June 1, 2004 ~ Solved Mysteries
Tuesday.
Since the college is a private institution, it does not give off most federal holidays. So I was at work while Morgan stayed home yesterday, for Memorial Day. It had felt strange--driving the empty streets to work but then passing a normal work day, just like any other Monday. Slipping into routine.
"The college shouldn't make Memorial Day a normal day, because then people don't think about the reason for the holiday. And the reason behind Memorial Day is important to think about, especially now," another woman who works in my building commented, and I have to agree. I thought about my work, my routines, not about war or soldiers.
As I was driving away from campus after work, I tried to decide at the last minute if I'd take my hike like normal or go home where I knew Morgan was waiting, unlike normal. As I passed the turn off for Jones Mountain, I pulled over and dialed Morgan's number. "Hey. I'm gonna kidnap you, okay? I've left the ingredients for the black bean artichoke heart salad out on the stove. Could you make it and put it in some tupperware? I'll be there in twenty minutes. Can you be ready?" He laughed and agreed.
Forty-five minutes later he was sitting in the passenger's seat as I wound my way up toward the Craggy Mountains on the Parkway. The overcast sky started to break up into large, beautiful cloud formations, sunlight streaming through, the air very clear after the day's storm.
"Let's just stop at some random, promising-looking trail." Just before the Tanbark Ridge Tunnel, we saw one, leading up into a gorge next to a creek.
Morgan found this little red-spotted newt along the trail
(though actually he's in the adolescent red-spotted eft phase)
The trail was very steep, so we didn't talk much, conserving our breath. The clean, moist air, the sound of the water, and all of the interesting plants and animals we came across quickly put us both in a relaxed, happy mood.
It is such a treat to be able to take Morgan with me on a hike. He rarely has free time that overlaps with mine when we aren't supposed to be doing something else. I love showing him different plants and telling him about them, I love his commentary, I love the way that he often catches details that I miss. The fact that we will soon be able to hike together at the college when he starts his new job has me really excited.
I also enjoyed the chance to hike somewhere other than the college. New sights, new species, and miles of unexplored forest.
I don't know the species, but it's a beauty
After a steep climb, we reached the ruins of an old fireplace, once part of a small building. We stopped there, speculating about who might have built the building, what it was used for, how long ago it was built, and why it was abandoned. We sat on the ruins and ate our dinner, talking, teasing, and laughing together.
And back down a different trail that we hoped would loop back around to the Parkway, we found even more ruins. One had two huge stone pedestals, which we could not imagine what their original use was. Nearby, there were the remains of a springhouse, and the spring still fed up through the floor, a gigantic fallen tree now the only roof.
"Who were these people? Settlers? There are several foundations. But there is no old overgrown road nearby, only this trail. Surely they didn't hike in to build these houses...?" Morgan speculated. We bounced possibilities off of one another as we explored.
Morgan, on the trail
As I drove back home, we talked for a while, then Morgan fell silent, and was staring out the passenger-side window.
"What are you thinking?" I asked.
"I'm just feeling very, very happy that we did this, that you brought me out here, but at the same time I'm wishing with everything in me that I didn't have to go back to the restaurant tomorrow, now that I know about the new job..."
And that does sum up where we are right now. This waiting period during the transition feels like stasis, and it is rather maddening. Soon, though, soon. With a little patience.
Today I did some Googling on the mile marker where we stopped, to see if I could find out at least what trail we were on. "Rattlesnake Lodge Trail." Hm. So I Googled that, and was quite surprised to find all of the answers to the questions about the ruins that we'd been pondering on the hike.
It turns out that "Rattlesnake Lodge" was the vacation home of a rich Asheville family, built at the turn of the century. We actually missed the main ruins site, apparently--it was further down a trail that we didn't take. The chimney we ate our dinner at, however, was an outbuilding called 'the shack.' The spring house had been the main one for the lodge (though there are, apparently, several springs nearby), and the other structure with the huge pedestals had been a tool house. The pedestals had been the foundation for a water-driven generator that provided all of the electricity for the lodge.
There wasn't a road because they wanted seclusion. They shuttled supplies back and forth on the trail via horses, a sled, or a specialty narrow horse-drawn carriage. The lodge had burned down due to unknown causes in 1926, though lightning is suspected.
Here is the website. Now, of course, Morgan and I want to go back and fit all of the puzzle pieces in with the story that we know. Pretty neat that we just happened upon it.
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