After the Snow Fall
Station Cove Falls, a South Carolina hike at the Oconee Station Historic Site, was my destination after an unusually snowy February.
February in the upstate South Carolina area was a wintry one, indeed. The university was either closed or delayed multiple times, due to the ice and snow. After one of these winter storms, with the temperature going up and the sun coming out, I took a brief trip back to Station Cove Falls. This time, rather than starting out from the Oconee Station State Historic Site parking area, I went directly to the alternate trailhead, just down from the entrance.
There was still some snow on the ground, particularly in shaded areas and back in the woods. A couple I passed on the way in told me that some few days before, the falls were still frozen, and had been a sight to see. The falls were still very pretty, even in the stark winter landscape. I processed these images in black and white, feeling that the time of year lent itself more to texture than to color.
For some of the hike, I listened to the Drabblecast podcast, particularly the story Island of the White Houses, by Alisa Alering. The Drabblecast is a great podcast for weird fiction, and this spare, bleak story, was no exception. This story, and indeed, the entire podcast, is worth experiencing. On the way back, I queued up my collection of Sarah Jarosz songs; she’s an amazing modern bluegrass artist.
