On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
HinTN
Just up the hill (OK, 1000 feet of elevation change) is The University of the South. It’s situated on top of the Cumberland Plateau and it has a lot of bluff views into the coves below. It maintains a very nice walking and biking trail called, not surprisingly, The Perimeter Trail. One section of this is below a north facing bluff and is home to a profusion of wildflowers. This section is called Shakerag Hollow and today I walked about a mile each way (in and back out) looking for the early show. It was really early because we’ve had a pretty cold winter. The onset of Spring can be really variable here. Anyway, here’s a few shots with my substandard Galaxy S8 from the walk.
Shakerag is way back to the right in this picture. The plateau in the distance keeps on narrowing that cove until there’s no more farmland and the mountain side forms one side of the drainage and the bluff above this trail forms the other.
The first flowers I encountered on the walk today were technically not wildflowers, just feral daffodils. The presence of these in the woods generally indicates that a homeplace was here once upon a time.
The first wildflower was right in the middle of the trail. It was protected by a root. You have to look hard for Salt and Pepper in the early stages of bloom. They’re really tiny.
Here’s another one.
This creek is really the entrance to Shakerag Hollow. It tumbles below where I was sitting and joins the creek flowing out of Shakerag proper. This is also where the wildflowers peter out, so I generally turn around here.
I missed this guy on the way in. It’s Spring Beauty and was the only other flower I expected to see this early. Glad I caught it on the way out. It was the only one.
Here’s a look at the woods on a really flat and easy section of the walk.
There was lots of lichen pretending to be flowers and catching my eye.
The Red Maple is getting ready to aggravate Mrs H’s allergies. 😎
Proof of recent winter.
OzarkHillbilly
In that first pic they misspelled ‘Holler’ again. ;-)
Thanx for the pics H, it’s been a while since I was in that neck of the woods.
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly: I hope to get up there today. Bloodroot will be peaking and phacelia should be getting its show on. That shot of bare trail will be covered in wood poppy soon.
Steve in the ATL
I always thought my alma mater was beautiful, and then I saw Sewanee….
OzarkHillbilly
@HinTN: Enjoy.
The bloodroot is another week away for us I think, soon to be followed by the trout lilies. The spring beauties will no doubt make their appearance while we are in NOLA next week, maybe as soon as Sat/Sunday.
eclare
Lovely photos, that looks like a really nice place to walk. My neighbor’s daughter went to Sewanee, graduated maybe five years ago.
swiftfox
Will be at the Perimeter Trail in Greenbelt Park today. Haven’t seen any wildflowers there but it was a very warm winter in the mid-Atlantic. I did see bloodroot at Antietam Battlefield yesterday.
Torrey
Thank you for these. Even if the pictures don’t show the landscape at either its stereotypical verdant or wintry best, it’s still beautiful. (Oddly, though, if I’d been asked to make a bet on the subject, I’d have bet good money against the odds of ever hearing or reading the phrase “feral daffodils.” And yet here we are.)
citizen dave
Nice photos! I had a Samsung S8 for several years, and replaced it (along with my wife’s) with the Samsung A54 model last summer. A nice one for $400 or less. I always liked how the S8 (and I think the A54 does) seemed to enhance the colors. I know it’s kind of fake, but all photos are a representation…
stinger
Trails through woods — my very favorite thing! Thank you!
Doug
Sewanee grad of 1990!
Been in Germany a long time now. I miss it still, sometime.
Miss Bianca
Feral Daffodils: my new band name.
Although I dunno, “Shakerag Hollow” might give it a run for its money.
More seriously, lovely photos of a lovely area – thanks for sharing!
way2blue
Love the daffodils. I have a crop growing at my homestead too. Harvested from my childhood home.
Kosh III
That’s my neck of the woods! We live in McMinnville.
The chapel at the Univ is magnificent. I went there once to hear the then current Archbishop of Canterbury speak. He was a boring speaker…sigh….But the smell of money, old and new, was in the air.