Day 8 and 9 Seven Bends of the Shenandoah and beyond

What takes people 10 miles and 15 minutes to get from Woodstock to Strasburg on Route 11 is an easy journey by car. By river, it has been 30 miles and two days because of the meandering river. It will still take another day to get to Strasburg. During the 1800s, men loaded these long boats called gundalows and floated down the North Fork to Front Royal and then on to Harpers Ferry where their goods (such as flour and iron) would be moved by the C&O Canal or later by train to the east coast cities. The gundalows were also sold for wood since there was no way for the boats to get back up river. After selling their goods and boats, these men would walk back up the valley to return home. I have a greater appreciation for these men of long ago whose job it was to float down the river to bring products to market. They probably saw similar things that I have been seeing.

With the last couple days of sunny weather, the wildlife has come out. The wildlife is smart enough to stay inside during bad weather leaving only crazy people and nature photographers insane enough to be out in cold, rainy, high waters and big rapids as it was earlier this week. The water then was a dark green but now it has turned more of an olive color and clearing up.

The wildlife of the last few days starts with turtles, muskrats, many deer on many occasions and John said he saw a mink, which is possible since I have seen a mink on another trip. The bird list starts with the most common such as great blue herons, green herons, belted kingfishers, mallards, wood ducks, canada geese which are just now having the young. I have seen two sets of goslings and one of ducklings. To finish the list are orioles, ospreys, mergansers and eagles.

Great wildlife is all around us here in the valley. A good reason to take care of what we have.