30 & 31: Swamp Day

Cranesville Swamp, Terra Alta, WV

T E R R A  A L T A,  W V

Thirty years ago I graduated from Frostburg State College – a small liberal arts and former state normal school in the mountains of western Maryland.  It was a place where my love of the outdoors was fostered by time away from class spent camping, rafting, hiking, and just generally roaming around in a beautiful area.  The school’s location in the Appalachian Mountains was a tremendous draw to a flat-lander having grown up in the suburbs of Washington D.C.  Little did I know then just how unique those mountains are.

As the prevailing winds cross the high mountains of Maryland they shed their moisture in a process known as orographic lifting, making it one of the wettest areas in the region.  And it’s one of the coldest too due to its elevation.  In this intersection of height and cold, along the state’s western border with West Virginia sits a low depression in the mountains shaped like a bowl.  This boreal bowl collects both run-off water and the cold air that naturally sinks down from the ridges surrounding it.  Known as Cranesville Swamp, this bowl has also been collecting my attention for years and was one of the very first (and unwavering) items put on my itinerary as I planned this sabbatical. 

Cultural lore suggests such a yearning makes Cranesville a bucket list item.  But I hold a slightly different view of bucket lists.  I don’t have one.  I set my sights more realistically so as not to be disappointed.  I’m more interested in filling the bucket by accumulating the unexpected - like yesterday’s jaunt through Poole Hollow.   A few months ago, I had never heard of Poole Hollow and its ephemeral stream.  Now though, nicely unexpected, it’s in my bucket; not something I’m dreaming of.  Yes, I’ve known about Cranesville for many years and have wanted to see it.  But not until just recently did it start to become a reality, or as I consider it, an accumulation of the unexpected. 

To get to Cranesville from my house, it’s uphill all the way.  The newly extended Corridor H is our route of choice – a road that cuts like a knife through the middle of West Virginia.  Geologist must love this road; millions of years of rock layering are on full display.  It’s an impressive engineering feat, but leaves a bold scar.  On most of the higher ridges that it crosses, windmills resembling pushpins on a map stretch for miles.  West Virginia has been gouged and poked by Corridor H, but this route dramatically reduces my travel time compared to the options of 30 years ago. 

Driving uphill also has been a drive back in time.  Spring was blooming when I left my house, but at Cranesville it’s still winter - snow dusts the ground and there is not a hint of blossoming anywhere.  The cold sink nature of this high mountain bowl is on full display.  The starkness of a cold biting wind greets us at the parking lot.  But all seasons are beautiful, and winter seems an appropriate time to visit a place known for attracting cold.  

The trail starts out weaving through a stand of tall pines.  The morning breeze has these giants swaying gracefully as we meander through the understory.  I was not expecting such a timberly experience at a swamp but that’s exactly why I love the act of physically visiting a place no matter how much you discover about it ahead of time.  The unexpected makes travel such a joy. 

When the trail reaches the swamp-proper, we step onto a boardwalk which allows up close and astonishing access to the array of life contained in such an environment.  The peat bog over which the boardwalk traverses was formed over eons of degeneration of a wide variety of plant matter which displays as a multi-colored palette even in the stark coldness of early spring.

The boardwalk is a simple path across unspoiled lands.  After way too much multi-tasking in my life, I welcome this time spent single-tasking along a narrow path which keeps my attention squarely focused on this property’s offerings.  It’s a genuine cleansing experience and has opened a vast chasm for brain space. 

“The paradox is that to see clearly, you must learn to see obliquely.  You must look ahead and, at the same time, widen your peripheral vision so that it extends not just in great arcs around your head, but over the edge, into the margins where the visible and invisible, dreams and reality, land and water, emptiness and profusion mingle.”

From Stirring the Mud by Barbara Hurd

When the trail re-enters the forest edge, I spy a cluster of large barren trees devoid of foliage.  Against a brilliant blue sky dotted with cumulus clouds, the silhouette they project is impressive.  I squat low and angle the camera skyward taking in the eerie compositions.  The images have nothing to do with a swamp, but the pictures add to an impressive collection of memories I’ll take from this beautiful preserve that’s been protected by The Nature Conservancy since the 1960’s – virtually my entire life.  It’s a property whose importance has been recognized for a very long time. 

After leaving Cranesville, we head to the very northwest corner of Maryland to collect another alcoholic souvenir.  By email over the past few days, I arranged for a by-appointment wine tasting.  At this time of year and during the middle of the week, wine tastings aren’t common, especially so in this corner of the state when it still feels like the middle of winter.  When we arrive, the owner seems a bit taken aback by our visit, albeit one that he agreed to.  He’s awkward in his discussions, guarded and hesitant to release too much information.  He likely mistakes us as undercover board of alcohol bureaucrats, so his tasting is handled by the book.  We try several different wines, most of which taste the same.  Perhaps it’s all one batch but with differing labels.  Nonetheless, we leave with a few more bottles for the collection and a good story about awkwardness. 

* * *

On the way home, Allison and I stop at the lower-elevated Finzel Swamp – Cranesville’s little brother.  It’s a smaller but similar poorly draining frost pocket-type shrub swamp that also collects moisture and sinking cold air from the surrounding ridges.  It’s a boundary splitter too, just like Cranesville; part is in Alleghany County and part in the infamously cold Garrett County. 

The parking lot experience here does not include a biting wind; it’s a bit warmer and we are greeted by a near-deafening chorus of spring peeper frogs.  Late March is the perfect time to catch this magnificent chorus.  Somewhere in Garrett County we crossed the line from the bleak cold and piercing wind of winter back into spring.  Finzel exudes a bright, revitalized warmer mood and the frogs have made this immediately apparent upon our arrival. 

Finzel’s trail is an old farmer’s access road that’s arrow-straight; an out-and-back bisection of the swamp leading a half mile to a small man-made pond.  Along the way, we pass several small patches of early spring flowers brilliantly lit through the cloud-free, midday sunshine.  We stop at a small footbridge affording the perfect hovering-above viewpoint of squirming tadpoles.  And at water’s edge, we film a few slithering salamanders returning to their breeding ground.   All are welcomed signs of this property’s tightening grip on the new season. 

There are many rewards at Finzel Swamp.  At this beautiful property are found the southernmost stand of Tamarack trees – an evergreen that ain’t.  Its needles change colors to a brilliant yellow in the fall before dropping them for the winter.  In the Black Gum trees on the edge of the swamp, the horizontal branches provide ideal perches year round for a wide variety of birds, including the rare Alder Flycatcher and the small, cat-faced Saw-whet Owl. 

Finzel Swamp also benefits from its proximity to my alma mater Frostburg State University as well as the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Appalachian Lab.  Both spend much time studying and helping to protect Finzel’s many attributes.

When we make it to the end of the trail and reach the pond, I take my camera and lie face down in the spongy dry sedges lining the down-sloping shoreline to capture water level vantage point images.  It feels good lying in such an earthy bed.  Though I know the pictures won’t be keepers, I continue shooting anyway.  Like the snooze bar, the extra shots keep me in the cozy bed a little bit longer. 

This man-made pond is under a Nature Conservancy debate.  Should it be left as is, or should it be de-constructed to return the flow of water to its natural state?  Though man-made, certain flora and fauna have already adapted to its proximity, such as bulrushes, dragonflies, sunfish, and red-spotted newts.  Nature’s adaptability has created quite the conundrum for TNC. 

On our return, near the edge of a field, I gather a handful of daffodils and hand the impromptu bouquet to Allison.  Today started icy-cold in the parking lot at Cranesville, so the early spring bouquet is a nice way to warm us and end a very potent day spent up close and personally with all-things-swampy. 

I like swamps, particularly these boreal ones visited today.  They are ambiguous; being both land and water, naturally fostering our imagination.  Many elements of a swamp are decaying, while others are sprouting, blooming, or squirming.  They contain the finest sediment of life; fermenting and concentrating, they attract a wide variety of plants and animals, including me today. 

“It is, perhaps, the single thread running through mysticism - that you must wait patiently, that to go hunting what is mysterious and life changing with a magnifying glass or jabstick, armed with intent and a sense of your own deserving goodness is futile.” 

From Stirring the Mud by Barbara Hurd

Some might say I took care of a few bucket-list desires.  But more appropriately, both swamp visits are part of the many amazing experiences – both expected and unexpected – that I’m accumulating on this awesome three week sabbatical. 

Finzel Swamp, Finzel, Maryland

Driving home from Finzel through the hills of western Maryland is a beautiful ride and brings awareness to how well my birth-state has shown itself during this sabbatical.  I was not expecting to be as impressed by the places seen in this state as I have been.  So many times during my Maryland visits though, I paused with astonishment and a touch of pride feeling that this really is a lovely state.  Maryland is so much more than just crabs and Orioles.

Maryland has such diversity, and all within a tightly compacted, eighth-smallest-state area.  Right down her middle are the metropolitans of Baltimore and the D.C. suburbs, which include some of the wealthiest areas in the country.  To the east are the iconic Chesapeake Bay and the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.  And westward are quaint villages, rolling farmlands, and Appalachian mountain peaks. 

Like Virginia, Maryland also is microcosm of America.  She has so much to offer and has displayed it quite well over the past few weeks at diverse Nature Conservancy preserves like Finzel, Oxbow, Sideling Hill, and Robinson Neck. 

I’m as proud as I’ve ever been to declare myself a native Marylander.

Cranesville Link:       Click here for more detail

Finzel Link:              Click here for more detail