Geology as Destiny

We first got interested in the fall line while hiking at Great Falls on the Potomac. We learned that the fall line was more than a geological barrier. It had all sorts of societal effects – it determined the location of towns and cities, it affected the distribution of power and wealth, etc. On this road trip, there was no fall line between central Alabama and San Antonio. We’re now headed back east from SA, and have reached the Mississippi delta. Still no fall line, but the point about geology being destiny was hammered home with force yesterday. We drove Highway 61 from central Mississippi through Vicksburg and Clarksdale to Memphis. It’s hot and verdant bottom land, flat as a pancake. We drove hundreds of miles within sight or smell of the Mississippi River, and the only two points where the land is at least 25 feet higher than the river are Memphis and Vicksburg. If you look at a Google maps satellite view, you can see that at both places the vegetation changes, as the hills spilling hundreds of miles from the east come to a halt on the river bluff and give way to the delta. It’s no wonder native Americans and pioneers settled those locations. They were the only flood-proof high ground around. If you have to defend the river, those are the only places you could do it. When you experience the topology, the battle of Vicksburg makes a lot more sense.

A few photos

 Sailing with Veronica in NOLA

 SAN JOSE Mission Church in San Antonio

 Swans in Lady Bird Johnson Lake in Austin

Nests under a bridge in Austin

Midday in Montgomery (apologies to Alan Jackson)

The best part of traveling is the serendipity. Our second leg managed by accident to touch on most of the road trip themes – the Appalachian fall line, barbecue, country music and the Civil War. It all began with a comment from our nephew Jake in Texas. When he heard about our trip, he had one suggestion: Dreamland BBQ. Leaving Atlanta, I googled it and found one of their restaurants was in Montgomery, AL, directly en route to New Orleans . Montgomery, of course, was the first capital of the Confederacy and a catalyst of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. A couple more searches turned up the fact that Montgomery and several nearby Alabama towns lie on the far southern edge of the Appalachian/Piedmont escarpment. Who knew Alabama had a fall line? The combination was too much to resist. We stopped at Dreamland for an early lunch, then drove north to find the fall line. The barbecue was great – try the pork ribs- but disappointment awaited. The fall line is about 15 miles north of Montgomery, near where the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers meet to form the Alabama River. We drove to Fort Toulouse-Jackson Park, which is located at the rivers’ confluence. There was no easy access to the rivers' fall lines on foot, so we had to give up the quest in order to get back on the road to New Orleans. Our disappointment was magnified by the fact that the information center about the nearby Wetumpka meteorite impact crater was closed that day. Montgomery is also the home and burial place of the legendary Hank Willaims. We headed south to I-10 to Mobile and NOLA with the words of Alan Jackson’s Midnight in Montgomery ringing from the car speakers:

See the stars light up the purple sky, Feel that lonesome chill. Cause when the wind is right, you'll hear his songs, Smell whiskey in the air, Midnight in Montgomery, He's always singing there.

Beyond the fall line

Today we started our epic road trip – 3700+ miles to San Antonio and back over the next three weeks. Let’s see how it goes. The first stop is Lawrenceville, GA to visit old friends tonight. For the first 800 miles we’ll be beyond the East Coast fall line (if you want to know what the fall line is, see here), up in the Piedmont highland. We’re taking the scenic route down the Shenandoah Valley to Roanoke, then south to Charlotte and southwest towards Atlanta. The valley is summer lush and emerald from the recent rains, and reminders of the Civil War are everywhere. We just passed Brandy Station, site of the largest cavalry battle ever in North America. An early battle in Lee’s Gettysburg campaign, it was fought 150 years ago last week. June and July 1863 were busy times in the Civil War. The road trip will coincide with the 150th anniversaries of at least four key Civil War campaigns - Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Port Hudson (LA) and Tullahoma (TN). Our route will take us through all of the campaign territories. Blog posts on each to follow. And if you want to learn about the effect of the fall line on the outcome of the Civil War, start with this blog.

Beautiful day for a walk on the tow path. We saw a few turtles sunning on the canal

A walk in Rock Creek Park

5.1 Fall Line South

We've been remiss in documenting our fall line excursions since January. If I can get motivated, I'll write the entries I should have posted in March and April. But maybe not.

Last weekend we traveled down I-95 to Columbia, SC for our niece Courtney's graduation from USC. It was a first visit for both Mary and me. Thanks to the miracle of 3G wireless, I discovered on the drive down that Columbia is located on the East Coast fall line. Like many other cities that developed where a large river or stream crossed the fall ine, Columbia was a key stopover on the colonial Fall Line Road that ran southwest from Fredericksburg, VA to central Georgia.

Two rivers - the Broad and the Saluda - cross the fall line at Columbia. Just below their last rapids, they merge to form the Congaree. Even though our hotel was only about 1/2 mile from the rivers' confluence point, we didn't make it down to the river bank to walk the fall line. Maybe next time.

We did hike the spectacular hardwood forest of the Congareee National Park about 20 miles southeast of Columbia. The park is a swampy floodplain watered by the Congaree River and a variety of lakes. It is an International Biosphere Reserve and contains the largest intact old-growth floodplain forest in North America. On the 2.4 mile swamp trail, we saw many unusual species of birds and plants, with the strangest being the bald cypress knees rising spookily from the water and muck. The park's hardwood trees were the tallest I've ever seen. The loblolly pines and oaks towered to 130 feet or more, supposedly creating the highest tree canopy of any hardwood forest in the world. (The California redwoods and the cedars of Lebanon don't count as hardwoods, I guess.) I would love to go back and take a kayak or canoe tour of the park.

Columbia's fall line bears little resemblance to the DC fall line. Columbia is almost 300 feet above sea level, and the drop from the harder rock of the Piedmont to the softer coastal plain is gentle. Where the Potomac at the DC end of Great Falls is so close to sea level that it is tidal, the Congaree meanders more than 100 miles from Columbia through the SC low country before entering the Atlantic. From space (hint: check Google Maps), Congaree National Park looks much like the lower Mississippi basin, complete with oxbow lakes and vegetation changes that mark decades of multiple river channels.