It is a very wet Conkles Hollow to walk through these days with all of the rain we have had this year. Every cliff ledge or face has become a little waterfalls now.
I saw a few new wooden rails had been put up along the trail. This is to keep the hikers on the paths to keep them safe and to keep down on the destruction that thousand and thousands of feet and uncaring hikers can cause. What took hundreds of years to create can be destroyed by one ungrateful hiker.
Several hikers fall to injury and death each year in the Hocking Hills parks because they do not heed these signs. They are there for their safety and should be obeyed.
Water is standing in pools all along the trail. The wet soil has also caused several of the trees to slip from the hillsides and fall. The evidence is in all of the fresh logs cut up along the paths.
It has been an excellent year for the moss to grow in the hollow.
I have not seen so much as there is on everything this year.
This log is completely covered and hidden by it all.
The hikers do not have to deface the trees and rocks because they can carve their names in the moss now.
The creeks have white foam from the water pouring over the falls and into the creek.
Nature has a way of growing on and in everything up in the hollow, even in a hallowed broken tree along the trail.
There is evidence of growth still to be found.
And the woodland ferns are still green and standing since there has not been any snows yet.
Looks like they need some new Blue bird boxes. Briars had grown through this one busting it open. I tried to fix it back but I do not take hammers along on my walks. LOL! Even the birdhouse was tinged in green algae from all of the dampness.
But there was not one bird of any kind to be seen on my walk last week.
In fact the silence up in the hollow was so calming and peaceful. A hush was covering the whole woods. No critters were scurrying around the forest floor. Even the other hikers talked in hushed tones as not to disturb the silence. The only sound was the splashing of water over the fall’s….
…. and the rushing of water around logs and rocks in the creek that runs through the park. Soon everything will be covered in white and ice formations and giant icicles will be hanging from the falls and cliff surfaces.
