Back east, down South, along the canal: Fall

Last weekend, I had four-days-in-a-row off; so, a quick trip back to Georgia to visit family and friends.

It's been fourteen years since I spent any time during the autumn back east...and after a few years of living in the desert, it was refreshing to be back in all the foliage. Fall in the Piedmont Southeast is not as spectacular as New England or North Carolina, but still lovely. I made sure to make time to run along the Augusta Canal on Saturday--a perfect November morning...

From the still waters behind the dam north of the city,...

... the trail continues for miles, running along the ridge between the Savannah River on one side, and the Canal on the other.

When I still lived in Augusta, it was a 'hidden treasure;' relatively few people biked, ran, or kayaked...now, it's a popular place for those activities.

In the century-and-a-half since the canal was dug (in the 1840's by Irish immigrants, and enlarged in the 1870's by Chinese immigrant labor), the trees have grown back up between the Canal and the River--a forest oasis along the Savannah...I took my phone with me, and stopped every now and then to take a few pictures...The weather was so perfect for running that I lost track of time a bit...

 ...and before I knew it, I was almost downtown--five miles from the starting point.

Here is the 19th-century Sibley Mill--with the obelisk chimney being the only remnants of the old Confederate Powder Works, built in the 1860's. During the Civil War, Augusta was the only place in the entire South that manufactured gunpowder. The canal made Augusta the only real industrial area in the Confederacy. After the Civil War, during the Union Occupation, the Factory was, understandably, dismantled...

 ...but the chimney was allowed to remain, and jt has become a Confederate monument of sorts:

 ...For many people not from the region, the South's preoccupation with the Civil War, even a century and a half after the fact, seems strange...but it is alive and well, and not to be minimized...

Also along the Canal is a bit of Victorian Utilitarian architecture--the old Augusta Water Works, built back in the 19th century, is being restored:

 ...and some granite arches that supported a short aqueduct that used to transport a local creek over the canal before flowing down into the River...

Ecologically, the area is interesting as the convergence zone between the northern limit of subtropical riparian habitat (Spanish moss, alligators, etc.) and the southern limit of temperate deciduous forests more common in the Appalachian mountains...

Lots of lovely spots. I wish I had discovered the place when I was younger--I didn't really know about the Canal trail until I was a sophomore in college, when I began biking there at least once a week...

...and, before returning to Tucson, the now-obligatory foot-shot: 'I was there.'

So--from the locks at the headwaters of the Canal to downtown and back: TEN MILES!

I've never run that far before--a milestone for me--funny that it should happen when in GA,

where, growing up, I never thought that, one day, I'd enjoy running...

(For more information: http://www.augustacanal.com/

The Augusta Canal is now a National Park Service National Heritage Area.)

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...in closing, an unrelated view from the plane:

Atlanta: huge, sprawling, the self-proclaimed capital of the 'New South,'

stretching to the horizon, even from some 30,000 feet up...

still, it's amazing how much 'forest' survives in this city...