New York to Tennessee

Monday
We are up at 7:30 and Carol makes us each an egg with cheese, onions and peppers and a cup of tea. The trade some tunes and then she gets on the road for her errands and I head south. Back down Rt 210 into the Delaware Water Gap. It’s a beautiful day so I stop and walk up to Digman Falls. It’s a couple of different falls and they are lovely. I would like to see them when the azaleas are in bloom. Both falls are surrounded by tons of azaleas. It must be fab in the spring. Must add that to my list! SO many places... so little time! THen I drive a bit further down and stop at a boat launch and have a swim. There is a very cute 4 year old redheaded girl there with her father ands sister. Dad is fishing and she is fascinated by the fact that I am swimming against the current and not really going anywhere.

When Iget out I chat with them. Her father grew up here and the girl offers me a PBJ sangwhich! I thnak her but decline and go and eat my own lunch. A trailer with canoes shows up dropping people off for a paddle. I question the driver and then decide to paddle myself. I drive down and pay and then join the next flight. I am dropped off witha couple from Brooklyn who have obviously never been in a canoe before. THey guy handes them paddles and pushes them off. No instructions! I get my kayak adjusted and ctach up with them and give them a quick lesson. Enough to get them going straight down the river! I paddle with them on and off and we have a nice conversation. They are staying at anearby resort for a few days. They run an online finess advice website. THey ask about dangerous animals.

I assure them they will be fine. Just don’t feed the bears! Psyche! Just kidding. The trip is ver way too quickly. THey said 4 hours but it was more like an hou and a half. Guess we paddled to fast! I get back in the van and head west. I pull off in the Pennsylvania Wilds and am looking for the campground when my coolant light starts flashing. Oops, that’s not good. I notice that the thermometer is not reading any higher so I glide down the mountain and turn into the campsite. I park and check under the hood and I am down a little on coolant. Strange since I just had the oil changed and fluids checked! There is still quite a bit of coolnat so I should be okay. I look under her but I don’t see any fluid leaking. Okay we will address this in the morning. THere is only one other tent at the very far end of the cmapground and no rangers around. I can’t find a place to pay so I go back and have some veggies for dinner and crash. This is a nice campground except it’s very close to the road. I can hear the trucks. After my veggies I have a little more lemon poppysead bread and crash. Good night.

Tuesday

In the morning trucks on the raod wake me up about 6:30. I stick my head out and it’s 44 degrees in the van. I sleep for another half hour then get up and go for a bike ride on some trails. Still no ranger so I go into Jersey Shore, Penn which is the nearest town and a garge gives a bit of coolant at no charge. Nice guy. I go into the the center of town and get some cash and load some photos and text on my websites. ATHen drive west to Rt. 219 where I turn south. This road goes all the way to Southwestern Virgina right along the Applalachain Mountains. It’s a beautiful old highway with lots of twist and bends. Old country stores, farms, little towns and state parks roll by. Lots of smells too. Farms, animals, skunks, pines, rock, It’s a good road. I cross into Maryland and stop for a break and a swim in German Lake State Park. I am almost the only one there. I swim and find that the showers are open and take a nice hot shower and wash my hair.

THen I roll on into West Virgina and pass through Thomas, WV. It’s a cool lookiing little town with a Flying Pig Cafe and The Purple Violin with a live band tonight. There are lots of windmills up on the mountain above town. I pull into the Blackwater Falls State Park and get a campsite. They send me out to pick and site and I get them to call the Purple Violin to see what band is playing. I get a site and they report the band is irish rock. Sounds interesting. So I relax for a bit and then head back down to Thomas. I can see deer along the road. I am going to have to be careful driving tonight. I get to the Purple Violin and there is a nice crowd. They want $15 cover. Wow! What is the band? Tasting Haggis out of Toronto. I have heard they are good so I pay and go in. They have locally brewed beer on draft. I am served an IPA in a mason jar. fun! The band cranks up and they really get the crowd going. Very dynamic and fun band. They have bagpipes, guitars, keys, drums, pennywhistles , harmonicas. The crowd is up and dancing. I am having fun and glad I came. They sing a song about Noseworthy and Pierce two Newfoundland fishermen. I reminds me of Phonse Noseworthy who was fixing my van last summer when he died of a herat attack! He was a really nice guy.

When the band takes a break I tell them my Noseworthy story.

The second half is good but not quite as dynamic as the first set. I laeve before it ends and before I drink too much beer! I head out of town with a couple of cars behind me. Sure enough two deer run into the road in front of me. It’s mom and a fawn. I almost clip the fawn, but miss by a foot and luckily the cars behind me don’t hit me! I start up again and soon it’s just me on the road so I take it real slow and make it back without further deer misses! HA!
I read my email and finally bunk down to read about 1 am. THis is the latest I have been up in months!

In the morning I sleep in until 8:30 then try and fill my water tank but they had a water line break and the pump is dry. Too bad. I am getting low. Hopefully the next place will have water. I drive down to see the falls. They are pretty but you can’t get too close. You must stay on the boardwalk declare numerous signs. So I walk back up the 241 steps to the vn and drive out to the Lidy Point Overlook. I walk the half mile trail out and the view is quite stunning! You can see the whole valley. There is not a single sign of nam that I can find. I take some pics and head back. THen I drive south. Down 23 and back onto 219. Very cury and winding. Lots of ups and downs. I average about 45 mph on most of it even though the speed limit is 55. Pretty road. Little towns. I am either in the mountians or just to the west of them. Looks like towns I remember from my choldhood raod trips. Signs on barns, general stores, diners and cafes. I haven’t seen a chain store all day. It’s very refreshing. I lave West Virgina into Virginia. I’m getting tired but I have targeted a campsite in the mountains of SW Virgina. I head for it and am back to winding hairpin turns.

I have left 219 and am south west of Abingdon, VA home of the Barter Theater. It’s been around a long time. WHen it was started poor people could barter goods for a ticket! Pretty cool. My father tells me that my grandfather (State Supreme Court Judge) use to like holding court down there so he could go to the Barter Theater. I need to go there sometime. I am following smaller roads and finally I am winding my way up in the mountains. 20 mph hour hairpin turns. I am getting tired and it’s dusk. Finally I see a sign for Jefferson State Forest and turn it. But there is no campsite here it’s just a hiking access. Darn. I park and wait. No cars in the lot and it’s getting dark. I doubt any parks people will be back tonight, so I steam the last of the brooccli and beans for dinner. One car comes in flies around the circle and zooms out. Never even slows down. Well, I still think I wil be okay. So I have a beer with my dinner and then crash. Lot’s of miles covered today. Mostly going around those tight hairpin turns! Good night.

Thursday Sept. 3

It’s 7:30 before any light makes it’s way back into this holler. No rangers or other cars have appeared so I eat breakfast and head south. Too bad I have a phone meeting at 10 am otherwise I would have gone hiking on one of these trails. So I drive into Tennesse and pull off the road and have my Folkfest meeting by phone and email. We get a lot of the changes made to the festival map and I drive on south headed for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It’s the Thursday before Labor Day and I am worried about getting a campsite. I turn on the road to Pidgeon Forge and it’s like being in Orlando. It’s all chain restuarants and attractions. there is the upside down house of Wonderworks next to the Titanic surrounded by scaffolding. Oh my god this is to much. Luckily, I soon turn off for the quiet side of the Smokies and head for Townsend, TN and then up into the Park to Cades Cove Campground. They have a site for tonight and I got the last site for Friday but are full for Saturday. Well I will cross the bridge when I come to it!

I park in my site and take a break and then head back down to Townsend. I need a few files to finish the map. I get a signal and call Jenny. She doesn’t have them yet so I do all my shopping and wait. After a while I move down next to a stream and read the NYTimes online. Finally the files come through and I finsh the map and send it back. We make one more adjustment and call it done. Then I head back up to my campsite. There is a nice family from just up the road in Knoxville next door. We have a nice chat and I show the daughter the beautiful butterfly that got caught in my car and died intact. It is very pretty but oh so delicate. I open a large fat Tire Amber Ale and drink some of it while I make some noodles and sauce for dinner. Then finish the beer and soon I am falling asleep. The neighbors on the other side have their campsite lit up bright as day, so i have all the shutters closed on that side. I am watching for stars but it’s too bright next door so I curl up with my book and son I am alseep.

Friday

I am up at 7 and on the trail at 8. I head off and walk about half a mile over to where the trailhead along a stream. I have to get to the other side and finally I find a tree that people have been using as a bridge and walk across. I am on the trail and it’s also a hiking trail which means watching out for horse puckeys. Not fun to step in! Finally I find a side trail which will make a longer hike but no horses and head up. I am in the rodedendron thickets and I am hearing a noise off to one side and it sounds like a bear. Sure enough there he comes out of the thicket up the hill from me. He stops to rip up a stump and I take a couple of fuzzy pics of him. I am watching for others but don’t see any and after a while he heads up the hill. There were signs sayi ng there was an aggressive bear in this area.

Just about the hill is the primituve campsite they closed due to bear activity. I keep a careful eye out as I head on up the trail. Soon I reach the Applachain Trail and there is the closed shelter with bear warnings posted all over. No more bears though. So I head north up the AT and soon run int a family heading south. They know about the closed shelter and are going to the next one along. I warn them to watch out for the bear. They ask what to do aout an agreesive bear and we discuss different strategies then I look at the young son a nd say “Critterman says to take the smallest person in the group and throw them in the direction of the bear and ru n as fast as you can in the other direction!”

The boy replies “only if you can catch me!” We all laugh and I head on. I hike along on top of the ridge for a few miles and then down a way and then up the flank of Rockytop Mt. I am humming the Nitty Griity Dirt Band song Down on Rockytop. I reach the top and there are two people there having lunch. I take off my pack, check out the view and chat with Brian and Laura. They are from Knoxcille on a day hike. They head on up to Thunderhead and I decide to hike along. It’s another hundred feet of elevation and is the highest peak in the area. On the way they tell me about working at Oakridge where are the US nuclear weapons are serviced and many are stored! Wow, what a place to work. Soon we are on top at 5524 ft, there is no view. SO we take sme pics of each other and then head back down.

I stop to have an apple and some water on Rocktop and they head on back down. Soon I see storm clouds coming up the ridge so I head on back down. I head back down the AT and then down a different trail back down. I stop and talk with a few people along the trail and take a few pics but soon I am caught up with Brian and Laura. Laura and I get ahead and have a nice conversation all the way to the botttom. We say good bye in the campground parking lots and I walk back over the log down the stream and back to my campsite. Stopping only to report to the rangers that the bear is still hanging around those closed campsites. I get my boots off and pull out another cold Fat Tire Amber and spend a happy while sitting with my feet up drinking beer and watching the holiday campers streaming in. I eat the rest of last night’s pasta and sauce dinner and crahs pretty early. It was a good day.

Saturday

I was up and riding my bike out of my campsite at 8. There is an eleven mile scenic drive here that is closed to motorized vehicles on Saturday. So I ride out to it and am amazed at the number and variety of people who are getting ready to ride. People of all ages and bodytypes, colors etc. It makes me very happy to see all these riders and wwalkers this early. I head out and the road is paved but just one lane wide. I thread my way through other riders and soon am out ahead and the road circumnavigates this high mountain valley. The weather is great, the sky clear and mist is rising off the fields. There are deer grazing and birds in the sky. It’s a lovely ride. The road goes up and down hills and I just keep shifting my gears to the terrain and keep riding. I make it all the way around in a bout an hour and am back in my campsite just as my neighbors are finishing their breakfast. They are amazed that i have riden the whole loop in just an hour. They offer mt some breakfast. Once I have caught my breath I have a couple of panakes and some eggs and a nice conversation. They are family of 12 in two campsites covering all ages from granny to infant. We compare stories and then they clean up the breakfast dishes and I pack up, widh them safe travel and drive south to Chattanooga, TN.

I drive the slow highway and the take the interstate into town. I see and exit for a famous battlesite and Lookout Mt which was recommended by my hiking buddies. I drive though the city but the nighboorhood is geting rough and I don’t see any signs so i turn around and backtrack into downtown and I find an empty lot by the river and unload my bike and ride down the River Park past the Hunter Art Museum and down the Riverwalk a few miles. It gets industrial so I turn around and ride back to town. I walk around the artsy district by the Museum and look at lots of outdoor scupture. You can also bike across the Tennessee River on a high old wooden bridge.


There is more park and some cool shops. I ride and walk around and watch kids playing in the ater park and riding the old fashioned carousel. I see and outdoor shop having a sale. I go in and buy a pair of shorts and a great softshell at a deep discount. Then I ride back and over to the YMCA for a hower but I just miss them. damn. So I ride back to BEYOND, put on my bathing suit and walk down a boat ramp to the River and take a stream bath and shave. I get a funny look from some guys walking down the boat ramp to fish but I don’t care because I am CLEAN and it feels great! I eat some veggies and bike back to town. The movie “Whatever Works” is just startig so i see it. It’s pretty good. Then I g across the street to a brewery and Have some beer and fish tacos. Then I bike back to BEYOND and crash. It starts to rain in the night and continues all night.