Winter Walks
This essay appeared in the Winter 2002 issue of Eno Currents
In the warm season I prefer to explore the Eno River afloat rather than afoot for several reasons. I personally find hot and sultry weather unpleasant
for walking as it does not energize me. In the warm season the river's
edge is waist high in grasses that harbor my most fearsome foe - the
chigger.
In my early years of scouting the Eno I once took a summer
walk in shorts and sandals from the West Point Mill to the Guess Road
Bridge. I realized later that chiggers had clung to my exposed legs
like iron filings flying to a magnet. The worst revelation came when I
discovered that these uninvited quests were also short distance
migrants and had moved "north" about two feet. I was miserable for ten
days afterwards.
Then there are those other three summer challenges to our well being -
poison ivy, ticks and the copperhead. I have since come to respectful
terms with all of them after similar dramatic encounters. Therefore,
any warm season walk along the Eno requires me to keep my attention
focused downward to avoid stumbling inadvertently into these notorious
native residents.
But I have cleverly learned to circumvent these challenges by two methods. By keeping to my inflatable
boat in the middle of the river in the summer, I leave my gaze free to
move upward and can explore the forest in comfort. A second method is
to save my walking excursions on the Eno for another season.
Winter presents another dimention to the out of doors expereince.
Unlike summer's sultry slowdown, winter walking generates body heat
that feels absolutely delightful on a cool, crisp and dry day. Gentler
winter sunbeams stream down on my path as the overhead leaf canopy has
disappeared. The brisker my pace on the trail the better, the entire
experience being most invigorating.
In winter, the tall grasses along
the river's edge have died back and parasitic insects have no mechanism
to pole-vault to my body. The copperhead is retiring in its winter
ancestral den, or if out at all, is easily seen without the cover of
grass. The poison ivy lies languid without leaf. Ticks are a non issue.
Echoing off the great bare trunks of the sycamore trees, seven species of woodpeckers call in the winter. The Carolina wren carols its cheery tunes even on the coldest and bleakest of winter days. It is a marvelous time to be out and about onthe banks of the Eno River.
I have walked the river from its source at a pond in northern Orange County, just a mile from the Caswell County line, all the way to Falls Lake. But the warm season is no time for this forty mile pilgrimage. Only in winter does this kind of walk make sense to me. So you will probably find me
out on the Eno trails this winter giving my body a good workout. Or you
may catch me seated on a rocky bluff, all wrapped up in jacket and
scarf, just dreaming of lazy summer wafting days to come ...
Photo by Riverdave: winter walks along the Eno River
|