Key Springs Road runs down the northwestern slope of Black Oak Ridge, through the trees, from Outer Drive to Highway 61, which runs from Clinton through Marlow out to what's now the TriCounty Center on Highway 62 ( Illinois Avenue it is as it runs away from Lafayette and Haw Ridge, where the plants are, and up Black Oak Ridge) between Oak Ridge and Oliver Springs. Key Springs is a twisty little road, poorly (if at all) paved, and a place for all sorts of adventures. College students drive it much too fast, especially when the creek has risen and there's standing water across the bottom of it. When I was young, my father used to take us for a ride after church down Key Springs (never up the ridge). About halfway down there's a smallish pond, and my older brother caught a snapping turtle once, all green and red eyes and hard branch-breaking beak. In the spring it's full of dogwood and flowers and fresh green, in the fall it blazes in color, and deer and raccoons and who knows what else, like the occasional pileated woodpecker, are always just on the edge of sight....:

On this page, you can find all sorts of links, places I've bookmarked and visited once or several times or nearly daily. There aren't any descriptions, just names--it's an adventure! Pick one, give it a shot, maybe you'll catch your snapping turtle -- or he you -- or maybe you'll see the White Stag. Or maybe, you'll just have fun.