess you could get a similar thrill playing computerized video games.
The point being: This is why we travel. This is why we camp. For a change of perspective on the world that makes us think.
An armadillo, all the way from Texas, paid us a visit at the campsite
Secret Vistas
by Glynn Wilson
CAMP GUNTER HILL, Ala., March 9 — You know, when I published the first column in this space nearly seven years ago in Takoma Park, Maryland, I never thought I would find myself back in Montgomery Alabama. Nor did I foresee the Republican take over of all three branches of government in my home state — while the people either slept, failed to organize sufficiently, or went right along with it as if it was “THE WAY” written in the book of Genesis.
Anyone who likes the direction this state government in Alabama is going is either brain-washed or not paying attention. Those who have an eye and can see say we are witnessing the last great Confederate gasp of white male plantation-style spoils politics. Technology and demographic data from opinion polls shows on the national level we have already moved beyond that to a more merit-based democratic world.
It will just take a few more years down here in Alabamaland.
So I feel almost like I felt back in D.C. going after the Bush regime. It was in some ways scarier along the Potomac River. The Bush security forces were organized against the left. We have some relief from that now, thanks to the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. Around here, what’s left of the Klan is too embedded in the Republican power structure to be disgruntled enough to commit high profile death threats and actions.
But I have a feeling Bentley and Co. are about to be in for a series of shockers that will have them reeling in their sleep in their old age.
On this weeklong trip to Selma and back and forth to Montgomery, after Googling around, calling around and driving around looking, I finally found the perfect campground to navigate coverage of the events in Montgomery. Since we are still on the reluctant Civil War theme, for a few more years, we will call it an encampment to take on the evil forces aligned against workers, women, minorities and anybody else who doesn’t go to church on Sunday and vote Republican.
ATLANTA, Ga. — Got a good reason, for taking the easy way out now?
Tired of the scene your in and want to get out of town and be a Day Tripper?
There’s no big teaser like a great big city in the Southeastern United States, a place crammed with folks making a living on the promise of fun — and maybe a little sin.
Not unlike New Orleans, the city that got the attention of the world for being a capital of sin yet makes it hard to find when you get there, Atlanta too is such a place. But it is only a two-and-a-half to three hour drive from Birmingham, if you just need to get out of the sticks and into the trippy fray of things for a night or two.
An autumn view of the Lake Chinnabee campground with no one around (click on the image for a larger view)
Secret Vistas
by Glynn Wilson
LAKE CHINNABEE, Ala. — It drizzled rain in the dark all the way from the Oxford, Alabama exit off Interstate 20 through Munford on Highway 21, making it hard to find all the turns that lead to Lake Chinnabee in the Talladega National Forest. But somehow between a detailed atlas and the Google iPhone map, we found the turnoff at McElderry Road that led to Cheaha Road, which took us past Camp Mac and wound up into the mountains toward the highest point in Alabama at Cheaha State Park.
All the way there, photographer Kenny Walters and I had gone back and forth over whether we would find the place empty, or whether other knowledgeable campers would have found the place and staked out a position in the middle of the second week of November. I figured it was 60-40 the place would be deserted.
It was still drizzling when we pulled into the Lake Chinnabee campground on Wednesday evening at about 6:30 p.m. — and there was not another vehicle or camper in site. The place was deserted, just the way we like it.
Woke up this mornin’
Turned on the Mac.
Got the coffee started,
Then looked out the window.
The skies are gray,
Rain’s on the way.
It’s daylight savings time,
What can I say?
It is that time of year again, time to make the transition from the best of times, autumn, to the worst of times, winter. Although I must say with global warming these days, it is a toss up to say whether I don’t like summer or winter more. I am a spring and fall man all the way.
There is an 80 percent chance of rain Wednesday in Middle Alabamaland, and I would like nothing more than to just sleep through it all.
Alas, we have made plans to go camping again this week for one more chance to get outside in nature before the leaves all fall off the trees and turn the landscape brown.
So I will suck it up, pack the van and get out into the woods one more time before putting the canoe up for the winter. The skies should be clear and the weather cool over the next few days.
Besides, there is some good news in the headlines.
It is a ridiculously easy day trip from Birmingham and points to the northeast to visit Cheaha State Park, located at 2407 feet above sea level, Alabama’s highest point in the Appalachian Mountains.
The resort now has an arrowhead museum, which we feature in this video along with the view from the back deck at the restaurant.
It is called the Walter Farr Indian Artifacts Museum since the collection was donated by Walter Farr from Lineville. The grand opening was held on September 24, 2011.
Creek Indians named the place “Chaha,” meaning high place. Another native American name for it was “Sleeping Giant.”
This red-bellied woodpecker [melanerpes carolinus], close cousin to the northern flicker, also known as the yellow-hammer, the state bird of Alabama, stopped by for a meal atop a pine tree by our campsite Saturday afternoon in Cheaha State Park in the lower Campground No. 2 near Cheaha Lake.
While I was searching for a shot of the autumn color at Cheaha Lake on Saturday morning, three junior high cheerleaders spotted my big lens and came over to get their photo taken. Normally I would just send this to them for use on their Facebook pages, but this one turned out so good I figured it makes for a nice feature photo for a Sunday. I’ll add the names if they get in touch.
The WiFi connection at Cheaha State Park has been down for a couple of days, so sorry for the paltry updates this weekend. One more night and half-day off the grid in the Talladega National Forest and it’s back to the city on Tuesday. There’s some rain in the forecast, but I found an interesting place to launch the canoe. More photos and stories in a day or two.
BTW: My friend John came up with a new nickname for my 750mm Sigma lens: “Big, Black Moses.”
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
