Althea and I checked out the Moonville Rail Trail yesterday. It’s been a while since I hiked there. Previously, you couldn’t hike far past the tunnel before you hit Raccoon Creek and had to turn back. New bridges now make it possible to get in a great hike along the sycamore-lined railbed. Someone asked recently what my favorite tree is, and I said white oak, mostly because my cabin is surrounded by them, but yesterday’s hike made me reconsider. The sycamores are shedding their bark, giving them a ghostly appearance that complements the haunted tunnel.
So for yesterday, at least, sycamores were my favorite tree.
There are several beaver ponds long the way. We found this evidence of their activity, but apparently they gave up or lost interest in this tree long ago.
Abandoned electric poles are interspersed among the sycamores, a testament to the days when coal towns provided stops along the rail line. Those towns are mostly gone now, like the bark the sycamore’s are shedding, leaving only hints of the past. Many have been reduced to clusters of shacks and mobile homes while others have simply faded into the forest.
This plaque in the tunnel is covered with graffiti done by morons who have no sense of the past, no pride of place. The idiots have even graffitied many of the trees along the way. I guess they weren’t smart enough to realize the sycamores would shed this stupidity once autumn came around …