Travels

“Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.” – Charles Kuralt

Saturday, I started a week long, across the state, series of trips for my school. I had to visit Huntington Saturday evening so, per my usual routine, I made plans to visit interesting parks or historical sites as I travel. This time it was the Salt Rock Petroglyphs. More information here at The West Virginia. Cyclopedia.

I kept a look out for wild flowers especially for Skunk Cabbage which I have never seen.The only thing I saw was a road side bank covered with the years first "Easter Lillys" as they're called around here, actually a  naturalized Daffodil. A sign of Spring, but not a wildflower.

I'll be in Charleston and Morgantown the rest of the week. I hope to visit Little Creek Park and Kanawha State Forest in Charleston and the WVU Arboretum and West Virginia Botanic Garden in Morgantown. There is a snow storm headed into WV that may ruin all of those plans. It is predicted to drop anywhere from 6 to 24 inches of snow around the state. (sigh) Here in the south, we already have six inches of snow from the past couple of days. Spring seems so close and yet so far away. 

                                                           UPDATE Thursday March 7, 2013

Well the snow sort of fizzled out. We got 5-6 inches around my Raleigh County Home, a dusting in
Charleston and 1-2 inches in Morgantown. I went to several areas looking for two things; signs of Spring and Skunk Cabbage. I found neither. 

         At Kanawha State Forest, it was raining. I hiked along a creek for awhile and found Hepatica with new growth just barely peeking from the ground and an interesting colorful mushroom that may be one of the red or scarlet cup mushrooms. I drove around stopping at every likely looking swampy place, but no sign of the elusive Skunk Cabbage. 

     

       In Morgantown, there almost no snow except for the West Virginia Botanic Garden, which had a generous covering. It is a fairly new place and advertised as the only botanic garden in West Virginia. It has great trails and walking paths and should have a variety of wildflowers, especially in the forest trails. There is a nice boardwalk through a wetland, but again, no Skunk Cabbage. On the way home, I stopped at a swamp like area near the Stonewall Jackson lake dam, again, nothing. Maybe I'll never see it, or one day I'll stop at a gas station and there will be a mud puddle full of the things. I still have a few places near my home to look, but I am about to give up. 

   

“I glanced out the window at the signs of spring. The sky was almost blue, 

the trees were almost budding, the sun was almost bright.” 

― Millard Kaufman, Bowl of Cherries