Years ago they drew little notice, the pond that never freezes, the rainbow of colors glinting off the surface of a creek, the hard-to-pronounce chemicals sprayed, painted and, yes, sometimes spilled around the mile-long stretch of factories on the south side of town.
This week, driving through flood-ravaged McDowell County, past the twisted remains of mobile homes, overturned cars and houses devoured by rampaging creeks, it was hard not to be angry.
The water table is nearer the surface in valleys, particularly those formed by rivers or creeks, and is harder to access at higher elevations.
For tarpon, the way that juvenile tarpon are able to use the stinky, backwater, mosquito-infested mangrove creeks and swamps is hard to fathom.
In a hidden creek in the hard-knocks capital, Kinshasa, the river hears the screams of an unwanted girl.
In Montecito, the map showed that the areas that would be hit hardest ran parallel to creeks that emerged from the foothill canyons and wounds south to the ocean.
Think hard about what goes down the creek and if you are lucky enough to get to the reef, cherish every moment, show your children, share the wonder.
As the main road, Sir Francis Drake Blvd, crosses a short bridge connecting the mainland and the peninsula, it's hard to imagine that the little creek beneath sits atop such a massive rift zone.
They are hard to detect because there are so many creeks, you can't block all of them and these guys are native to the area - they know all the creeks," said Mpaka Jack, who is in charge of surveillance of the Shell pipelines.
The paddling wasn't hard, and yet the Jacksons, who routinely descend steep creeks and giant waterfalls, seemed intent on making my outing into an accomplishment worthy of recording and then foisting onto the world.
