U.Va. football fans are tired of seeing their team fall with the leaves. Hans Deryk/ASSOCIATED PRESS Visit the Photo Place

Leaves are turning, teams are failing: It must be fall

Rituals of fall include missing many of the colors around us and lamenting bad football

Date published: 11/8/2009

By Rob Hedelt

WHEN FALL rolls around, there are two things you can usually count on:

1) People will spend a month or so trying to figure out when the peak leaf change will happen up at Shenandoah--and miss some awesome colors here.

2) Grads of at least one nearby college, and sometimes several, will begin repeating the phrase--"What's wrong with those guys?"

The leaf change is something that we nature lovers enjoy each fall, as cool nights get all sort of chemical changes going that cause trees to erupt in fiery reds, bright oranges and searing yellows.

Because this happens first at higher elevations, we love to dash up to Shenandoah National Park or other parts of the Valley to see hillsides that seem doused with colors from a painter's brush.

The thing I've noticed through the years is that we tend to ignore many a spot with brilliant leaf changes in our own backyard.

There are trees here and there that erupt early and remind us that the changes have come. And there are whole stretches of forest that become just as colorful here as they are in mountains that draw thousands of leaf-peepers.

Boaters who leave their vessels in the water into the fall will tell you that there are few places as striking as the shores of Lake Anna or the tree lines along the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers once the trees begin to change.

Why, then, do we flock to the mountains?

We can see farther there, taking in whole mountainsides alive in color.

Not to mention the fact that it gives us an excuse to buy apples and a bowl or two of Brunswick stew we might find along the way.

As for the second ritual of fall--the annual college grumps--there's usually at least one big-time university nearby that experiences a meltdown on the gridiron each fall.

With connections to the University of Virginia--my sister's a grad and works in the hospital's health system--I typically take in at least one game a season.

This year, that came last week when the Wahoos played Duke, a truly dismal game against a rival that managed much more offense than they could generate.

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Date published: 11/8/2009