Serenity Cascade with Linda Gray

Andy pointed out this leaning tree as we headed up to the campground.  I had not noticed it leaning before.  Maybe Spence has; we'll mention it when he comes back to Big Creek. It probably wouldn't take too much rain or too much wind to knock it down the rest of the way.

Just in case you have not seen enough leaf pictures:

Three-year-old Marshall was a little shy this morning - until I asked him to climb up on a large rock and pose for a picture. He pulled up his shirt to show his belly several times.

Maintenance Linda told me a few days back that she wanted to show me something to take pictures of.  So we went over to the Cosby campground maintenance yard to meet her at quitting time.  I took a copy of Big Creek for Richard, the mainenance team leader.  He dove right in.

Spence had not come to Big Creek.  He had been mowing all day in Cosby.

Linda directed me to the place where she lived as a child (ages four to nine).  It is in a small cove off a back road, off a side road.  The house she lived in is only a pile of lumber now.  Linda pointed out spots and shared childhood memories with us.  The current owners of the property have converted the old buildings into lodging.  I found it on Trip Advisor

I did not capture the height of the cascade as well as the Trip Advisor reviewer.

Linda remembered a spring house, where she was sent to fetch water.  She didn't think this was it, but I like the picture.

As we checked out the creek, Andy pointed out that the cascade was reflected in the window of the upstream cabin.

Linda and I walked up the path alongside the cascade to find the top.  As far as we could tell, this was the top of the cascade. The picture does not show the scale; I estimate that it is an eight to ten-foot drop.

We were about half way back down when I took this picture.

Here, I was above the last eight-or-ten foot drop.  Linda posed near a boulder for some sense of scale.

I was completely charmed by Serenity Cascade. It is a small magical nook in the mountains.

Next, Linda directed me to Caton's Grove Methodist Church, built in 1903.

The cemetery is large.  This is just a small section to show you the old, old tombstones.

We drove straight to the tent campground went we returned to Big Creek and saw this.  This is Josh.

I saw the park truck and knew he was listening for a bear wearing a tracking collar. (We sometimes see hound dog owners tracking their lost hunting dogs, that also have tracking collars.)  We walked over and I asked if they were hunting a bad bear. Jessica(?) said actually they were tracking a good bear.

He had been a bad bear in the past, hanging around campgrounds looking for food.  Apparently, the experience of getting darted, caged, collared, and transported had been so traumatic for the bear that it has not been detected in front-country areas for a long time.  That bear has stayed in the back country away from people.  They were hoping to find him and remove the tracking collar.

She is so adorable, I would never guess that she is a bear trapper.  She said she is doing research on bear behavior.

On the Radio:

There were two accidents fairly early in the morning.  Someone reported a two-car accident on "the spur" with no injuries.  A short while later there was another report of a motorcycle accident on the Blue Ridge Parkway with one person lying in the road and one off the road.

Someone threw a rock and hit a woman on the head.  Dispatch suggested they take their own vehicle to a hospital for stitches. That would be faster than waiting for an ambulance to get there.

A park visitor called the park to report that he had seen three children on a trail without an adult. The oldest was about 15.  A ranger was preparing to head up the trail to lead the children out when dispatch called him to say the reporting party was coming off the trail and would wait for the ranger at the trailhead.  The ranger then went to meet with the reporting party before hiking out. We never heard any more about it.