The Joyful Botanist: Up Moses Creek
Windflower is one of many wildflowers found blooming up Moses Creek in the Spring. Adam Bigelow photo
I really enjoy and am honored by the fact that I share this column space with Burt Kornegay who writes the fun and informative column. I like sharing this space because I enjoy reading his writing, and because he is a friend and a big influence on me and my work leading plant walks.
When first starting my business, Burt graciously sat with me and talked about some of his experience running and promoting a tourism business, and I am grateful for his time and input.
I’ve purchased and used many copies of his great map of Panthertown Valley over the years, as it is a detailed and useful map of one of my favorite places. And it’s less likely to get you lost than the US Forest Service’s version, in my experience.
I also enjoy sharing this spot with Burt because of the title of his column, “Up Moses Creek.” I’ve been going up Moses Creek for many of the 32 years that I’ve lived here in these mountains. And for the last 25 years, I’ve been travelling up Moses Creek two or three times a week every year in the early springtime, or what most people would call late winter, to see and celebrate the return of wildflowers and spring with the blooming of the first trout-lily of the year (Erythronium umbilicatum).
Moses Creek is one of the places where I first fell in love with wildflowers 20 years ago. It was Moses Creek and Fisher Creek where for the last 10 years in a row I have led my first wildflower walk of the season, and Tilley Creek where my friends and I went to visit the spring ephemeral wildflowers, and where my love and fascination for plants and wildflowers began, especially those plants native to the Southeastern United States and the Southern Appalachian Bioregion where we live.
Yup, I fell in love with wildflowers, and it’s been the longest and most successful relationship of my life. I intend to stay in love with wildflowers, actively, for the rest of my life. This year marks many milestones for me. 25 years of studying and working with plants, 10 years of guiding wildflower walks and teaching about plants and 20 years of being actively in love with wildflowers as mentioned above.
Related Items
Lake Junaluska plant sale offers new varieties
Much of Western North Carolina still abnormally dry
Life on Our Planet: Emmy-nominated producer to speak at WCU
This must be the place: ‘I’m young in eternity, I’m old in my father’s face’
And this May I will have been living up on Tilley Creek, or the Top O’ Tilley as I like to call it, close to where I would visit wildflowers each spring for 10 years. Springtime is a great time to celebrate. Life is a celebration, especially in the spring. It is a riot of celebration and growth.
I still go up Moses Creek each spring to stalk the first trout-lily of the year, in that one spot way up, so I can see the very first bloom and celebrate the new season. I just led my first wildflower walk of the season at Fisher Creek along the Forest Therapy Trail at Pinnacle Park. This place is special, and the gentle trails that wind along the creek will be filled with an ever-changing display of spring ephemeral wildflowers for the next few weeks. Go see them.
I encourage you to get outside, as long as the air quality allows, and go look for wildflowers. There is little more hopeful in the world than the return of spring wildflowers. Once the leaves all come out on the trees in mid-April to early May, the ephemera will have passed.
Come for a walk among the wildflowers with me or join one of the many other opportunities to learn about plants and ecology that are offered throughout this region. Go for walks on your own and slow yourself down by connecting and reconnecting with nature. The festival of spring is all around, so we might as well celebrate. Happy springtime, everyone.
(The Joyful Botanist leads weekly wildflower walks most Fridays and offers consultations and private group tours through Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
