Our first stop is Wistful Valley Orchard. Yes, it is taking longer than usual to get there—good observation. That’s because flash floods opened up a sinkhole on Route 116 that we’ve been calling the Crater to Hades. Here we are, at the orchard, a ghostly wasteland with nary an apple in sight.
Temperatures have not dropped enough to signal the biochemical process that transforms the mountainside into its usual kaleidoscope of pigmentation. It may as well be summer. And, with your knee-high boots, head-to-toe flannel, and that cursed infinity scarf, you’re probably on the verge of heat stroke. I’d recommend a swim in one of our famous gorges, except the floodwaters have churned up E. coli to levels unsafe for human contact. Ah, there’s nothing like the harvest.