There is Treasure Everywhere

Sideling Hill Creek, downstream from Hemlock Hole

We spend a lot of time looking out, up, or straight ahead.  When we're driving we (hopefully) look at the road and the other vehicles around us; we look up at the clouds to see if it's going to rain; we look out at the landscape, at mountains or lakes or vast sweeping plains, perhaps searching for a landmark, perhaps simply enjoying the view.

Without a doubt, looking up is what makes folks who are geologically inclined among the worst drivers on the road,  providing stiff competition for the people who send and receive text messages while driving.  Example:  Me:  "Look at that road cut!"  My daughter:  "LOOK AT THE ROAD!!!"

I can see it now:  the straight-laced state trooper peers at me through his mirrored dark glasses.  "Ma'am, can I see your license and registration?  No, you weren't going over the limit, but high-speed stratigraphy has been outlawed in this state.  You'll appreciate that outcrop better if you're standing still."

As I mentioned in my previous blog,  my passion for rockhounding led me to look down, which led in turn to my appreciation for fungi and wildflowers.  My habit of looking down is also, relatively speaking, safer for myself and those around me:  I tend to not step on bees or other interesting insects and, despite what you may think, I manage to avoid MOST of the poison ivy that adorns the woods of south-central Pennsylvania.

Mist on Hemlock Hole
 Late August
2009

Sideling Hill Creek http://www.sidelinghillwatershed.org/wprofile.html runs through Four Quarters Farm.  www.4qf.org   Like much of the landscape at Four Quarters, the creek is wildly beautiful, running past high cliffs formed from steeply tilted beds of "old red" Upper Devonian Catskill Formation sandstones.

Tourists!
Boaters at Hemlock Hole
 During Reconstruction of the Steps
in April 2010

In the spring, the currents are brisk (spring floods in Sideling Hill Creek are legendary).  For most of the season, campers cool off in the sublimely clear waters of two major swimming holes and a number of smaller pools, but about the middle of August the water level starts to drop, limiting the number of places that one can (or would want to) swim.  This year the water level began dropping markedly in July; by mid-August long stretches of the creek bed became so dry as to be able to serve as a path.

Looking Downstream
 from the Hemlock Hole.
Taken from the Middle
of Sideling Hill Creek
 in August 2010

Previously I had only walked the creek via a trail running from the camp to the farmhouse.  I began a series of explorations, either alone or accompanied by anyone who was inclined to tag along, including photographers, longtime members, and even newcomers.

According to John Harper, who wrote the chapter on the Devonian in The Geology of Pennsylvania, Sideling Hill Creek and its predecessor streams have been cutting through Sideling Hill and associated landforms for about 290 million years. To put this into perspective, the events that raised the Appalachian Mountains occurred about 300 million years ago--a mere 10 million years before.  That sounds like a lot but in the context of the 4.5 billion year history of our planet, it's not.  Really.  In fact, it means that the creek was probably already there when the continent-continent collision that produced the southern Appalachians took place, and that the water started cutting into the rock pretty much as soon as the rock started rising.  Note:  the first appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens is a by comparison only 195,000 years ago.  Sideling Hill Creek is REALLY old.  Okay, not as old as the Susquehanna, but pretty damned old.

Undercut Sedimentary Bed, Sideling Hill Creek
August 2009

Walking downstream the cliffs, layered in pinkish brick red and pale green, rise high to your left.  Certain beds seem to attract moss and lichen; others do not.  Some beds are shot through with quartz veins; others have evidence of fossils.  The stream's meandering power is strongly evident as well:  less resistant beds have been cut deep back into the hillside, and you may find flood debris lodged in tree branches 7 feet off the ground.

Last summer I became fascinated by how Sideling Hill Creek seemed to cross cut some of the rock beds; this summer I was able to make more detailed observations of the bedrock that ordinarily lies underwater.  Some of this rock is very dark, seems much more resistant to erosion than other layers of the formation, and is pocked with craters, of which a number have worn straight through to become holes.  In the picture below you will observe (especially at the left) the layers of rock plunging into the ground.  I am still working out in my head how the creek came to be cutting across these beds instead of following them.

Panoramic View of Quartz Arenite Beds in Sideling Hill Creek
August 2010

These stones had already gotten my attention:  holed stones are considered sacred in many spiritual traditions, and over the years I have amassed quite a collection from a number of locations.  In my time at Four Quarters I had collected a number of these rocks further upstream, but had puzzled over their origin:  the rock was very hard and well-integrated like a quartzite, but quartzite was not a part of this sedimentary sequence.  I posited that the parent rock had originally been a beach or lagoon bottom, and the holes belonged to ancient burrowing creatures, but how this worked into a quartzite I didn't know.

During our conversation John Harper filled the gap for me, identifying this rock as quartz arenite, an extremely well cemented sandstone, and the fossil worm holes as Skolithos.   Not to worry:  knowing their name does not in any way diminish my fascination with them.

 Remember, when you're looking down, rocks are not the only thing you'll see:

Red-spotted Purple
Limenitis arthemis astyanax

This past week was the Week of the Voguing Butterflies.  Everytime I turned  around there was a butterfly in front of me, wings outspread as if to say, "I'm ready for my close up!"

Red Admiral Butterfly

Unsurprisingly there is also a fair amount of debris from floods on the numerous islands in the middle of the creek bed.  I found cobbles deposited in layers, their size a testament to the fury with which Sideling Hill Creek has flooded in the past.  I ran across the remains of campsites that had been carried off, either in the spring floods, during a hurricane or summertime flash flood.

And that is--I think--how Ganesh came to me.

Sometimes, when the weather is especially fine, I like to go on walkabout before I head out from the Farm,  to take pictures and--wait for it--look for rocks.  On this particular occasion, armed with camera, tripod, and walking stick I set off down the path past the Fox Altar.  I found a worn trail down to the creek bed, and spent the next hour wandering idly taking pictures of places I could not have reached earlier this spring.

I was about to turn back when something oddly un-rocklike caught my eye.  Before me lay an oxidized metal plaque:   an elephant-headed god superimposed on the symbol for the sacred sound OM.  I don't follow the Hindu gods, but I know one when I see one, and this was Ganesh, who is god of good fortune, of teachers and learning.  It is from his trunk that the OM emanates.

I could not believe my eyes.

The Ganesh Plaque
Above the Arch
Altar of Things Found

Reaction has been universal:  finding Ganesh in this fashion is considered to be extremely good luck.  I took him home and cleaned him up, then brought him back to hang over the altar at the entrance to my campsite.

SO...

I hiked the creek bed trying to find understanding,

find rocks,

take pictures,

and got the spiritual pot of gold.



There is treasure everywhere.