Dec 15, 2024
Walk with me: a Central Appalachian forest in December. Winter is fast approaching, much to my relief. While some hide away in warm, cozy nooks, my old bones seek forest paths illuminated by sunlit snow, where I am reminded that life persists in the harshest conditions - by birds flitting silently in the underbrush and crisscrossing animal tracks that memorialize, however temporarily, the unending survival chores of the forest community. In the frozen stillness and quiet introspection of the deepest woods on a Winter afternoon, I am renewed by nature's relentless life pulse, beating against all odds, and cherish it even more.
Photos from Scott Run Trail in Coopers Rock State Forest.