Down at Beaver Creek

After the extended rainy period of the last few weeks, I practically bolted out the door on the first sunny day to head down the mountain. My destination was in the narrow valley between Roundtop Mtn. and Nell's Hill.

The north branch of Beaver Creek runs through the center of this undeveloped area, a small creek that almost qualifies as seasonal. I've always assumed that the time long past when the creek got its name, even then beavers must only have been found further downstream. The way this sectino of the creek is, no self-respecting beaver would bother so set up shop in it. This isn't a criticism, just a fact. Another fact is that I love my walks along this creek.

In spring the littler waterway is noisy as the water rushes along it. By August, especially in a dry year, it is nearly completely dry. A couple of times, I've seen nother but a very few pools barely an inch or two deep with no sign of running water at all.

The stream gathers water that runs off both Roundop and Nell's Hill, so in spring the entire area is wet and muddy. Often, it is too muddy for walking. A time or two I've found myself in a wet and soggy area almost up to my knees. So I've pretty much given up walking along the creek when it's that wet. But this weekend after a few dry days, I hoped it would be dry enough and headed down there for the first time since March or so.

I enjoy many things about this walk. The forest is wetter down here than up at my cabin, and that difference results in somewhat different plants to see. Best of all, the two mountains effectively block most sounds frmo the moder world, except for a few airplanes overhead. living at my cabin isn't noisy by any means, at least it doesn't seem that way until I walk down the mountain where even distant and residual modern noise disappears.