Fairy Stone State Park 12/28/13—12/30/13

We came to Fairy Stone to get our pin for our 21^st park. We planned for some time to come down to a cabin here because it’s just such a long way to bring the camper.

There were literally deer SLEEPING IN THE ROAD.



The cabin was very nice, much what you’d expect: a small living room with a small love seat and chair (the old plank box style) and a small table with four chairs, a tiny kitchen that you can barely move around in, and a decent sized bedroom which has a comfortable but sadly only double sized bed. The bathroom had a small but nice shower with plenty of hot water and good water pressure.

It was getting dark when we arrived at the cabin but we sure could appreciate the view. WOW!

The stone fireplace in the living room was lovely but sadly did not like to draw well; we finally had to buy three hour fire logs to get the thing going.

Ahhhhhh.

The living room furniture was pretty hard and not conducive to snuggling down with a book, which was my plan; I had preloaded several new books onto my iPad mini with the idea of resting in front of a roaring fire. Yeah, this isn’t a ski chalet, for sure. Oh, and the fact that I somehow neglected to a) charge my iPad before leaving home or b) bring the cord with me cast rather a damper on the whole reading thing. Dave was using the Kindle but I stole it from him whenever I could.

We woke on the first morning to a pouring rain, which we had expected. I was fairly grumpy because I had, literally, not a thing to do. The movies we’d brought wouldn’t play on my lap top, my iPad was dead, my phone had no signal, I had no books to read other than my ebooks—I was completely without entertainment. All I wanted was to read by the fire, man!

Fortunately, by noon the rain had stopped and the sun came out. The lake was beautiful in the winter sun and we geared up to go for a hike.

Wow. I am so totally and completely out of shape. We hiked about a mile (probably less) and I was dripping sweat and gasping for air. I will blame the sweat on overdressing (long johns under my hiking pants and two shirts under my fleece) but the truth is I need to get my butt back out on the trails with some semblance of regularity. Katahdin awaits.

After hiking, we spent some quiet time sitting on the front porch overlooking the lake while Dave read (!!!!!darnit!!!!!) and I worked on writing.



Ollie napped.

What a view!

Dave and I both vote for coming back in the summer. Lovely.

Camping 8 (cabin; didn’t use the campground)

Hiking 6

Bathhouses ? Didn’t see them

Other ? Gift shop/office was closed

Riding there is an equestrian campground with stalls like James River, but it’s too far to haul horses

Water nice lake—I think it would be a lot like Bear Creek or Hungry Mother as far as kayaking goes.

Smith Mountain Lake 11/29/13-11/30/13

We planned the last camper trip of the year for the weekend after Thanksgiving. We’d used the camper as extra quarters while the in-laws visited, so we needed to dump the tanks—at least, that was the reason I used to suggest to Dave that we should work in one last camping trip. The truth was that I really love fall camping and was wanting to get away.

I don't mess around.

Smith Mountain Lake is lovely, and the lake is, of course, HUGE. The campground was fairly empty except for a couple of other rigs and one group of extremely hardy tent campers. Turned out they were from Alaska and it was a good thing, too. It was REALLY cold that weekend. We built a fire and sat out for a little while but didn’t make it very long. The camper hose froze overnight. Fortunately our propane heat is, as always, excellent.

 

We went on a short hike which took us past an old fallen down cabin, along the lake and out to Turtle Island, which was pretty. Other than that it was fairly non-descript and looked like most of the other state parks we’ve hiked—hills, trees, more trees, and then some trees. Oh, and an occasional glimpse of a lake. It was nice but I probably wouldn’t go back for the hiking. And I probably wouldn’t for the kayaking, either, since the lake is big enough for waves and allows gas powered boats.

All in all it was a nice, short trip. We were slated to stay two nights but packed it in the afternoon of the second day.

Hiking  5

Bathhouses 9 (modern, but the heat could use some help)

Riding ? I think there is some but didn’t see the amenities

Camping 5 (ok, but a little tricky getting up and down the hills to the pull through spots)

Water 5 Huge lake, too big for my liking

Other ? there is a visitor center but it was closed for the season