The lake once drained into the Northwest River, but construction of the canal blocked the water flow. Now, constant movement of sand through the man-made ditches into the lake is gradually filling it in, and nutrients from nearby farms are being trapped. Night is falling On a clear, cool fall day, Chuck Conley, a Chesapeake teacher and wildlife guide, helps unload a canoe at the Chesapeake Boat Landing on Route 17. The ditch is straight as an arrow, an unnatural slice, but the full range of the Great Dismal's life cycles bedecks its shoreline. Spindly-tall devil's walking stick bend over the canal.
Bears bend the stalks over and gorge on their purple berries.
A great blue heron, the water's reflection shimmering on its belly, leads the way. Game trails, used by deer, raccoons, mink, foxes, fall down to water's edge. Conley says, eying the shoreline. The only trace was wet sand on the bank. Paw paws, host trees for yellow swallow-tail butterflies, flow by.