Okay, so we’re into 2013 now! We’ve had two visible modifications done to the Jeep at this point: a roof rack/basket, and a light bar. I’ll discuss those more in detail in a later post, but their functions are obvious.
In mid-May, we went to Syracuse as part of a mini-vacation, caught up with some family and friends, and the plan was to camp for a couple of days in Moose River. We arrived at the Limekiln entrance to find a gate across it, and boy were we mad! We’d been looking forward to camping there for a month, not to mention the fact that it’s about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Syracuse. A whole day was wasted, in theory. I looked at the sign-in book; several people before us had the same thing happen, and their comments reflected their anger, with, let’s say, colorful language on a couple of them. So I had to go ahead and leave my two cents behind, although I wasn’t quite as nasty… but almost! We went back to Syracuse for the night and hit the road south in the morning.
While driving, we mulled over where to go, and decided to have a look at Shenandoah National Park. We entered the park around 5:30pm, give or take. The speed limit is 35mph most of the way, with some spots slower due to sharp bends or a lot of pedestrians. About a half hour in, we came around a bend where a few cars were pulled over and people were on foot with cameras. There was a bear in a tree, so we pulled over too. He was about 30 feet off the ground, and way out on a seemingly thin branch – it’s a wonder that it could support him. He was very busy eating leaves or buds, but as more people gathered he figured it was time to leave. The speed with which he came down that tree was amazing! Then off into the woods he went, but I got great pictures and video of him!
We continued on and chose Lewis Mountain Campground, got signed in, and went about setting up. For this trip we had our new Kodiak Canvas tent, and would be testing it. We had set it up once at home, making sure all the parts were there and getting familiar with the process. Dark was fast approaching, but we did well getting the tent up before it was a problem. Cooking and eating dinner was more during dusk, and cleanup was pretty much in darkness. That part did suck, and we learned a valuable lesson from it. A bigger concern was being in bear country, as they are more active at dawn and dusk. It’s ideal to have all food cleaned up and put away before dusk, as we humans don’t see too well in the dark. This would make it harder to defend oneself or one’s campsite & food. It is very important not to allow bears access to even the tiniest scraps or crumbs – a fed bear is a dead bear. I’ll cover that in a later post, as well. One other thing we did wrong was thinking there’d be hot water at the dish washing station. It was nice that this campground had one, but there was no hot water. Ever try washing greasy dishes in cold water? I’m here to tell ya, it doesn’t work!
No camping trip is complete without at least one of us having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Ken woke up but he wasn’t sure if it was because of that, or because of the very loud sniffing sounds outside our tent. The sniffing was at the exact spot our heads were positioned at, and then up and down that whole side of the tent, repeatedly! When he was telling me about it in the morning he mimicked the sound. It was like a large animal was sniffing with all its might, as deeply as possible. Only one animal comes to mind as probably sounding like that… a bear. Ken said this went on for about 5 minutes, which is a long time when something that could eat you is sniffing around! Even though this only went on for a few minutes, Ken thought it’d be better to wait awhile before walking up to the restrooms, which were a couple hundred feet away. He couldn’t get back to sleep, but waited about 45 minutes to go… and was sure to take the bear spray with him. Yeah, and the other can of bear spray was somewhere in the Jeep! He insists that he was leading the bear away from me and the tent. By the way, I never heard any of this going on, and slept like a… well, like a bear, or like the dead – take your pick.
This particular campground was small – I think the smallest of four – and the campsites were very close together. You probably couldn’t fart without your neighbors hearing it, so maybe skip the beans while staying there. Other than people being much closer than we like, the campground was nice. There were restrooms, a utility sink, coin-operated showers and laundry, dumpsters and a general store. A man and his wife were the campground hosts – volunteers who oversee the operation of the campground and provide information or assistance if needed.
We packed up and headed out in the morning, stopping along the way at several of the pull-offs for pictures, and had lunch at one of them. The weather and scenery were fantastic! We’re definitely going back sometime for a longer stay.
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