I would like to take you to the State Park.

SKIDAWAY ISLAND STATE PARK, that is. Inspired by Ken Burns' new documentary, The National Parks: America's Best Idea (from clips seen at the Concert in Central Park film I saw yesterday at the Telfair) I awoke this morning with a desire to hike, to climb a mountain like we used to do in Virginia. I chose the next best thing in Savannah and biked to Skidaway from Downtown through the cross-section of settlements from my house in the mid-1800s city...through the Victorian District and first streetcar suburbs ...through Ardsley Park and the original early 1900s "suburbs", watching fathers and mothers walk their children to school...

...enduring the mess of Southside sprawl, malls and multi-lane traffic arteries (which I did not photograph)...

...to the outskirts of the city where rural cabins mix with mid-century ranchers...
...then finally to the edge of the mainland, crossing bridges, island-hopping through the marsh...

...and onto the TRAIL to seek the treasures of the Southern Colonial Coast, including:

multi-dimensional spider webs,

dark, reflective swamps like eyes into a deep soul,

weathered sinews of a dead tree on the salt flat,

curtains of spanish moss,

a snake and one of millions of small fiddler crabs scampering sideways across the forest floor,

Shell middens, the dinner detritus of the natives,

Confederate earthworksthe writhing gnarly roots of a cedar at the water's edge,

great diagrammatic drawings on the weathered interpretive signs,

and a Bonus: Bethesda Home for Boys, an historic orphanage I always wanted to see. I was drawn from the road upon seeing an old narrow road under a tunnel of branches which led me to this entrance and another alee beyond the arch.

When I returned home with a face that had faced the wind and sun (and traffic and imminent danger of fast 18wheelers and no road shoulders) and a hungry stomach, I decided to make my own food: 4 loaves of whole-wheat bread, the family tradition. I feel so rugged and resourceful.

Thank You, Ken Burns and John Muir and all the other Parks heroes.