The forest has literally been closed since Helene blew through the mountains of Western North Carolina. And for reasons that may not seem apparent. The land and trees and rivers did their best to hold strong to these destructive forces...but sadly there was damage done. Landslides blocked access, trees toppled and rivers swelled, raged and rearranged itself.
All that said, I had no idea what I would see visiting Pisgah National Forest today. The Forest service restricted access to the public beginning September the 25th and reopened the Pisgah Ranger District portion to the public today, October 18th.
Because of my not wanting to face the facts that this forest (that I’d grown to love so much more deeply over the past year) most likely would look very very different. I wasn’t really ready. So I stalled.
But...the anticipation to spend time with her got the better of me and off I went. It was around 11am.
I was truly surprised to not see piles and piles of downed trees like I’d seen in other places. Sure there was a tree down here and a tree down there (as evidenced by the remaining cut of said tree next to the roadway) and there was evidence of a rather significant landslide that covered the road nearer the turn toward the fish hatchery on 276. But overall, nothing was incredibly shocking to see on the drive into the forest.
I expected to see road 455 closed off as I got past the fish hatchery on my way to the Daniel Ridge Loop trail head. I thought the bridges would be washed out. To my surprise 455 was open all the way to the trail head. There already had been repairs done near the bridge right by the trail head. Clearly the creek had breached the road and the bridge and washed some of the road away...but it had already been repaired! Incredible.
I knew as soon as I looked up the creek bed from this bridge that the changes I suspected to see would begin here. I’d spent countless hours exploring the banks of this creek beginning at the trail head of the Daniel Ridge Loop trail all the way up to where it turns and goes up and over the mountain away from the creek. I had studied and learned and got acquainted with nearly every rocky cascade and rocky cluster along this creek because I had videoed these places in multiple seasons and uploaded them to my Youtube channel (RdicksonOutdoors). Not to mention all the meditative walks I’d taken while listening to the healing water sounds that can be endlessly found here. This was a sacred place. Which is why when the gates opened here today...I made a beeline for Davidson Creek.
I needed to know...if the magic was still there.
The parking area for this trail head is pretty close to the creek...and you can see and hear the creek through the trees just as you begin walking towards the steel bridge (which I also thought might be compromised, but it was still there too).
I stopped...and then was suddenly drawn down a side-trail that led to the waters edge. And then I cried.
I couldn’t believe how different she looked. I recognized very large identifiable rocks that were familiar to me but they were in different places and the water flowed in a distinctly different pattern.
It was strangely familiar...but completely different.
I knelt down and just looked...at how different this all was to me. My eyes swelled and I wiped away the tears. And then...it was as if a calm wrapped around me. And what I heard was, “She doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter. It’s just another day here. Because at the core...it’s all the same.”
Kind of odd...and maybe a little harsh...and not the spiritual poetry I was seeking right at this moment.
There was a certain strength I could feel in the air though. A solidness.
And as I began to explore the riverbed and how things were arranged now...I realized there was a “fresh start” or a “renewed” sense here. Everything looked incredibly clean. Like everything had been washed and tumbled.
I also began to realize that I was nearer the bottom of the creek bed right now...and as I went further and further upstream there wasn’t as many new piles of smaller rocks and sand. Of course, all the smaller rocks and previous tree debris in the creek upstream had now been intensely washed down stream. So the farther upstream you went, the more it just looked different...many places I didn’t recognize at all because every rock had been moved...and the water flowed over or around them like they’d been that way the entire time.
If you hadn’t known what the creek looked like before...you wouldn’t have known anything out of the ordinary happened here.
This made me wonder about something. If there was no one to tell what it was like before...how would anyone know or care about how differently it looks now?
I began to wonder if I was putting too much of my own meaning in the changes that took place here? And as I pondered this I realized...BECAUSE everything had changed here...I can re-film the whole thing and it will all be different from before. It’s like I’d discovered a brand new place in the forest essentially. WoW! Nothing but new adventure and exploration and discovery awaits here! I can get to know her all over again...and just how exciting this realization became.
I spent hours walking amongst what was once familiar and trying to recognize what had changed. One particular moment that just took my breath away was when I visited a place I called “The Cathedral Place”.
This clearly was the site of an old grist mill of some kind because there’s concrete remaining across the creek and remnants of those days still linger there. A most beautiful cascading waterfall comes down the mountain across the creek from here. I couldn’t believe my eyes...the entire thing looked like it had been scrubbed. There used to be a log jam that’s no longer there and the entire riverbed has been dug out...and there’s a deep channel coming out of a new waterfall. Clearly this area was packed with smaller river rocks that had all been picked up and washed downstream revealing the bottom of the channel that had been covered over for who knows how long.
Everywhere I looked, there was a familiarity...but a brand new direction of flow. In some places both sides of the creek were now lined with a plethora of bowling ball sized rocks and the main creek channel was now in the middle. Where maybe it went more to the right or more to the left before.
I spent a lot of time thinking about resilience and impermanence and wondering why change can be so jarring.
Maybe this is the big lesson here? Nature doesn’t seem to care that her landscape has changed so dramatically. Just another day for her in the forest.
I have a whole new understanding for how things get moved about along a creek bed. Obviously, it all has to do with the rise and fall of the water. When the creek rises, stuff gets moved about or swept away entirely.
This newness has me leaning in to a better understanding of what’s happened here. And letting go of what was before. Embracing change. Letting the flow, flow. And then jumping in to get reacquainted with the “fresh start” of things.
Maybe change isn’t such a bad thing after all?
The good news is...the magic still lives in Pisgah National Forest! And she’s resilient as ever!
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