Halloween!

My favorite holiday!

Halloween morning found us at Douthat State Park in Virginia, about an hour away from the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had chosen the park for its nearness to our route, but it was a really neat park: large, with many trails, almost all of them bike friendly. I woke up Halloween morning and wandered around the campground, admiring the woods, animals, and even a cool bit of graffiti.

A cool bit of graffiti.

 After Rob got up, we sat outside drinking our tea, watching the campground and some nearby squirrels. One squirrel was especially amusing as it hung upside down from a limb to grab some sort of food off another limb.

Upside down squirrel food grab.

We decided to go for a hike, choosing a waterfall a few miles away as our destination. The woods were gorgeous in their fall beauty. 

Fungi on a tree by our trail.

More fungi, but more conical.

A leaf "frozen" in midair by a cobweb. So cool!

We arrived at our destination, named Blue Suck Falls, which turned out to be a trickle of water over a rock face. We clambered up some nearby rocks to check out a pool above the waterfall, which was quite pretty. We hugged each other, soaking in the world around us, enjoying that we hadn't run across anyone to intrude on our time.

Blue Suck Falls pool.

Eyrene, in her Halloween outfit, and Rob, enjoying being out in nature.

We took other trails back to our campsite, which had yet more great moments out in nature.

Get your camera away from me buddy.

Fall leaveseseses.

Awesome leaves.

Douthat Lake vista.

After we got back from our hike, we ran through our usual routine of unhooking the motorhome from power, topping off the water tank, and dumping the black and grey water tanks. We left the park, heading on our merry way to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which we'll get to in the next post.

West Virginia: New River Gorge

Monday the 28th of October we completed our drive to the New River Gorge National River. One of the surprising thing about this place was that there were no entrance fees and no camping fees. I'd be willing to pay money to spend time here (though I'd hope that it wouldn't be too pricey if they did decide to start charging money). We arrived at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center in the early evening, checked out the New River Gorge Bridge, then headed for a campsite.

The New River Gorge Bridge

We camped for the night at Stone Cliff Campground, right along the beach by the New River. It was a great spot and one of the first nights that didn't feel freezing cold, so we fixed dinner and sat around our beach fire, watching the infrequent trains go along their merry way across the river from us, until the rain kicked in and we called it a night.

West Virginia coal train - 10 second exposure

The next morning (Oct 29) we decided to go for a bike ride on a trail that started near our campsite. It was a little challenging due to many wet leaves covering rocks and downed tree bits, as well as mucky spots where water drained down to the river. It was a fun ride though, and we enjoyed a hike near the end of the trail, when it got less fun to ride. We walked back to our bikes and enjoyed our ride back to the campsite.

The New River.

A cute little snail on the bottom of a tree along our bike path.

Closer...

Rob. Biking. Duh. ;)

When we got back to our campsite, we took the rock crawler out for a spin and walked along the nearby bridge over the river to check out the area some more. We also saw some fascinating wasps nests (we think) that were built completely differently from ones we're used to seeing.

Jumping spider!

Our Stone Cliff campsite.

Looking downriver from our campsite.

Rock crawling at Stone Cliff Campground by the New River, with a bridge in the background.

On the bridge, looking back across the New River at Stone Cliff Campground and the Rialta. 

In the afternoon, we decided to head to another campground, so as to see even more of the New River Gorge. There were gravel roads on the park map that looked like they'd take us to our next campsite. Halfway there, though, we met up with some other visitors that had been told by some locals to turn back or they'd get their car stuck, which they almost did end up doing. We didn't have much better ground clearance than they did, so we took their recommendation and turned around as well. Hopefully we can go again sometime in a higher clearance vehicle and enjoy more of the gravel roads. :)

Viny scenery, looking down from a gravel road.

Topiaries? :) But really, just cool looking vine covered trees.

We camped for the night at Glade Creek Campground, also still free, which had a half dozen big sites for pull-in camping, and a half dozen riverside sites for walk-in camping. We enjoyed our campsite, had another good night of food and fire, and got a treat of seeing little dots of glowing bugs down near the river as we walked there to fill our bucket for dousing the fire.

Bridges over the New River near Glade Creek Campground.

Wednesday, October 30th, we drove to the Grandview Overlook in hopes of a grand view (ah ha ha ha, I'm so funny), but the misty day made it a little tough, though we got some neat views of the clouds hanging out in the valleys, and some snippets of the river.

Looking down into the gorge from Grandview Overlook.  This shot covers about 120 degrees from edge to edge.

We hoped to hike or bike around the area, but the trails we wanted to take were closed for various reasons, so we decided to head to Sandstone Falls. There were two overlooks of the falls along the way, but the mists were still hanging around, and trees like to grow in just the right place to block the best view, so we continued on to the falls.

The New River was about a thousand yards down the hill from here.  Somewhere.

A farm on the New River. 

The crossover to the other side of the river was in the town of Hinton, WV, which had a neat bridge that we decided to pull over and walk back across. The river was wide and smooth, and train tracks sat along the riverbank, setting a lovely scene by the town.

Train tracks in Hinton, WV.

The river at Sandstone Falls is very wide, so we tramped along a trail, then amongst the rocks of the river. The mist had cleared, so we had a pleasant hour or two playing outside, avoiding poison ivy, trying not to slip on algae-fied rocks, etc. It was great!

Sandstone falls from the West.

Just above the falls.

The New River, near Sandstone Falls.

After our enjoyable traipse through the outdoors, we headed east towards the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Stay tuned for our next adventure featuring Douthat State Park, Halloween, and more great times!

Pennsylvania

Saturday, October 26th, found us in the Delaware State Forest in Pennsylvania, not too far west from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. We had left the Delaware Water Gap:

More Eyrene leaf fun at the Delaware Water Gap on the 25th.

We headed for a free campsite that we found via freecampsites.net, our handy companion when we have cell reception and are planning our stops for the night. It had been a chilly night and in the morning while I was up making tea, we realized that we could suddenly see our breath in the motorhome. Rob took the opportunity to see if he could make "smoke rings" with it, which he succeeded in doing. I could not. :)

Rob making "smoke rings"

The edge of a "smoke ring" heading up towards the ceiling of the motorhome. 

Our spot was a lovely out of the way place, along some gravel roads with interesting names.

Parked amid a forest.

Interesting names!

A forest in the fall.

More woods!

After breakfast, we drove about 15 miles away to a trail Rob had found online, called the High Knob Trail. It was bumpy and challenging, but in a fun way. We decided to ride up to a lookout point, which gave us a solid workout.  The view was great, and it was odd seeing the clear cut trail for the power lines, but fascinating too.

Pennsylvania Yeti.

Clear cut and power lines heading off in the distance. 

A neat rock outcrop along our ride to and from the lookout point.

It was about 2 in the afternoon by that point, so we went back the way we came instead of completing the trail, so we could head to my cousin Karen's place in Wyalusing, PA and arrive before dark. We succeeded in our goal, spent a little time with Karen's husband Barry, then he headed off for a harvest festival at his church. Karen took us by her church, a neat place, as we headed to the nearby town of Towanda to see the county's Halloween parade. We had a tasty dinner at a local restaurant and pub, then watched the parade. There were lots of fire trucks, some neat cars, all sorts of other groups, and several bands, including the marching band from Wyalusing High School, of which Karen's son Wesley is a member.

A cool car decked out for Halloween.

One of the other two marching bands in the parade.

Rob wants one of these.

Wyalusing High Marching Band. Wesley is playing trombone.

A troop dressed as dalmatians, dancing to "Cruella de Vil"

We had a lovely time with Karen and family, got some laundry done, and were entertained by their critters, most especially by their two young cats, Gregor and Millie.

From L to R: Millie and Gregor

Sunday afternoon, October 27th, we headed south and west towards the New River Gorge in West Virginia. Karen left a little after us for someplace, which turned out to be the same direction we were headed, as discovered by her red car catching up with us and getting a call from her on her bluetooth. It was a wonderful coincidence. We ended up in a caravan with her for at least a half hour, then we pulled over to let several cars by, and waved her farewell.

Southern Pennsylvania is stupendously pretty.

Southern Pennsylvania gorgeousness.

An Amish traffic jam. 

More beautiful farms.

That evening, still in Pennsylvania, we camped in Buchanan State Forest. It was a nice stopover, and the next day we were soon out of Pennsylvania and cutting through Maryland to West Virginia.