SPRING

SPRING

April brings us hope. The winter of 2009-2010 fades from memory.  Melting snow triggers the emergence of morels and ramps.  The run-off from the massive snowpack is well on its journey to the Mississippi Delta. Streams return to normal flow. Songbirds return, turkeys gobble and fish become active. It happens every year. Most of you live in the area where spring begins in April. Where I live and play, spring doesn’t begin until May. There isn’t much difference in the mountains; between March and April, except for a few more teaser days. Yeah, I know that the official date of the Spring Equinox is March 20. That is OK, if you live in the Deep South. My belief is that it isn’t spring, until I see my first hummingbird of the year.

The only thing that I have to complain about; regarding spring, is that it doesn’t last long enough. Back in the days when gas was cheap and life was good, I became spoiled. I knew that I would be in a palmetto swamp; in Macon County, Alabama on March 20. My job was guiding turkey hunters at one of the premier hunting lodges of the South. Turkey season ran until April 30. Alabama’s spring didn’t quite last that long. Sweltering summer heat usually began around the third week of April. I could always tough it out, knowing that I would be arriving in the Allegheny Highlands just in time for spring. I would hunt in the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia and follow spring north, usually ending up in New York or Vermont as the dogwood blossoms faded away.

What is the first thing you think of, when you hear the word spring? I think green. Not just any green; the green of emerging leaves. I then have an image of white; no not the white shimmer of snow that we have all grown tired of, the white bloom of serviceberry and the dogwood florets, with edges of brown. Honey bees on crocus bloom. The chorus of singing toads, gobbling turkeys and the dreaded irritation of a string-trimmer are all sure signs of spring. I think of the smell of freshly mowed grass and the aroma of bacon and ramps, wafting from a streamside campsite. I think of activity. People, who haven’t been visible; during the previous five months, magically appear in their lawns and gardens. Birds busily gather materials for nest building. The woods come alive with song. Aquatic insects awaken from near dormancy, their activity increases with each rising degree of water temperature. Fish begin feeding after the long winter; gaining strength for the upcoming spawns. These are a few of my thoughts of spring. I hope they make you think of flowers, baby birds and warm spring rain.

Spring is without a doubt, my favorite season. I would be happy if summer’s heat never arrived and the dull gray days of winter only lasted for a few weeks. Now, I believe I will take my Vitamin D pill and start doing my taxes.

Happy Spring

This article first appeared in Two-Lane Livin April 2010.

Spring Greens

I had some scrambled eggs and ramps today.  Ramps are without a doubt the favorite and most anticipated harbinger of spring in the High Virginia's.  I have never been one to harvest more than needed of anything and often come up short at the end.  Especially nowadays.  But, it seems that I hit the ramp harvest just right.  I have two more packs in the freezer.  It will be a month or so before these spring greens will be available in the Pocahontas mountains; where they are sweeter than anywhere else.  But you can bet that when the snow recedes, the green will be there and so will I.

Ramp Seeds

Ramp Seeds

The Ramp is the king of spring, in the Appalachian Highlands. This member of the Allium family can be smelled from numerous towns and campsites.  But, have you ever seen the seed; from which the tasty leek is born?  This is the seed head of the Ramp (Allium tricoccum). This photo was taken in September.  The seeds will fall to the ground and sprout from the leaf litter of the forest floor and bring on a new generation of the pungent leek.

Think

The precious moments that we have to spend in our outdoor pursuits could be more productive, if we would devote a little more time to thinking about what we are trying to accomplish. Son House, the legendary singer of the Delta blues, said in an interview,” the world would be a better place if we would all think twice; before speaking once.” This statement could be applied to many other aspects of life. Take a little time and think about what you are doing, instead of using the exact same methods time after time.

The popular bridge hole is always a high priority fishing destination. Try this: find the nearest aquarium, scrape your fingernail very gently down the glass, watch the fish move to the other side. Now, think about what is happening underwater, each time a vehicle passes overhead. Those bridge fish spend all of their time spooking or preparing to spook. A more productive use of your time would be fishing downstream or upstream of the bridge; where every passer-by stops for a few casts.

We all know how our vision is enhanced, when hunting from an elevated deer stand. Think about it the next time you drive down the road and park for your next deer hunt. Imagine the deer bedded down ¾ of the way up the brushy hillside. They are bedded there for a reason. The experienced ones have already scooted off the backside of the hill, before you ever got your truck door shut. You sit on the fields’ edge until dark and see only a button buck and his sister. There is a lot of deer sign in and around the field, so you return to the area several times during the season. You always approach the area the same way and have the same results on every trip. I wonder why?

One thing that I am positive of is that old gobbler that you’ve been “scouting” for six weeks before the season opener, had you figured out long before you thought you had old long beard figured out. It continues to amaze me that turkey hunters do not believe that headlights, four-wheelers and slamming doors do not spook anything. My main rule of successful turkey hunting is to never drive anywhere that you can walk. You will hear and see more walking the gas well and log roads, than you will riding around, drinking coffee and listening to the radio. Never call to turkeys in the pre-season, doing so just diminishes your or someone else’s chances of harvesting that particular bird, when season opens.

We are now nearing the time of the wonderful Allium tricoccum. I really do not like to gather ramps in places where they are not extremely abundant. I prefer to walk away from the road for twenty minutes and stop at a couple of places and dig all that I need. I find this a lot more enjoyable than trying to find enough for my needs, within sight of the road. They are getting pretty scarce in easy to reach locations.

All that we need to do, to be more successful and enjoy life a little more, is Think.
This Article Appeared First In Two-Lane Livin.

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