Hanging Rock - River Bluff Trail

RIVER BLUFF TRAIL 

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Ok all you couch potatoes who read this blog and say "someday I am goin to hike like the Fat Bald White Guy...but that trail just looks too hard..." 

 This trail is the one you start your hiking career on!  The River Bluff trail is a 1.3 mile loop nestled along the Dan River in Hanging Rock State Park.  

Taking the loop clockwise we begin a pleasant walk through a Piedmont forest....where we got to see some amazing wisteria hanging from a downed tree lain across the trail.

About 3/4 miles along the trail, we began to hear the gentle roar of the Dan River and we got a glimpse of the river made muddy by the recent rain. Honeysuckle is in full bloom across the river.

Looking up river we spotted some kayaks lazily floating down the river.....and some rapids which they would have to negotiate....so we scampered to the rock beach and got some nice picks of folks having a great time on the Dan River.

The first two made it through very smoothly....but the next three were a family and they ...had more fun....the father got soaked as he nosedived into a rapid...then the mother and son got turned around and we got to see a very nervous puppy dog anxious to get out of the boat.

Looking around the rock beach we found a river hut of sorts....perhaps a home for a River Witch....who knows....but we constructed a cairn there just to make sure we paid homage to whatever river gods we may offend.....

Back on the trail we found ourselves on the opposite bank from some really incredible rock formations.

 The rock face exhibited marks of the prior river level of the Dan.....centuries old....the Saura Mountains are some of the oldest mountains in the world but the bluffs of the Dan provide a nice visual aide to marking the age of the river.

 It was like counting rings in a recently cut oak tree. The marks on the rock bluffs caused by the rushing river demonstrated the age of the river and surrounding mountains.

The yellow flowers blooming on the ridge was a gentle contrast to the copper toned walls of the river bluff.

My hiking companion says this rock promontory looks like a turtle but I see the face of a camel....wonder what psychological explanation of our personalities are revealed by these admissions....hmm??

Another rocky bluff exhibited the signs of a recent waterfall....this would be a really interesting waterfall to photograph as the bluff was easily 150 feet above the river.

As the trail intersected into the Indian Creek Trail we got a view and a small exploding waterfall....

We really enjoyed the River Bluff Trail...located at the Dan River Access in Hanging Rock Park the access is a 9....the view to effort ratio is an 8....scenery is an 8....and the trail is an 8.....solid grade of 8....this is a trail even a couch potato can manage....heck even our 12 year old Corgi  "Missy" made the hike with a smile on her face.

http://fbwg-hiking.blogspot.com/2014/04/indian-creek-trail.html

MORAVIAN EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE 2014

THE LORD IS RISEN!

Austin Burke conducts the Moravian Band in 1970

I began playing in the Moravian Easter Sunrise service in 1970...and for 45 consecutive years...rain or shine...cold or warm...enduring lightening and snow...I have proclaimed the Resurrection of Christ Jesus in God's Acre in Old Salem, N.C.  




The Lord is risen indeed!   



While 45 years may sound like a long time, you have to place this length of service in perspective....Burton Snyder has played in the service for 79 years!  Even that impressive length of service needs some perspective as well.  You see the service began 242 years ago!  

Why has it lasted so long?

The best answer is that until the Lord returns, Moravians will proclaim the Resurrection with horn and song.  After all we remember that  as Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem in that first holy week, religiously offended folks implored him:  "Teacher, rebuke your disciples."  He answered: "I tell you if these were silent, the very stones would cry out"  (Luke 19:39-40)  I suppose that if some Easter morn, the Moravian faithful did not gather in God's Acre, that the recumbent white stones adorning those grounds might very well cry out in triumphant song.

Band Four playing antiphonally 

 "Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him"

The real reason Moravians do this every year may lie deep within the traditions of the denomination...if you do something twice...you keep on doing it....even if you don't remember why!?....which brings me to a thing we call "morning rounds".

Easter Moon at Home Moravian Church

When the service first started, most Moravians lived within the earshot of Salem town square.  The brethren being practical folks, surmised that if someone did not wake them up on Easter morn, many may very well sleep in and miss the service all together. The solution was simple...just send the brass band out in the streets in the early dawn and they would surely make enough noise to wake everyone up for the service!   

As the community grew, more Moravian congregations opened their doors to the faithful and now there is a Moravian Church in nearly every neighborhood in the city....now this is where the "if you do it twice" thing comes into play....

Waking up Ardmore Easter morn 2014

We arrive at our local church about midnight...eat a nice breakfast...and then go out on buses in our neighborhoods, playing triumphant brass band chorales...

Ardmore Moravian Band on morning rounds at Forsyth Medical Center

loud enough to wake the faithful....anger the unwary....and set dogs to howling...

The AMC Breakfast Gang

My home congregation is Ardmore Moravian Church on Academy Street.  And we arrive around midnight to the smells of a country ham egg breakfast cooked to order by some of the most dedicated cooks who see this simple task as an important way to celebrate Easter each year.  

Re-joining us this year WSPD officer,Eddie Haire...a member of Ardmore Baptist and of course our logistical lady, Terri Kessler...this show does not happen without them! Dewey Chappel is our longest serving bandsman, playing this year for his 67th time.  Caroline Peoples is our newest member, playing this year for the first time. 

We even have our version of "Ben and Jerry". Ben debuted his plastic trombone....orange no less...go figure!


Completing our rounds about 3:30 am, we join with 290 bandsmen for a second ham and egg breakfast.  During this breakfast, bandsmen who have reached 50 years of service are honored individually....by my count the are over 40 people having played over 50 years...and a large number of whom have over 70 years of service!

Before breakfast I got to walk around Old Salem in the early dawn and can share the simple elegance of the Easter Morn.



























The Easter Moon provided many interesting adornments to the photographs


                                       

I can't explain the many lights that appear in the heavens. The moon is to the left of the steeple.  We are no doubt surrounded by a host of "martyrs and saints".




Having played so long in this service, many of my colleagues have ventured into the more immediate presence of our Lord...as I look to a familiar door I was reminded of one such missing bandsman, Senator Hamilton Horton, who would greet me there with a tuba draped across his diminutive frame....thoughts of others....EC and Erna Denny, Leon Johnston, Charlie Noell, Richard Disher....and my father, Harry Lee Collins, Jr... I miss those folks every Easter.

The service is a simple profession of faith that begins in the Town Square....and then proceeds to God's Acre.  While moving from one location to another, worshipers walk with bands positioned playing chorales antiphonally. Our band is combined with Christ Moravian church, the church my great grandmother was a life long member...many distant cousins renew our bonds as we await our turn to echo the melody of a distant band.  

Note the man seated. His name is Dick Saunders, who for over 50 years directed our antiphonal band. He has been playing for 75 years.  Weakened by a heart condition, he is on oxygen...note he is not looking at the music...he doesn't have to....he knows every tune by heart!

When the worshipers are assembled on God's Acre, the bands assemble in mass...some 300 bandsmen...making up the largest band in the country.  We are directed by Jeff Whitsett (RJR '75) and Nola Reed Knouse.  Bishop Lane Sapp, pastor of Calvary Moravian Church presided over the service.

The crowd sometimes is as large as 10,000. This year I would guess there are over 5,000 in attendance.

The band is comprised of folks of all ages and walks of life...these little girls playing for the first time were sporting some pretty nice Easter bonnets....ya think?

I believe my Redeemer lives!  (Job 19:25)

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and the tender branch thereof will not cease.  (Job 14:7)

And he that sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And he said unto me, 'Write. For these words are true and faithful.' (Rev. 21:5)




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