MD - Sand Flats on the Blue Ridge: A Spring Pilgrimage

In our current state of short attention spans and over-committed lives, it is hard if not impossible to break away from the busyness of the day-after-day-after-day self to commit to a single practice of building awareness and focus. Yet it is this very practice, no matter the method or style, that brings us home to ourselves and offers the chance to clear our minds and rejuvenate our spirit. 

Smooth Alder with cones, catkins, and flowers

In the revered tradition of spring pilgrimage, I took this circuit hike as a slow walk to mark the change of the seasons on the mountain and in the heart. With dear friends, we followed a figure-eight path on a wet walk full of spring ephemerals, spring peepers, woodcock (!) and vernal pools clotted with clumps of amphibian eggs. No social media to distract us. No conversations about the state of the world. In fact, we hardly talked at all. We were so uncharacteristically quiet that we could actually hear the snow melt percolating into the ground. 

Flooded trails in the drainage basin

Our figure-8 loop followed two connected trails that encircle ecologically unique areas. The Sand Barrens are relic fields of the Ice Age era when freeze-thaw cycles at the highest elevations reduced large boulders to grains of sand. The catchment valley ponds downhill from the sand barrens collect run-off from rain and snowmelt that has drained through the porous sands to a lower basin. Almost all of the water heads downhill to fill streams and rivers and reservoirs. But some of the water is collected as temporary vernal ponds that are critical to amphibians. We hiked through one of several protected landscapes that make up the Frederick Municipal Forest watershed, the source for drinking water for the city of Frederick, Maryland. These two ecological areas are interconnected by a shared hydrology. One cannot be without the other and the city cannot have its water without either of them. 

Dry trails up on the sand barrens

We walked dozens of yards apart so that we were less likely to chat (it worked!) yet within sight of each other if we wanted to wander off to look at something or sit awhile. That tactic, however, did not prevent others from coming up to us to ask what we were looking at and of course we chatted with them. I walked up on an older gentleman laying belly-down in a field of wet green moss taking close up pictures of a set of tiny felted mice (in real armor!) he'd made for his grandkids. Of course I had to ask him about that and thus broke my vow of silence a little too enthusiastically. Redwall fans - his work is amazing. Luke the Warrior lives!  

Tiny yellow blossoms of Spicebush shrub

Spring comes slowly along the Blue Ridge even as down in the valley our gardens are already in full bloom and neighborhood trees are budding out into that green haze of early canopy. Our pilgrimage on the mountain made it possible to revisit the process that is maybe two weeks behind the valley due to altitude and that maybe our busy lives have let slip through. There really is nothing to beat the sound of Spring Peepers on a pond that has just lost its ice or to glimpse a Mourning Cloak butterfly coasting through a leafless oak forest. The air was cold, the wind was blowing, and yet the Bloodroot was happily turning its hundred white blossoms to track the sun across the sky.  

Journal 3/17/2024

Bloodroot (and dreaded Japanese Ivy) 

In several faith traditions where pilgrimage is practiced, sites connected to water are important. We kept this in mind as we walked. Springs, seeps, and underground rivers are metaphorically important for traditions that include elements of redemption, renewal, or rebirth.  Flowers hold representational value for certain holy figures or saints. Even our little spotted salamander that we all watched ford a flooded trail to a vernal pond nearby could be leading us to a nursery of dragons! We had a lot of fun adding stories and sketches to our journals as we encountered these icons of spring. 

Spring Peeper and Wood Frog eggs here...

...Spotted Salamander eggs here...

 

... Leopard Frogs calling here...

... Wood Frogs and Red-Spotted Newts here. 

The Blue Ridge Mountains run Northeast/Southwest and make up the front line of the Appalachian Mountains in Southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Northern Virginia. It's a complex of very old mountain "nubs" in advanced stages of erosion that some jokingly call hills. But as any out-of-breath hiker can confirm - these are still very much mountains! The Blue Ridge is made of tough, hard Cambrian quartzite that during the cold Quaternary period eroded severely into sand, boulder, and cobble. Those cobbles are what give the Blue Ridge trail system its challenges as anyone trying to hike across ankle-twisting, leg-breaking freeze-thaw alluvium and plunging talus slopes can tell you.  Luckily for us on our spring pilgrimage we stayed on the flattish high water gathering sand barren terrain in a dipping synclinal valley between resistant outcrop ridges.  All we had to worry about on this hike was remembering to wear waterproof boots or to bring dry socks to change into at the end. This time of year it's very wet up there. 

The view down to Frederick

As we completed our figure-8 slow walk I noted that we did a full three miles at the blazing (not) pace of an hour and fifteen minutes per mile. We all took big deep breaths as we approached our cars and truck knowing that as soon as we started the engines, the "real" world returns. But as we said our goodbyes and returned to the road, I was so at peace with myself and the world that the drive home was just as pleasant as the hike. I took in everything and was thankful for all we were able to witness in this gift of a second spring emerging on the mountain. 

Notes:

Thanks, dear readers, for making your way through another adventure - albeit a really slow one. I appreciate every one of you who take the time to read.

That said, I have decided to limit the Comments section to those only with Google accounts (gmail) due to some annoying spam and not a few unnecessarily cruel messages. This will help screen and prevent spammers. I don't know why people feel the need to take such jabs or why they feel it necessary other than to fulfill some empty spiritual hole or reinforce ego with attitude.

On the subject of pilgrimage - which apparently triggers a few readers with strong feelings about "religion" -  and since pilgrimage research is my other life, I decided to open a Substack dedicated just to this field of practice and history. You can find my publication "Uphill Road" over at https://peppig.substack.com/