Random ramblings about the Hampton Roads (5/24/2015)

The Australian kayaker Steve Posselt visited the area this past week.  He is trying to convince the world about the gravity of global warming by kayaking in 3 continents.  He eventually plans to end up in Paris for the next climate conference.   There are many ways people try to focus our attention to a (their) cause: be it dead soldiers with Memorial Day, multiple sclerosis with an MS 180 bike ride (I rode one from Houston to Austin 8 years ago), a breast cancer walk for life, circumnavigate the Americas for disabled sailors, or even kayaking the world to focus attention on global warning.

I have been interested in the issue of how to convince people that environmental responsibility is a must.  It seems that there is a group that is concerned about the environment and a whole group of people who do not seem to give a damn.  Crazy enough they seem to fall out along political or ideological lines, or even religious lines.  That's what's fascinating me.  As I mentioned in my bio, it was Stanford University's psychologist Leon Festinger who wrote the following in the 1950s:  "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."  Call me crazy, but it still applies 60 years later.   I really wonder how to get that paradigm shift, but I'm afraid that they'll only see the point when it is way too late.

The way I see it, it was Francis Bacon (1561-1626) who reminded us that we humans had dominion over " the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ (Gen.1:28).  In the Novum Organon, Bacon writes: "Let the human race recover that right over nature which belongs to it by divine bequest."  It is scary to see that in those days we already felt that we owned the earth and that we could do with it what we wanted, with the excuse that God gave us permission (dominion).  Still now do I see Facebook posts by religious friends that tell me to trust God, and to relax because God is in control.  I find this outright scary, but it illustrates the divide that I was writing about; although as I am often reminded by Donna (my wife), dominion over nature does not mean that you do not need to take care of it.  Dominion means you have a responsibility to take care of the eartg.  I honestly do not think that any God would have a plan to let her/his creation go to hell.

Anyway Steve Posselt called our area "This is a staggering part of the world," or as I may paraphrase one of the crown jewels in God's creation.  Below are a set of pictures that I have taken over the years of this crown jewel.  Hopefully we can preserve this beautiful landscape.

View of the James River from Surry towards Jamestown

York River from York River State Park

Sunset over the York River from the National Colonial Parkway

About the cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel with my sailboat 

York Spit Lighthouse (5/16/2015)

There are a couple of things in life that are really my passion.   They include sailing, photography and teaching; although I have not biked much lately, I would almost want to count that as well as one of my passions in life.   I think what they have in common is that they make me live in the moment.   Doing these things I get in a zone and cannot think of much else.  You just need to concentrate on it, and do the best job at it; stay on course with a goal in mind: get (back) to the harbor; maybe where you started from, or maybe to your next goal (harbor).  Your mind is not allowed to wander much when you do these things; in particular in a boat with a tiller. I notice that I invariably go off course during those few times that I look at my GPS; it is amazing what that brief lack of concentration will do.  Just scanning the water, the horizon or just talking with the crew does not result in drastic course changes, but looking at a screen and concentrating on something else will do that.  Crazy maybe, but when driving a car my mind is often busy with something else, or as Dr. Amit Sood says in his "Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living", working on my open files.  During sailing or teaching my file cabinet is closed shut.  Living in the moment is so important!

In the moment (photo taken by the admiral Donna Briedé)

It was a wonderful day of sailing on Saturday.  Winds were 10 to 15 knots out of the Southwest; just perfect to achieve one of my goals: sail out to York Spit light and back.  From the opening of our creek the course was set to 90 degrees (due east) and after about two hours of sailing in the open water of the Bay we approached the spit.  Near the spit, the waves were between one and two feet in height with a great frequency in between that made it a great rolling ride.

Word has it that York Spit used to be an octagonal light house, but ot was abandoned by the coast guard and dynamited.  Below is a picture I stole from Wikipedia:

Now it is just some remnants of the steel base, a light and a few radar reflectors that guard the opening of the channel into the York River.  It is a pity that they could find someone to take care of this historic lighthouse and that they felt the need to destroy it.

Remnants of York Spit Light

After rounding the spit we held the course as close to 270 as we could and zoomed back to the creek we came out of.  We had to lay in one small tack to make it.  The admiral was on the tiller and I had some time to experiment taking photos.  So much for being in the zone (maybe in a different zone).  We had some great encounters with dolphins on the way; it was an absolute great sail.  Very unlike most of the sails that sailors tell you about; they tell you mostly about all those bad experiences they had.

It was an absolutely great Saturday without many worries, except staying in the zone.  One of the worst ways of going off course is by looking back; come to think of it, that is a crazy metaphor for life isn't it?

Virginia Beach (5/12/2015)

This week's travel takes me to Virginia Beach.  At least I had a chance to walk along the beach after the "Stormwater Plan Review" class that I taught.  As usual, I was exhausted from a day's worth of teaching, but it was still nice to be out there.

It was warm, with temperatures in the high 80s (30 to 31 degrees Celcius) and there were a fair number of people on the beach for a Tuesday afternoon.

Virginia Beach is a great place for a family vacation; for us it is so close but so far away.  Political leaders in the area are desperately trying to make the Hampton Roads area one community,  but the tunnels actually divides the area into the south side and the peninsula.

What amazed me during my walk on the beach was the number of people on their smartphones.  Darn, it seems that people cannot just enjoy their surroundings and the environment but have to be connected all the time.  How many times do you sit in a restaurant and a couple comes in and after being seated and ordering they ignore each other and just stare at their phone.  While phones are a god sent for us travelers  (we stay in touch with spouses and find the nice restaurants on Yelp), it seems that human relationship seems to suffer.  Even on this beautiful beach, couples were sitting on benches staring at their phones instead of looking at people, the beach and the ocean.  So close, but so far apart.

A nice change of pace was the sushi counter at my favorite sushi restaurant: Kyushu Japanese Restaurant on Newtown road.  I was sitting there with three other people and we had a wonderful discussion.   Kyushu is really my favorite and worth a try for all that like sushi.  The fish is fresh, it tastes great and good conversation.

Seaford (5/10/2015)

This morning it looked like a buzz saw: tropical storm Ana was coming on shore near the border between North and South Carolina.   Northeastern wind (less than 25 knots) means the water will pile up in the creek where the marina is located.   Probably not that much to cause coastal flooding, but enough for a nice high tide.  I went to inspect the boat this afternoon and it was blowing steadily.   While the tide watch information provided by the Virginia Institute for Marine Science shows very little increase because of the storm, things looked high; but then I was visiting around high tide.

In the photograph above you can see the bow of the Beagle  (our boat); as a biologist I need to somehow relate it to the father of evolution, Charles Darwin.   Our marina has quite a few small sailboats that members can use whenever they feel like it.  But suffice it to say that no one was out sailing on a blustery day like today.

What amazes me is the fact that we had a tropical storm,  tornadoes,  and a snow storm all on mother's day.   For a tropical storm that is about a month earlier than the beginning of the hurricane season.   This climate is all out of whack; it is going to be fascinating what the next decade or so is going to bring.

Roanoke (5/6/2015)

It's been a long week of travel and teaching my stormwater and erosion and sediment control classes,  but it does get me out there and see different places.  I decided to stop in Roanoke on my way to my next destination: Rocky Mount.  In the past I was generally disappointed by the dining possibilities in Rocky Mount,  so I thought I had a great excuse to do a bit of hiking in the Roanoke Mountain area and grab a nice dinner afterwards.  (FYI, Rocky Mount has now gotten a great new place for lunch and dinner that I was not aware of before my visit this week, it is down town near the farmers market.)

I have hiked in the area before, I was looking forward to a nice hike after a full day of teaching.  Googleling (is that a word?) hiking in Roanoke I decided to hike at least part of the Chestnut Trail.  Getting there is relatively easy; I got there via the Blue Ridge Parkway.   Reading the website of the hike I read now that you need to park in the "Overlook "parking lot,  which I did not do.  I drove on the to the picknick/camping area.   I would vote against that since it seems that there is anative entrance fee to that area.

The part of the trail that I hiked was nice.  My only gripe was that the trail was not well marked and that there were too many unmarked side trails.  However it was very intuitive and I never got lost thanks to my smartphone and Google maps which has the trail maps on it.

If you are in the area, a visit to Roanoke Mountain is a must.  You have some great views of the surrounding area from this mountain.   Weather was coming in during my visit this time, so I cut my visit short and went to dinner.

Dinner at Montano's was great as usual, and my drive to Rocky Mount was exciting with all the gorgeous lightning and heavy rain.

New River Trail (5/5/2015)

I have been on parts of the New River Trail for the past two years.  I have biked it three times in the summer (pre-blog) and walked parts of it in the late fall, winter, and in early and late spring.  It is such a pleasure being there and it really sweetens my visit to this part of the state.  But what I want to do today is continue the discussion I had on my blog the time before.

While the Dolly Sods were evidence of human influence on nature it maintained a absolute beauty.  The New River Trail area is not that different; it is an old abandoned railroad bed that runs through a gorgeous area.  The New River was altered by a dam and I am sure the country side was wooded.  But still, even now it is beautiful out there.

The railroad was built in the 1800s to transport iron ore from the Galax area to Pulaski where the smelter was.  Pulaski was situated between the coal supply and the ore.  The problem was that the coal had a high sulfur content with the result that the smelters also produced sulfuric acid.  The acid was exported, but it also contaminated a large area in Pulaski.  All together again a sign of man's fooling with the environment without really knowing what the consequences would be.  

Some of the blooming plants on the trail are introduced from other parts of the world and are considered invasive; humans with good intentions imported many of these plants to prevent soil erosion, doing things they did not know the consequences of.  In all these cases it was too late to reverse the process once we found out that there was major issues.  We are still doing the same things; whether it is global warming or as I learned today from the news fracking which now seems to be contaminating our drinking water.  When we notice it, it's often too late to reverse it. 

Even if you ignore the obvious signs of human use of the area like this:

the trail and its surroundings are absolutely delightful.   Below is a native plant that was blooming.

Native choke cherry 

Dolly Sods, WV (4/29/2015)

Today's post brings us out of state, which I think is the second since the start of my blog, now almost two years ago.  Although as I'll show even the post of this visit will somehow bring us back to Yorktown, my current home and the area I write so much about.

I have been on vacation and did some traveling.  Since I call myself the Virginia Nomad, I tend to stay in State, but it is time to write about my trip to Cincinnati last week, or at least of one of my days.  Our trip was partially a walk through memory lane and visiting old friends, but it also included the necessary time enjoying the arts (Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park in Hamilton OH) and spending time in nature (Fernald and Schallenberger Nature Preserves, and the Dolly Sods).  It is the Dolly Sods I want to write a bit about.

Reading on the internet (and who doesn't believe anything that is published there, especially on Wikipedia) we in Yorktown have a connection with this area.  It seems that a German prisoner of war (the Revolutionary War that is) named Johann Dahle (he fought for the British) eventually was allowed to leave the camps and allowed to settle in what was now the Dolly Sods (Dolly is a derivative from Dahle and Sods are a derivative of grassy fields).  It seems Mr. Dahle was taken prisoner after the famous battle in Yorktown during the capitulation of the Brits.  So yes, Yorktown has a connection to this wonderful place.

Dahle was allowed to claim and settle in this because no one wanted it.  History tells me that this was a wild place with impenetrable forests and trees that rivaled the giant sequoias.  I read about reports of trees with a diameter of 12 to 13 feet and more than 80 feet tall.  It seems that there were peat beds that were 6 feet deep.  A friend told me that when he was a biology student at West Virginia University they had field trips to the area and used the peat as trampolines.  The area is still touted as the most southern extent of some Canadian species including the snowshoe hare.

Once the loggers and the railroads found the area nothing was safe.  The area was logged and the peat burned for years, leaving not much else.  These alpine regions are really slow in recovery (if at all).  They have a short growing season, so trees grow slow and the peat accumulates very slowly as well.  Now the peat maybe a foot thick in places, but usually it appeared thinner.  Thank goodness there is now a different ecosystem, one of cranberries, huckleberries, blue berries and alike.  The forest service has planted some hemlocks and firs, but it will take time before they will turn the area back into the majestic forest from the past, if ever.  Sheltered areas have some really neat forests, but they are mere babies compared to what was there before.

I find it regretful that we never got a chance to see even just very minute remnants of what the world would look like without human interference, exploitation or outright destruction.  Yes, truthfully even after complete destruction what remained is also very beautiful, yet stark at times.  I often say that nature is very resilient and that eventually it will develop a new equilibrium.  However, I dare say that in all times this new equilibrium is less than what it was before.  Let's be careful with this earth we live on and protect these unique places.  The Dollie Sods turned into something else that is beautiful and we were lucky this time, but what nature intended is forever lost to us and future generations.  Next time we might not be as lucky.