A trip to South River

 We recently took a new path at Panola Mountain and crossed the South River on a footbridge.

The river was wild during the Hurricane Helene three weeks ago, but the water receded quickly, leaving logs, debris and some old tires scattered over the bottom. The river has white sand beaches at the crossing.

From Alexander Lake, the walk to the bridge and back is about 3.5 miles. The path goes through a part of the forest that was burned — I’d guess a couple of years ago. Some of the scorch marks on the pines are taller than I am.

One of the first plants to come back after a fire, is fireweed, Erechtites hieraciifolius. It’s sometimes called American burnweed and is in the aster family. It’s one of the plants that benefits from fire, and we saw strong stands of it about 8 feet high.

I grew up believing that the Southeast was one giant forest before Europeans arrived. But vast prairies broke up the forest. Lightning would set the woods on fire. So-called pioneer species like fireweed would spring up in the clearings, and tall grasses would grow. The buffalo, pursuing the grass, would trample the tree seedlings, keeping the forests at bay.

On this walk, we saw such a prairie. To look over it — to really see it — you’d have to be on a horse or a ladder. Every plant seemed to be a 6-footer.