Blue Goose ~ Day 119

September 26, 2014 ~ Frederick, MD to Canaan Valley, WV

Finally, finally I got out of traffic. I felt that since early August (for nearly 2 months) wherever I went, so did everyone else. Yes, there were a few exceptions, like in parts of New England, but too few.

I drove in thick fog to a nearby Starbucks, left in bright warm sunshine and spent several hours riding into increasing fall loveliness as I went into West Virginia and specifically to Canaan Valley NWR at an elevation of 3200 feet. Of course, as WV is mountainous, the road constantly meandered up and down and around but the leaves were stunning. Every single fall I am awestruck by this spectacle, and today was a surprise since it was unexpected. It was warm but not hot, with no insects except a few grasshoppers.

West Virginia

I passed through Davis, WV, as they were setting up for an annual Leaf Peepers Festival, a typical small town celebration with inflatables, tents, yard sales, a police presence for crowd control, music - all colorful and very different from an urban event. Kids, a horse carriage, people in lawn chairs or moving slowly up and down the 2-3 blocks of the main street, ice cream, hot dogs, the enticing aroma of barbecues grills and smokers, pickup trucks, families pushing strollers....

It took some to actually FIND Canaan NWR. At one trailhead, I met a gentleman who was also looking for it, a professor scouting out venues for birding trips next spring. He taught Recreation  and Ecotourism at West Virginia State University, and we began talking. He had visited many refuges and could speak my language...St. Marks, Necedah, Santa Ana, Bosque del Apache, Bombay.... Between us, we figured the headquarters was only a bit farther down the main road, so off we went, and he talked with a helpful volunteer about contacts and got more information, and I wandered about hoping I could resist buying another book...or anything...successfully.

He told me (the refuge-visiting guy) that he would never forget the time he was visiting St. Marks NWR in Florida. There is a lighthouse here and he arrived the morning after a foggy night in which hundreds of birds got disoriented, were attracted to the light, crashed into the lighthouse and died. He saw bird bodies (all types...big and small) lying on the ground that day. For further information about this hazard, google Lights Out. Many large cities are now at least aware of this problem and are educating the public and industry to take measures to mitigate lethal lighting. Hundreds of thousands birds are killed this way every year.

I learned that there was a guided bird tour the next morning. Since it was one of the loveliest of days and now well into the afternoon, I stopped at the only motel, a quarter mile away. I was wary as it looked a bit marginal so asked to see the room and emphasized that I needed a good Internet connection.  The room was OK, about what I've come to expect from a 1 or 2 star motel, and I was assured re the Internet. I reserved it and went back to the trailhead where I sat there for an hour, in the sunshine in almost total silence at the edge of a woods. Actually, the last 15 minutes I did walk a very short distance on the beginning of a trail leading to the Blackwater River and watched Carolina Chickadees repeatedly return to pick at some weed that emitted white fluffy stuff when they poked at it. Back and forth...back and forth. It was such a perfect day, so evocative (as fall always is for me) of a sense of goodness and well being.

Carolina Chickadee at Canaan Valley NWR - WV

I remembered the last fall Maria was alive, and how we went to the UP for a color tour, which exceeded anything we had ever seen before...or so we told ourselves. We were in cabins on Trout Lake. We collected rocks at the mouth of the Two-Hearted River...a very poignant memory, but I love to remember how she was able to do this and still fully revel in nature. The sun shone that whole weekend. We also went to Whitefish Point and saw a Harris' Sparrow and unsuccessfully looked for Black-backed Woodpeckers on old logging roads in the burned areas. And had completely unmemorable meals, although that was mitigated at one restaurant because it was situated high on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.

Back in Canaan Valley, there were two restaurants next to the motel, though this was not even a town and, if not ON the refuge, then directly adjacent. Almost all of the refuges have irregular borders which change as more land is acquired, by purchase or donation, so things are dynamic regarding pre-existing properties.

In the first place, a kid that looked like Matthew told me they didn't serve alcohol but "right across the pawnd" was another restaurant that did. I looked around the room since it almost seemed there were two adjoining places wondering what he actually and said, but he repeated himself and I realized he was saying "pond."

And yes, across the pawnd was a small pizza/Italian place, the door was open to the air, the customers a mix of locals and tourists. I learned about the Blackwater Falls Astronomy Weekend event nearby in the state park which I googled when back a the motel. I learned mostly how ambient light is the enemy at a"star party," and all participants (this was mainly a free event, scheduled when the skies were dark) were asked to observe rules concerning whatever light sources they might potentially bring. It takes at least 15 minutes for eyes to adjust again to the skies after exposure to ambient light.  A group at the table next to me were visiting for this, which I learned when I left (paying with a check requiring no ID since credit/debit cards were not accepted) and a gentleman was smoking outside. We got to talking when he told me about the astronomy deal and that one of his party was from Michigan - "the part just below Canada..." And he told me something that still amazes me: the pronunciation of Canaan hereabouts as Ka-nane' - rhyming with sane, the accent on the second syllable. I keep thinking on this and, in fact, asked two other people, thinking maybe he was kidding as it seemed so unlikely to me.

There were tall pines, the pond and surrounding hills all with flaming fall foliage. The people in the house next to the motel were playing bean bag toss. The ambiance worked on me; the motel was modest but not marginal. It was the kind of place that left a key on the desk for a late-arriving guest. The Internet service was fine, the sheets actually kind of silky and the tub/shower worked well.

Canaan Valley NWR - WV