On the Road Again. A Jaunt Through the Mid-Atlantic States. Part 1: Stone Mountain State Park

My knee surgery was successful and physical therapy has been going well.  My surgeon has released me to do whatever I feel like doing, so there's only one sensible thing to do: Road Trip!!!

Country Coach International was having a rally in Lancaster County, which is Amish country, in southeastern PA.  We had not previously seriously considered attending, but now it seemed like a good destination.  We made a plan to first visit a favorite state park, Stone Mountain State Park, then head north for a week in Pennsylvania for the rally, and finally spend a week at Brunswick Maryland.  The only downside to such a plan was the extreme heat forecast for the month of July, and the record high prices of diesel.  But what the hell, you only live once and you can't take it with you.

First stop: Stone Mountain State Park, where we camped for 4 nights.

Stone Mountain has a beautiful campground.  There are two loops with large paved sites with water and 50A electric, very suitable for RVs.  There are also a number of primitive sites great for tent camping. 

Site #62

Dorcas enjoying our new Solo fire pit

We did a hike to the Hutchinson family homesite at the base of the mountain.  The hike was only about 2 miles with moderate elevation gain, but my post-surgical knee was feeling it later.  Ice is good!  Drugs are better!

Stone Mountain is a 600-foot granite monolith

Dorcas is perpetually happy

While we didn't carry a boat on this trip, but our paddling friends Tom and Diane joined us for this segment of our trip.

Tom, Diane, Dorcas and Myron

The Hutchison family homestead circa 1850

I did some easy biking around the campground.  At first I had to raise my seat pretty high in order to bend my knee on the up stroke, but after biking a while I could lower the seat and pedal comfortably.  This suggests that biking is increasing my flexibility.

On Thursday, July 14 we left Stone Mountain and headed north towards PA.  We had made a reservation at Endless Caverns RV Resort near New Market VA.  This would break up our trip to Pennsylvania into two short travel days, 247 and 223 miles respectively.  Endless Caverns RV Resort is, you guessed it, at the Endless Caverns attraction.  It is a Passport America park, which means the Whitleys score half-priced camping. Passport America parks are not always the best, but we were pleasantly surprised with this one.  It is built on a moderately steep hillside, with well graded roads, but the sites are large, level and very attractively terraced with large rocks.

Site E-40 at Endless Caverns, a nice pull-through with satellite access

While at Stone Mountain we had met a couple traveling in a Newmar New Aire motor home. Our Dutch Star is made by Newmar as well, so we tend to talk to other Newmar owners.  The New Aire is a shorter luxury diesel pusher, and we seriously considered buying the New Aire before we bought our Dutch Star.  Click HERE to read why we didn't buy the New Aire.  Anyway, we saw this New Aire at Stone Mountain, and I spoke to the owners.  Then, just across the road from our camp at Endless Caverns another New Aire was parked that looked suspiciously like the one we had seen at Stone Mountain.  It turns out that is was one and the same.  We spent the evening with Dean and Susie, knocking back some cool ones and sharing tales about our travels and our Newmars. It's a small world in the RV community. 

Nice terraced sites on a steep campground

We did not tour the caverns this trip, but this seems to be a very pleasant resort, so maybe we will come back again.  Northward to Pennsylvania!

Fries (rhymes with trees) Out!

We had a three-day weekend coming up and we wanted to do something with some of our working friends. A paddling trip was considered. We hoped Jim and Ann, Katie and Michael would be able to join us for a three-day, two-night canoe camping trip. Everyone had Friday off and Katie had Saturday and Sunday off (her only weekend off in November). Yea! Next came the obstacles... OK, Jim and Ann were going to be in Hawaii for her brother's 11/11/11 wedding...trip to Hawaii vs padding with Myron and Dorcas...duh, no brainer. Next, Katie and Michael's 2 year old daughter has never been in a canoe...and with their work schedule not sure when they will have time to do the introduction... Maybe we should consider a backpacking trip. It was early...we still had time to plan.

Our friend Ken sent us an e-mail inviting us to spend the weekend with him and another couple in a co-worker's "cabin" in Fries, VA. We could go up on Thursday, bike and hike two or three days, enjoy the hot tub, time around a campfire and a great view overlooking the New River.

Choices, choices... We talked with Katie to see how their plans were coming together. Nothing definite yet. So, she suggested we go with the Virginia trip. We could get together with them another time. Ah, it's great to be retired and flexible.

So, how do we pack for a weekend in a cabin? We need sheets and towels, food for breakfasts, lunches and dinners... We know how to pack for canoe camping trips, no problem. We know how to pack for RV camping, no problem. We know how to pack for a backpacking trip, no problem. OK, I know we can do this. The cabin has a fully furnished kitchen, check. Will we have quick breakfasts of cereal, yogurt or group breakfasts and cook? Will we eat out for dinner or cook group meals? After consulting with Ken we planned for quick breakfasts, cook in Saturday night and eat out Thursday and Friday. We have a plan and we'll stop by the Super Walmart in Galax on the way up.

Now, for packing. There is a king, a queen, a twin and 2 full size beds. What size sheets do we take? King, Queen and Full? Well, maybe take the king set and it can fit either. We'll need trike gear, layered clothing for cold weather. Packs and hiking boots (from the RV) camera, binoculars, food and medicine for Matilda. ...this shouldn't be this hard. Believe it or not...we packed the car and met Ken in King at 4:30. At Walmart in Galax we shopped for groceries. The plan changed from quick to group cooked breakfasts. OK, Myron would fix omelets for everyone on Saturday, John would fix French toast for everyone on Sunday. We could cook in three nights...meat to grill, charcoal...extra snacks and beverages. OK, we're good.

We finally arrived at the lovely "cabin" which is a very lovely house well furnished with a great view of the New River, hot tub, gas log fireplace, private yard for Matilda to run and play. Nice.

After a few housekeeping chores and turning on everything, we settled in for a cozy evening. Friday was forecast to be a bit chilly so Ken, Myron and I agreed a hike would be our best choice. John and Easter would arrive Friday evening so we will bike on Saturday when the temps will be warmer.

We drove to Cumberland Knob for a 4 mile hike. Access to the parking lot and our trail head was closed so we joined another vehicle and parked beside the road and walked through the gate. The day was beautiful and just the right amount of chill in the air for a moderately strenuous hike. We had the trail to ourselves most of the day. We met a couple from Raleigh who Ken knew (small world) and later met a large border collie running ahead of his owner. Matilda was a bit shy initially (he was really big for a border), then they became friends and chased each other for a few minutes. The dog's owner arrived and told us he was a "wolf" border collie. Interesting...

The hot tub wasn't warm enough to try out after our hike. We grilled steaks and enjoyed a nice campfire. We welcomed Ester and John when they arrived later and settled in.

Saturday was another beautiful day. Myron treated us to a delicious breakfast of hearty omelets and cheese grits, then we all set out for the New River Trail access in Fries. Myron and I packed a lunch and planned to eat on the trail; Ken, Esther and John decided to bike into Galax for lunch at a local diner. The trail was in good condition so the trikes (Myron and I) moved along fairly well albeit not nearly so fast as the bikers (Ken, Esther and John). I was trailing everyone...but not a problem, it was a great day to enjoy a leisurely ride. It had been about a year since we last triked. Myron pushed ahead and stopped periodically for me to catch up. There were several groups of riders (not crowds) out this day with most pedaling from Galax to Fries and return. There was one church group traveling our way Fries to Galax and return. They had folks setting up for lunch and a campfire at the Fries access. I think they turned around at Fries Junction.

Our bikers had lunch at Aunt Bea's and Myron and I lunched at Cliffview campground. A really nice place to stop and enjoy the day. Too bad we hadn't planned to camp. Another time... We all arrived back at the cars about the same time with me bringing up the rear. Everyone was eager to "hit" the hot tub. The temperature was right and the jets soothing. A fine way to end a day of exercise followed by steaks on the grill and marshmallows and tall tails around the campfire.

Sunday morning John treated us to delicious French Toast and Ester prepared a wonderful fruit salad with her "secret" ingredient chocolate chips. Yum.

Before heading home we decided to do a short hike on the Virginia Highlands horse trail near Fries. After quite a bit of car "hiking" we located the trail and enjoyed a nice walk in the woods.

We returned to the "cabin" and cleaned house, turned everything off, locked up and packed up for home... the workers back to face a new week and Myron and me to plan our next adventure. Life is good. Nice meeting you Esther and John. Thanks Ken for inviting us...keep us on your list for next time.

Flashback Friday

Yesterday was a dreary, rainy day and I spent much of the day updating this journal and deleting old messages from my e-mail. While deleting messages I found this photo taken by my friend Andy during our backpacking trip on the Continental Divide Trail in Colorado. The trip was in August 2006, less than a week after I retired.

Linville Gorge Dayhike

We had not done a real hike in a long time. We had been home from three months in Florida for less than a week. What kind of real hiking can you do in Florida? Our friend Andy called and proposed a hike in the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area. Anytime you hike into the Linville Gorge, well, that's a real hike. He had heard of a special place near the lower part of the river known as Daffodil Flats. It's not on any map but he thought he could find it. It was reported to be an open area with thousands of daffodils. If our calculations were right, they should be in peak bloom about now. Andy sometimes plans rather ambitious hikes, and we had no reason to believe this one would not be hard. It would probably be hard even if we were in good shape. But we are always a sucker for Andy's hikes, so we loaded our packs and I donned my brand new virgin LL Bean Leather GoreTex Cresta Hikers and off we went.

We met Andy at the usual place: the Burger King off I-40 at the Icard exit. From there we proceeded towards Lake James and up the Kistler Memorial Highway (a pretentious name for a steep , mostly single lane, gravel road) to the Pinch-In Trailhead. We put in and began our 1800' descent into the gorge. The trail started rather gently and passed through a recently burned area, which offered unusual and outstanding views of of the gorge and Shortoff Mountain on the far rim. The trail then dropped steeply into the gorge, with no switchbacks and no relief for aching toes and knees. Did I mention my new boots? Normally one would not want to wear out-of-the-box boots on such a trip, but this is my fifth pair of Bean Cresta Hikers and I have always been able to wear them without any break-in period. Today my luck held once more and my feet hurt no more than anyone else's.

Before long we reached the bottom of the gorge and the Linville Gorge Trail. Our exit route was left and upstream, but Daffodil Flats would be right and downstream, at least a mile. So we turned right and proceeded down the Linville Gorge Trail. Most of the Linville Gorge Trail is very rugged. It is steep, poorly graded and poorly maintained, if maintained at all. If a tree falls across the trail, hikers will blaze a route around the tree, resulting in steep and ugly scrambles. However, this section of the trail, while not very heavily traveled, was relatively level and smooth, with few obstructions. After about an hour and perhaps two miles we reached Daffodil Flats. There we found a flat open area perhaps 150' across, thick with daffodils in bloom. I have seen fields with more daffodils, but never in a setting as rugged and remote as the Linville Gorge. How did they come to be here? Perhaps there was a homestead here once, but that seemed unlikely. We saw no signs of a cabin. Perhaps it had been washed away long ago. After a while taking pictures we backtracked up the river to a gravel beach and ate lunch. From there we started our return trek north up the Linville Gorge Trail. After reaching the junction for the Pinch-In Trail, the Linville Gorge Trail I remembered so vividly reappeared with a vengeance. We scrambled up and down around boulders, downed trees and ravines. We probably averaged less than 1 mile per hour for the next 3.5 miles. We finally reached our exit, the Conley Cove Trail and began our ascent. The Conley Cove Trail is pretty heavily used. We saw signs of trail maintenance and foolishly assumed the trail would be clear. No such luck. We had to negotiate several more particularly nasty downfalls before cresting the ridge and reaching the trail head.

It was a hard hike, but a rewarding one. I think we will give Andy another chance and hile with him again sometime.

Andy writes a pretty good trip report. You can read his version of this hike here.

Morrow Mountain State Park Day Hike

Today we hiked in Morrow Mountain State Park. My friend Andy writes a pretty mean trip report so I am taking it easy and repeating his report below.

EIGHT YEARS GONE

A couple of weeks ago, Bob suggested getting together for a hike. It was early November, so I suggested something at a low elevation, so we could catch the last of the fall colors. We settled on the Uwharries, but we still needed a specific destination. I did a bit of research, and remembered that I'd enjoyed a hike at Morrow Mountain State Park a couple years earlier. At the time, I had planned to return in a few months to explore some of the trails I'd missed on that initial visit. Somehow, a few months turned into a few years. How many years? I checked my notes, and was shocked to discover that my previous hike had occurred in 1999. Eight years! How can eight years go by that quickly?

To put this in perspective, I've taken multiple hiking trips to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Washington in the years since I last visited Morrow Mountain. And Morrow Mountain is only a 1-hour drive away.

So, I decided to correct this little oversight. Bob, Laura, Myron, Dorcas, Ann, Colleen, and two dogs, Saucony and Sunshine, elected to join me. We met at the park's visitor center on Sunday morning, and planned out our route. Our hike would take us to the summit of Morrow Mountain, which at an elevation of 900'+, is part of the Uwharrie Beyond 600' list.

We began our hike on a nature trail behind the park's museum. This path connected with the Morrow Mountain Trail, and after a bit of confusion and nearly a wrong turn, we were on our way. The hike started out easy, as we rolled along through varied terrain. It was a chilly morning, but as usual, most of us overdressed. The first half of the hike looked like some sort of weird burlesque show (featuring far more fleece than silk), as people shed random articles of clothing all along the trail. Even I had to join the fray once we hit the surprisingly steep final climb to the summit. By the time we reached the top, most of us were down to shorts and t-shirts.

The summit of Morrow Mountain features a picnic shelter, a bathroom, a parking lot, and almost everything else you'd expect at a state park. We arrived shortly before noon, so at least we were able to avoid the worst of the crowds. We had a pleasant early lunch in the sun on the viewing platform behind the picnic shelter. From here, there is a nice view of Lake Tillery and the Uwharrie Mountains.

After lunch, we circled the peak on the summit loop trail. This path provided some additional views that were worth seeing. Aside from the lake and the ancient Uwharrie Mountains, we were treated to some pleasant fall colors.

We headed back down by the same route initially, but diverged from that path in search of variety. We followed a series of horse trails down towards Lake Tillery. For the most part, these trails were fine for hiking. The only annoyance was a group of horseback riders that passed by on several occasions. For some reason, they were doing most of their riding off-trail. I can't imagine the park approves of riding off-trail, as it can certainly cause serious erosion.

We avoided the horses by hiking out the Rocks Trail to a viewpoint just above Lake Tillery. Fortunately, the Rocks Trail is designated for hikers only. At the end of the path, we found a minor cliff where a handful of boulders provide a fine view of the lake near the confluence with the Uwharrie River. After a bit of maneuvering, almost everyone was able to find a seat with a view.

While relaxing there, Dorcas offered everyone Giardia Chocolate. I politely declined. The last thing I needed was Giardia Chocolate. Then Dorcas clarified her statement. She had meant to say Ghiradelli Chocolate, which is a very different thing! Congratulations to Dorcas for making the trip report.

We packed up and backtracked to the horse trail. From there, a short hike led to the campground, which is quite attractive. We followed a path through the campground, before cutting over to the visitor's center. Here we found about a dozen deer grazing. Apparently large numbers of deer move into the state park during hunting season.

I enjoyed our hike, and it was nice to get together with other hikers for a change. The weather ended up being ideal, and the wildlife and fall foliage added a lot to the hike. I'll definitely hike at Morrow Mountain again sometime. Hopefully it won't take me 8 more years though!

Summitting Mt. Washington

Today we hiked to the summit of Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the northeast. Mt. Washington has the distinction of having the worst weather on earth. That is not the experience we wanted to have, so we watched the summit forecast very closely for several days. There is a major weather observatory atop Mt. Washington and great weather data is available. This day looked like the best: clear, sunny, mid 50s, 30 mph winds. While watching the forecast this week one day was predicted to be "clear but undercast" for the summit. This was a new one for me, but I think it means the sky is clear, looking up from the summit, but there is cloud cover below the summit. The highest surface wind ever recorded on earth was 231 mph on Mt. Washington. I expect that that record is due more to the fact that they have all that fancy monitoring equipment, than having higher winds than other peaks. Shoot, Grandfather Mountain probably gets winds that high, but their Radio Shack weather station blows away when the wind exceeds 125 mph.

We chose to hike up on the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail and return on the Jewell Trial, forming a loop about ten miles long. The trialhead is at EL2560', near the parking lot for the Cog Railway. The summit is at EL6288'. If you do the math, the gain is 3728, a fairly respectable climb. The hike actually was much easier than I expected. The Ammonoosuc Trail connected with the Crawford Path about a half mile below the summit. The Crawford Path is the oldest mountain hiking trial in America. It was laid out in 1819 and ends at the summit. As far as I could tell, only one other person hiked up the Ammonoosuc Trail this day. However, when we reached the summit, we saw perhaps a hundred other hikers. I assume they all came up the east side from Pinkham Notch. There were also about a gazillion tourist who came up on the Cog or on the Mt. Washington Auto Road. It is always disheartening to crest a significant summit and then have a tourist in flip flops take your picture and ask if you actually walked all the way up here. We stayed at the summit almost two hours before heading down. About 1/4 way down Dorcas turned her ankle. It wasn't very serious, but it caused her some discomfort and slowed us down a bit on the descent. We took about 4 hours going up and four hours coming down. It was a very rewarding hike. As forecast, the weather was great and the views were fantastic.

Mt. Marcy

Today we conquered Mt. Marcy. Mt. Marcy is at EL 5344' and is the highest peak in the state of New York. We approached on the Van Hoevenberg trail from Adirondak Loj. That trail is 7.4 miles to the summit with an elevation gain of about 3300'. A pretty fair day hike. As is typical for most summit trails, the first third is flat, the second third is moderately steep and the final third is the steepest. While it is a long hike, almost 15 miles round trip, it's still not as steep and tough as is Mt. Katahdin up the AT from Katahdin Stream access. The weather was not great, but it could have been worse. The temperature was mild, in the mid-50s at the summit (with +40 mph winds!), but it was overcast and spitting a little drizzle all day. Unfortunately the views from the summit were obscured by fog and clouds. For a while we thought we would be the only ones on the mountain this day, but shortly after leaving the summit, we met two young soldiers, who apparently had trotted up the hill. Show offs! At the trailhead was a pile of rocks with a sign asking hikers to carry a rock to the summit, for use in cairns and trail markers. Dorcas and I, being noble and dedicated to the cause of wilderness preservation, each carried a rock to the summit. I bet the soldiers didn't carry a rock!

After the hike, we were bushed. We headed for town and had pizza and beer at Mr. Mike's Pizza.

Bob Marshall Wilderness, Flathead National Forest, MT

July 30 - August 4

There have been fires all over northwestern Montana. Everywhere we have been people have told us that the place, campground, road, etc, we were just at had just been closed or evacuated because of fires. One might have thought that the Whitleys were leaving a trail of sparks and fires and trying to burn down Montana singlehandedly. Later we heard that the governor had declared the whole state a disaster area. Fortunately we were never directly affected. Several areas of the "Bob" were closed due to fires. We stopped at the Hungry Horse Ranger Station and confirmed that the area we planned to backpack in was not yet ablaze. So far so good.. From there we proceeded south about 65 miles along a gravel forest service road that follows the Hungry Horse Reservoir and the South Fork Flathead River to the Meadow Creek Gorge trailhead, our put-in point. There the campground host advised us to raise the hoods on our cars so the pack rats wouldn't move in. About 11:00 we set off on our 6-day adventure in the "Bob". Our plan was to hike pretty hard for the first day and then look for a place to base camp. From there we would hike and fish and loaf as we saw fit. We had been told that the trail followed the South Fork and was flat. For that reason we weren't quite prepared for the steady rise of the trail and the short, but fairly steep, descents and then ascents as we passed side creeks. We also weren't prepared for the heat which peaked in the mid 90s. We hiked about 10 miles and made camp on a large gravel bar on river right near Black Bear Creek. There was an excellent fishing hole just downstream where several cutthroat trouts were caught and released.

The next morning there was a moose in camp, but Dorcas and I missed it. Today we had a choice of fording the river and saving a few miles by shortcutting a large bend in the river or continuing on the same side, climb a bluff and enjoy some views of the river. The group chose, you guessed it, the scenic, but harder and longer route. I think I may have found some potential new inductees into the "Dumb But Tough" club. We hiked about three miles, where we came to the Pack Bridge and a Forest Service work camp and began to look for a good base camp. We ate lunch in a shady spot near the corral while various members of our party set off in different directions at different times looking for a potential base camp. Finally we found a prime site on a bend on river left, about a half mile below the bridge. We christened it "Camp Izaak". During the four nights we spent there, at least a half dozen float parties told us that this was their favorite spot, and that they were disappointed when they came by and it was occupied. It was also an excellent fishing spot. We fished this section of river and had excellent results every day.

One thing we learned on this trip was that we, as hikers, were a very small minority of the area users. Before putting in, Dorcas was in an outfitter store and told the clerk we were hiking into the "Bob". She responded "Are you taking a mule or a horse?" meaning which of the two we intended to use. Hiking and carrying the gear was not a consideration for her. By far the majority of the folks who use this area have their gear hauled in via horse or mule and then float out in rafts. While hiking in and out, we must have met or been passed by a half dozen pack strings each way. These animals apparently need a lot of room to pass, much more room than the mules in the Grand Canyon or Bryce Canyon. The wranglers continued to advise us they needed more room to pass, which was a problem on the narrow trail. A few of the wranglers were not particularly polite, resulting in the temptation to startle their animals and watch the stampede. While fishing in front of Camp Izaak, we frequently had to stop fishing and retrieve our lines as float trips drifted by. Most of the guides asked permission before crossing and apologized, but the clients wouldn't make eye contact and kept right on fishing. Low-life bastards. If you didn't duck you were likely to take a hook in the ear. Unfortunately, many caught fish in our hole, which added insult to more insult.

On the last day we hiked out via the shortcut across the large bend and forded the river, a total distance of about 11.5 miles. On the drive out the smoke and haze was so thick you could barely see across Hungry Horse Reservoir, only a mile or so. Dorcas and I returned to the coach in Kalispell were we discovered that we had tripped the breaker in our external power supply, forcing the generator to cycle on and off as the battery discharged. I had set my coach charger to charge at a lower rate specifically to keep that from happening, but I had forgotten to turn off the air conditioners. Duh! No harm. We were down a little diesel, but the fridge was still cold. We showered and dressed and drove to Whitefish to meet our friends and feast on pizza and beer at the Mackenzie River Pizza Company.

Hidden Lake??? Logan Pass, Glacier NP

Tuesday July 24 Hidden Lake???

Today we took the shuttle to Logan Pass and hiked to Hidden Lake. Actually they didn't hide it well enough, because way too many tourists found it. Logan Pass is at the top of the Going-to-the Sun Road and the most popular destination in the park. Many folks hike up the boardwalk and gravel trail 1.5 miles through the meadow to the Hidden Lake overlook. Fewer folks actually continue down the other side of the pass another 1.5 miles to Hidden Lake. Along the way we got many good looks at hoary marmots, ground squirrels, mountain goats and big horn sheep. We ate lunch at a rocky point 1/2 mile around the lake. I fished a bit but didn't catch anything. I was at a good place; the fish were here. One 20" cutthroat trout kept swimming by me, but he wasn't interested in anything I had to offer. I could have dropped a rock on him or grabbed him with my hands, but that didn't seem very sporting.

Tuesday evening we grilled steaks for some folks we met hiking. This was our first attempt at entertaining on the road, and I think it went OK.