Cam-era

Warm-up Circle

Alright, so its 2021 and we finally got the van out and running – a little late but life intervened. For starters, we just finished a quick 4 day tour of places we had been before. That kept the logistics down, the confidence up and we could focus on enjoying ourselves and relaxing rather than planning and prepping. It was one of the more chilled drives we have done.

We started off at Savage River, more specifically the Elk Run portion of the park. Its about the closest boondocking place from the house and hence an easy step-off point. It is however not a very interesting place in itself. The sites are on the bottom of a very steep valley with small creek running close by. Its pleasant enough for an evening /night but there really is nothing to do, no hikes, views etc. During the summer, its alright, but early/late in the season, it gets pretty dark down there. But the dog loves to run and chase frisbees, little traffic and very few other campers. Its a decent place.

We headed south toward Monongahela National Forest – one of my personal favorites. Its only really down there where I feel that the forest is vast. We were very lucky to land back at Island Campground, a perfect spot for an evening. The creek is pleasant, there is a simple, flat in-out hiking trail and despite the road, it gets quiet at night. Quite a few anglers there going for trout but overall its one of my favorite places.

Saturday night is tricky to find open places and we decided to use Harvest Host again for a booked stay. We had excellent experience with them twice and found a farm (not a vineyard) in VA. Mill Gap Farms is located in an incredibly gorgeous location and the hosts were gracious, fun and hospitable. Tesla and the local dog got on “alright” and overall, it was a great evening / morning.

We headed Sunday toward Loft Campground in Shenandoah National Park. We tend to always head up the Shenandoah – while slightly repetitive, its just gorgeous down there and we love the hikes. It was fairly hot and we managed a single 2 1/2 mile hike with fairly steep profile and a little waterfall at the bottom.

Loft campground is “alright”, certainly not my favorite. Its crowded, feels worn out and there really isnt much to do, the AT runs near it somewhere but I was looking for an open place to exercise the dog somewhere. Pleasant enough.

Monday morning, quite a bit of fog, then rain, we just slowly cruised home and cleaned up.

Snow Walk

Photography has been an important part of my life since childhood, I learned on my fathers Leica M2 and later on my grandmother’s Rolleiflex the pure mechanics of freezing time. My first camera was the Nikon FG20 my dad gave me for my 18th birthday with some terrible “Exacta” lenses. I learned how to develop Black & White film and maybe that’s where my preference for monochrome photography comes from.

From the FG20 (that was stolen) I graduated to an FE – I bought a completely shot camera cheap in London. The time of compact cameras meant that I carried a Rollei 35 with me most times and the 6×6 Rollei for “special projects”.

My last real film camera was the Nikon F90x, a present from my father again, this time for my 30th birthday that fell nearly onto my university graduation. And as much as I wanted to love it for his sake, I never could. The only camera that I really never had a personal relationship with.

I went “digital” timidly with some cheap Panasonic compact nonsense and then finally – for my 40th – bought myself a NikonD300 which remained my close to me for a decade.

But photography faded from me – for at least 4 years, I have not taken photos other than the usual iPhone snapshots of a sunset or a viewpoint while hiking. Those photos aren’t bad (and some are on this blog) its just that they were not taken with the mindset of photography. Carrying 4lb of steel and glass brings a different frame of mind that snapping a quick one. And for my new years resolution, I had contemplated to pick up photography a little more seriously again – dusting off my old friend, the D300 and taking her for a spin. I fizzled, I had too many other projects and job-related issues cooking, I got into HAM radio, programming, 3D printing and other crafts, there just wasn’t space for photography. Basically, my non-work life is very scattered and distracted and I could not justify another “hobby”.

But I started talking to a good friend recently about photography, more as a method to “see” than to “present” and I felt the need to at least try a test run. Maybe I just need someone to talk about it to get myself motivated?

So, how does a dog walk look like through 35mm (APS)? So I grabbed the Nikon and the dog and went out and looked what I would see. Enjoy.

Green Ridge, Blackwater Falls and McGaheysville

We still have beautiful autumn weather and decided to head out again for a short (3 night) camping trip. We went to Pennsylvania last time and going West toward West Virginia seems natural if a little repetitive. But there are lots of areas we have not been.

Case in point, we always stayed at Savage River / Big Run but leave Green Ridge by the wayside. Its a little closer to home and by reputation a lot busier so we avoided it until now. But hey, lets try it out

Saturday. Green Ridge State Forest. First of all, registration for a campsite is a royal pain in the rear. Some bizarre combination of sign-up sheet with missing pages, unclear instructions, line-ups of campers, odd permits for firewood harvesting (??) and so on. Basically a total mess. But we signed up, paid our $10 and went 5 miles of gravel road to the site hoping it would be free and – surprise – it actually was. We had a lot of daylight left and decided to “claim” the site with a camping chair and some notes before driving 5min toward a popular trailhead.

The trail itself was beautiful, about 4 miles with virtually no elevation change, just a fun walk through the park. Quite busy though.

We got back to our site and the camping chair we had left to “signal” that we booked it had been stolen. It was a cheap, sub- $20 chair but its annoying to have stuff stolen but whatever. We had an amazing camp site with great fire place, no neighbors and great weather. We chatted until 11:00pm with stars and planets above us – it was really beautiful.

Camp at: 39.704020, -78.483460

Sunday. With an early start, we headed out toward the Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia. It had been on our list for a few weeks but it requires online booking and that was never available. Its a pretty busy area of the State and the weather was gorgeous, we expected it to be very busy. And in fact the park was packed and so was the campground but only the “hook up” section. We hiked the park for a few hours but when we had to line up to see the famous falls, decided we should take a break, walk through the grounds a little and take it easy. The foliage was gorgeous and we had an amazing 4 mile or so stroll. The campsite btw, backs into the woods and has a Disc Golf (Frisbee?) course behind it. I.e. nobody is there and lots of space for the dog to run…

Camp: 39.11568, -79.49188

Monday

Alright, weekend is over, the hordes have dwindled and we have the park (nearly) to ourselves. We pack the van up and just bounce to the other side of the gorge

to scope out the hiking / cross country skiing trails there. Its very pretty, thick Rhododendron and its quite boggy – this must be mosquito hell during the summer. Now it was gorgeous hiking, only saw one or two people over the entire time.

The area is really designed for cross country skiing and we wondered if they allowed snowshoeing / hiking there as well, can’t really take the dog skiing.

Great lunch at the Resort (all outside, COVID-19 etc etc) and then straight shot back toward Seneca Rocks. We had been there before and really didn’t want to hike it again but the picnic area with the adjacent creek / river made a very natural stop. Chance to break out the drone again for some water shots.

The quality of this clip is terrible, turns out the SD card died and all I had was the stream off the phone. Real bummer, there were tons of nice scenes there.

Then onwards to the camp (via Harvest Host) for the night, this time a Vineyard / Winery (Brix & Columns) in Virginia. The hosts were incredibly supportive and had a friendly Great Dane puppy running among their guests which spooked our dog. As usual, the wine is a matter of taste but the view was unbelievable.

Camp. 38.36915, -78.69737

Tuesday

Back North and into the Shenandoah. Not sure if we are jaded but the whole “Shenandoah” experience is wearing off. Winding roads are not the problem but we didn’t have the urge to stop at every single look out to take a photo of the foliage. Pre-lunch, traffic was alright and we checked in with the rangers for a single short (but very steep) hike with an incredible view (lower hawksbill trail up to . Turns out, this is actually the highest point in the Shenandoah Park and it was truly spectacular.

And that was that, we aimed North and headed home, with one slight change, we took Whites Ferry instead of taking the obvious route via I66/I495. Not sure if that was faster but it definitely was prettier.

Pennsylvania – October 2020

Fall is here in Maryland and with cooler temperatures, we decided to head out into the forests as much as we can possibly can. So, the last weekend, we switched it around a little and checked out some parks / hikes in Pennsylvania. We treat these short trips a little like “scouting” trips in order to get an understand what is worth coming back to – and hence we cover quite a bit more ground than is really relaxing. But we learn a lot.

Thursday. We planed quite a long drive this way, heading out all the way to Ohiopyle State Park. I tend to avoid State Parks, they offer no real advantage over State Forests but add a ton of rules that we really don’t need. But that specific area doesn’t seem to have a lot of alternatives. The hikes there are spectacular, a gorgeous river walk made us really wish that we could have camped right there.

Camp: 39.87979, -79.49269

Friday

Ok, this is where it gets weird, we went west to Ohiopyle but had to drive all the way East again toward Michaux State Forest. We had been in that area before and really wanted to check it out a little more. We went up to Chimney Rock with amazing views.

The campsite had me worried originally, google maps shows it on a large parking lot designed for ATV riders. But it turned out to be really nice, open are where the dog could run free. Unfortunately, fires were not allowed due to some drought and the temperature dropped down to 4C, not much incentive to stay outside after sunset. Moonrise was awesome though and Mars was incredibly bright.

Here is a short video of the campsite.

Camp: 40.01744, -77.29874

Saturday

Quick but amazing hike near the campsite was the Pole Steeple Trail that a hiker recommended to us. Great hike, amazing views and definitely worth exploring more.

The next camp was up North in Tuscarora State Forest but we decided to do a quick hike even further north. Long drive but it was worth it, the area up there is beautiful. We hiked the Spirit of Tuscarora trail around 4 pm and the light was really magical. Access to the lake wasn’t really obvious and decided to drive straight to our next camp much further south.

The drive was a little rough, 10 miles on windy gravel roads but virtually no traffic. The campsite was allocated by the forest service and turned out to be quite very nice but not near anything. Great site to camp for the night but with not fire allowed it was less than optimal. Very quiet though, beautiful moon rise as well.

Camp. 40.2403806, -77.5437306

Sunday

Last day, so general direction was heading home. We found a nice 6mile hike back in Michaux forest that had great reviews. The Rocky Knob Trail has optional push to the local reservoir (where we had been before but on a different location). The “Rocky Knob” itself looks like quite some scramble but wasn’t on the trail – that may be an interesting location to check out later.

Apalachia September 2020

Technical issues with the front control board (“eyebrow”) of our campervan “Serenity” had prevented us going on a July / August trip and while we were pretty annoyed with that, in hindsight it was the right choice. We had a 3 month heatwave with temperatures 28-30C every day, mosquitoes the size of small cats and just brutal humidity. We could have gone West to – say – Idaho but neither of us really had the motivation to spend days and days in the van just to “get there”. So, we staid home until the weather cooled a little, labor day arrived and forced children and parents back into their suburbs.

So, we planned a short 4-night trip to West Virginia and Virginia, in part following routes that we had previously scouted. The idea was to explore left and right on the way, keep the miles low and allow for sidetrips and stops to check out interesting things. We checked out the camping spots online but did not really research hikes and attractions. We sort of thought we could do this on the road – that was a mistake as there was hardly any internet or cell phone connectivity.

Wednesday 09/10/2020. Left the house at ~ 11:00 and heading (via McDonalds!) to Savage River State Park in Maryland. We had been there twice already and its a great space to camp, by a decent-size creek with lots of firewood nearby. We have rarely seen anyone there, its a $10 fee and basically its about as isolated in a fairly steep valley as it gets. We scoped around and instead of camping in the “Big Run” valley, we headed out to the Elk Lick run – for no good reason other than that we had not been there before. It turned out to be just the same, maybe a little more traffic on the road (the road leads directly into New Germany State Park). The camp was nice, the dog could run free and explore a little but being in the steep valley means that the sun drops quickly and rises late, i.e. its dark. Really dark. There also isn’t a real hiking trail anywhere. I think the entire park is designed as a convenient camp site for fishermen using the adjacent Savage River Reservoir – which really looks amazing. We should bring a canoe next time and explore that a little.

Camp at 39.60424, -79.09118

Thursday 9/11/2020

Pretty dark morning but good weather, headed out without starting another fire. Checked out a few more possible campsites on Savage River Road between Elk Lick and Big Run. More overflow but they should work. Headed generally south, passed Dolly Sods and headed to Seneca Rocks. A really nice picnic site right by the trailhead, parked Serenity and headed up the obvious trail. The trail has some ascent but rewarded with an awesome view from the lookout. The trail seemed to continue but tons of signs warn against it and especially with dog / leash, we didn’t feel like exploring beyond the marked trail.

Headed back, dropped the dog into the creek to cool down and got back into the van. Quick stop for ice cream at the local tourist trap where the most displayed items were confederate flags carefully venerated by sneezing women who proclaim that Corona Virus is an invention from “The Libs”. I am sure they sell white robes and hemp ropes as well but we didn’t stick around too long.

Btw, these mountain routes take their toll on our already pathetic gas mileage. We were filling up every time we hit 3/4 tank, Serenity makes about 12miles/gallon out there which is still slightly less than a battle tank but please don’t anyone tell Greta Thunberg. Headed out toward the campsite Island Camp Ground with some navigation challenges. Basically, there is no cell phone or data connectivity anywhere and navigation is entirely by map – we use Gaia which works reasonably well but it is a transition from following a prepared route to navigating 1980’s style.

Island Campground was my favorite campsite of the trip – despite being neither spectacular nor having real hikes nearby. Its a small place, clearly designed for hunters to just camp out for the night but nobody was there when we set up at the farthest spot. It has a solid creek (“East Fork Greenbrier River”) right behind it with tons of opportunity for the dog to fish for gnats and me to collect firewood. The road is quite close but there was little traffic at night. Great place.

Camp at 38.57842, -79.70436

Friday 9/12/2020

Headed out toward the next place with few ideas where to hike and what to do. Found a friendly USFS guy at a “closed” office in Marliton who recommended the “High Rocks Trail”, a short (3 miles) in/out relatively flat hike along the “Highland Scenic Hwy”. Really nice place, great for lunch breaks and amazing views.

Yeah, that trail was really nice.

From there headed back out on 39 toward the next campsite – Blowing Springs Campground in Washington & Jefferson Forest. The campground has 2 “tiers” with the lower one having far bigger spaces but is overgrown with grass and has tons of bugs. The upper tier has fairly small pads but there was only one other group and we squeezed the van into a flat area and took off for a hike along the local river. The trail is flat, basically a road and the scenery was more like Colorado than Virginia. It was absolutely gorgeous. We took a swim in the creek with the dog, paddled along a wee waterfall for some time and basically enjoyed being in the water. It was awesome. I wish I had a working drone, that was the perfect place for some areal shots.

Camp: 38.069263, -79.883455

Saturday 9/13/2020

Headed out relatively late, dog and I explored the campsite for a while, went back to the creek and tried to find the “Blowing Springs”. Gaia suggests its at the entrance of the park on the other side of 39 and yes, there are springs coming out of an old concrete wall with some cemented pipes that could indeed blow air – didn’t really see anything though.

Left toward the Shenandoah ridge again with rain coming down for the first time this trip. Quite a bit of rain, actually. We headed into the park itself and had a long lunch break to see if the rain would clear but when it didn’t, dog and I took a quick local walk, Dear Den peak or something. Drenched and miserable, quite a steep climb, the dog hated it and definitely thought there were bears, barking, neck hair raised, all of that. Interestingly, the local ham radio club had set up a repeater up there with a water station. When we came e back down, fired up the HT and chatted with the guy who actually manages that repeater. Great guy.

Headed to the last campsite of the trip, a local winery in Virginia called Five Oaks Vineyard. Small operation but they allow camping there via the Harvest Host membership. We parked the van at an absolutely stunning position overlooking the entire valley and up into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Amazing location – loved it. Slept with the back of the van open, no bugs, weird owls but otherwise quiet and just perfect last night.

Camp : 38.139308, -78.319041

Sunday 9/14/2020

Alright, lets go home! Took of relatively early since the weather was gorgeous and we (ok: me) wanted to get a nice hike in before we get on the highway. We decided to drive back into the Shenandoah Natl.Park – by now we can gauge how long it will take us to get home which makes planning much easier.

The weather was awesome, could not have been better. Some eerie fog blew off with the sun and then all that was left was a perfect walking day. We had lots of recommendations but chose a circular hike starting at “Fisher’s Gap Overlook”, 4 1/2 miles of pretty steep up/down. Quite a busy hike – I mean its Sunday, gorgeous weather and we are in a National Park and the dog really resented to be on-leash all the time and was completely wiped out by the end.

And that was it, heading back home via known routes. Lots and lots of traffic as usual, maybe coming back on Sunday isn’t such a great idea. But it was a great trip.

Buchanan State Forest

The hiking season is heating up, quite literally and Maryland is getting steaming hot. We decided to check out the State Parks and Forests north of the MD border and headed for a quick overnight trip to Buchanan State Forest in Southern Pennsylvania. The Forest requires reservation but is “free”, i.e. there are no facilities of any sorts – suits us fine.

We ended up here

Quite nice place, basic, of course but plenty of dead wood for a small cooking fire and a few hikes nearby. The old, abandoned PA turnpike is quite eerie, it sort of looks like from a Zombie apocalypse movie. It also has a pretty cool “historical” site, an old workers camp that was temporarily used as POW camp for German soldiers between 1944-1946.

Camping was quiet, the site is closed in with trees and hence quite dark at night.

Next day, headed out to Micheaux State Forest / Park and did a beautiful hike toward the Long Pine Reservoir from Caledonia State Park. That entire area has a lot to offer and we definitely need to come back. Some fairly narrow roads there, gravel roads etc but Serenity was doing just fine. Would have loved to have a smaller turning circle and a little more clearance in the back. Maybe changing the suspension in the back could make her a little softer and not bounce as much?

New Germany State Park

With COVID-19 in the country, all spring travel and camping plans were on hold until this week when we decided to take “Serenity” out for a short overnight trip to New Germany State Park in Western Maryland. The park itself borders Savager River where we camped in March making planning and logistics pretty straight forward.

New Germany State Park also is the place where friends introduced me to cross country skiing and I assume some of my skin and blood cells have richly fertilized the soil. I am one with nature.

Taking Serenity for a 1 day-trip requires about the same prep as taking her for 10 days (sort of), tanks still need to be flushed/ filled, the “emergency” crate checked out, battery / fridge powered but of course we need less food and fewer clothes etc. Its a good prep run for longer trips.

Drive was uneventful, its a little scary that we aim for the same McDonalds has 1/2 way stop as before but familiarity has advantages. I am still apprehensive of driving this car, she handles alright but its just a different experience from driving a smaller vehicle and I notice the 2 1/2 hour drive far more. This could get a little tiring when we do proper, real road trips with 500 miles / day to just get to the place.

We had of course no idea how crowded it would be, as far as we could tell, this was the first weekend with the parks actually allowing camping and I had visions of hordes of nature-starved hippies clinging to trees along the way. But the “pet friendly” area had 2 other parties (incl 5 more dogs) out of ~12 spaces, so hardly overcrowded.

We set up camp and walked a quick 4.61 miles. Pine forest and the vegetation wasn’t nearly as far along as at sea level. It seemed to lag about a month behind, I didn’t realize that the 2300 ft in base elevation made such a big difference.

Overnight, quite some heavy rain but clearing up at 6am for a quick dog walk.

Overcast – made a great, slow breakfast and slowly packed the van again, the idea of this all was to create some form of routine that even the dog understands.

And then headed back home, although via a few Scenic Routes to check out for camping possibilities for the next trip.

Next time, need to focus a little more on hiking maps and locations, there is no cell phone connection locally. Other than that, easy, 1 day / overnight trip and (nearly) everything worked just fine.

Savage River & Swallow Falls

Taking the van out early for short trips had been our plan to shake-down the equipment and ourselves for longer trips later this summer. Thankfully, we have a ton of local parks, mountains and beaches within driving distance. Unfortunately, the State Parks are mostly closed until April and don’t allow camping.

But… Maryland also has State Forests, not all that many but those are a lot less developed and controlled. Savage River is one of them (the biggest, I think) and within easy driving range. Its got an interesting history (B52 memorial), a reservoir, creeks, lakes etc. And because its a State Forest, it has far fewer rules about what one can do and whats not allowed.

The drive there was uneventful, Serenity just rolls beautifully but in hilly country uses 12 miles/gallon -> no joke. I am starting to like driving her, she is sluggish uphill but on straights just keeps rolling along. The radio really is junk and needs to be replaced.

We checked out the campsites around 3pm or so and thought about exploring or going for a hike but the weather was already iffy and we somehow didn’t really feel like going anywhere. We lit a fire, let the dog run crazy in/around the little creek and basically treated ourselves to a lazy afternoon.

After all, the “camp life” is what we want to test out with the van, having a fire, tea, some junk food etc. If the weather had been better, maybe get a book out and just chill.

Cooking happened over the fire in the Lodge Cast Iron pan we had for years but never used. Worked really well, very delicious.

Next day starts weirdly enough with snow – we had not seen any in Maryland this season so waking up to an inch or two of white slush was very nice. The van’s heating had kept up really well, used hardly any propane and kept us warm and comfortable. Loud, though.

Slow breakfast, re-kindled the fire and headed out toward the Deep Creek area that we wanted to look around at – its a resort / recreation area thats quite nice but completely developed and in summer likely horribly overcrowded. Not so bad off-season – just not too exciting. Onwards to Swallow Falls State Park – now that was a really nice surprise. Lovely falls, great scenery – slight rain/snow but really worth going again (when I bring the tripod).

Sherando Lake and Shenandoah

Our second trip with Serenity and our last for the season took us back to Virginia – traveling known ground made it easier to get used to the van and logistics.

Sherando Lake and Park is beautiful, fairly small but it is in a great location within a fairly narrow valley. The road into the site has a few tight turns and I can imagine that it would be quite challenging in winter but with clear sky and dry roads, it was no issue.

The camp sites are dry, flat and with full hookup, its quiet but at that time of the year, the weather can turn iffy any time. We were lucky at Sherando this time, gorgeous sunsets against the foliage.

There are not all that many hiking trails, especially when it gets dark in the steep valley. Sunset comes early, sunrise comes late and unfortunately it was overcast, so no moon or stars.

The only “issue” were the deer that hang out right behind the camp. They sleep there by the dozens and our dog really wasn’t used to that all. Barking is of course an issue on any campground and our though has been that dogs bark when they are afraid and they are afraid when they don’t understand. So, in order to prevent the dog from barking, I took her (on a long leash) to the lawn where the dear hang out and let her sniff (not eat) the droppings. It made for some spooky scenes where the headlamp illuminates pairs of eyes all around us.

Quick morning hike(s), sun doesn’t come up until 9am or so and dog and I were already 5 miles in when we started breakfast.

When the sun came out, we packed up and headed north toward the Shenandoah National Park where we had reservations to stay that night in Big Meadows. On the way, we checked out Humpback Rocks, a spectacularly beautiful area and hike, quite steep with a tremendous view point on top. The last bit was a little to steep for the (exhausted) dog and we took turns taking photos and watching over the pooch.

We headed back down, stopped at a Walmart and refilled on dog kibble, then headed back into the Shenandoah and with a couple of short hikes went to Big Meadows. Weather was pulling in, it was getting windy and weirdly enough sitting by the fire wasn’t relaxing. Big Meadows is the largest campground in the park and it seemed completely booked. Neighbors are nice and all that but I can more of a nature experience sitting in our backyard than in that campground.

At night, real rain rolled in and we agreed that we much prefer to be in the van than in a tent. It would have been miserable. There is one thing to be in a tent in real wilderness where no other mode of transport exists but packed like sardines into a campground and still be freezing is not fun. Nah, a campervan is a great solution.

Dog woke me up at 6am, it was pitch black outside and wind was howling. We walked for about 2h when it started to get reluctantly light and decided to just have quick breakfast and get on the road. It was so overcast and windy that we really didn’t feel like another day hike, so we just kept going back home.

Shenandoah is a gorgeous area for hikes and camping but quite crowded. Restrictions on what to do with the dog and where to make a fire etc, are slightly annoying and I think we’d be better off in a National Forest across the road. That’s what we will aim for next time.