I'm still dropping noticeably in elevation, and I watch as a trickle of water bounces over rocks to merge with other streamlets and quickly widens into a respectable creek.
The surrounding forest looks less healthy. The top of Buck Hollow is a tree graveyard, as if a plague of voracious loggers were let loose who didn't bother to clean up the timber after indiscriminately chopping it down. The real culprits are much less obvious: nonnative insects and disease. Chestnut blight, gypsy moths on oaks, dogwood anthracnose, sycamore anthracnose, and hemlock woolly adelgid have all found homes in the park.