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Dave and I did this run again in 2 hours and 15 minutes. The river was still up from plenty of rain. It probably won’t be much good farther into the summer.
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5/10/13-5/12/13 Shenandoah River and Sky Meadows SP
We camped at Shenandoah SP with the plan to take a side trip to Sky Meadows to hike the AT. It rained hard all last week, so we weren’t surprised that the Shenandoah was flooded, but it was disappointing to not be able to kayak it after looking forward to that for some time. At least we knew in advance so we didn’t even take the kayaks with us.
Shenandoah River SP was somewhat disappointing. The only options to camp are the treeless RV campground on the side of the mountain or a primitive campground in the woods by the river. There is no camp store and there were no oval stickers!
The view is pretty and I’m sure the river is lovely when it’s not above flood stage.
On Saturday we went up the Sky Meadows to hike the AT.
The shop at Sky Meadows is very nice. It’s a historic area and there are some buildings and markers to look at, as well as baby cows. :)
Dave says "KAYLA THE PARK RANGER WAS AMAZINGLY HELPFUL!"
We did @ 8 miles of park loop including 2.43 miles of AT. This is the entire length of the Trail inside the park.
Starting out from the meadow is very scenic along a dirt farm road and a stream, past the backpacker’s camping area.
The second mile up the North Ridge Trail were brutal and J whined. I was too busy trying to breathe to take photos.
But then we got here. There is a clearing at the top with a nice bench where we had lunch. There are signs pointing all three directions--back to Sky Meadows, north to Harper's Ferry, and south to Shenandoah.
Once we started on the AT, the trail was much, much easier.
Dave had never seen a stile before!
After we finished the 8 miles at Sky Meadows we decided to drive up to Harper’s Ferry.
We did a little sightseeing, got on the AT and walked across theC&O Canal
Then we had dinner at a cute little outdoor restaurant. Fun!
Dave says, "AFTER LOOKING AT THE DETAILED MAP OF HARPER'S FEERY, WE REALIZED THAT WHEN WE CROSSED THE FOOTBRIDGE WE WERE IN MARYLAND, SO WE DID 3 STATES IN 1 DAY!"
On Sunday, which was Mother’s Day, we hiked the 3.2 Allen’s Mountain loop trail at Shenandoah. It was supposed to be the prettiest views in the park but we weren’t impressed. Culler’s Overlook was prettier.
The view is pretty and I’m sure the river is lovely when it’s not above flood stage.
The shop at Sky Meadows is very nice. It’s a historic area and there are some buildings and markers to look at, as well as baby cows. :)
Dave says "KAYLA THE PARK RANGER WAS AMAZINGLY HELPFUL!"
We did @ 8 miles of park loop including 2.43 miles of AT. This is the entire length of the Trail inside the park.
Starting out from the meadow is very scenic along a dirt farm road and a stream, past the backpacker’s camping area.
The second mile up the North Ridge Trail were brutal and J whined. I was too busy trying to breathe to take photos.
But then we got here. There is a clearing at the top with a nice bench where we had lunch. There are signs pointing all three directions--back to Sky Meadows, north to Harper's Ferry, and south to Shenandoah.
Once we started on the AT, the trail was much, much easier.
Dave and Jordan worked together to find the Hiking Upward geocache on the AT.
Coming back down Ambassador Whitehouse trail was lovely. There is an overlook called “Paris View”. Who knew Paris was a small town in northern Virginia ?
Dave had never seen a stile before!
After we finished the 8 miles at Sky Meadows we decided to drive up to Harper’s Ferry.
We did a little sightseeing, got on the AT and walked across the
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| You can guess which member of the family took this. Yes, Jordan is the artsy one. |
Then we had dinner at a cute little outdoor restaurant. Fun!
Dave says, "AFTER LOOKING AT THE DETAILED MAP OF HARPER'S FEERY, WE REALIZED THAT WHEN WE CROSSED THE FOOTBRIDGE WE WERE IN MARYLAND, SO WE DID 3 STATES IN 1 DAY!"
We drove back to Shenandoah and made a fast camp fire as darkness was falling, and made some S’mores before showers and bed.
I took this picture, and I didn't even scream.
Shenandoah Park Rating:
C 8 (big, but too open)
B 10
W 10 (Shenandoah River
H 8 (Shenandoah is 8ish but Sky Meadows is definitely a 10)
R 0
O 0 (there’s NO STORE?!)
S 8
B 2 (bathrooms in visitor’s center but no bathhouse)
W 0 (none)
H 10
R 0
O 10 (nice shop, historical value)
S 10
This was the longest, toughest, most beautiful hike we’ve done.
Lots of rest spots and photo ops.
Thank God.
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| The top. |
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| Yep, made it! |
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| There is a little walled off seating area. DO NOT GO ON THE ROCKS! |
After the top of the waterfall--a Clif bar never tasted so good!--we hiked 1.3 miles up to the meadow. This is an uphill trail along the prettiest mountain stream imaginable, past “our” backpacking camping spot. Of course, we didn’t actually camp there, but we’d love to some time.
(Shortly after this, the battery on my phone gave out so there were no pictures until we recharged. )
We wandered around through the meadow for awhile searching for the AT trail head. Then we found the correct side and the correct road but turned off onto a GWNF trail before we got to the actual AT. We hiked @1 mile out and turned around. (Later, with more research, it turns out we were less than .5 mile from the trailhead.) I was so bummed that we didn’t get on the AT. From there we hiked all the way back down to the lower parking lot. Man, downhill hurts my knee.
We hiked a total of 8.2 miles up and back. In the future it would be good to leave a car at the top parking lot. Then we could hike up the falls, go up to the AT and hike a little, then come back down to the top parking lot and drive down instead of walking all the way back down the falls.
On the way out we DROVE PAST the AT parking lot at the bottom of the mountain. But of course. Dave whipped around and we went and walked up it a little and got some pictures.
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4/27/13
After a long, cold winter eyeing the river every day on the way to work, I was FINALLY able to get my kayak in! It was a gorgeous, perfect day. Having water in the river makes kind of a huge difference! The river was moving quickly and we had absolutely no shallow spots where we got hung up.
We saw 2 bald eagles, a blue heron, an osprey, 2 river otters (!) and a million turtles. It was GLORIOUS!! We’re going again next weekend!
After we finished on the river, we hiked Pleasant Grove, River Bluff trail pole barn to dog park. Just a lovely day!
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Dave and I went out to Pocahontas SP for a hike and were disappointed in the trails (particularly the markings). After a hike around the Powhatan trail, we left and went out to Dutch Gap instead.
My boys.
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| One of my favorite photos of them. |
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4/14/13 Moorman’s River (Again!)
Dave and I went back to Moorman’s River with J and Ollie.
This time we went the whole way up to the waterfall. It’s beautiful! What a lovely day.
This time we went the whole way up to the waterfall. It’s beautiful! What a lovely day.
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Dave and I hiked from the lower parking lot to the bridge at Monticello and back. It was a really nice training walk/run. We did 4 miles in 68 minutes.
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Took Dave to Moorman’s and went a bit past the second river. He LOVED it (I knew he would!) We didn’t have time to go farther than that because we were going wine tasting and had a time limit.
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Ollie didn’t mind it being cold but Dave and I about froze. We even left our gloves on for lunch. It was another hot cocoa day, and Ollie enjoyed part of Dave's tuna sub.
It’s very nice hike. We found 2 caches while we were there, including a GeoBug.
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After driving by this sign for years, I finally got to see what it is. It’s a lovely little natural area some folks donated. The trail makes for a nice little hike. The trail side goes down to the creek and has a nice lunch spot with a bench, then up the hill through an open area (we startled a flock of grouse into flight.) After returning to the parking lot we went across the street to check out the other side. There is a large pond and a series of small ponds. We found a cache on this side.
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Heather invited me hiking and we went up to Moorman’s River. I took Ollie with me—Heather loved him.
The river was very high and we only got up to the second river. We couldn’t get across because it was so high and it was too cold to wade in January.
It was still a very fun day and I enjoyed it a lot. Can’t wait to get back when the weather is nicer!
Dave, Ollie and I hiked the yellow-blazed River Bluff Trail from the pole barns to the dog park. It’s about 3.3 miles. It was VERY cold this day! We packed lunch and ate on the bench behind the library. Dave didn’t know it but I had filled a thermos with hot cocoa and hidden it in his backpack. He did wonder why his pack seemed heavy but he was awfully glad to have it when I pulled it out!
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| Did I mention it was cold? |
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Dave and I took Ollie on the 3.4 mile River View loop on a very wet trail. We had to cross a stream by going rock to rock, We discovered that our boots are indeed waterproof, thankfully. (The trail leads to the overlook where Suzie’s horse stepped on a bee’s nest and Leah kicked Max on a very long ago Silver Riding Team trail ride, in the days before we owned Leah and Max.)
After hiking the trail we looked around and picked up the ‘Pleasant Grove Rust Bucket’ geocache.
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We went up intending to get on Skyline Drive Skyline Drive Skyline Drive
Then we drove back to Exit 99, our starting point, with the plan of just walking up the hill at
We WILL be back!
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| Fearless GeoDog leads the way. |
We stopped by Sailor's Creek Battlefield while we were there to look around. It’s a nice little historical site with a visitor’s center. I’d love to take my classes there.
Park Rating (High Bridge
C 0 (none)
B 10
W 0
H 8
R 10
O 0
S 5
Park Rating: (Sailor's Creek):
C 0 (none)
B 10
W 0
H 5
R 0
O 10
S 10
What, you thought we’d never go back after the August camping trip fiasco? Yeah, me too. Fortunately, we wanted somewhere close for the First Day Hike and decided to give BCL’s hiking trails a shot since we hadn’t even looked at them when we camped there. We hiked the Channel Cat Loop with forays onto
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| Today |
We went hiking at First Landing during our 20th anniversary trip to the beach.
It was very nostalgic sinceSeashore State Park
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| 20+ years ago |
It was very nostalgic since
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| (He was a handsome devil, wasn't he?) |
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| (Still is!) |
We hiked the Osprey and High Dunes trails and did a little geocaching. The part has lots of trails and we haven’t even scratched the surface.
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We took J and Ollie on a short hike down Sandy Beach Trail from the  |
| My Ariat Terrain boots. I think we're going to make many happy memories together! |
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11/9/12 – 11/11/12
This place is ginormous! Not sure I love that about it. It feels too spread out. There is a longish trek to the bathhouse because there were no close camping spots left.
On the plus side, the bathhouse is nice, the sites are big, and we got our first pull through spot with the camper—which was HUGE.
The trails vary from really nice to ‘huh? there’s a trail?’ The markings need to be redone. There are not nearly enough. We actually got completely lost on a trail that sort of ended, and another unmarked trail took up where the first stopped. Thank goodness we had our (new) GPS and had set a way point. Yay for technology!
The lake is pretty and extremely big, but very busy and allows big boats with gas engines. It’s probably not really great for kayaks, although it was too cold for us to try.
On Saturday we hiked part of Glenara Trail from the campground to the Visitor’s Center. Then we tried to hike Fisherman’s Trail and went off trail for an extra mile or so (see above) Then we hiked the Railroad Ford Trail and the Old Pond Trail. Our total mileage for the weekend was around 4.6 miles, and we found 5 geocaches along the way. Ollie was completely worn out when we were done.
Park Rating:
C 8 (big, some nice in the trees, but some really wide open)
B 10
W 8 (lake, huge)
H 8 (needs trail marking!)
R 0
0 5 store and visitor’s center
S 3
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10/19/12-10/21/12 T
“Don’t bother.”
That was my first impression of Twin Lakes
And
No
Oval
Stickers.
Pooh.
However. The hiking trails are very nice and when we did the 4 mile Otter Path trail we found 
The next day we hiked the Goodwin Lake Trail and the Dogwood Trail. Then we got a GPS from the ranger station and coords and found a couple more caches in the day use area and on Otter Path again.
Park Rating:
C 2
B 2
W 5 (lake)
H 8
R 0
O 0
S 6
W 5 (lake)
H 8
R 0
O 0
S 6
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10/16/12 Holliday Lake
I knew what I was doing when I called this blog "Never a dull moment." And that "Adventures in Stupidity" thing? Spot on.
We decided to go camping again this past weekend. Dave had Friday off, so I played hooky (J was my substitute--how cool is that?) and we went camping at Holliday Lake Friday through Sunday.
I knew what I was doing when I called this blog "Never a dull moment." And that "Adventures in Stupidity" thing? Spot on.
We decided to go camping again this past weekend. Dave had Friday off, so I played hooky (J was my substitute--how cool is that?) and we went camping at Holliday Lake Friday through Sunday.
The weather was di-vine. It was just the perfect temperature during the day--plenty cool enough to hike in jeans and a t-shirt but not cold enough to need long sleeves, and even warm enough on the sunny lake to kayak. As soon as the sun started going down, the temperature dropped into 50's overnight, so we had big beautiful campfires and enjoyed sitting around them in sweatshirts and jackets. The heat in the camper works GREAT and we were very comfortable. There was plenty of hot water in the bathhouse and the heat worked well in there, too.
We took the kayaks and, since we are trying to find a new "cold" weather activity to do while camping, we also packed our hiking boots. Well, my hiking boots that were really riding/mucking boots and Dave just took his tennis shoes. I thought we might walk a mile or so and that would be ok. Oh. I also packed my knee brace.
It's a good thing I did. We hiked a total of EIGHT miles over the three days--6.3 of those miles on Saturday alone. We did every trail in the park.
On Friday, we arrived about noon, got everything set up, and went off on our first hike. The Northridge Trail is a .4 mile trail to an overlook over the lake. There is a lot of uphill which wasn't bad--it was the downhill on the return trip that hurt. Fortunately I put my knee brace on before we went, and that helped a lot. We decided to go kayaking after that so we changed and put the yaks in at the tiny boat landing. The lake is wide and it was pretty windy, so there were actual waves. That was very cool! We checked out some of the coves and sheltered areas and tried some fishing, although any fish that might have been in there weren't buying what we were selling. We got back to the camper in time to grill some steaks and baked potatoes and have a delicious dinner by the campfire. We stayed at the fire until we were both almost asleep. It was quiet and lovely.
We took the kayaks and, since we are trying to find a new "cold" weather activity to do while camping, we also packed our hiking boots. Well, my hiking boots that were really riding/mucking boots and Dave just took his tennis shoes. I thought we might walk a mile or so and that would be ok. Oh. I also packed my knee brace.
It's a good thing I did. We hiked a total of EIGHT miles over the three days--6.3 of those miles on Saturday alone. We did every trail in the park.
On Friday, we arrived about noon, got everything set up, and went off on our first hike. The Northridge Trail is a .4 mile trail to an overlook over the lake. There is a lot of uphill which wasn't bad--it was the downhill on the return trip that hurt. Fortunately I put my knee brace on before we went, and that helped a lot. We decided to go kayaking after that so we changed and put the yaks in at the tiny boat landing. The lake is wide and it was pretty windy, so there were actual waves. That was very cool! We checked out some of the coves and sheltered areas and tried some fishing, although any fish that might have been in there weren't buying what we were selling. We got back to the camper in time to grill some steaks and baked potatoes and have a delicious dinner by the campfire. We stayed at the fire until we were both almost asleep. It was quiet and lovely.
Dave had joked after the .8 mile (total) hike on Friday that we should do the 6.3 Lakeshore trail on Saturday. I told him he was insane. But I thought about it...and thought about it some more...and when we got up on Saturday morning at 10:00 I told him we were going to do it. We packed plenty of food and water, dressed with some common sense, and took off. Let me tell you that 6.3 miles is a lot longer than .8. I knew it was going to be tough but really I had no idea. At one point I was ready to steal a canoe and cut back across the lake. I suggested bribing the 4H teen counselors we saw on the lake with a case of beer if they would just go get our kayaks. But alas, no, we had to walk the entire thing.
It was really quite lovely. There are several beautiful overlook spots, including Brennen's Overlook which we dubbed "Fried Chicken Overlook" because that's what we brought for lunch there. The highlight of the trip, for me, was coming down a long steep set of steps to the metal bridge and finally being able to see the dam on the far side of the lake. I couldn't get close enough to see it Friday in my kayak, and the sound of a lot of water and the warning buoys encouraged me to stay safely away. It was so beautiful that we stopped and stood for several minutes, and took plenty of pictures. David wanted to try to climb down the other side to the pool below, but I wouldn't let him. It was far too dangerous.
After we finished our hike, which took us almost exactly four hours, we jumped in the kayaks for about an hour. Again, the fish were hiding, but I enjoyed just sitting down for awhile! I had left meatballs in the crockpot for dinner and boy, it was nice coming back to a hot meal already cooked. We built another fire and sat until it died down. It was just chilly enough to wrap up together in a blanket. The stars were just amazing. How could I not know how nice fall camping was??
On Sunday morning we had breakfast and set out for the last two trails of the park. The Dogwood Ridge Trail is .7 of a mile and goes just up above the Northridge Trail. It's a loop that goes back to the park road. After that, we went back down the Lakeshore Trail to the Saunders Creek Trail, a short spur that goes up along the creek. The fish weren't biting there, either. We went back to the camper, packed a cooler with lunch, and took the kayaks back out. Our goal this time was to paddle across the lake to a tiny cove just beyond Brennen's Overlook. We found a way in around the fallen and partially submerged trees and were able to get out of the kayaks and pull them up into the woods. I was TERRIFIED of getting out of my kayak and stepping into the completely murky water up under the bank in that completely wooded cover with all those trees in the water--I just KNEW there was a nest of watermoccasins waiting for me. But I eventually was able to do it and there were no snakes that I saw. We walked back up the trail and had lunch at Brennen's Overlook--still called Fried Chicken Overlook--and then kayaked back across the lake. The wind was so strong and the waves were so high that they were breaking across our bows and spraying us with water. It was completely exhilarating!
On Sunday morning we had breakfast and set out for the last two trails of the park. The Dogwood Ridge Trail is .7 of a mile and goes just up above the Northridge Trail. It's a loop that goes back to the park road. After that, we went back down the Lakeshore Trail to the Saunders Creek Trail, a short spur that goes up along the creek. The fish weren't biting there, either. We went back to the camper, packed a cooler with lunch, and took the kayaks back out. Our goal this time was to paddle across the lake to a tiny cove just beyond Brennen's Overlook. We found a way in around the fallen and partially submerged trees and were able to get out of the kayaks and pull them up into the woods. I was TERRIFIED of getting out of my kayak and stepping into the completely murky water up under the bank in that completely wooded cover with all those trees in the water--I just KNEW there was a nest of watermoccasins waiting for me. But I eventually was able to do it and there were no snakes that I saw. We walked back up the trail and had lunch at Brennen's Overlook--still called Fried Chicken Overlook--and then kayaked back across the lake. The wind was so strong and the waves were so high that they were breaking across our bows and spraying us with water. It was completely exhilarating!
We packed out and finished dumping the camper at exactly 3:00. We're getting really good at setting up/packing out. This gets easier and more fun every time we do it. We've already made reservations for this coming weekend at Twin Lakes--this will be our sixth oval sticker for the camper!
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9/30/12 Hardware WMA to Bremo Bluff
The 6.9 miles between the Hardware Wildlife Management Area boat ramp and the public boat ramp at Bremo are a schizophrenic mess. The first four miles or so are almost completely riffles/rapids and fast moving water. I was actually scared while kayaking today, and that's a first.
We were coming through a section of rapids and I got slammed into a submerged rock between two boulders. I got hung up sideways in very fast water, with my kayak tilted on it's side and water just pouring in. I ended up completely swamped and had to tip out of my yak. There was really no other option, as I was jammed up too tight to pole out and my yak was almost completely full of water by then.
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| doesn't look like much from a distance, but I was WAY up close and personal with a whole lotta water right up in there. |
A bit later we came to the end of Big Island, which was something we were desperately watching for. Dave had found and printed a map of the paddle, and we laminated it and brought it with us. The map warned that if you went to the right of Big Island there were Class II rapids at the end, but if you went to the left the rapids were Class III. The problem was that Big Island is over two miles long, and there are many islands interspersed through this section of river, so we never really knew when we got to Big Island or if we were on the correct side. But man, did we know we had reached those Class II's. That water was MOVING and there were not many good spots to pick to try to run through. I was scared for the second time in the same day but fortunately we were able to crash on through with little problems.
Once past Big Island, the next 2 miles+ were flat water that moved at a decent clip. We floated through most of this part while trolling lines in the water. We each caught a smallmouth bass and threw them back. We really needed the calm water after all the excitement and exertion of the first four miles!
Right at the very end there was one last bit of white-ish water, a Class II known as Phelp's Falls. We had pooh-poohed it, since I drive over that bridge every day and had looked. The rocks that I assumed were Phelp's Falls were pretty puny. What we discovered, however, is that the falls themselves weren't visible from the road because they are DIRECTLY UNDER THE BRIDGE. Oh. Well, they weren't too bad and were a nice way to end the day.
All in all, it was an exciting trip, but one I probably won't undertake again unless I'm feeling invincible.
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7/29/12 Bent Creek to Canoe Landing, September 9
We took the camper, the kayaks, and the dog to James River State Park over the weekend of September 8-9. We left J home because the main purpose of the trip was to do the 6.5 miles of river between Bent Creek Landing and Canoe Landing, and, well, J has gotten wussy about kayaking.
We arrived late morning on Saturday and found a great camper spot--it was actually right across the road from the bathhouse, but you couldn't see the bathhouse from the camper at all. We set up, leveled, got everything running and perfect, and headed out to the river.
The plan was to take the kayaks and paddle around in the water at Canoe Landing with Ollie. We wanted to see if he would like the river even though he didn't like the ocean. (He didn't.) We also wanted to see if he would sit in the kayak while we paddled.
So we got the yaks in the water and pulled mine right up to the edge of the boat landing. With much cajoling, pushing, and a bit of picking-up-and-putting-him-in, we got Ollie into the kayak. You could tell that he was not particularly excited about this new experience, but being the good dog that he is, he didn't complain.
He also didn't fit very well, but then what do you expect from a 65 pound Irish wolfhound mix?
We paddled around and eventually he got the idea of how to sit so that I wasn't completely off balance. We went upriver a bit and paddled back down. I was loving having him with me, and once he drank some of the water out of the bottom of the yak he was happier laying further down.
Since things were going well, we decided to do the 2.2 mile paddle from Canoe Landing up to Dixon Boat Landing. Dave got out and went up to the livery to get them to shuttle him back from Dixon. While he was dropping off the truck, the skies opened up and I got downpoured on...while paddling around with the dog still in the kayak. He was not at all happy at that point and wanted out in a bad way. But by the time Dave got back, most of the rain had moved off and we decided to go for it.
Ollie was a trooper, the weather held, and we had a lovely little paddle without further excitement. Afterwards, we went back to the camper and Dave broke in the new grill for steaks.
Delicious!
On Sunday we got up early and met the livery guy for a shuttle to Bent Creek. The trip up to the landing in the van was scarier than the trip itself--I think the guy wanted to become a NASCAR driver.
The trip itself was breathtaking. The scenery is amazing on that stretch of the river. I didn't imagine that there were rocks like that in the James. Unfortunately, I still don't have a waterproof camera so I have no pictures from that part of the weekend. We will definitely go back and take some another time.
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9/1/12-9/3/12 Pocahontas State Park
Pocahontas is BIG!
It has a large pool with water play area for kids. Unfortunately, the pool was overrun with not-so-nice people (because it was Labor Day weekend?) so it was kind of a bust. But I can definitely that see on a normal weekday or weekend camping trip, when it’s really hot, the pool would be a big draw for this park.
It has a large pool with water play area for kids. Unfortunately, the pool was overrun with not-so-nice people (because it was Labor Day weekend?) so it was kind of a bust. But I can definitely that see on a normal weekday or weekend camping trip, when it’s really hot, the pool would be a big draw for this park.
The campsites were nice enough and spread out a bit. The bathhouses were nice and new style. There are lots of trails but we didn’t attempt any this first trip. One big bonus of this park is that it’s only 20 minutes from D’s work so I could conceivably camp during the week in the summer and he could still go to work.
The lake is pretty small and boring, but there is some decent fishing. I caught three in just a short time, including the one that GOT LOOSE IN MY KAYAK AND FLOPPED UNDER MY SEAT ALL THE WAY TO SHORE.
Park rating:
C 8
B 10
W 8 (lake is pretty boring, but there is a pool)
H 8 (lots of trails, but map stinks and the markings are very poor)
R 0
O 8 (little store, but they do have the music series)
S 0 (for this particular trip. WOW it was crowded, but of course it was Labor Day.)
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8/10/12 Campus Interruptus (Bear Creek Lake SP)
We took the "new" camper on her maiden voyage this week. We left Wednesday with high hopes and headed to Bear Creek Lake State Park in Cumberland, Virginia, which is (thankfully) only about 39 miles from home, for a five day camping trip.
Right now, it's 6:44 a.m. Friday morning, and I'm blogging from my bed. At home. We made it roughly 33 hours before we came home. And that's not counting the quick trip home late Wednesday afternoon to bring back the dog, or the midday Thursday trip into Buckingham to go by work.
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| Ollie was not having fun and was glad we brought him home. He takes up A LOT of room in a small camper. |
What we've learned: Bear Creek Lake State Park is TINY. The only place to swim is a fairly nasty looking lake. We did kayak in it but I couldn't see even a couple of inches into the water. It's very brown and murky.
They do have a nice archery instructor, and J thoroughly enjoyed her lesson.
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| The park ranger giving J a lesson. |
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| She's pretty good. This was with her longbow. |
And, most importantly: we learned that the air conditioner unit on the camper is NOT able to handle near-100 degree temperatures with 90% relative humidity.
It was so.freakin'.hot yesterday that I gave up and told Dave and J that I wanted to come home to sleep. We cleaned up after dinner, got in the truck, and hightailed it to the land of air conditioning and working internet. I was dripping sweat by the time I finished cooking dinner--with the doors and windows open, because by then the sun was down and it was cooling off outside, if not inside. There was no way I was going to sleep in the camper last night.
The rest of the week/weekend is supposed to be cooler. I'm contemplating pulling the window unit out of the bedroom window, taking it with me, and hoping I can find a window it will fit in. It would be nice to have some supplemental a/c for sure!
The other issue that we're finding with the camper is that the gray water holding tank is very small. We haven't taken an actual shower in there and I've been REALLY careful about not using too much water in the kitchen. I only dumped the water from the macaroni and hot dogs last night; all the water from dishes has been carefully dumped outside in the fire ring to prevent filling the tank. And yet, with only 1.5 days of a 5 day trip done, the gray water tank is showing 3/4 full!
I guess we're going to have to stick to camp grounds that offer full hook up sites from now on to make sure that we don't have to go dump the tanks halfway through our trips!
The plan is to head back out there today after Jordan wakes up. I'm going to measure the windows and see if we can fit a window unit in somewhere. There is a huge storm coming through today followed by what passes for a cold front in Virginia in August--temps should be in the high 80's instead of the high 90's--so hopefully our little rooftop unit can keep up. Otherwise, we'll be buying a window unit TODAY to finish the trip.
To be continued...
UPDATE 8/12/12
Well, color me stupid. The a/c is fine. It was just frozen up because I was running it too cold/too long.
We took our small bedroom window unit back with us Friday afternoon and put it in the camper. It started bringing the temperature down nicely right away, and we breathed a sigh of relief. Dinner was just about ready by then (I'd put meatballs in the crockpot--outside on the picnic table--earlier in the day), so we had our meatball subs and played some UNO. The poor rooftop unit was still trying to work, but thankfully it was cooler in there because of the window unit.
We settled in for bed later that evening and all was fine when suddently there was an odd noise like something falling over, followed by a shriek from J. "What was that?" she yelled, then "I'M WET!" I jumped up, turned on the light, and discovered a chunk of melting ice had landed on her. I looked slowly upwards and then shined a flashlight inside the a/c unit from the bottom. With the flashlight I could actually see the wall of ice. DUH! So I turned it off and put a basin under it to catch the water as it melted.
By morning it was working perfectly, and it continued to work just great the rest of the trip. We took the window unit out Saturday afternoon and stuck it in the truck to bring home. We had a lovely day Saturday, including another archery lesson for J. This time Dave went with her and got to play with a crossbow. Later that evening I started a nice fire out in the firepit and Dave barbecued chicken while I made au gratin potatoes inside the camper. We sat out until after dark, playing cards and making s'mores. It was a fun way to spend our last evening camping.
We packed up today, then headed for the archery range to shoot the last five target lanes. We all took turns. It was pretty fun, except I lost one of J's arrows. Argh.
Packing the camper out is a lot less work than tent camping, as I'd hoped/planned. All in all I would call the trip a general success and a true learning experience. I can't wait for Labor Day to head out to Pocahontas State Park for our next adventure!
Park rating:
C 1 (tiny campgrounds)
B 2
W 3 (boring lake)
H 8
R ? (Cumberland State Forest
O 0
S 10
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7/21/12 Paddling the James
Perseverance. What a wonderful character trait it can be!
Dave and I have been planning all week to go kayaking at James River State Park today. We know the float from the canoe landing to Dixon landing, having done a tubing trip down that route last year.
I made several phone calls to the canoe livery during the week finding out things like how much it costs to get someone to help us drop the vehicle off at the take out spot ($2.10, believe it or not!) and what the weather looked like, etc. Since it's about an hour and a half drive from here, we wanted to have our ducks in a row before we drove all that way.
J had to work today at her restaurant job, so it was just to be Dave and me. That was fine, especially since J had vowed to never do a trip over a mile again after the Rivanna fiasco.
As the week wore on, the weather forecast became more and more ominous. Yesterday it started raining and continued to rain pretty hard through the night. We decided at bedtime that we would make the call this morning, still hopeful that it would be clear enough to go on with the trip.
This morning dawned gray and drizzly. However, the forecast was for scattered showers and a 50% chance of rain, morphing into scattered thunderstorms late. We decided to go for it. So we hit Subway for lunch to take with us, packed everything up and got the kayaks loaded, and headed for the state park.
We had just about crossed the bridge at Bremo when the heavens opened up and it began to pour rain. I mean, pour. Headlights on, wipers on full blast, POURING rain. All we could do was laugh. And we decided to keep driving and see what happened as the distance and the day wore on.
When we arrived at JRSP, we stopped for gas just outside the park road. As we ran through the rain into the mini mart, I told Dave that if he just wanted to turn around right then and go home I wouldn't object. I was so disappointed, but I knew that even a 2 mile paddle in pouring rain would not be enjoyable in the least.
He surprised me by saying "Let's go on into the park, eat our lunch, and see what it's like when we're done." So we did. We drove the four miles or so up the park road to the main entrance and paid our $3 to go in. We drove down past the horse campground we stayed at last year, and parked at the canoe livery. We ate our subs sitting in the car with the air conditioning on, and just as I finished, I realized the rain had stopped. It was still overcast and gray, but it was definitely not raining.
By the time we got the yaks unloaded, everything organized, and got the truck shuttled up to the take out spot, there were actual spots of blue sky showing in the distance!
We ended up having a lovely paddle. There was just a little bit of sun from time to time but never glaring or direct. It was mostly overcast and very comfortable. The trip went very quickly compared to the tubing last year, and we would have actually liked to go right back up and do it again. But since the sky was looking like it might start pouring again, we decided to count ourselves lucky and be done for the day.
We never did get even one drop of rain on us!
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| Dave on the river |
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7/8/12 Six Miles Out (Rivanna, Crofton to Palmyra)
6.2, actually.
When we met kayak lady the day we bought Banana, she mentioned that one could put kayaks in at the other boat landing upriver and kayak down to the one we were using. She said it was a really easy, good route to learn on, and we could easily do it. We decided after practicing that first day we bought big boats that we would do the Rivanna trip the next day.
Man, I hate when people lie to me.
First of all, the river runs 6.2 miles between the Crofton boat landing and the Palmyra one. That's six point two for those of us who don't like math. When I saw that I was a little daunted, but the woman said it was easy peasy. We figured even if we just floated it we could do it in three hours, faster if we paddled.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
We put in at the Crofton landing at 2:00. Immediately it became apparent that the river was low. Very low, actually. Dave got stuck within feet of put-in. We had a hard time getting going but then it seemed better...for a little bit.
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| This, unfortunately, is NOT us. |
I cannot even begin to estimate the number of times we got hung up on high spots. We poled, pushed, shimmied, shook, even got out and portaged, most of the trip. The spots that we could actually just float along with the current were few and far between. We had to paddle almost all the whole time that we were actually in water. Even that wasn't so bad as those hang-up spots. It was completely exhausting. Then it started getting dark, windy, and thundering in the distance. J spent the middle of the run crying. Literally.
After three? four? who knew how many? hours, we were praying as we approached each bend of the river. "Please, please, please let there be a huge bridge on the other side." No such luck. At one point I was beyond believing that we were still on the right river. I was trying to think if there had been any forks we'd inadvertently taken. It stunk not knowing where we were and how much farther it was. We kept trying to guess from what little we could see other than woods up on the river banks.
I went ahead of Dave and J, hoping to see some good news farther up that I could report back. I did eventually find people swimming at an unknown swimming hole. I asked them what time it was, and a lady told me it was 6:00. Four hours?! I asked her where we were and her husband told me we had about another mile. I said to him, "My husband and daughter are coming down behind me. Do not, I mean DO NOT, tell them that." I could just see the two of them climbing out of their kayaks and refusing to paddle one more inch. The lady asked me how long I'd been kayaking and I said, "Well, you said it was 6:00 now, right? I've had this one about 26 hours."
Fortunately, it was just a little farther, easy paddling, and we saw the bridge. They had no idea of the distance (or the time, as it turned out--it was closer to 7:00!) There was a great little mini rapid at the end, and the sun came back out. Once we got there everything was fine. David didn't enjoy the hang-up spots AT ALL, but agreed that this was our biggest adventure ever. J even stopped crying and grinned.
She did say that she's never going over a mile again. Maybe I shouldn't tell her about the trip I have planned for the James.
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7/1/12 The Adventure Begins...
For as long as I can remember, I've loved to go camping. Love. it. As I've gotten older, though, I would find myself looking longingly at the beautiful RVs parked near my tent and dream of sleeping with air conditioning. I even took a small window unit with us one particularly hot Fourth of July and ran it with the tent door zipped around it! (It worked pretty darn well, shut up.)
I gave up camping when J was about five or so because I hated the heat so much and it was just so much work. (Of course, then she started riding and we basically starting living outside on weekends anyway, so I don't know why I bothered.) I started missing camping a few years ago, but by then I couldn't go much of anywhere in the summers because of Mom.
Last year, I decided the time had come. I bought a nice, big-enough-but-not-too-big tent. It's big enough for two queen air mattresses, or more typically, one queen air mattress and all of J's stuff. It's easy to put up and can be done by one adult. It came as a package deal with two sleeping bags and an air mattress! Sweet.
We broke it in last summer by taking it and the horses to James River State Park for a three day camping/trail riding trip. It was hot, hot, hot! but I had a blast. Dave came down one day and we went tubing on the James, which could be an entire blog all on it's own. Dave got separated from us, leaving me to tow J AND the cooler tube on my own. I barely made it back across the very wide expanse of river in time to make the take-out spot. Not fun, at all.
This year, we took the tent and the dog and spent three days at the beach at First Landing State Park. It was awesome! The first day was hot, but then it was rainy off and on and cooler. I did a great job, if I say so myself, of keeping things dry and covered. We had the EZ Up and the tent with a 10x12 tarp stretched between the two. It was fine. Still, there were those lovely campers parked next to us with lights on inside while we made do in the rain with an LED lantern...
When we came home from that trip, I initiated a serious discussion with Dave about my RV envy. It took a couple of casual conversations but before long, HE was starting to bring it up. He did some looking around online and sold himself on the idea. We knew we wanted a travel trailer, not an actual RV, and we started looking for used ones. Lo and behold, we stumbled upon the PERFECT camper about an hour from here for a really decent price. Here it is:
We went, we saw, we bought! The dealership is doing some minor repairs we asked for, cleaning it up although it looked great to me, and adding a hitch receiver on the back so we can put our hitchhiker on it to carry bikes, grill, etc. It will be ready for pick up in just under three weeks, and we've already booked a trip to Bear Creek Lake State Park as our maiden voyage!
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7/1/12 So, Maybe it's a Midlife Crisis... but I'm loving it.
We have three new additions to our family. They are lovingly named Banana, Great White, and Moby Grape. Here's the Grape:
You didn't know we kayaked? Yeah, me either. A lady asked me Sunday how long we'd been kayaking. My answer was "Well, you said it was 6:00, right? That means I've had this one about 26 hours."
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| Mine, obviously. No one else would be allowed to own purple, right? |
You didn't know we kayaked? Yeah, me either. A lady asked me Sunday how long we'd been kayaking. My answer was "Well, you said it was 6:00, right? That means I've had this one about 26 hours."
It was crazy. I think Dave's on some kind of drug lately. I mentioned to him that I thought kayaking would be a ton of fun. I'd done just a little reading up on it and told him I thought a sit on top kayak would be easy for us to learn to do and would be something we'd enjoy. I'd seen one online that was billed as nearly impossible to tip, and the price was great--$199. The only problem was the weight limit was 250, and we're both just over that (for now). But we agreed that the manufacturers probably erred on the safe side, and since we're losing weight blah blah blah, it would probably be ok.
Conveniently enough, we had plans to go to town the next night. As we drove by Play It Again Sports, I gasped! There was the little kayak I'd looked up, right there leaning against the store! We whipped around and went in to look at it. It was indeed the correct kayak, right price, brand new, and looking adorable. Even J was excited about this new adventure. We all agreed it would be a lot more fun than tubing, since with a dang PADDLE we might be able to get across the river without nearly killing ourselves.
I was shocked...I mean SHOCKED...when Dave said "I'll buy it for you, but we'll have to come back tomorrow with the truck." Honey, are you feeling ok? Hells yeah, I said, sounds great! We finished up our business in town and even looked at WalMart to see if they had it or another similar one, hopefully with a slightly higher weight limit, but settled on the first one.
We then drove home into the freakiest storm I've ever seen. Apparently it's called a "derecho", and it knocked out power to parts of our area for nine days. (Thankfully, we only lost it from Friday night until early Sunday morning.) So when we woke up Saturday morning, hot and with the prospect of a very long, 100 degree day with no coffee, running water, or A/C, I did not expect Dave to honor his statement of going back for the kayak--that was no longer a priority, ya know? But I didn't take into account the power of caffeine withdrawal.
It was only about 9:00 a.m. when he said "if we could take the truck to town and get some coffee, we could pick up your kayak." DEAL! We cleaned up best we could, got dressed, went and had some breakfast and coffee, and went to get our first kayak, which would quickly be dubbed the Banana Boat, now shortened to Banana.
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Aptly named, no? It is amazingly bouyant, only 8 feet long, and any idiot can do it. Really. We drove home from town, ripped the plastic off, put on our swimsuits and headed for the Rivanna boat ramp. There's a nice little swimming hole there with calm water, deep enough to kayak around without getting stuck but shallow enough to easily get in and out anywhere. We took turns and all loved it immediately.
It was very cool that there was a young woman there who happened to be a professional kayak instructor/tour guide. She took our paddle, set it correctly, and gave us a basic lesson! Once she fixed the paddle it was very easy and enjoyable to paddle around even through the small currents at the other side of the swimming hole. What fun!
The nice thing about the Banana is that it's light and short enough to toss around pretty easily. We even picked it up and put it in the pool the next day for some practice!
It didn't take long for Dave to start talking about wanting a bigger and higher weight limit kayak for himself! We happened to pass by Bass Pro Shop in Williamsburg on our way home from the beach five days later and decided to run in just to see what they had. We saw mostly sit-in kayaks rated for our weight, and one sit on top that was perfect except it only came in 12 ft--too long and heavy for me to handle. We went home mulling options.
It was that night that we found "our" camper online, so the next morning, Saturday, we headed out to Ashland to look at it. After signing the papers on the camper, we were starting for home when we decided to see if there was a BPS in Richmond. Hey, lookit--a huge bass sculpture right across the street! We found ourselves hiking through the biggest, baddest BPS we'd ever seen. It even has an upstairs! This place is amazing and I can't wait to take J to see it in three weeks.
We looked at the sit-in Ascends again and finally decided to go for it. I got the purple D10, and he got the slightly heavier rated angler model, the F10. His color is called "titanium" and it's a blue/grey blend that looks like a shark to me. Hence the name Great White for his.
It's really quite a lot bluer than grey IRL. It suits him to a T, except for the part where he doesn't really fish. Although he was talking about trying it out for that...
We had a wonderful lunch at Islamorada Fish Company inside BPS (who knew?!) and headed home with Moby and Great White in the truck bed. I called J on the way and told her we bought two new kayaks. She said "Oh, so you didn't get the camper?" No, babe, we're on a roll--we got the camper too. We loaded her kayak on top of ours and headed back to the boat landing to play.
And here's the truth: fat, old people can indeed get in and out of a sit-in kayak. It's not always graceful, and sometimes a little wet, but it's do-able. It's great exercise, and it is so.incredibly.fun!
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Started off the summer with a mid-week camping trip to the beach! I took J and Ollie with me. The forecast was for rainy and windy weather (Yay! Not.) so we built a tent city with our tent, EZ up, and a huge tarp. Ollie loved camping but was not a fan of the ocean. He did love the attention from the folks on the beach, and of course he loved sleeping in the tent with Mom!
The park has a GREAT camp/beach store with hot food, ice cream, etc. The camp sites are big and private. There is a beautiful boardwalk down to the bay. The bathhouses are old style with the showers inside the bathrooms.
We were warned that the flies there are awful, and they weren’t kidding. Man.
All in all, it was a lovely trip. We took movies and watched them on my laptop when it was too rainy or dark to do anything else. We managed to cook everything over charcoal in the fire pit despite the wet conditions. There were enough dry spells to get in some time on the beach.
Park rating scale:
C 10
B 3
W 10 (bay—nice!)
H 10
R 10
O 10 (nice store)
S 2
