Road Trips and Hike Reports

Lynchburg VA is a gem.  The town is set on steep hills with the James River going through the middle of it.  We started out by having breakfast at Biscuitville .  We then returned to the hotel and walked up Monument Terrace which was very tall.  The landings on the flights of stairs are each dedicated to veterans from Lynchburg from a different war.  One level also has a rose garden off to one side.  At the top sits the Lynchburg Museum which is in the town’s 2nd courthouse. The original courthouse was very small and was on the same site as the museum sits now.  They have since built yet another courthouse making the 2nd one available to be a museum. We’re my mother with us she would have found the interpretive sign about PFC Desmond Thomas Doss interesting since it detailed how a conscientious objector, a Seventh Day Adventist during WWII, was able to save many lives and received high honors etc. Since it was open we went through the museum .  T...

Wednesday We started our last day in Eureka Springs by having an amazing breakfast at Three Bird Cafe .  I had the most flavorful breakfast burrito I've ever had.  It was covered in Hatch Chile chili and filled with potatoes and Chorizo.  Really exceptional.  We also had a blueberry pastry.  After breakfast we walked around Basin Springs park which is one of the oldest parts of town. Brian wanted to visit a candy store that opened at 10 am so we had a little time to explore downtown again.  On the way to Hot Springs we were mostly on scenic AR-7.  We had driven a good part of 7 before (but this trip was southbound not northbound) and last time it was so foggy that it was a chore driving the whole way. This trip started out foggy on some other roads but by the time we got to AR-7 most of the fog was gone and I really enjoyed the non stop curves and very sparse traffic for miles and miles. We stopped for lunch and an opportunistic walk in Clarksville Ar...

Today was a very pleasant day. The weather improved from 'almost raining' all day to quite sunny and as the day went on, pleasingly warm.  We drove I-24, I-69 (formerly Western KY Parkway) and a good chunk of the Western KY Parkway that is NOT now part of I-69 before the hike and then KY-84 and US-68 (both very scenic) most of the rest of the way to Lexington. The hike started off very wet and muddy for maybe .75 of the first 1.5 miles.  After that it got less mucky and more enjoyable as it worked its way down to a river and a single hike-in camp site at the end of the White Oaks trail.  Surprisingly for the location and conditions, we saw two separate other hikers on this trail.  We were wondering why the person who plotted this trail on Alltrails only went ~2.6 miles each way etc but when we got to the campsite and the trail went no further, it made sense. Tonight's hotel takes advantage of Covid-19 savings by putting us in a Hyatt Regency in Lexington fo...

Millbrook Village and VanCampens Glen Orchard, Hamilton Ridge and Pioneer trails  Posted by Chris 4/14/18 Basics: Length - 6.7 miles Elevation gain - Estimated at 700 feet Nearest city - Blairstown, NJ Difficulty - Moderate The day: The weather swung dramatically from cold to warm yesterday and today.  We went from snow flurries earlier this week to above 80 today.  Tomorrow will be much colder but let's just remember today? The hike came from the Hiking New Jersey book which may not be in print any longer.  Despite living very close to the Water Gap we have very effectively ignored the hiking and trails in the Gap until now.  We made One attempt at a hike a few weeks ago off the same road (Old Mine Road) but it was snowy and our resolve wasn't as deep as the snow so we bailed.  Today we went further up Mine Road until the split with Millbrook-Blairstown road and parked at the Millbrook village lot.  An early start meant there wa...

Trail Loop from 50 hikes in New Jersey (Falcon, 2009) Posted by Chris 3/13/18 Basics: Length - ~ 6.9 miles Elevation gain - Minimal Nearest city - Highlands, NJ Difficulty - Conditions (cold, windy) were a little challenging and there was 3/4 of a mile walking on the beach but overall this was an easy hike. The Day: We headed out around 9 am and other than me getting pulled over on NJ-31 (sigh) the trip down was easy on NJ-31, I-78, I-278 and NJ-35.  We grabbed a pre-hike snack at Dunkin' Donuts.  When we arrived at the park it wasn't clear if we would be ok parking where the trail guide suggested since it said 2 hour parking.  Apparently this park is crammed to the max during the summer.  I called the visitors center and they said that parking there should be ok.  It was also very windy and cold at the start of the hike and for the first 1/3 of the miles. Sandy Hook is basically a narrow spit of land with Raritan Bay on one side and th...

Boone trail, Colson trail and Pinnacle Overlook trails Posted by Chris 2/22/18 Basics: Length - 5.6 miles Elevation gain - Estimated total of 800 Nearest city - Middlesboro, KY Difficulty - The Boone and Colson trails were pretty easy other than being muddy.  The trail from the Pinnacle overlook towards Fort McCook was all downhill one way and all uphill on the other. The Day: We weren't sure what we would do today but I was hopeful to make it back to Cumberland Gap which is an interesting area I had driven through when I lived in TN but not since.  So we had a McBreakfast and headed off down US-58 towards the gap.  The first place we stopped was a visitor center off 58 that seemed Daniel Boone focused.  At that point we were really just looking for more information but the weather was amazing, warm and breezy with a nice gentle feeling and there was a trail access there so we decided to dive right in just in case rain or thunder (both possibi...