Trish & Anne RV Adventures

We are off on the road again – for a trip down the east coast to visit family and friends and have a few other adventures. We left last Thursday, May 2 and will be gone until mid to late June.

Our first night on the road we stayed at Doug and Lizabeth’s in Gardiner, NY. (For those that don’t know, that’s my brother and his wife.) Love the new sign for the blended family, and if you can’t tell that is a rose breasted grosbeak about to take off from the bird feeder – I was a little slow with the camera.

After Lizabeth got home from work and relaxed a bit, we decided to go for a walk at the Mohonk Preserve. There are miles of carriage roads there, and some great views of the valley and farms.

And Trish and I walked, but Doug and Lizabeth carried in their climbing gear. To rock climbers this area is known as the Traps area of the Gunks and is home to some of the best climbing in the Adirondacks and the eastern US. Here are some shots of Doug and LB gearing up, climbing and rappelling down a couple of different pitches.

If you closely at the selfie below, you will see Lizabeth on the cliff. And in the other two photos you might catch a glimpse of Doug at the top of the cliff on belay for Lizabeth.

After dinner at the Mountain Brauhaus It was back to the house to visit with Doug, LB and Olivia.

Due to a change in the rental car hours, Friday was a long day of driving. We needed to be in Lexington, VA by 5 pm to pick-up the car, so we got on the road with our tea and coffee in hand at 8 AM (those who know us well know that is early for us.) With two stops for fuel and another stop to eat some lunch we were at the Enterprise by 4:30. After getting the car we had another 45 minutes to drive to our campsite at Douthat (DOW-thit) State Park in Virginia. We have been here before and all three times we have been on the same site. It’s a nice park, not too far off I64, so convenient for an over night stop as well as exploring the area. After stretching our legs with a walk around the park, we had steak on the grill and then played a game of Mexican Train Dominoes – I beat Trish pretty good, but we’ll see how it goes the rest of the trip.

On Saturday we saw a pileated woodpecker at the campsite before we set off on our short drive to the New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. This is the newest National Park, having become one in December 2020. It was originally established as a National River in 1978 by Jimmy Carter. It is now over 70,000 acres that protects 53 miles of the New River – which is one of the oldest rivers on the continent. We stopped at the Sandstone Visitor Center, which is in the southern section of the park. We talked to the ranger, got some ideas on things to do in the park, and saw a park movie about the New River watershed. After a quick lunch in the RV, we took the car and headed to an avian center open house that was only on for the day. It was 2.5 miles up a windy dirt road – in fact we drove through some clouds to get there.

Three Rivers Avian Center is dedicated to wild bird conservation. They get about 300 injured birds a year and are able to rehabilitate and release about half of them. Some they keep for educational purposes.

Below are a Great horned owl, an American Kestrel, a Barn Owl, a Barred Owl, a Red Tailed Hawk, and a Peregrine Falcon. These are all injured or human imprinted birds that cannot be released back to the wild.

Here is a Bald Eagle yelling at Trish – she was recording it with her Merlin app – check it out if you don’t know about it. That’s two shots of the flying barn. It’s octagonal, and birds can build their muscles up flying through it, much like going to physical therapy. On the right it is set up with movable hoses, to ensure that birds that have lost their sight in one eye have good enough depth perception to survive in the wild – they had just let two such birds go.

Then it was on to the Sandstone Falls overlooks and viewing sites. At 1500 feet wide with 15 to 25 foot drops, these are the largest falls on the New River. To get to this viewing spot, you drive 10 miles down one side of the river and 8 miles back up the other side. Those 8 miles are the only spot in the park that you can drive along the river. The rest of the river views are in and out drives, although if you took an Amtrak train through the area you would get some great views. Railroad tracks line both sides of the river and were used to support the coal mining industry that was the main source of industry in the area. We took a quick walk along the boardwalk as we had to drive those 18 miles back to the visitor center before our RV was locked in.

Having retrieved the RV, we drove to Little Beaver State Park – our home for the next 4 nights. Of course, it decided to rain pretty heavily as we were setting up camp – even with my rain jacket on, I needed to change out of the wet clothes as we settled in. We had enough signal to participate in the family Zoom call, and then we actually had a couple of TV stations, well PBS and ABC, so we settled back and relaxed.

On Sunday we went to the main visitor center, at the north end of the park. After a different park film about the history of the park. we were off to the scenic walk that took you to overviews of the New River and the bridge.

The New River Gorge Bridge was completed in 1977. The bridge is 3,030 feet long and 876 feet above the river. The single arch is 1,700 feet wide. When it opened it eliminated a 40 minute switchback drive down the side of the gorge across a bridge at river level and then back up the other side. To get the best views you need to walk down 179 steps – which we did. No one is allowed to walk on the bridge other than one day a year on Bridge Day (when you can also base jump off the bridge.) But there is a Bridge Walk that takes you across the 2 foot wide maintenance catwalk under the bridge. You are strapped in the entire way, but we decided to pass. You can see one of those tourists in the last shot below.

We did however drive the old road down to the river. It was another windy road and there were a couple of pull offs, one was right under the bridge. At the bottom, you drive across the “old” bridge (which was closed in 1977, and then recreated and reopened in 1997.) These shots are of the drive down the road, the underside of the new bridge, the “old” bridge, and looking up at the bridge overlook we had walked down to earlier in the day.

And here is a shot of the new bridge from the old bridge. It’s just a beautiful area.

Then we went into Fayetteville, and went to Pies & Pints. We had a great mushroom pizza along with some cider and beer. This place was mentioned on a podcast we listen to called Dear Bob and Sue – it is done by a couple that decided to visit all of the National Parks in one year. They wrote a book and now continue to visit other sites managed by the National Park Service – we get some good ideas from them.

We had planned to do a walk after lunch, but the temperature had unexpectedly reached the mid 80’s and we had dressed for the mid 70’s. So instead we decided to drive to the abandoned town of Thurmond, which had been the largest railway hub on the C&O mainline in the early 1900’s. We were sitting in the parking lot reading about the different buildings, when we had evidence that the train tracks were active – as a train filled with coal went by.

Thurmond is now one of the on-call Amtrak stations, but I don’t know what you would do if you got off, as their is nothing in the “town” and it’s 7 miles from anywhere. Below is the rehabbed train station which is another park visitor center during the summer, the railroad/car bridge, and a kingfisher.

We ended the day at the Tamarack Marketplace – the cool building below. It’s a showcase for West Virginia artists and manufacturers. Did you know that Fiesta Ware is made in WV? There was a big display of some very different colors. We didn’t find any thing to buy but some ice cream. Then we were back to camp, where it was very comfortable to sit outside for awhile. And then we retired to watch some TV and play another game of Mexican Train. I won again!

On Monday morning as I was getting ready to sit outside with my tea, I noticed this pileated woodpecker getting his breakfast from a rotting log – and this time I had enough time to get my camera.

Then, dressed more appropriately for the expected weather, we went to the Endless Wall Trail for a hike. We decided on the one mile in and out hike to the Diamond Point overlook, instead of the 3 mile loop version. Starting out, there were butterflies swarming, and then we were walking through the woods.

And over streams on this cool bridge, and avoiding the roots across the trail.

Then we made it to the overlook — with some great views of the Endless Wall, the river, and even a glimpse of the bridge. The one formation hanging out reminded us of the Old Man on the Mountain. The Endless Wall is one of the best climbing spots in the gorge – I think they said there are over 1,000 designated routes. We did see some climbers with their crash pads headed in to boulder. They took the trail that leads to the bottom of the cliff – designated strenuous – we avoided that one.

We heard lot’s of birds along the trail, but did not even see one. Trish kept looking! That sign says “Do not throw objects. Climbers below” We obeyed that. And there is me headed back across the bridge.

Just as we were finishing our walk, it started to sprinkle. We had packed a lunch, and on our way to Hawk’s Nest State Park, north of the national park, it turned to some rain. So we ended up eating in the car, but it cleared up enough for us to walk out to the overlook. More great views of the river, the gorge, one of the railroad bridges and the New River Gorge Bridge.

We then headed down the east side of the park to the Babcock State Park, which we heard had a great view of a grist mill – and they were right! It was raining when we got there, but then it cleared enough for us to take a walk along side the stream and get some additional photos of the mill and stream.

There was another scenic overview here looking down the valley – and this huge pine tree that had blown over – we were impressed!

Here are a few shots that I took on the way out of our campground on Tuesday morning. That’s a spotted sandpiper standing on the dam, a shot of the dam, and a fake chimney to help support the chimney swift population.

Then it was off to the last of the areas with a visitor center (again not yet open for the season,) it’s called Grandview – and there are some grand views! We walked the Rim Trail and got some additional views of the New River.

We did spot these rafters – I think the water would have been a little cold for us.

Trish caught me overlooking the river!

These two photos show the railroad tracks are on both sides of river.

We had read that the rhododendrons bloom in mid May, and we had seen plenty of non-blooming bushes on our walks through the forest, but finally we saw these that were blooming along side the parking lot – guess it’s a bit warmer there.

We decided to drive out to the other end of the rim trail where there is an additional overlook – along the way we spotted two white tailed deer that eventually ran across the road.

When we got to the overlook area, we discovered that it was 150 steps to get up to the viewing platform. Trish decided not to make the climb, but when I got to the top, I found not only views of the river, but that I could also see her in the parking lot.

One of the other folks who had climbed up took my photo at the top (after I snapped several of his party.) The stairs ran up the side of this cliff face – even at 150 steps, easier than going up via ropes.

After this last adventure in the park, we went to the town of Beckley and found a BBQ spot for lunch, and then a coffee and ice cream shop where we could get some good internet service. We caught up on emails, and I loaded up all the pictures for this blog post. Then it was back to the campground to prep for leaving on Wednesday, May 8. And play another half game of Mexican Train.

Before I close this post, I want to give a shout out to my big brother Bruce who did a few projects on the RV for us. I spent a few days in Maine with them, and we got a lot done. The biggest item was upgrading the lead acid batteries to LiFePO4  batteries. He had to relocate some of the connections and devise a new way to tie down the batteries. Now we’ll have no problem lasting the night boondocking now – in fact we tried it out by unplugging the electricity one of the nights and it worked just fine. You won’t see the batteries when you are in the RV but we are very happy with this upgrade.

Bruce also reversed the hinges on the medicine cabinet door and the closet door to make access easier – and the doors don’t get in the way of moving around the bathroom now. Then he shaved down the support on the couch and reattached the upholstery so we can open the fridge all the way when the slide is in. All wonderful fixes for usability.

He also fixed a rotted screw on the strut holding up one of the outside doors, and added a stopper to the main door piston to keep it open in the wind – no more trying it open.

We can’t thank him enough. and Sue kept us well fed during the upgrade operations. Thanks again Bruce and Sue!

Next up, Boone, SC.

Til then, Safe travels!