Fighting for the New River

Boone has initiated efforts to draw 4 million gallons of water a day from the South Fork of the New River at Todd.
This project is still not a done deal and citizens of Todd are organizing to fight this project which threatens to destroy a national treasure. Boone has some two dozen other possible sites from which they could draw water, but they've chosen the South Fork because it's the cheapest. They've gone to the trouble to contract with a public relations firm to spin public opinion in their favor -- claiming that they'll put nearly all the water back in the river and it will be cleaner when they took it out. If you've seen or gone down the river in recent years, you know there's not nearly as much water in the South Fork as their used to be. Sucking more water out of it may just destroy it and everything in it.
There are plenty of opportunities to challenge this proposal and more information will be posted here in coming days. If you're a friend of the river and willing to help, let us know. Drop an email to jimlewis@skybest.com to get involved.

Drought buster

We had lots of rain earlier this week (3+ inches in some places) and the South Fork got a good cleaning as a result. Here, some of the debris collected on the first low-water bridge past Todd. The Castle Ford Bridge also was closed for a time Tuesday and Wednesday while DOT removed a big tree that was lodged against the bridge deck.

It was a dark and snowy night...

Bridge Collapse

A brutal mid-winter wind storm has brought down the covered bridge at the Todd Crossroads, pushing most of the cover right into Elk Creek. The bridge itself is concrete and still sturdy -- just blocked by a collapsed wall. It's perhaps the most exciting thing to happen here since ... well, things aren't very exciting in Todd this time of year. We've discussed bringing in the Minnesota bridge collapse study committee to investigate and some have suggested singing a chorus of "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Maybe "London Bridge is Falling Down" works.

Latest edition of Todd Tribune

Here's the latest news from Todd from the Todd Tribune. To paraphrase an old newspaper publisher from North Carolina, "it's the only newsletter that gives a hoot about Todd."

http://newrivertrain.googlepages.com/tribunewinter2008.pdf

Ice Storm II

The above photographs come from Laurel Springs along the Blue Ridge Parkway where the ice was thicker and the damage more widespread. Here in Todd, few trees fell, but the old corner cherry tree in front of Todd General Store did lose its biggest limb(below).

Slip 'n' Slide

The only sounds this morning are the salt trucks rolling and the crash of limbs under the weight of a hefty accretion of freezing rain. For some reason, I'm always drawn to ice-covered fences. The folks over at Blue Ridge Electric have a nifty realtime map of power outtages http://bremco.maps.sienatech.com/ which makes for good indoor entertainment, unless you happen to be one of the dots on the map.

Winter sparkle

Temps near zero over the past few days have transformed the last week's snowfall into an icy landscape. Tonight's full moon created a sparkly twilight.

Snow Day!

It's been a while since the High Country has seen a still, heavy snowfall of any kind. A system from the Gulf delivered a healthy amount of the white stuff last night (4.5 inches by my measurement).

Under a Rock

I was looking for a cave with caveman drawings on Saturday, but I instead found an old landmark on the old Proffitt place up Elk Creek that they call the Rock House.

It's a massive rock perched on a few smaller boulders, creating enough room for five or six people to sit under comfortably. It must have been a great place to play as a kid and a magical place to sit next to a small campfire. It sits up on a little knoll at the foot of Black Mountain and is much like the Rock Cliff on my grandparents old farm on toward the Bald. The rocks are the same material; I'm no rockhound so I have no idea what it's called.