Wash Creek Overlook

 

December 2, 2021

Fine warm day. Rose and drove to Stony Bald Gap, where I began to climb up and to the south, the wood gleaming pale and azure around me. The rocky unevenness of the path defeated my knees, though, and it was not a long walk. At the overlook I encountered a pale man-bunned, sweet boy, from Detroit. We remarked on the splendor of the day. He wants to move to Asheville and open a printing service. Unfortunately I could offer no wisdom on those prospects. He said Mount Mitchell is closed because of ice. I told him go on to Pisgah, which was unlikely to be closed. Ouching on my knee, I advised him to stave off old age as long as he could. He promised that he would. At the Wash Creek overlook I saw a black cat. He must have been abandoned by someone, for no cat would climb there on its own. I got out and called to him, but he ran into the woods. I stopped on the way back, but there was no sign of him in the sun-struck woods.