Of Course the Sun Came Out

Sunday, 29 April

It was time to leave the campground at Pohick Bay Regional Park today, and of course the sun came out.  This was the case for our two other visits to PBRP, so I shouldn’t be surprised that the pattern held true this time as well.

Would love to have stayed to take advantage of the nice day, but site 71 is very popular and it is near impossible to get late check-out.  There is always some other rig anxiously waiting in the wings to get in and get set up.  So, we tucked our tail between our tires and headed out at 10:15a (check out is at 11:00a).

After an uneventful 32-mile (51 km) drive, we pulled into storage and put the Phaeton to bed for the next 10 days.  Yes, she gets to rest up next weekend as we have no plans to go camping.  That doesn’t mean we won’t go out and do something fun, but we’ll just have to wait and see.  After all, we were out more days  gallivanting in the Phaeton this month than we were at the stix & brix, and there are chores that need tending.

On the way home, we detoured over to Bull Run Regional Park, found a quiet shelter not far from the entrance, and had a quick bite to eat.  I guess you could say that we wanted to make sure we had at least one al fresco meal this weekend.  Afterwards, we went for a long walk — got to get my 10,000 steps in ;-)

That’s it for today.  No photos, I’m afraid; just a wrap up post.  If all stays quiet on the “work front” I hope to finish posting our Smokies vacation.  So, stay tuned.

A 14,556-Step Day

Saturday, 28 April

We had all kinds of ideas for things to do today, but we didn’t do any of them.  Why?  It was just too darn cold.  When we got up at 6:00a it was a mere 45F (7C).  We hoped that as the day progressed the sun would come out and warm us up a bit.  That didn’t happen.  It was overcast all day and the temperature barely got up to 52F (11C), staying there for maybe 30 minutes before it began moving back down again.

I’m not really complaining; I’ll take cold temps over hot anytime, but we had hoped to sit outside this weekend, maybe have an al fresco meal or two.  The damp chill put paid to those plans.  Perhaps next time.

Not that we stayed home mind you.  After all, you can’t walk 14,556 steps inside the Phaeton.  Well, you can, but since it takes only 17 steps to get from the cockpit to the far side of the bedroom, it would take forever to rack ‘em up.  I’m participating in the “10,000 Steps a Day” Program sponsored by my company, so I’m off to a good start :-)  Actually, I easily walk 10,000 steps a day; so my goal is to get above that number.  (With my stride, what I accomplished today equates to 4+ miles (6+ km).  Not too shabby.)

After relaxing around the bus-house until mid-morning, we took the .5-mile trail from the campground to Gunston Hall, George Mason’s colonial home.  Since we had toured the estate on a previous visit (post here), our purpose was to get some exercise by strolling the grounds.  Of course, there were some photo ops along the way, some of which made me wish I had my DSLR and tripod with me.

Field of buttercups as far as the eye can see.

a yellow poplar tree with plenty of blooms.

So, this is what the blooms look like when they’re still attached to a tree branch.

Behind the visitor center, a secret garden bordered by tall hedges revealed …

Viburnum bushes

Easy to see why this species of viburnum is nicknamed common snowball.

… as well as the snow white blooms of azaleas.

When the white azaleas start blooming, I'll come back to you … or so the song goes.

Azaleas bloom in the spring; it sure doesn’t feel like it today.

We returned home around noon and grabbed a quick bite to eat.  Then, Mui went off to shop for a project he has in mind (post later).  While he was gone, I processed the photos from our Gunston Hall stroll.  That done, I headed out for a walk around the campground loop to find ‘acceptable’ sites for future visits.  A few shutter clicks added to my collection of Pohick Bay Regional Park photos.

A head-on view of Site 71 shows how wide it is.  our space goes out to the fire ring on the far left;
and there’s wide open space to our right.

Clockwise from top left: a small portion of the play area (for adults and kids), which is rimmed by campsites behind a ring of trees; another angle of view of site 71; one of the two comfort stations that house restrooms and laundry facilities; mountain laurel buds; behind the trees on the far side of the coach is the play area pictured in the fist photo of this collage.

When Mui returned from his shopping trip, we headed out on another walk.  This time we took what was supposed to be a 1-mile paved path to Mason Neck State Park.  It was one mile, OK; but that was just to the park’s entrance.  When a roller-blader told us that it was another 1½ miles to the visitor center, we decided to turn back and leave exploring the park to another visit.

Look at the size of that root base!
Mui’s just being macho; it really IS cold today.  OK, OK – Truth be known, we both took
off our jackets on the return portion of our trek.

The fertile spore-bearing fronds of the Cinnamon Fern gives the species its name.

We saw plenty of these blooms in The Smokies as well; now I know that this flowering
plant is the Sawtooth Blackberry (aka Southern or Highbush Blackberry).

And so we wrapped up another day at PBRP.  It wasn’t quite the day we’d hoped to spend here, but sometimes you just play the hand that’s dealt you and move on from there.

Revisiting Pohick Bay

Friday, April 27

I still have a couple of posts to do from our trip last week.  However, we’re at the campground at Pohick Bay Regional Park (PBRP) this weekend, so I thought I’d post about this trip now and come back to the Smokies later.

This is our third trip to PBRP.  The first one was in the fall of 2010; it didn’t end well.  In fact, it was a Roughing-It-Not-So-Smoothly experience.  Our next trip was in April 2011.  That was when we discovered the great site we’re in again this time.  That was also the trip on which we strolled over to nearby Gunston Hall, the estate of George Mason, one of the Founding Fathers of our nation.  We had such a great time on that trip that we made reservations to return in September.  It wasn’t to be; Tropical Storm Lee made sure of that.  You can’t cancel a reservation made at Virginia parks, but you can transfer it to another date.  So, that’s what we did.  And that’s why we’re here now.

We came in last night.  The 32-mile (50 km) drive was a pleasant surprise.  Our truck GPS brought us down via a much shorter route and it took us just 45 minutes to get here (that’s in comparison to the 54-mile (86 km) drive that used to take us 1½ hours).  Once we arrived at the campground, we did little more than set up, grab a bite to eat, relax with some mindless TV programming, and hit the hay.

The VA-7100 S / VA-123 S route not only shortens the trip, but also reduces our time on I-95.

As is the case with most of the places around here, camping at PBRP is not cheap.  Our 50-amp FHU site is $41.50/night + tax.  That’s the jurisdiction rate; those who don’t qualify pay $2 more.  We do have a really neat site, though.  It’s extra long and plenty wide; the neighbor on the right faces away from us; and the only neighbor on the left side is quite distant, separated by lots of trees.  So far, the sites across the road from us are empty; we’ll see if they remain that way over the weekend.  There’s no wi-fi or cable, and since the park is heavily wooded, satellite coverage is iffy.  We get plenty of TV channels with the antenna, however.  Cell signal is spotty; 3-4 bars on this visit thanks to our Wilson antenna/amplifier set-up.

If there is one disadvantage to the site that we’re in, it’s that the play area (for adults and kids) is just through the trees to our rear.  This hasn’t been a problem for our early/late season stays, but I think it could get quite noisy once the camping season is in full swing.

The park map (left) and the campground map with Site 71 circled in blue.
[courtesy of the Pohick Bay Regional Park website]

Site 71 is big-rig friendly, and its location on the loop makes it a cinch to maneuver into position.

Small puddle; small reflection.

Although Mui took the day off, today was a day of work for me, and it started early with a proposal project.  For six hours, I worked the documents, which were due by 1:00p.  But that’s OK; I had a quiet, relaxing view to look at when I needed to clear my head.

My ‘office’ view is of open space, not another campsite. 
(this area is to our left; You can barely glimpse the neighboring site through the trees.)

While I worked on my project, Mui took care of some clean-up chores — the toad’s windows, especially, were in dire need of some attention after our rainy day drive back home last Sunday.  After lunch, he took off to do a bit of shopping while I stayed behind to finish out my workday.  By the time Mui got back around 3:30p, I was ready to set out to explore some of the hiking trails.

After picking up a trail map from the office, we headed off on a cobbled-together trail that took us through heavily wooded areas to the marina and back.  All told, our round-trip hike was somewhere around 2 miles (3.2 km).  The temp was a comfortable 60F (15.5C) with the sunshine keeping the chill from the constant breeze at bay.  Not that we were complaining; the breeze helped to keep the brine flies from bugging us :-)

There wasn’t much entertainment value to our trail — meaning there weren’t any views during the hike.  But we did have a bit of a payoff once we reached the bay, which is an arm of the Potomac River.

Through the woods to the water.
At high tide the strip of beach is under water.

Of course, I found a few things worthy of a shutter click or two … and here they are.

Most of the hedges of mountain laurel were just coming into bud, but I found a few
where the blooms were coming along quite nicely.

There were plenty of snail shells on the narrow strip of rocky beach;
the occupants of these shells had already vacated the premises.

Yellow poplar blooms were everywhere … on the trail … on the beach.
Not surprising after last weekend’s heavy rains and the breezy conditions since.

No idea what these blooms are, but there were a lot of these flowering trees near the water.

The bay was reasonably choppy, and there was just one boat out on the water that came into the boat ramp as we were wandering around.  We did see a kayaker contemplating putting in; not sure whether he did or not, but if we he went out, he sure was in for a rough paddle.

a pair of owls were keeping their eyes on the fireboat that was tied up at the marina.

Rather than returning home the way we came, we opted to walk past the boat rental shack and take a shortcut back to the campground to sate our grumbling tummies.  Pizza, salad, and beer was on the menu for dinner, but I’m going to leave you with the picture of one more poplar bloom instead of a picture of our simple meal.

The yellow poplar is the tallest eastern hardwood; it’s also known as the tulip tree.

We’re not sure what tomorrow is going to bring.  The rain looks like it’s going to hold-off until late Saturday night, so we might see if we can spot some eagles at the nearby wildlife refuge.  Or we might go check out another regional park.  We’ll play it by ear after we get a good night’s rest.

We Didn’t Want to Leave … But We Did

Sunday, April 22 (From the stix & Brix)

It was time to leave … and this is why …

Run Mui!
On second thought, don’t; you’re not supposed to run from a bear.

Yes, I’m just joshing with you.  We had to leave because our vacation was over.

The receipt of this JibJab image from Russ of Travels in Therapy fame was very timely.  We were feeling ‘droopy’ because we had just left the campground and were on our way home.  Finding this in my email box brought cheer back into our day; thank you Russ.  By the way, I exercised my editorial privilege and replaced the big, bad gun in Mui’s hand with a video camera — that’s the only shooting he does :-))))

Saturday, April 21

We were on the road at 9:30a.  Check-out from the Tremont Outdoor Resort isn’t until noon, and we would like to have stayed until later in the morning before rolling out.  However, with images of last Saturday’s Pigeon Forge traffic snarl still fresh in our minds, we thought it prudent to get through there earlier rather than later in the day.  Our strategy paid off; traffic was heavy, but we drove through the area without delay this time.

In fact, our drive was going so smoothly that once we were on I-81N, I asked Mui to give me some time at the wheel.  He was a little hesitant at first as I had not yet driven the Phaeton in traffic, but he saw my logic when I pointed out that there has to be a first time and what better place than on a highway that was a reasonably straight shot.  My biggest concern was the semis whizzing by, but once behind the wheel, I wasn’t intimated by them.  I now also feel comfortable pulling back into traffic from the shoulder, and exiting to a rest stop and maneuvering into a truck parking spot; practicing turns and such will come later.

Mui doesn’t have to worry that I’ll want to take over driving duties full-time,
but it’s good to get some practice behind the wheel.

We pulled into the Virginia Welcome Center in Bristol right around 12:30p.  Knowing we had just a short distance to go until we reached our stop for the day, we dallied awhile with lunch, opting to eat at a picnic table nearby instead of scarfing down a quick bite at our dining room table.

Welcome to Virginia, and as the state seal says, “thus always to tyrants.”

the Phaeton has company in the parking lot; a Tiffin Allegro Bus, whose owners
are collecting information about Virginia at the Welcome Center.

We arrived at our destination for the day earlier than we expected.  We could have comfortably driven another 100 miles (160 km) before stopping, but decided to keep the reservation we’d made at the Fort Chiswell RV Park.  After fueling up at the Flying J just down the street, we pulled into #60, the same 50 Amp FHU site where we spent the night on our way down to the Smokies (post here).  This time, we had neighbors — Canadian snowbirds to our left and Virginia bovines in the field to our right.

The Phaeton is hidden behind the 5th wheel in the first row on the far left.
By the time I went for a post-dinner walk, the entire row behind us was occupied.

This time, the cows are more cooperative and come to the fenceline for a photo op.

After we got all set up, I threw a couple of loads in the washer and dryer to reduce the laundry I’d have to do back at the stix & brix.  In between loads, we explored the far side of the campground to stretch our legs a bit, and took advantage of the campground’s fast, free wi-fi to surf the web.  Our plans for an al fresco dinner were washed out when the rain that had been threatening all day finally started to fall.  The initial downpour was short, but returned later and continued through the night.

Scenes from the far side of the Fort Chiswell RV Park — it’s quite bucolic here.

Sunday, April 22

After a restful night of sleep, we were up early to get a head start on the remaining 276 miles (442 km) we needed to cover before putting the Phaeton to bed.  It was 9:00a when we pulled out, following even earlier birds that had been streaming out of the campground one after another for the past hour.

The mountains are hidden behind thick fog and the road is wet from last night’s heavy rains.

It was a chilly 49F (9.5C), and though the skies were overcast, there was no wet stuff falling — yet.  So, I asked Mui to give me some more time at the wheel.  I must have done a good job of putting him at ease yesterday as this time he readily agreed.  I’m starting to get a feel for how the coach handles.  I find it is easiest to drive right around 60-62 mph (96-100 km/h), which means I won’t slow us down too much when I do a stint at the wheel during our future travels.

I was at the wheel for only about five minutes before it started to drizzle, and then to rain.  It was a reasonably light rain, so I continued to drive until we got to a rest area 30 minutes later.  This time, however, vehicles were backed up at the entrance, so while we were waiting to pull ahead, I had Mui take over the wheel.  Call me chicken, but I know my limits, and I’m not up to parallel parking between semis and passenger busses.

I was trying to get a picture of the Packard (white car in the left lane),
but it’s travelling much faster than we are.

The rain continued for the rest of the day, making for a messy, yet uneventful drive.  We took a couple of rest breaks, had lunch in the coach during one stop, but otherwise had no incentive to stop and smell the roses.

Mui has his amber shooting driving glasses on.  It’s incredible how much brighter a dreary day seems when you look at it through these glasses.  Highly recommended for all drivers.

It was right around 2:30p when we pulled up to Fannon Petroleum to fill ‘er up.  After having paid $3.78/gallon with our Flying J Card just yesterday (6¢ off the cash price of $3.84; credit price $3.90), the $4.10/gallon came with a bit of a sticker shock.  But it is what it is; and in this area there aren’t any other handy alternatives.

Then it was onto the storage lot.  We made short work putting the Phaeton to bed, and were soon on our way to do a bit of grocery shopping before heading to the stix & brix home.  We won’t be there long, however, as we have another Phaeton outing scheduled for next weekend.

Tremont Outdoor Resort … Our Home Base in the Smokies

Friday, 20 April

With the last sightseeing outing of our trip now in the can, it’s time to do a quick review of the campground that has been our home base for seven nights.

When we decided to visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), we wanted a nice, quiet campground that would encourage us to relax in between our exploratory trips into the park.  After checking out the various campground websites and reading the reviews on the RV Park Reviews site, we settled on the Tremont Outdoor Resort.  Conveniently located right outside the Cades Cove entrance of the GSMNP, it fit the bill perfectly.

The resort is conveniently situated to explore the “peaceful side of the Smokies.”

We made our reservation in January, which allowed us to pick what I think is the prime site at Tremont — B34.  The only downside to this site is that it’s on a slight incline.  Not a big deal; a couple of wood blocks under the passenger side tires solved the problem.

We had a young family tent-camping on the driver’s side the first night we were there; after that, the site remained empty until the night before our departure.  The site on the passenger side was empty during the first half of our stay; and even after it was occupied (first by a 5th wheel, and then by the mini Boler), we were never cramped thanks to the orientation of that site.  Lots of privacy and space; my kind of site.

We are delighted with our site — B34 (circled in red on the map).
[Campground map courtesy of the Tremont Outdoor resort website]

Sites B33 (left) and B34; you can see how #33 angles away from our site with a
reasonably wide green space separating the two.

We’d read some comments about traffic noise at the sites overlooking the river.  This may well be true for the sites where the river is more like a gentle stream (either side of the bridge crossing the river), but behind our site, the sound of the water as it dashed downriver over small rapids drowned out any traffic noise.

There were also comments about the temporary bridge crossing into the campground that were a bit of a concern.  We were told at the time we made the reservation that the new bridge would be completed by April; and it was.  Mui had no problems maneuvering the 40-foot (12 m) Phaeton with the toad still hooked up onto the bridge from Scenic Highway 73.

Looking downriver from the bridge towards our site, which is just around the bend on the right.
Before the bend, Little River is quiet; after the bend, it gurgles and churns over small rapids.
(the cabins on the left are part of the koa.)

The sites that overlook the river have a very nice covered deck where one can enjoy the peaceful, yet not-so-quiet Little River.  When we arrived, the picnic table was on the deck.  After debating placing it elsewhere, we left it there.  The table was shaded throughout the day and made a great ‘office’ from which to process photos and write blogs.  Of course, we ate almost every meal there as well.  I spent so much of my time on the deck that Mui even rigged up an extension cord so I could keep my laptop charged up from the 50 Amp pedestal :-)  The over-long site had plenty of room behind the coach.  Placing our comfy chairs in that space, we pondered nature and caught up on our reading.

Our Deck and Little River as seen from the bedroom window; you can see why the sound
of the water would have drowned out any traffic noise.

When we made our reservation, we were told that there was no wi-fi; but we were assured that there was a strong cell signal (Verizon).  At least that’s what our notes say.  The part about the cell signal turned out to be true, but even better, there was wi-fi (perhaps set up sometime between January and April).  I don’t know if the signal strength was good everywhere, but the repeater was on the roof of the comfort station right across from us, so we enjoyed smoking-hot connectivity that was plenty good for streaming video.

The camp store/office is at the top of the bridge entering the campground.
The pool is behind the office; the temps were too cold, so we did not indulge.

While we found our site plenty spacious, some of the others did look a little squished together.  This could have well been because so many of the campers had spread out in the available space with their chairs, and extra tables, and other camping accoutrements.

Looking down from our site towards the right half of Loop B; all of which is 50 Amp FHU.

Loop C has water and electric only sites that were all but empty during our stay.

Loop A has 30 Amp FHU sites; some of these angled sites are pretty spacious.
This is where most of the egg campers were set up at the end of the week.

The campground website lists the amenities and such, so I’m not going to go into all that.  While the $42/night shoulder-season rate is not inexpensive, we were OK with it; especially since our great site encouraged us to spend a lot of time relaxing at the campground between exploratory trips into the GSMNP.  Since we were booked for 7 nights, we did get a 10% discount off the base rate.  (Monthly rates are available.)

Will we stay at the Tremont Outdoor Resort the next time we’re in the Smokies?  Probably not; and it has nothing to do with the campground.  We feel that we’ve explored this part of the Smokies pretty well.  To get to the yet-to-be-visited parts of the GSMNP would require considerable driving from here.  So, next time, we’ll look for a different campground as our home base.

A Great Hike and More Silky Water

Friday, 20 April

We wanted to make the most of our last day in the Smokies, but we also wanted to enjoy a couple of hours relaxing at the campground.  So, we opted for a moderate hike that one of the NPS rangers had recommended and planned to make it a half-and-half day.

We don’t have to drive far into the park to put our plans into play.

The trail in question is maintained by the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, which is located just off a spur on Laurel Creek Road as one heads in the direction of Cades Cove.  Tremont is a “non-profit residential environmental education center that provides in-depth experiences through education programs that celebrate ecological and cultural diversity, foster stewardship, and nurture appreciation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.”  There was a sign on their board for a wildflower photography class that I would love to have attended, unfortunately I was a week too early :-(

When we arrived at the office/bookstore we almost turned back, because there was a big pile of backpacks near the trailhead.  Instead of going off half-cocked, however, we asked what was going on and learned that a group of teenagers were leaving after a week-long in-residence program.  As it turns out, we had the trail to ourselves except for one speed-hiker who was on a mission to get to the falls first.  When we got there we could understand why he was in such a hurry, but I’m glad we took our time as I’d venture to say that we enjoyed the trail more than he did.

The in-out trail is a mile each way.
stop at the institute for specific directions so you don’t take the wrong trail.

This is not a trail where two people can walk side by side; in a lot of places, it’s little more than a narrow goat-path.  Not that it was a problem — I made so many stops to photograph tiny wildflowers along the way that Mui and I weren’t keeping pace anyway.  Part of the way, we walked between hedges of mountain laurel in bloom on either side of the trail.  Simply gorgeous; and the only place on this trip where we saw the blooms.

A few spots on the trail were muddy, but for the most part the dirt path was dry.  Tree roots and rocks required us to pay attention to where we stepped as we hiked up one side of Mill Ridge and then made our way down to the Spruce Flats Falls at the other end.  Of course, what went down had to come back up on the return, but it wasn’t a particularly strenuous climb.

OK, I’ll shut up and just let the pictures tell the story of our hike.  First some scenes from the trail …

… then some of the flowers on the trail.  (I identified some of them, but if I have the IDs wrong, do chime in with a comment.)

Mountain Laurel is a plant in the blueberry family.  Who knew!

This flowering plant is also known as spoonwood.  The name comes the fact that
native Americans used to make their spoons out of it.

Clockwise from top left: yellow trillium; Perfoliate Bellwort; yellow trillium;
and Golden Ragwort.

Top right: Star chickweed; Bottom left: Bettleweed; the rest — pending id.

There were some bugs and crawlies along the way, too.  Thankfully, we didn’t see any snakes; it was cooler at this elevation, so maybe that’s why.  (I have requests for IDs out; but again, if you know what these critters are, please pipe up.)

Clockwise from top left: caterpillar; beetle — the ID request came back with the following comment: “Somebody in the genus Phyllophaga, but species determinations are tough without male genitalia dissection”; millipede; diurnal firefly — Lucidota Atra.

Of course, the star attraction was Spruce Flats Falls, which consists of a main waterfall and a couple of cataracts, each splashing down into a plunge pool at the base.  The main falls are of a type referred to as a fan and are 30 feet (9 m) high.  A true gem; all the more so because we had the place pretty much to ourselves.  Yeah, the speed-hiker/photographer was there, but he was too busy to pay any attention to us.

You can see why the upper-tier waterfall is designated as a fan.

After taking a break at the falls to enjoy our snacks, we headed back the way we came.  Our goal was to check out a set of cascades somewhere on the Middle Prong Trail.  We got directions from the staff at the Institute’s bookstore and drove the three-mile gravel road to the trailhead.  We even got on the wide trail and walked about half a mile.  But we soon tired of tip-toeing around the rather fresh and odoriferous piles of horse poop.  So, we went to plan B — lunch break perched on the boulders overlooking Middle Prong/Little River, followed by a slow drive along the riverbed with frequent stops for photo ops.

We perched on these rocks to have lunch and play.

Photo ops along Middle Prong/Little River.

Dog violet — I think — and spider (left); and red clover, a perennial weed.

And my favorite photo from our scenic drive …

Yes, I admit I have thing for silky water.  And I’m delighted the Smokies afforded me so
many opportunities to practice shooting water in motion.

It was a little after 3:00p when we returned to the campground.  It was much too nice an afternoon to be doing packing-up chores, so we put them off, grabbed our laptops, and made ourselves comfortable in our comfy chairs where we’ve been setting them up by the railing behind the coach.  A quiet afternoon, with Mui taking a little time out to check important things like the Phaeton’s tire pressure and fluid levels.  A great way to round out our much too short stay in the Smokies.  We’ll be back — perhaps not to this same area and campground, but we’ll be back.  There’s so much to explore in this great park, and we haven’t even scratched the surface.