Surfing the Melvin Hazel Branch

Melvin Hazel Branch debouches across Tilden Street from the 1810  Pierce Coach House,  once a dependency of the Pierce plantation. While directing the Rock Creek Gallery in the beautiful, granite-walled barn for three years until 2000, I never managed to investigate the stream.

Last week, two days before Christmas, following a night of rain, I met a friend at it's mouth, returning to the branch for the first time since the 11/15/11 hike. This morning brought colder seasonal temps, a more austere palette, saturated trunks, dripping drops and clearing skies, all the better to surf the shifting light amid the coppery warmth and cooler complements of the beech hanger.

Instead of the small digicam, it was dslr + tripod, no cheating intended. Don't look at the logic too closely, but in light of the stated blog theme, this trip grew directly from the earlier tripod-free excursion.

Surfing Melvin Hazel's waters as opposed to its lights, no matter the storm pulse, may not be safe, according to this pdf a stream-caretaking photographer who lives nearby shared. Organics and Metals in Rock Creek Tributaries counterbalance the beauty in the eye of the beholder.