Once Eliza was cleared to be driven to Agnes Schrider’s office for her physical therapy treatments, I had more and more time on my hands; first, while she was being treated, and then later while she was doing longer and longer workouts.
Our yellow lab Ellie-Belle traveled with us, and once I had dropped Eliza off we’d head out to walk the back roads and trails of that part of Nelson County.
That fall was particularly beautiful and lingered on into December, the trees hanging on to their clothing of russet, gold, burnt orange and vivid red until the effort became too much for them. The sun, with its long fall shadows and the windless, soft atmosphere made these walks with Ellie my introduction to the seductive beauty of the county.
As you travel south along Rte. 151 you are skirting mountains to your west, but on the other side of the road there is a broad, flat, alluvial plain that stretches across to the Rockfish River. The plain is used mainly for grazing cows, and the hay that is taken from it is rolled into big bales for winter feed.
In several places there are roads that loop off of Rte. 151, cross the plain, run parallel to the river for a bit, and then curve back to Rte. 151. I started by exploring these loops, sharing the road with the occasional farm tractor or car.
There is practically no place in the Rockfish Valley section of Nelson where mountains are not front and center of your view. They are big, by Virginia standards, and the valley has its own smaller forested bumps that repeat the theme. Wintergreen is a resort that has both a valley and a mountain development. It is a big tax boost for the county and by in large has been carried out in good taste, with the terrible exception of high rise condo units that look like ugly teeth on the exposed ridge of the mountain village.
When wait times got longer I explored the Wintergreen trails, also stunning in their beauty and variety. Slowly, without even recognizing that it was happening, the shadow of Eliza’s accident lifted from me, coaxed by the world-class beauty to which those walks exposed me. I came to know that Eliza would fully recover, despite the two steps backward that seemed to accompany every step forward, and to feel deep gratitude for the superb treatment she was receiving.
Albemarle County, adjacent to Nelson, is also very beautiful, but it is a tamed, domesticated beauty of groomed land and smaller mountains. It is a huge county, but there is not much that you would call “backwoods” in Albemarle. Nelson is different, and the people who live there know it and value it. You can find plenty of backwoods in Nelson.
