August 30- September 2, 2024
Friday, August 30, 2024
After work, we frantically packed the van. With the two of us, we did it in about an hour and a half. Not too shabby. I also packed a dinner for us to eat once we arrived at our campsite in Ohiopyle. Dinner was a grilled Mexican cheese sandwich with chili lime shredded chicken and buffalo (me) or bbq sauce (Jeff). This has turned into such an easy meal that is so yummy! I also pre-made our bed, so when we arrived at the campsite, we could go right to sleep.
After our drive, I took a quick shower (our site was right behind the bathroom with a nice little path). Then, we chilled out- Jeff watched Lord of the Rings while I read on my Kindle. I ended up going to bed around 9:45pm- a wild Friday night!
Saturday, August 31, 2024
Having had to pee since 1am and waking up several times throughout the night, I finally became vertical at 7:30. I continued reading my Kindle in bed before eating some of my pre-made muffins and fresh coffee. It was a nice relaxing morning in our little van. Jeff woke up at 9:30 and quickly took a shower so we could meet our friend at the Dolly Sods in the early afternoon. On a morning like this, pre-made breakfasts (muffins, breakfast sandwiches, granola bars) are so nice. We can get going quickly while still having a good breakfast.
We met with our friend Haiden at one of the highest drivable points in the Dolly Sods. The drive up was a bit sketchy for our 40-year-old van, but she did well! It had a lot of rocks and was very dusty; it was about the limit of Charlotte. But…we made it. We saw windmills and classic West Virginian landscapes, but as we drove higher, the views became much more alpine, which we were not expecting. Once we parked, we started walking around the large rocks and small bushes. They reminded me a lot of Maine! There were also more people than I was expecting.
Next, we set up along the side of the dirt road for a quick meal. This was our first time camping with Haiden, and he was impressed that I could make a grilled cheese sandwich with little to no effort in our van setup. (Haiden has a really cool rooftop tent and portable kitchen, but it does take a while to set up.) After lunch, we went to an old, dilapidated fire tower. We could only climb a few steps to see the view, as much of it had literally fallen apart.
We then found a parking spot to hike to Bear Rock. Along the hike, we saw pretty wildflowers and drastic changes in terrain yet again. Rocks and shrubs turned to creeks and pine trees within a hundred feet. It also started pouring on us, which always seems to happen to us on at least one day of every trip we go on.
Around 5:00, we decided to start looking for a campsite. This was a dispersed camping area, so everything was first come-first serve. We first stopped at the actual campground with an outdoor bathroom. It was entirely full, so we continued on. Eventually, we drove a significant way down the mountain to a site we had seen on our way up. But before we could get there, we had to have a little excitement on the way down. Haiden’s Jeep had a camping trailer behind it carrying his rooftop tent and other camping gear. As we were driving over the numerous rocks and potholes, his aluminum framing failed and his rooftop tent started to slide off the structure…as we are on the side of this mountain. Yikes. We radioed him to pull over, and we spent about an hour and a half lifting the tent back onto his Jeep and refastening it down (which is harder said than done.) The tent itself was very heavy, and the screws to attach it to his roof rack had very little clearance for hands to tighten it effectively. Just as we diagnosed this problem, it started to POUR as well. We made the most of it though- if you don’t laugh you cry. We were grateful we were with Haiden when this happened because otherwise he would’ve been trying to lift a very heavy roof top tent by himself (which would’ve been impossible). We were also thankful that, for once, the person breaking down wasn’t us!
We made it to our campsite, camped in a little circle around the firepit, and Jeff started finding wood for a fire. I made tacos while Haiden made himself a crunch wrap since by this point we were all very hungry. Because it had rained so much, Jeffrey really struggled with starting a fire. Thankfully, there was a Sprinter van with friendly campers at the site next to us that offered us a fire starter stick, allowing us to have a weak fire throughout the evening. We now carry fire starters with us for this reason. It seems like every trip we go on, we learn something new we need to bring. We definitely had a lot of learning experiences over this summer! Even with the fire, everything was wet, smelly, and kind of cold. After sitting around the fire for a little, I snuck into bed to enjoy reading my book in peace.
Sunday, September 1, 2024
I woke up around 8:00, with Jeffrey already awake and moving. It’s amazing when we’re camping with others how quickly he wakes up and starts moving. When it’s just him and me, he sleeps in drastically later than I do. On this particular morning, Jeff even made me coffee and delivered it to me in bed! While I loved the nice sentiment, I knew he just did it to get me moving so we could start our day. Nevertheless, I loved it and said he could make my coffee any time.
We had a quick breakfast and hit the road around 9:30 to go to Seneca Rock. We stopped at a little convenience store to use the bathrooms, get some fire starter of our own, and a sticker for our van fridge. We also spontaneously bought homemade pepperoni rolls at this store, and they were SO good. We stopped at a little climbing store where I got my first climbing harness too (it’s peach and orange – so cute!) and some longer rope for potential climbing we had wanted to do that day.
As we started hiking up Seneca Rock with allllll Haiden’s climbing gear (he’s a big climber and a great teacher), it started raining. Go figure. We made it to the top and saw gorgeous views. We even saw some climbers on the side of the mountain- they looked so tiny! We took some pictures, talked to a few other climbers who were scoping out the climbing holds, and ate our pepperoni rolls. We were blown away by how delicious they were, and they were the perfect snack after hiking to the top of this mountain.
At this point, I was very grateful for the training I’d been doing in the gym. Back in December, I started a Crossfit-like class and had noticed that I was making improvements, but hiking something like this and not feeling like I was dying was a big achievement for me.
We started hiking back down, checking out a few climbing locations along the way. After looking at the rock and how slick it was, we decided to forgo climbing. The conditions just weren’t right, Jeff and I are not very experienced yet, and we knew someone would get hurt. It just wasn’t worth it.
We made it back down to our vehicles and Haiden bid us farewell. At this point, Jeff and I had a decision to make. We could continue exploring the Dolly Sods and Seneca Rock with no campsite planned. We could also go back to Ohiopyle and walk around. The other option was that we could go home and start unloading our sopping wet van. We drove around for a bit, a little cranky, wet, hungry, and confused on what we should do. We ended up deciding to drive to the highest point in West Virginia, Spruce Knob. It was quite foggy, and you really couldn’t see anything, so we changed into dry clothes and rested in the parking lot, hoping that things would clear up. (Sidenote: People are so nosy about the van and will talk about it and who they assume lives in it without thinking anyone is inside. One person looked in and you could hear him say “Oh, someone is in there!” Like, yes, if you see the pop top up, you can assume someone is in here! It would be so less weird if they just tried to talk to us, and we could tell them about the van. We are friendly!)
We woke up from our nap, had a quick snack, and decided we were going to check it out even if it was foggy. Just as we were ready to step out of the van, it started pouring. While rain doesn’t scare us, we had just changed into dry clothes, we were so sick of being wet, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to see anything anyways. We waited for about an hour before calling it a loss and heading to Blackwater Falls State Park. Thank goodness it was a beautiful stop with a gorgeous waterfall that definitely improved our moods. The perfect pitstop after a failed view of Spruce Knob.
We eventually made our way back to Ohiopyle where we were lucky enough to get campsite 48, right next to the bathrooms again. It was the last site available! We had ham and cheese melts and had a lovely night of rest with a cool morning.
Monday, September 2, 2024
After our normal morning van routine, we went to the natural water slides at Ohiopyle State Park. It was a crisp 65 degrees, so we passed on going down the slides ourselves, but watched others instead. We also contemplated going whitewater rafting, but it being a holiday weekend and the fact that we don’t want to just drop $115/person to do something cool at the drop of a hat on every trip, we decided against it. We then walked along a bike trail and talked about future trips we want to take and just enjoyed the scenery. We met the sweetest black lab puppy named Thelma who I really wanted to just take home with us.
On our way out of Ohiopyle, we decided we were going to check out Falling Water. We have tried stopping there twice before when we’ve been in the area, and both times they were closed. Third time’s a charm, right? Wrong. They were sold out of tickets due to it being Labor Day. Ugh. We still got to walk around Kentuck Knob a little bit (like, the gift shop), but it was a bust.
We went home after that failure to have dinner with Jeffrey’s parents, unpack our disgustingly gross and wet van, clean the inside of said van, and start on the laundry. It was a productive way to end an interesting day and a great weekend.
*A special thanks to Haiden for taking some of these photos for us to enjoy! 🙂
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