5 June –
We are at Carolina Beach in North Carolina in a small family
camp with internet. Before leaving the camp we published the blog and did some
bookings for later in our trip. We returned to the State Park and, as it was
nearer the beach, we biked along a greenway to it. Carolina Beach was very much
like a less sophisticated version of Myrtle Beach. Not as many hotels and more modest
apartments. There was a boardwalk, and shops in old Mexican style buildings. We
rode to the next beach before returning to the main beach for an ice-cream
which melted before we got out of the shop!
Back at the camp we relaxed in the shade as it clouded over and thunder
clapped. No rain but very humid. It was very hot in the night as we are not on
power we could not cool “Ernie” down with the aircon.
6 June –
Heard on the radio that it was 77F (26C) at 7:00am. No
wonder we slept poorly. We drove back thru the city of Wilmington where we
shopped and headed inland. This is the last time we will be on the coast for
several weeks. A 90 mile trip to a State park at the Neuse River that was
deserted. We were the only ones there. We went for a walk before the forecast
rain settled in. Sitting under our awning we were fascinated by the fireflies
with their bright flashes of yellow light. We had never seen them during the
day as they usually only come out just before dark. It rained all night but it
was much cooler.
7 June –
Cleared before breakfast and the sun peaked thru. The forest
after the rain with the sun shining thru the wet leaves was beautiful. Another
90 mile drive N.W. into central North Carolina. We camped at yet another State
Park at Jordan Lake. The camp was huge and we got a powered site. It was a
short bike ride down to a nice swimming beach where we enjoyed the sun and the
water.
8 June –
A nice cool night. We continued N.W. for 100 miles around
the large city of Greensboro and then onto some smaller country roads and into
the foot hills of the Appalachian Mountains. This is beautiful country with
many farms, forests and many small rural towns. We camped for the night at
Hanging Rock State Park. After lunch we decided to hike the trail to the
Hanging Rock outlook. It was a great walk in cool conditions with a spectacular
views at the outlook. We hiked a couple of trails to another outlook and then
back to “Ernie”.
9 June –
There is a lake with a nice beach here and stills some
waterfalls to see so we stayed another night. Packed our lunch and walked to
two waterfalls. They were not large but very pretty. Back to the beach where we
had to pay an entrance fee ($5 each). The water was great after our hiking and
we enjoyed a couple of hours relaxing in the shade. We cooked dinner (burgers)
over the fire.
10 June –
More nice roads and cute little towns in the hills. It was
only a short drive to our next camp over the North Carolina/ Virginia border.
On the way we spied a large (high) carwash and gave “Ernie” his well-deserved and
belated wash. Our camp is in a Virginian State Park and expensive but we have
power. Down at a very small lake we tried again to solve our e-reader download
problems with not much success. We cooled off in the lake and will attack this
problem again tomorrow as we are going to a private camp.
11 June –
Up a steep road thru forest and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway.
This road follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from The Great Smoky
N.P. in the south to The Shenandoah N.P. in the north a distance of 475 miles.
We will follow the Parkway for 170 miles to The Shenandoah N.P. stopping
several times on the way. The road was beautiful, winding its way thru the
forests with views over the mountains. There is no camping on this part of the
road so we dropped off the Parkway into the city of Roanoke where we have a
private camp booked. The camp was old but with good internet and we were able
to solve our e-reader problems and download some library books. The bad news
for Val was that there was no laundry so she had to do a big wash by hand. The
camp was at the Dixie Caverns and we went on a tour of the limestone caves.
They were very good with some great formations. Unfortunately they turned the
internet off when they closed the office so we could not skype the kids.
12 June –
We had some broken eggs (thanks Walmart) so I made scrambled
eggs for breakfast. We retraced our route back onto the Parkway after a quick
shop. This road is remarkable thru the beautiful forests with views of the
valleys on both sides. It has a speed restriction of 45mph and has very little
traffic. Mostly groups on Harley Davison motor bikes and exotic sports cars
enjoying the views at a leisurely pace. We stopped at a camp high in the hills
for the night. It was quite cool in the night.
13 June –
Today we are 1/3 thru our trip. Seems unbelievable! Back on
the Parkway for 70 miles drive stopping for a walk to the Falling Water Cascade
and at a couple of viewpoints.
14 June –
Back on the Blue Ridge Parkway for the last 14 miles before
entering the Shenandoah National Park. We drove on to Loft Mountain Camping
ground where we have booked for a couple of nights. The ranger at the mobile
visitors centre told us of a couple of trails which we will do. We have a great
site overlooking the Appalachian Ranges. We walked thru our site to an outlook to see
the sun set over the mountains and valleys.
15 June –
It was a little more overcast today so we packed our
sandwiches and drove 3 miles south along the Skyline Drive to a trail head down
into the Doyle River. We followed a loop trail passed a couple of picturesque
waterfalls. There are many Black Bears in the N.P. so we have broken out our
“Bear Bell” to not surprise any. Suddenly between the trail and the river we
spied a bear. We took photos and walked passed it. He/She did not seem very
concerned and carried on eating. We climbed out of the Doyle River valley and
followed the Jones River up hill to another great waterfall where we stopped
for lunch. It was another steady climb back to the parking area and “Ernie”.
The loop had taken us 3 ½ hours and we covered 6.5 miles. Before heading back
to our camp at Loft Mountain we gathered some firewood and had a great fire
after dinner.
16 June –
The speed limit on the Skyline Drive is 35mph so although
the distances are not great they do take some time as there are many stops for
the views. Before reaching our next camp we parked and did a 3.3 mile walk down
to the highest waterfall in the park at South River. Our next camp was at Lewis
Mountain where we relaxed after our walk. There were a few claps of thunder and
eventually the rain set in. There were a lot of people walking the Appalachian
Trail which extends the length of the N.P. basically following the road. Many
of them were in small tents at this camp and we felt sorry for them as the rain
became torrential. Not much fun for them!!
17 June –
We woke to a mist over the mountain. We had only a short
drive planned (6 miles) to our next camp at Big Meadow, where because it is
Friday we will spend the next 2 nights. The mist was right down and we
struggled to find the camp and the registration office. It cleared enough for
us to get a good site and then came down again so we spent the morning in “Ernie”
cleaning and reading. After lunch the sun broke thru so we cycled down the big
visitors centre where we looked at the exhibits and watched a video. The whole
of the Shenandoah N.P and the Skyline drive were all developed in the 1930s by
the Civilian Conservation Corp. This employed men during the depression and
many of the parks were developed by the C.C.C. There were quite a few deer
wandering thru our camp site with babies in tow.
We left our camp site for a short drive to a trail head
which took us down to the Rose River. It was a great 4.4 mile walk following
the river which cascaded down the valley. We ate our lunch at the Dark Hollow
Falls before climbing back up to the road. We bought firewood and lit a very
poor smoky fire eventually having to cooking dinner inside. There was a ranger
talk on the bear family so we walked to the amphitheatre and learned a little
more about bears.
19 June –
A beautiful morning and as it is Father’s Day here Val
cooked pancakes for breakfast. The camp has been full for the weekend so we
joined the exodus and headed to our last camp in the N.P. at Mathews Arms. On
the way we found out why there were very few large RVs or 5th Wheelers in this
part of the park when we came to a tunnel with 12’8’’ clearance. We are 12’ so
went straight thru. Most people are only
around in the weekends so this camp was almost deserted. The bears are so bad
here that they have some bear traps set up to catch and relocate them. The
ranger told us that one bear has learned to open car doors using the door handle.
Very smart bear! They discourage bear feeding (purposeful or accidental) with huge
fines. The saying is a “fed bear is a dead bear”. We collected some wood and
had one of our best camp fires ever.
20 June –
We headed out of the Shenandoah National Park and spent a
slightly frustrating day getting a tyre replaced (rumbling noises), shopping,
getting LPG and whiskey and bourbon. We
discovered that “hard liquor” is only available at the state run liquor shops
in Virginia. It all has to be done at some time. The private camp we ended up
at is in Winchester and we relaxed in a very nice swimming pool. Poor internet so we still have not published
this blog.
21 June –
We are booked into a camp in Washington DC in two night’s
time. We stopped at a small State Park
which turned out to be an historical
farm with no camping. After a quick look around we continued on to the Prince
William Forest camp where we booked in for two nights. Another late lunch,
getting use to those! We had a thunder storm and some rain which cleared so we
had dinner outside.
22 June –
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