Sunday, November 15, 2009

My route to the field takes me on U.S. Route 40 (Alt) west through Middletown, across Turner Gap, and then into Boonsboro.

This morning dawned clear and bright and dry--at least on the east side of the South Mountain.

As I came through Middletown, I noticed in the distance what appeared to be smoke--a lot of it.

It didn't take too much longer to realize that the smoke was heavy fog pushing its way out of the Pleasant and Antietam Valleys to the west of the mountain.

The photo at left is taken just west of Middletown looking west along U.S. 40 toward South Mountain.

The "smoke" is rolling off the mountain side.


The valleys to the west of South Mountain have their own microclimates, or so it seems. Clear on one side and fog on the other; snow on one side and rain on the other, and so on.



Crossing Turner's Gap, I went from bright sun to fog which grew denser with each mile.





The fog this morning brought to mind the conditions on the morning of the 16th September 1862--fog so thick that the west side of Antietam Creek was all but invisible to those on the east.

On the 17th "daylight was slow in coming. The rain had stopped but it had left a heavy overcast, a foggy mist that covered the fields." {1} Soon the fog would drift revealing to all the work before them.

Note: 1. James V. Murfin, The Gleam of Bayonets, (Baton Rouge, LSU Press, 2004 edition), p. 211.