Road Trips and Hike Reports

It seemed like it had been planned for a year but it’s finally here.  Our first night started off Thursday after work around 4 pm.  We headed southwest through the Allegheny’s and, after a fun casino visit, into Pennsylvania.  We stayed in Clearfield PA at a Best Western that was especially quiet, nice and well thought out for the modest price we paid.   After a somewhat short night of sleep we began what will probably be the longest drive and longest day of the entire trip.  Brian drove us from Clearfield down to the Flight 93 Memorial site in Shanksville PA.  I had been to the memorial once before but Brian had never been.  It was a very quiet somewhat blustery visit to the memorial which added to the somber tone that place already has. On the way: At the memorial: I think the photos I’ve taken accentuate the abstract nature of some of the memorial elements.  There are much more straight forward pieces to it.  For example, the black brick ...

This trail loop passed within a few hundred feet of the cabin we were staying in.  The trail weaves its way around a central cross section of the park arae and at the end (at least the end as we hiked it) a thin needle of trail goes up a gorge and comes back. Other than the short (but steep) link trail that connected the cabin road to the main Central Trail, this was a perfect loop. Scenery, solitude and trail conditions were all supreme.  It was still humid but it was so early in the morning that temps were very modest, under 65.  The trail doesn't pass near any major park facilities and we didn't see any other hikers at any point.  It's just there for scenic enjoyment.

West Virginia. and Connecticut...  One is known for high incomes and higher education, the other for rednecks and coal.  But who has the better state park facilities?  To be certain, these 2 facilities are not apples to apples comparisons.  Both represent their particular parks' version of a '2 bedroom cabin' but one of them is over 2x as expensive as the other.   I doubt many people would choose the cheaper one based on the 'great value' it offers. Contestant 1:  We had to arrive before 5 pm or make prior arrangements with the office to have our cabin setup with a passcode to get in the door.  We arrived late so we were told to come in the next morning (at 9 am or later) to leave a cash deposit to protect against damage of this cabin we already paid for online. The cabin itself was adequate.  It had plenty of power outlets and a few bleak halogen light fixtures and a queen size mattress pad on a frame in one room and 3 or 4 bunk beds with pads i...

There isn't a ton to report for the rest of the trip home.  We went to Wheeling Saturday mostly on I-64 and US-35.  It was a pleasant early morning start to the drive and the trip went well. Wheeling was all about visiting Wheeling Island Casino, someplace we used to visit once or twice a year when we lived in PA.  It was very fun and we got lots of play time.   After the casino we ate at Cheddars, one of the less common members of the Darden restaurant group of which Olive Garden is the best known.  I absolutely loved my blackened salmon meal and it was a very good value. The atmosphere was lively in the bar and the appetizer croissants were delicious.   The Hampton Inn we stayed at was very full of high school students hanging out in the lobby and the hotel had actually called earlier to see if we could go for a normal room instead of the suite I had reserved.  We were very worried that we'd be facing a long noisy night with people slamming...

We walked to breakfast at The Omelet Shop which was just across the main road from the hotel’s access road.  West Virginian’s aren’t really used to pedestrians and we had 1 person who aggressively made sure he turned right before we could cross and on the way back somebody was totally unaware of our presence crossing a driveway.  The food was good but next time we’ll pathetically drive to avoid those situations. The state park was only 11 miles from our hotel. The hike wasn’t long but it was surprisingly rocky and had a lot of geology. Some areas had enormous sharply angled boulders similar to what we experience in NY at ‘ Little Rock City ’ and other areas followed a pleasant stream that was usually just out of view.  There was also a fair bit of climbing considering the short length of the trail. The park and the trail were super clean and well maintained and marked.  We had earlier contemplated a much longer more ambitious hike but ultimately this was more than e...

This was the 2nd part of the family visit portion of the trip.  We had breakfast with Brian’s niece and visited a little more while our laundry washed and dried.  We also visited the casino near Gastonia NC.  After that we had a long but interesting and enjoyable drive mostly up I-77.  I think I-77 has the longest East Coast mountain pass I’ve been on yet.  There was a long truck climbing lane that went for miles, 2 tunnels and lots of curves for a freeway.  We exited about 20 miles before Bekcley to avoid having to pay a toll on the West Virginia turnpike.  Those handful of WV miles were curvy and bumpy and full of oncoming headlights.  Every time we come to West Virginia, the poor infrastructure is impossible to ignore. With our change to spend 1 less day in Charlotte we have 2 nights here in Beckley.  We will do at least some sort of hike today but I’m not sure we’re up to a big 8 miler that I had originally picked out.  It’s wet and ...