I am fascinated by the New River and honestly had no idea the Appalachian Trail would cross it. I thought, after getting farther into Virginia, I would reach the other side of the Eastern Divide to stay and cross Atlantic-bound rivers like the James, the Roanoke, the Shenandoah. Not yet. The New River, like those...

The ground, then, is a battery of water, a tremendous reservoir that slowly seeps out in the multitudes of springs. A gradual discharge of cumulative abrupt rain events.