Appalachians in the Fall

Monday (Oct 29)

It rained pretty hard last night. Very chilly and on the verge of raining again this morning. After I did my tai chi, there was not much reason to hang around here except some grim determination to get my money’s worth. But I know I need to start earlier to make up for the sunsetting earlier, so I head out 11 am, pass the swamp, cross the canal, cross the railroad tracks, up the hill past the Fort and to leave the park and rejoin the pretty country drive that brought me here last night.

I went to for lunch+wifi to Rik’s Cafe in Hagerstown. It was quite nice. I had the lunch special, which was a huge chicken breast with some kind of crab-bacon topping that was quite good. I dawdled over my excellent meal, which negated the effect of me getting an earlier start, so at the end of the day I ended up running out of daylight AGAIN.

First stop is Antietam which is north of here near the river. I have been loosely paralleling the Potomac since I left DC. There are signs for C&O Canal access every few miles. This reminds me what a big deal the canal is for DC folks who like to bicycle of jog. You can pack your boike and drive to one of those points, get out and pedal on a shaded, peaceful, level and well-graded forest path for tens and tens of miles, As an alternative to the railroad the canal was a commercial failure back in the day, but it sure is a recreational asset in the present.

I missed the sign for the Visitors Center at Antietam, so I wandered into the middle of the battlefield, stopping at this interesting Observation Tower, built by the Department of War in the 1890’s – before it became the Department of Defense. It is a bright and clear, but windy day, and it was a great vista up there even though the wind was pretty bitter. Since I just got here it was just a bunch of pretty farmland to me, no notion of the battlefield dynamics, but I enjoyed it. I studied my phone and figured out where the Vis Cen is. Drove there, got my auto tour map and did it right! It was all very interesting, but the two extra cool things were these parallel split-rail fences beneath the tower I climbed – the Sunken Road (aka Bloody Lane), and Burnside’s Bridge. Burnside’s Bridge was at the end of the tour and was quite dramatic, a pretty stone bridge over the xx Creek with a steep hill on one side. It was easy to picture being a Georgia sharpshooter on top of that hill picking off the Yankees crossing the bridge until they kept coming and coming and it was time to get the heck out of there.

As I will say often over the next few days, it took longer than I thought.

I left the battlefield, drove through and crossed the Potomac and headed down the west side of the river, heading for where it meets the Shenandoah River at Harper’s Ferry. I remembered Harper’s Ferry as being crowded and difficult many years ago so I was surprised to get to the Visitors Center and see that it was spacious with lots of parking. There’s a catch of course – the Visitors Center is not at Harper’s Ferry! The actual place still is crowded and difficult and there is no room for a modern Visitors Center, so they built it up the hill a few miles away. The idea is to park there and do shuttle a bus which runs every 10 minutes. That’s just not gonna work for me today, it’s too late in the day.

I thought about it for a while and decided I would be that asshole who drives their vehicle down there anyway. It worked out pretty well! Cross the highway and drive to the town, then follow the main road down, down, down a steep long hill till you are there, at the confluence of the Shenandoah and the Potomac rivers. There really is absolutely no parking anywhere, except …. the train station! As part of it’s heritage of being a key transportation hub, there is still an Amtrak station here, and a train station needs parking. It was totally unmarked, in fact they did their best to not advertise it at all, but there it was. Late Monday afternoon in October there were plenty of spaces = score!

It was a really interesting old town. There was a sign for the inn where Meriwether Lewis stayed. There was spot where the old Armory (of John Brown fame) was. There were the ruins of a couple of old bridges over each of the rivers, history everywhere. But the dramatic rocky chasm and the two strong rivers coming together was the coolest part.

It’s only 70 minutes to my campground, but it became 85 minutes because I took a left rather than a right on the highway. I’ve been having a lot of that on this trip. Maybe I’m losing my sense of direction in my old age … sigh…

Drove pretty fast. I coulda used that 20 minutes at the other end, because I was backing into my campsite in the dark when I did get there.

My first time around the loop I parked in #14. But walking back from the pay kiosk, sites 12, 20 and 21 looked way better, so so I moved myself down there.

The place I ended up could not be more perfect for the situation. Easy to navigate in the dark, nice level site. I am very, very, very, happy right now.

Tuesday

Sunday and yesterday were super busy, so this beautiful, warm morning was a good time to slow down and get organized a bit for the return home. I trimmed my mustache and beard, which I hadn’t done it since Missouri somewhere. Ideally I would have done this BEFORE my nine day stint of hanging out with city folk and going to civilized places, but that didn’t happen. Also, I’ve had a big ole box of Milly’s stuff cramping my style on my “bed” since Florida. I figured out a spot in the interior of my storage area where some of could go. The big ole box sadly remains for now.

I continued south on Route 678. It turns out to be a really lovely road. The valley is called Fort Valley, a little boutique valley :) nestled between the north and south forks of the mighty Shenandoah Valley. I was unprepared for how picturesquely perfect it was, neat little white farmhouses next to neat little red barns in perfectly groomed fields. No derelict tractors or washing machines in the yards.

After 30 miles or so the valley ends, and 675 hops over the hill to the southeast and comes out at the town of Luray, where I had lunch in a funny little place in the funny little downtown. I sat at the round table by the front window. where I could watch the goings on on Main Street. It was fun. I liked the restaurant, so in addition to my coffee and cookie, I got a hot lunch for here, and a club sandwich for later. My drive is not long, so I squeezed in a bit of time at the Luray Library.

Then I followed US 211 east a short while to enter Shenandoah National Park and join Skyline Drive, already in progress. Any reader of this knows I am a CCC groupie, and Skyline Drive is probably their crowning eastern US achievement.  I am finishing off writing this in Oklahoma where many of the state parks were first developed by the CCC, beautiful flagstone shelters and stairways that are now 80 years old. It’s so sad and ironic here on Okey-ville that many of these federal-build public treasures are closed because their state government is so corrupt and poor. But I digress – back to the beautiful and well-maintained Skyline Drive. I drive past the biggest activity center on the Drive – Skyland, because their campground is closed for the season. Can’t you picture Roosevelt admin bigwigs driving out to Skyland in their limos for the weekend?

But another 20 miles later is the second biggest area, and its campground IS open:

Big Meadows turns out to be a pretty awesome place. The campground isn’t remarkable, but the Lodge is wonderful. Got that CCC magic. Also, it has a bar!

After I selected my site out of the >100 possibilities, I was idly reading the newspaper that National Parks hand out nowadays for seasonal info along with the timeless, iconic glossy brochure, and among many other things it listed all the amenities available at all the stops up and down the Skyline Drive. It listed two places as having “taprooms“! I did a cartoon double take – taprooms in a national park? One of those taprooms was right here at the Big Meadows Lodge! Woo! That’s all I needed to hear! I collected my payment envelope and campground map and flashlight and a hoodie and I was off!

Dropped off my payment at the kiosk, then wandered over towards the picnic area. I had wrongly assumed that the Lodge was the building complex I passed on the way in. Wrong! That was the Visitors Center and camp store. The Lodge is a beautiful old CCC building build on the edge of the ridge to have a great view of the Shenandoah Valley. Of course that’s what it would be. It turns out it is a pretty short walk up a steep hill from the picnic area, so I am in business! Glad i brought my flashlight.

It was one of those cool setups where the land slopes away, so you are at ground level at the front door, but the basement level is also at ground level at the back. That’s where the Taproom + restaurant is. It was dark and not warm so everyone was inside, but I took my beer and watched the last ebb of the sunset on their little patio area – just wonderful.

Wednesday

It’s going to be a while till I come off the mountain, so I get coffee at the camp store on the way out and sit a picnic table and dig into my leftover goodies – always a treat for me! :)

Continue on the relaxing, beautiful Skyline Drive until it ends. Then down the mountain to the relatively hip town of Waynesboro and the definitely hip Farmhaus Coffee Co. There was a really cool coffee house there. It’s a renovated house on the edge of town on a pretty steep hill. Once I had trudged up the front stairs I found out there is e.z. parking at counter level in back. Oh well, next time. Everybody in Waynesboro is good-looking as near as I can tell.

Back on the sidewalk I was reminded that it’s Halloween. Some cuties out with their mom’s heading out for the big evening.

I finally got to my campground comfortably before dark. So early that I was able to do my beer and blogging ritual and tidy up the van a bit more. I got rid of the big box! I managed to reallocate all its stuff to smaller boxes that store more flexibly. Because I am that guy, I collapsed the big box and stowed it, hoping to recycle it later.

Back again. Got a nice spot, and the weather is better. Nice enough evening blogging by the creek, but I guess I can come to North Creek without some weirdness. After dark when I had holed up in the van for the night, there were flashlights and people tapping on my window. It was the camp hosts dropping by to see if I needed anything. Really. No issues, no check the Senior Card, nothing. No reason at all that I could see other than being nosy because they could. I get kind of prickly when I go into solitary mode, and I didn’t like it. But no big deal, really.