Tag: running water

Slide Show: Freshet, Montgomery County, Virginia, October, 1977.

There is a stretch of US 460 just west of Blacksburg where the highway rides the crest of Brush Mountain, and follows the line of the subcontinental divide. A raindrop falling here hesitates a moment before joining its fellows, and a fateful choice is made, to flow into the James River drainage, with it’s short route to the sea, or to merge with the stream that will carry it all the way to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. About 1000 feet on either side of the divide (300 meters) runoff enters permanent watercourses: Craig Creek to the north, or Poverty Creek to the south. 

The small flow in this slide is one or the other. I spent hours mucking about in both streams, collecting and cataloging the macroinvertebrates who lived there. I can’t tell from this picture which creek I was standing in. For a brief time both streams are nearly indistinguishable, cutting through the same geology, hosting the same biota, penetrating the same forest cover. But once a drop’s decision is made the changes follow fairly swiftly, and as the drainages diverge their differences mount up. 

If you want to trace their courses (and who wouldn’t?!) you can find the starting point on the divide at  37°17’7.41"N / 80°27’34.36"W and follow along. The shorter northerly track is Craig Creek → James River → Hampton Roads/Chesapeake Bay → Atlantic Ocean; to the south the flow tracks 

Poverty Creek → New River → Kanawha River → Ohio River → Mississippi River → Gulf of Mexico, which is as large a watershed as you could ask for in North America. 

Slide Show: Freshet, Montgomery County, Virginia, October, 1977.

There is a stretch of US 460 just west of Blacksburg where the highway rides the crest of Brush Mountain, and follows the line of the subcontinental divide. A raindrop falling here hesitates a moment before joining its fellows, and a fateful choice is made, to flow into the James River drainage, with it’s short route to the sea, or to merge with the stream that will carry it all the way to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. About 1000 feet on either side of the divide (300 meters) runoff enters permanent watercourses: Craig Creek to the north, or Poverty Creek to the south. 

The small flow in this slide is one or the other. I spent hours mucking about in both streams, collecting and cataloging the macroinvertebrates who lived there. I can’t tell from this picture which creek I was standing in. For a brief time both streams are nearly indistinguishable, cutting through the same geology, hosting the same biota, penetrating the same forest cover. But once a drop’s decision is made the changes follow fairly swiftly, and as the drainages diverge their differences mount up. 

If you want to trace their courses (and who wouldn’t?!) you can find the starting point on the divide at  37°17’7.41"N / 80°27’34.36"W and follow along. The shorter northerly track is Craig Creek → James River → Hampton Roads/Chesapeake Bay → Atlantic Ocean; to the south the flow tracks 

Poverty Creek → New River → Kanawha River → Ohio River → Mississippi River → Gulf of Mexico, which is as large a watershed as you could ask for in North America.