Stepping back in time

Vestals Gap Road was the main route to the mountains, years ago. If the coastal areas and piedmont were getting a bit crowded for your taste, you could hitch your wagon west toward the Ohio country beyond the Blue Ridge. In 1755 General Braddock's troops also used the road, though most didn't come back. Tonight W. and I walked this stretch that's preserved at Claude Moore Park. It was quite tunnel-like in parts and put us in mind of all the troops and settlers and (earlier) Native people and (earlier still) animals that had traveled here. Maybe something like the much older holloways that Robert Macfarlane portrays in his Ghostways book/poem.  But we could also hear the shouts of kids playing soccer in the fields beyond the trees.