Day 6 – June 17, 2015: Skyline Drive

I love the idea of camping. In principle, it is a great concept – out in nature, breathing in the fresh air, disconnected from the stressors of the real world, etc. And for the most part, I do enjoy camping.  But the amount that I enjoy camping seems to decrease exponentially as I do it. Back in February when I made the reservations for the campground, I felt like I loved camping. Last night, I wasn't such a big fan. I don't mind the sleeping outside part and I love sitting outside around the campfire. The bugs and my allergies making it difficult to breathe are annoyances, but I can deal with them for awhile. Eating and cooking outside aren't difficult, but the actual process is way more effort than the payoff is worth. However the aspect of camping that always gets me is the showers. I love taking showers.  And I much prefer my showers when they are clean and private (from both other humans and freakishly big daddy-longlegs).  This does not happen when camping, so my troubles begin.

When we showed up at our campsite we found that the showers were being renovated and therefore out-of-order. In their place, the company that runs the campground  had set up a trailer with showers(despite being in a National Park, campgrounds and resorts are run by private companies). We were a bit skeptical at first, but were pleasantly surprised to find 4 very nice shower stalls on each side of the trailer. They were clean, smelled fine, had plenty of space, had great water pressure, and plenty of hot water. A fellow camper described it as the Shangri La of campground showers and I wouldn't argue with that assessment. So we were very surprised to find the trailer closed with a sign saying “[s]orry for the inconvenience.” Apparently the company's lease had expired and, despite not having functioning shower facilities, they had failed to renew the lease. Instead they opened up one (half-completed) shower on each side (one men's, one women's). And they were only open from 5:00 pm to 8:00 am. And it was $.25 for each 3 minutes of (cold) water. So it was at this time that Amy and I decided we would skip our final night in the campground and stay in a hotel at the south end of the park tonight. In addition to the creature comforts we would enjoy, it would also allow us to get going sooner on tomorrow as we make our way down to Durham, North Carolina.

A wet and foggy day on the Skyline Drive.

So we made that decision last night, but still had one more night in our tent. The air conditioning from the first two nights did not reappear, but instead we were cooled but a light rain shower all night. When we woke up this morning, the rain had stopped, but it was still foggy and gray all around. Every day we've been here, it has looked like it would rain at some point in time, and it often changes depending on where in the park you are. Luckily for us, we only had rain when we were driving or sleeping. But we could tell that today would be different. The fog was thicker than we had seen and there were no signs of blue skies anywhere. Fortunately, all we had planned for today was a driving tour of the park with two shorter hikes if time and weather permitted.

Standing on top of Stony Man.

To guide our drive, we had a CD my parents gave us that described the park's history, ecology, and geology at various points along the 102 miles of the Skyline Drive, going from north to south through the park. Our views were significantly limited by the rain and fog, but it was beautiful nonetheless. Both of the hikes we had planned for the day were in the middle section of the park, between the 40 and 50 mile marks.

Standing on top of Hawksbill Mountain.

Our first hike was a 1.7 mile lollipop trail to the summit of Stony Man, the park's second highest peak at 4,010 feet. Unlike the Old Rag hike where we basically hiked up the entire mountain, here we were able to drive to within 400 feet of the summit, making this a nice easy stroll. A helpful booklet produced by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) provided information about the history, vegetation, wildlife, and geology we encountered along the trail. And we were fortunate to hit the summit just as there was a brief break in the fog. As expected, the views from up there were beautiful.

The second hike was a 2.9 mile loop that included part of the Appalachian Trail before taking us to the summit of the park's highest peak, Hawksbill Mountain. Once again the car got us most of the way to the 4,050 foot summit, with only 860 feet of climbing needed to reach the top. This was another great hike through thick forest and over steep rock slides before making the final climb to the summit. We weren't as lucky with the fog at this summit and there was also a herd of noisy middle school kids – I just can't escape them. Then, just for fun (and with plenty of help from gravity), we decided to run the mile down the trail back to our car. It was a fun run down and no one got hurt – yeah us!

The only major excitement along the rest of the ride was another bear sighting. Not far past Hawksbill we came across a mama and two cubs. We were able to sit along the side of the road and snap pictures for a few minutes before a ranger came to move us along. After that, we headed back to camp to pack everything up, finished the drive, and then headed into Waynesboro, Virginia for dinner at Logan's Roadhouse and hot showers at the Best Western.

The sun finally starting to peak through the clouds as we leave Shenandoah National Park.

Tomorrow we are going to head into Charlottesville to check out the University of Virginia and Monticello before hopping on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Most of the rest of the day will be spent driving down to visit Jake, Kemi, and little Simon Doll in Durham, North Carloina. There we will meet up with Zach and Carolyn D'Allessio-O'Donnell. Then on Friday, Jake, Zach, Carolyn, Amy and I (and possibly Joao Dutton too) will make our way to Asheville, North Carolina.   

Day 5 – June 16, 2015: White Oak Canyon Falls

The AC kicked in nicely again last night and we were both out cold pretty quickly. I expected to be a bit sore after yesterday's hike and I was. However in addition to the usual leg stiffness, I could also feel yesterday's hike in my arms – that was a new experience.

We began our day by heading to the Skyland area of the park for some horseback riding. The last time we did horseback riding in a park was at Yellowstone when we were in a group of about 40 people. Here, it ended up being just us and out guide, Dalton. We rode for about an hour on Tonto (Amy's horse) and Whiskey (my horse). It was a slow, meandering ride through the forest, but very nice still. Again, with the forest being so think you don't really have any views beyond the trail, but we still both had a great time.

After our ride we grabbed a quick lunch of onion rings and sierra mist – so healthy. It started raining a bit so we just pulled off into an overlook and took a little rest until it passed. Our next stop was the White Oak Canyon trail, which is a 5.2 mile out-and-back trail that leads to an 86 foot waterfall. Most of the trail ran parallel to a little mountain stream that eventually became the waterfall. While this hike was nowhere near as difficult as yesterday's, I still think it was a bit tougher than the “easy/moderate” grade given by the NPS. But all-in-all it was a very nice trail and the waterfall at the end was quite beautiful. On the way back up we stopped and had a little break at a small set of pools. The water was freezing cold, but it felt good to take our shoes off and relax our feet in the water a bit.

Tonight, we just came back to our campsite and made some dinner – BLT's. Amy had here first S'mores of the trip and now we're just relaxing by the fire. Tomorrow we are going to do the full Skyline Drive tour – the 100+ mile road that runs the length of the park and is the beginning stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We also have two shorter hikes to do along the way, so we'll see if we get it all in.   

Day 4 – June 15, 2015: Old Rag

We woke up this morning feeling more refreshed than probably any other time we have been out camping. The gentle breeze that we had during our campfire last night turned in to some pretty strong, sustained winds throughout the night. This ended up being some pretty effective air conditioning and made it a very comfortable night (although as usual, Amy was cold).

The “only” thing on the itinerary for today was a hike up to the top of Old Rag Mountain. I say “only” because this is a 9.2mile hike that the National Park Service describes as “extremely strenuous”. The hike begins on the valley floor and climbs the almost 3,000 feet to the top of Old Rag. But in addition to being a fairly taxing climb, making it to the summit also requires a significant amount of scrambling over, around, through, and even under massive granite boulders. Thrown in temperatures in the upper 80's with 6,000% humidity and we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us.

The view of Old Rag from the valley floor.

The first three miles or so were a fairly steep hike through thick forest up the side of the mountain. There was a nice breeze and the thick canopy kept it comparatively cool. Unfortunately the thick forest also blocked all views of the surrounding area. The thick forest gave way to smaller vegetation as we made our way up. Here we got some brief glimpses out towards the park's other peaks, but overall we were still pretty blocked in. But that all changed once we got to about a mile from the summit. From here on out it became a full-body workout. We had to chimney up, slide down, squeeze through, and jump between massive granite boulders. At certain points we had to take our backpacks off just so we could make it through the small opening that the path followed. It was tough. In fact, while this wasn't the longest or steepest hike we have done, it was probably the most difficult. But it was a lot of fun and the views from the top were incredible.

The rest of the hike took us down a different side of the mountain, then looped back to the parking area. The only real excitement on the way down was coming across a rattlesnake in the middle of the path. He had found a nice, sunny spot and was hanging out there sunning himself. He didn't seem too concerned with us – he didn't even give us a rattle – so we gave him some space and he moved off into the bushes.

We got back to camp and were going to make dinner, but we found that the picnic table was still drenched from a rainstorm that had rolled through earlier and the bugs were terrible. So we decided to drive through the park a little to see if there was a picnic area that would work better (not sure why we thought other spots in the park wouldn't have bugs or be wet, but oh well). We stopped at a picnic area a few miles south on Skyline Drive from where out campground is and started getting things out for dinner. As we were doing this, a hiker came out of the woods to tell us that there was a mama bear and some goods just a ways down the trail. We started talking and he told us that, while he has hiked the entire Appalachian Trail before, this summer he is only doing a 1,300 mile stretch. He started in late April and has a few hundred miles to go still before making it back to him home in Asheville, North Carolina. We invited him to join us for turkey sandwiches and oranges and had a really nice dinner. His name is Matt, although his “trail name” for the summer is “I am”. His previous trail name from the last time he hiked the AT was “Wicked”, due to a bandanna he wore that said wicked on it. Apparently this is something that all through-hikers do. But he was a very interesting guy who had done a lot of really cool hiking before, so he was nice company to have for dinner.

We also had an interesting wildlife moment during our dinner. As we were eating, a deer came to the edge of the woods by our picnic table. For a while, she just stood there and looked at us. But after about a minute of doing that, she started to stomp her front hoof in the ground, as if to let us know that she wasn't real happy about us being there. I then made a comment about how it was a good thing that we were eating turkey and not venison and she licked her lips, which was a bit weird. Then after stomping a bit more, she started to yell/snort at us through her nose. I honestly had no idea that deer could make noise. She took a few giant leaps sideways, repeated the stomping and snorting, and then retreated into the woods. A few minutes later we saw her crossing the picnic area to the opposite side, closer to the ridge. We're not sure if we were between her and her fawns or if she was spooked by the bears in the area, but she was not happy about something.

We were both too tuckered out from our hike, so we decided to pass on the campfire and instead just read/type in the tent for a while. Tomorrow we are horseback riding and then taking a hike to some waterfalls.

Day 3 – June 14, 2015: Loft Mountain

Today was our third day in a row with a fairly long drive. Today we had to get from our hotel on the outskirts of Providence, RI to our campground in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. The ride through Rhode Island and Connecticut was quite nice. Traffic wasn't bad and the scenery was much better than we had expected it to be. As we got closer to New York traffic picked up a bit, but we still managed to get through NYC without much delay. Driving over the Hudson River on the George Washington bridge with views of the Empire State Building, the Freedom Tower, and the rest of the Manhattan skyline was really an incredible experience. Unfortunately, after New York you have togo through New Jersey. In New Jersey the traffic was heavy, there was no scenery to speak of (Garden State my butt), and the people are terrible drivers. Then to top things off, we come to find that it is illegal to pump your own gas in New Jersey. Yes, there is a state law requiring that a gas station attendant pump your gas; talk about government overreach. This meant that our lone gas stop in NJ included an extended wait to both begin pumping and to take the pump out, as well as the wrong grade of gasoline being used. From there we were in Delaware from 9 minutes and 12 seconds during which time they hit us up for not one but two tolls for a total of 8 dollars. We made our way into Maryland where the traffic and driving got even worse. This trend continued as we got closer to Washington D.C., so feel free to insert your own gridlock joke here. We looped around D.C. into northern Virginia where we (finally) left I-95 for the first time since Rhode Island. The rest of the ride cut southwest through rural Virginia past famous places like Bull Run, Mananas, and Fredricksburg.

Once we made it into Shenandoah National Park, we hopped on the Skyline Drive to get to our campground. We set up camp, went to the camp store for ice and firewood, and then headed to a roadside diner for blackberry shakes that the man at the store had highly recommended (and grossly over-hyped). We went back to camp and cooked hot dogs over our campfire. Now Amy is reading by the fire while I type this. A few minutes ago I looked up and there was a black bear no more than 50 feet from our site. We looked at him, he looked at us, and after a few seconds he scurried off. Now we have complete silence except for the occasional bird and a light breeze blowing through the trees. There's a bit of thunder and lightening way off in the distance above the valley, but above us we have a clear sky full of stars. This place isn't the jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring type of place like Glacier or The Grand Canyon but the lushness of the forest and serenity of the hills make it beautiful nonetheless.

So for the next four nights we will be camping here at the Loft Mountain campground on the Southern end of the park. After about 26 hours of driving over the last three days, it will be good to finally get out and explore a bit. Tomorrow it's an early wake-up so we can beat the crowds and the heat as we hike to the top of Old Rag, the park's most famous peak.

Day 2 – June 13, 2015: To Xfinity and Beyond!

Despite the late night last night, we both woke up ready to go. We were out of the hotel and across the border by 8:00. Apparently most other people are not on the same schedule we are, so the park was not crowded at all. The park on the U.S. side provides a much different experience than the viewing area on the Canadian side. On the Canadian side you are able to look directly across at American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. On the U.S. side you are able to stand on the lip of the two falls on an island (Luna Island) that splits them. From both sides you great views of the main waterfall, Horseshoe Falls (the one you see the big tourist boats driving up to) and you are able to walk up to the lip the escarpment to watch the water plummet onto the rocks below. Overall, I thought that the Canadian side had better views, but the U.S. side had a neater experience.

The rest of our day was mostly spent driving to our hotel in West Greenwich, Rhode Island. This drive took us all the way across the middle of New York, from Buffalo to Albany. Along the way we passed the Adirondacks on our north and the Catskills to the south. The Erie Canal ran parallel to us for most of this drive. The ride began as mostly flat farmland, but became much more hilly as we moved east. This continued after we crossed the Hudson River and entered into western Massachusetts. Soon after we crossed into Massachusetts we drove under the Appalachian Trail. We will be seeing (and possibly hiking) parts of this trail, which runs for over 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine, on our stops in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee during this trip. We continued driving east until we were about 40 miles outside of Boston before cutting south towards Providence, RI. The ride through Rhode Island was, nice, but it's not an island. It's not even a peninsula. I understand that they didn't have Google Earth when they named it, but this is some pretty significant misrepresentation. They must have been helped in the naming process by the good people of Greenland. But all in all, this was an easy ride and a beautiful drive.

From our hotel, we had a drive of about 35 minutes to get to the concert at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, MA. The Xfinity Center is similar to Alpine Valley in that it is a bit out in the country (not quite halfway to Boston from Providence). The seating on the inside is very similar to that of the Marcus Amphitheater at the Summerfest grounds. Unlike the DMB show we say last year at Summerfest, where it was raining and in the 50's, the weather for the show tonight was perfect with clear skies and temperatures in the 70's. We had nice seats (much better than last year) and the band put on a great show. The only negative is that I had really wanted to ask the parking lot attendants where I should “pahk my cah” but when the time came, I forgot and Amy wouldn't let me leave and try it again. But besides that, Day 2 was a success.

Day 1 – June 12, 2015: America Counterclockwise II – The Sequel #Clockwise

With all of the traveling Amy and I will be doing this summer, she asked that I resurrect the blog that I “we” did during our last big road trip in the summer of 2012. Apparently she can't get enough of my wit and insight simply by listening to me, she also needs it in written form. So here goes...

We began this trip as you would begin any trip that starts in Milwaukee and ends in St. Louis – we headed for Niagara Falls, Ontario. We got a late start on our drive today due to that pesky thing called work. We both had our last half day of the school year today – the all important “teacher work day” - so we didn't get on the road until 12:30. The ride from Milwaukee to the Canadian border at Port Huron was uneventful, complete with the typical hour and a half delay to get through Chicago traffic. The ride continued to be uneventful after we crossed the border, but at least then I was able to amuse myself by making jokes about the metric system, Mounties, and just Canada in general. God bless Amy for putting up with me. One highlight of the drive was our first ever stop at a Tim Hortons restaurant somewhere in the middle of Ontario. We had both heard of Tim Hortons, but only had a vague understanding that it was something quintessentially Canadian like hockey or Molson. Having no idea what type of food they served, we were satisfied to find that it is a panini/donut shop where you can get a donut as part of your extra value meal.

We finally made it to Niagara Falls just before midnight and checked into our hotel. I was tempted to ask the lady at the front desk what time the Falls were turned off each night, but she did not seem to be in a joking mood. She was disturbingly serious (especially for a Canadian). We had heard that the Falls were lit up at night so, despite the time, we decided to go take a look. Walking through the town on the Ontario side of the Falls was an interesting experience. It's part Vegas, part Wisconsin Dells, and part Great America – and it's not necessarily the good parts. Anyways, it turned out that they don't keep the falls lit all night, but we still ended up walking for almost two hours. It was a very foggy night, and with the artificial lights from the towns on either side of the border, it was an eerily beautiful sight.

Tomorrow we will check out the Falls in the daytime and from the U.S. side. Then we drive to Mansfield, Massachusetts for a Dave Matthews Band concert.