Loose Leaf Notes

1. Over the weekend Joe and I, our grandson Liam and his friend Isiah camped at Breaks Interstate Park, 4500 acres of land that borders southwestern Virginia and southeastern Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains.

2. Breaks Canyon is called The Grand Canyon of the South.

3. Kudzu, which is very prevalent in parts of the park is nicknamed “the vine that ate the South.” Yup.

4. Kudzu or Bigfoot?

5. I didn’t know that kudzu flowered, according to my phone app plant identifier, and that it smelled like sweet root beer.

6. We hiked along the edge of the canyon at an elevation of 1,978 feet where the trails were made up of white sand, due to the breakdown of the canyon’s quartz sandstone rock and the rocks were piled up like stacks of pancakes. We couldn’t see the canyon like the Grand one very well because of all the trees.

7. I know this doesn’t look high up, but it was, and I crawled out and leaned against Isiah for support.

8. Kudzu is an invasive plant species from Asia that was brought to our country in 1876 as an ornamental plant that was later promoted to control erosion. It climbs up to 100 feet long by twining around trees, utility poles, and structures, creating a dense canopy that smothers other plants by blocking sunlight. It has massive tuberous root systems that allow it to survive droughts and regrow aggressively. In some places in the park, it looked like a big foot invasion.

9. I swam in the park’s pool, but some swam in the river.

10. This place down by the river reminded me of the Mesa Verde village that Joe and our grandsons just visited during their month long road trip out west.

11. There are elks in the park, but we only saw this dear deer.

12. I was the camp cook and one of the ghost storytellers around the campsite fire at night.

13. To be fair, Kudzo flowers and roots have been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat fevers, inflammation, and digestive issues. It is said to curb the craving for alcohol, and livestock like goats, cattle, and pigs can eat the leafy green parts as high-protein forage.

_____Thirteen Thursday