Hiked 130km in 15 days through 7 States
WE LOVE TRAILS! This was a vacation focused on Trails! We wanted to stay close to home this trip, so, we traveled for less then 6 to 3 hours between adventures.10km in Ohio's Geneva on the Lake
We started in Ohio, hiked around Geneva on the Lake. We hiked the main drag through the marina lodge, through a State Park and back. Enough for Buddy to find his first fish and ROLL! NOOO!
We like to start in Geneva on the Lake, see our good friends and enjoy this fun Summer town.
30km in Camp Creek State Park, West Virginia
Next we traveled to West Virginia were we hiked 30kms through Camp Creek State Park.
It's lovely. However, we had an adventure where Buddy went missing in the 5,300 acres of forest land. Duke rescued Buddy. To see all the details of that adventure please visit our blog Buddy Goes Missing, Duke to the Rescue.
64 km (or 40miles) of trails, we only explored 30 km of them. Two included finding waterfalls, LOVE that.
They had all types of camp sites. Sites with electricity were $23 per night.
We were able to hike and view the waterfalls without any crowds. Trail maps were a little off, but, the trails were very well marked and an excellent challenge.
We met some wonderful people while there, they recommended we go to Hungry Mother State Park in Virginia for some excellent camping and hiking. So, that's where we headed to next.
20km Hungry Mother State Park, Virginia
We ended up being the ONLY ones in a camping in the loop we were in. Just us and the Camp Hosts. The Camp Hosts were new, it was their first week was Camping hosts ever and the wife of the couple had never camped before. They were very excited. They get to camp for 6 weeks, while hosting those who come to the camp. Limited duties actually sounded fun!
They had all types of camp sites. Sites with electricity were $30 per night.
20km Lake Powhatan right outside of Ashville, North Carolina
The hiking was excellent. The people in this state must be the MOST in shape and friendliest people anywhere.
Locals were running and biking up these hills like it was nothing. People of ALL ages.
Lake Powhatan Recreation Area is in the center of Bent Creek Experimental Forest, it's the is the oldest federal experimental forest east of the Mississippi river. 6,000 acres within the Pisgah National Forest near Asheville,
Camp sites where well treed. The hiking maps were very good and the trails were marked well.
$22/night for full hook up sites.
$22/night for full hook up sites.
The locals in North Carolina are also some of the MOST friendly people we've met. Everyone says hello are very welcoming. You can tell the tourist as they aren't as friendly.
There weren't very many tourists this time of year, the locals seemed to take breaks in their day to come up from Asheville to run or bike through the hills.
Exploring Asheville, North Carolina
The locals we ran into on the trails had said that dogs rule in Asheville, they're allowed in most of the shops. NICE! We had to go see. We popped into the City of Asheville.
The weather is perfect in May. I can't imagine how WARM it would be in the summer.
Last hike in Asheville! Love it.
20km in South Fork National Lake Rec Center Tennessee
The rangers must have been new. I asked them where the trails were, they said we had to get into a car and drive a few miles to find them. GUESS WHAT?? The trail heads were actually right at our campsite! I'm glad we always take a walk around and explore on our own.
So, we explored. They were completely different trails, filled with interesting cliffs and ladders to get to different levels. We enjoyed it.
With this kind of wet grassy world we were in, we had to be careful of Ticks. We pulled a number each day off of both dogs.
The campsites were good, fairly treed and not very busy this time of year. They were $22/night for full hook up sites.
Mammoth Caves National Park 20km in Kentucky
This was extraordinary. 125,000 acres to explore on land plus 400 miles of caves to explore underground. It was very impressive. We took two cave tours, the dripstone and the historical tour. Very different tours exploring different parts of the underground world.
Campsite was called Primitive Camping, meaning, no water or electricity at your campsite. However, their facilities were excellent and they had laundry.
Jerry has his special pass so we get National parks at half price, so, I think this cost us only $8.50/night.
We explored the caves the next day. The drip stone tour was excellent. You entered the caves through a 250 step shaft straight down.
10km East Fork State Park, Ohio
Many of the bathrooms weren't open yet and the water wasn't on in any of the camp areas yet. That's all ok as we had our own water and bathroom.
These sites were the best in size and shade, however, hard to beat the creek we had surrounding our campsite in Hungry Mother State Park.
We didn't have trail maps as the office was closed when we got there, so, couldn't really do the trails aggressively, it's ok, as it was SO hot. 91 degrees and we were starting to get tired (don't tell anyone that we tire.. ) So, we just did 10km over the two days we were there.
The boys were getting exhausted quickly in the heat.
They enjoyed sleeping on the cool cement picnic table in the shade or inside in the air conditioning.
Finally we visited the largest grocery store in North America, it's called Jungle Jims. It was nuts. Jerry was a kid in a candy store. But, more on that later, it deserves a blog all to itself.
The boys were getting exhausted quickly in the heat.
They enjoyed sleeping on the cool cement picnic table in the shade or inside in the air conditioning.
Finally we visited the largest grocery store in North America, it's called Jungle Jims. It was nuts. Jerry was a kid in a candy store. But, more on that later, it deserves a blog all to itself.
