Hey all! Welcome to the last post of the fall semester! It’s officially stick season, and Salmon Hole went all-out for the occasion. I only saw a few leaves still attached to their trees blowing in the cold, dry winter wind. The buckthorn bushes were winning in this game of holding on, and some even had green leaves. Brown and shriveled white oak leaves were hanging on high above my head, making the woods whisper as the wind rushed through them. The eastern white pines on the edges of the woods stood still and green, used to the 30-degree weather and patiently waiting to be blanketed with snow.
The trees creaked along, somehow louder than the rushing of the river or the airplanes on their way home. I could hear a bird or two intermittently, although they were too far away for me to identify them. Other than the elusive birds, there was no sign of wildlife in the trees or on the leaf-litter-covered ground.
Heading down toward the water, I spent most of my time with my head down, to protect myself from the wind tunnel that had formed where the path lets out and to avoid the patches of ice scattered over the rocks. The mosses creeping over the stone were still green, accentuating the brown of the grasses that grew adjacent to them. Some of the sedges have also maintained their green color, although they make a crunching sound underfoot from the previous night’s frost. Small patches of snow and frost are still gathered in the shaded parts of the shore under the cliff, and the water in the Hole moves in a swirling pattern, unwilling to freeze over. The river was higher than the last time I was here; I could no longer walk across to the rocky swath in the middle of the river.
There are many things that I have come to enjoy about Salmon Hole. I love the way that the water level rises and falls, and the way that I can predict what it will look like by the way that it sounds as I come down the hill. I love how many different elements there are in the place; the river, the woods, and the rocks. I’m grateful that I can access Salmon Hole and appreciate it as a respite from my busy days. I’m excited to come back in January!
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