Last Wednesday night, I set off for a quick five day trip to visit some friends who live in Loudoun County, Virginia. I hadn't been back there while the leaves were changing since 2006, so I was really looking forward to shooting around their neighborhood and perhaps a couple of trips in to Washington DC to shoot the monuments and mall area.
Unfortunately, just as my plane took off, it began to rain. And it rained almost non stop for five days straight. On top of this, the temperatures around Loudoun County had been in the the high 80's for at least two weeks prior, and as a result, hardly any of their leaves had changed. Add to this the fact that some idiots in Washington had just shut down the government and my trip was looking like a total disaster.
On the bright side, I had a rental car that could go about 500 miles on one tank of gas and gas was around $3.20 in Virginia. So I looked my friends Rod and Terry in the eye on Thursday morning and told them I was going to keep driving North until I found some blue sky, even if it meant driving to Canada.
True to my word, I reached Deep Creek Lake up in Maryland after a 2.5 hour drive and it was still a bit murky. I was determined to keep moving North and began to look around on my iphone for ideas. Suddenly, I remembered seeing a gorgeous shot taken by
Kurt Miller
just before I left. I knew he had taken it somewhere in Pennsylvania, so I pulled up his flickr account and got the info. His shot was taken at McConnells Mill, which is about an hour North of Pittsburgh. After checking google maps, I found that I could make it in another 2 and 1/2 hours. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was already after 1, but I was pretty sure I could make it before I lost the afternoon light.
I made it to the turn off for McConnells Mill State Park in roughly 3 hours, but that was when things began to go down hill in a hurry. The signage as I left Interstate 79 was VERY clear...for about a mile, and then suddenly there were no signs at all. So I pulled up the iPhone which told me to go down some tiny dirt road called "Cheesecake" or something along those lines. The road dead-ended down near a creek and I hopped out and began to look for the mill. Well...an HOUR later, I finally found a sign along the creek which stated that the mill was located another mile or to upstream. It was only after I had arrived gasping for air that I noticed that there was a parking lot directly next to the mill. I could have DRIVEN to the mill and saved at least an hour of of searching.
On my way out of the McConnell Mill State Park, I finally found the sign for the turn off on the main road, which of course was completely buried behind a bush. In spite of the fact that I almost drove 5 hours out of my way for nothing, the sky lit up a bit as I arrived with the last bit of daylight, and I shot several frames before starting on the five hour drive back down to Virginia.
I didn't get much sleep over the next several days as I spent a great deal of time shooting with
Mike Besant and
Fred Wolfe, both of which are incredibly talented locals who took the time to show me around the the New River Gorge and Black Water Falls. I took a 6 AM flight out yesterday and then raced back to the campus to teach my afternoon class, so I'm a bit bleary eyed at the moment, but I hope to get many more shots up from my trip over the next few weeks.
By the way, this is my LEAST favorite time of year in California. Everything is is brown, hot, and ugly. I am SO jealous of my friends who live on the East Coast, especially during Autumn. I don't know if I would ever be able to move back there, but it sure is fun to think about.
William McIntosh Photography |
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