Restless? Wistfullness? Disquieted?

Apparently, there are German words for this feeling -- sehnsucht and fernweh.

The north bay of Bear Head Lake

For 23 days, from July 24th through August 16th, I was on this year's road trip. We stayed at my mom's on the first night to have a birthday breakfast with her the next morning (it was her 80th!), and after that, it was tent camping every night. 

We went to Buffalo, NY to visit the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site on the morning of the 26th, and cut across southern Ontario to Michigan afterwards. The border crossing into Canada was more adversarial than a trip we made back in May. I'm not looking forward to how our upcoming trip in November will go. 

A chandelier, converted to electricity from gas, in the library where the inauguration happened

the eastern shore of Lake Huron at Pinery Provincial Park

We stayed at Pinery Provincial Park that Sunday night, which I wish we'd been able to explore more of. Every one of the Ontario Provincial Parks we've visited or stayed at over the past few years are really amazing gems.

Pat wanted to visit some sites in the U.P., so it was across the Mackinac Bridge and into pasty-land. A quick stop in St. Ignace on Monday night was followed by drive through Marquette to visit an old fishing spot of Pat's, then a stay at Lake Gogebic and a trip to the Porcupine Mountains. 

Pat fished at Lake Gogebic. There's a reason they call it fishing and not catching.

A loon on Lake Gogebic

Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains

We hiked the Presque Isle River trail to see where the river meets Lake Superior.

Pat standing partway up the stairs that lead down, down, down the trail to the mouth of the river.

Presque Isle River meets Lake Superior

We didn't stop anywhere in Wisconsin, as Pat wanted to go to the newly opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, ND. Since he had a flight home out of Casper, WY on August 2, that constrained when and where else we could go. We stayed a night in Minnesota about 20 minutes from the southern shores of Mille Lacs Lake (talk about redundant naming!), then drove across North Dakota. 

The "World's Largest Buffalo" in Jamestown, ND

a damselfly near Sweet Briar Lake

If you're going to go to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, make sure you know that you need timed entrance tickets. Sadly, we ended up entering around 3:30PM (well, our tickets were for 3PM, but the line to enter was slow). We spent about 2 hours inside, and could have spent more time, except my knee started hurting badly partway through. We also had a campsite in Custer, SD that night, and it was a longer drive than I anticipated. The "library" is more of a museum, taking you from TR's childhood through his post-presidency years. There's a lot of interactive features that allow you to form a "journal" of your visit, but a good amount of it is AI (such as the photos that insert you into various eras). Between the AI and the lines to do the various interactives, I opted not to do a lot of it, so my journal is kind of sparse. 

Before going to the library, we went to the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park

A lone bison standing on a ridge at Theodore Roosevelt National Park

a takeaway I had from the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library

The last full day with Pat was spent at Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I suggested camping at Elk Mountain Campground and getting two nights there so that we didn't have to pack everything before heading to Casper to drop him off at the airport, and it made things very calm and easy heading into Sunday morning. 

Wild burros at Custer State Park

The Needles at Custer SP

A bison bull at Wind Cave National Park. During the rut, where there's one, there are usually more

Bison on the move at Wind Cave National Park

a fledgling robin near our campsite

night skies out west are incredible

The morning view from Pat's side of the tent

After I dropped him off, it was back to the campground, and the beginning of the lonely part of my trip. I'll (hopefully) complete this later in a part 2.

Chadron State Park, Nebraska's first state park

Planning

It's just about that time of year. 

The road trip is coming. 

An atlas is the best friend of a road tripper

So far, Pat has booked a flight into Denver, and a flight out of Minneapolis-St. Paul, plus arranged for fishing with RainyDaze Guide Service. Our plan so far is to go to Pikes Peak, maybe Rocky Mountain National Park, Wind Cave National Park and....??? before Voyageurs, where Pat's part of the trip will end.  

Why is Pat flying home on this trip?

Because I'll finish up the trip at Voyageurs at the second STEAM in the Park camp that I'll do this summer!

New River was the first STEAMinthePark camp I attended, and I touched something weird

In preparation for the trip, I've been going through our gear and cleaning, replacing and adding to it as appropriate. I did an "introduction to backpacking" session at Patapsco Valley State Park last month, and learned that backpacking backpacks need to be properly sized to avoid back injury. Since I've been looking at doing an overnight backpacking trip somewhere, this was important information!

This backpack was way too long for me.

After the session, I went to REI in Columbia to get sized and to try out various backpacks. Partly due to Naturalist Sam's recommendation on how well his Osprey packs had worked, I settled on a 65L Osprey Aura AG, then came home to order it since I had my REI Coop coupons and several gift cards from last Yule. 

I've also been streamlining other gear by cleaning up and listing our older Rhinowolf modular tents. We really don't use the original ones any more, since the version 2.0 is easier to set up and take down due to the center pole being outside the tent rather than inside. 

Rhinowolf tents are cool because they can zip together and have integrated sleeping pads and down blankets.

Beyond all that, I've already made reservations to camp in Curecanti NRA the night before I pick up Pat from the airport in Denver. Curecanti is essentially next door to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, so I'll finally check both of those off my Passports list! I figure that will be on the way "back" from the Bonneville Salt Flats, where I won't see Speed Week this time around. 

The Crosstrek looks at home on the Salt Flats

I'm getting antsy to head out. This'll be the fifth year of adventuring in the Crosstrek, so the hashtag we'll use is #FünfTrek (fünf is German for 5). Follow along if you want! 

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Struggling to Get Out of the House

Three weeks ago, I left on my usual yearly road trip. I wanted to leave on Monday or Tuesday of that week, but it wasn't until Wednesday that I finally could get myself together enough to head out. Even then, I left the house so late in the day that I only made it to western Maryland before calling it a night at Spring Gap Campground along the C&O Canal Towpath. 

Depression sucks like that. I had the same issues last year as well. 

I'd changed the oil the day before in the Crosstrek, and I actually started the trip with a quick stop at the local grocery market and the nearby carwash. 

Me demonstrating the proper way to pour oil so that it doesn't slop all over the place. 

My driving companions for the first week and a half

Fresh and clean!

Since I had a late start, I knew I wasn't going to get super far on the trip and made the reservation at Spring Gap before I left the house. Campsite 1 was reserved for the whole week, and everything else was open. I opted for site 5 to give whoever it was at 1 plenty of space. 

I rolled into the campground around 5:30PM and set up my little tent. For those new to my adventures, this is a "Rhinowolf" tent which I bought via Kickstarter a few years ago; they have since apparently gone out of business. Anyway, one of the selling points for this tent was that single tents could be zipped together. So for the first part of the road trip, you'll see my green single tent, and after Pat joins me, you'll see his blue tent zipped together with my green one. 

My campsite at Spring Gap

As I put up my tent and contemplated what to do for dinner, I did notice that site 1 was very occupied; there was at least one family there with at least two dogs. Everyone (including the dogs) was super friendly, and the kids were kind of goofy and totally into fishing for catfish. A group of cyclists came by while I was settling in and set up in the group camping area at the "end" of the campground. And, in site 3 there was a small pop-up tent and a couple of chairs, but no one else around. 

I decided to wander up the towpath;"up" the towpath always means "towards Cumberland" to me for some reason, while "down" the towpath is "towards Georgetown. I'd last been in this area almost a year ago to the day when I camped here on the first night of my 2021 road trip. No surprise that there were things to see. 

Ruins of bridges are somewhat frequent along the towpath. It's not clear if this was for a train crossing or a road (automobile) crossing

At first I was like, "Yay! A turtle!" and then I was like, "OMG, it's dead," and I was very sad. There was no evidence of trauma to the shell.

Storms have been fairly frequent and brought down a lot of trees in Western Maryland this spring and summer

Lock 72. There are three more locks upstream of this; they are the last three locks on the canal. 

Sunset on the Potomac River at the Spring Gap boat ramp

I didn't bring any wood with me, and it was warm enough I didn't really want to start a fire anyway. Around 8:45, I checked my phone's battery and service levels because it was getting close to #ParkChat time. There's nothing like participating in #ParkChat while being in a park! 🤣

Karen, still in Maryland tonight, but camping out in the western part of the state along the @COcanalNPS at Spring Gap. 😁 #ParkChat

— Karen (needs another roadtrip) (@CamaroWRX) July 28, 2022 

Some foreshadowing occurred during the #ParkChat conversation....

A9 #ParkChat no one yet. Maybe during this road trip?

— Karen (needs another roadtrip) (@CamaroWRX) July 28, 2022

And then just after 10PM, it was all done. I was tired of trying to keep the mosquitoes at bay (the repellant and the Thermacell can only do so much), so I retired to the tent. 

Sadly, around midnight, the mysterious campers at site 3 showed up, lights ablazing directly towards my tent. They were loud. They were shining lights every which way. They were clearly drunk. It was Camp Groinia all over again, minus the lighter fluid shots and 30 degree weather. With the National Park Service short staffed, plus knowing that rangers on the 184.5 mile towpath are often spaced quite far apart, I just gritted my teeth, put my good ear to the pillow and tried to ignore it. 

I have to admit though that I, the cyclists at the group campsite and the family(ies?) at site 1 made absolutely zero effort to be quiet as dawn broke. The hungover jerkwads were clearly struggling as the rest of us did our morning things with just an extra touch of noise. 

Carolina horsenettle

From the campground, I headed into Cumberland to poke around at the very end of the towpath and beginning of the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail. The visitor center was closed, so I just wandered around and looked at the railroad cars and caboose that were there. I was testing my ability to figure out when they were built, something I was taught years ago when visiting the Western Maryland Railway Museum in Union Bridge. 

There should be something that says "BLT" with numbers for the month and year, but evidently these are repaints.

 

The trucks have the manufacturing date built into them. These are from January 1957.

Pat had been talking about maybe getting tickets to a train ride out of Durango, CO as part of the road trip, so maybe that's why I stopped here. I do know that I would like to do one of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad trips some time. 

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Depot

I headed out from Cumberland with no real plan in mind. After tossing around some ideas in my head, I decided to go to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, since it had been a few years and it wasn't all that far away. Waze took me off I-68 and up to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, joining the turnpike from an area where Pat and I had stopped on the way out to Detroit in the spring. 

I rolled into the Boston Mill Visitor Center parking, parked next to a cool gray khaki Crosstrek twin, and headed towards the visitor center when I saw a group of people next to a sign that said "Citizen Science." I remarked, "That's cool! I need to do more of that with my students," and next thing I know, they invited me to join them. It was a group of rangers and park employees/volunteers who were looking at the pollinators in the areas around the visitor center over a few weeks time. We started by looking at the different types of flowering plants we saw, and using iNaturalist to identify them as needed. We also estimated what percentage of the surveyed area was covered with each type of plant. Then we went back and started looking for pollinators, and again, used iNaturalist to identify them. We also added our findings to a group on iNaturalist (that's the citizen science part!), to help with the documentation of which pollinators were found with which type of flower. 

I totally want to do something like this with my students this year!

Don't you park next to your car-twin when you can? 

Ranger Chuck is the brains behind this citizen science project

It wasn't always clear if something was a pollinator or just happened to be in the flower

This is a pollinator, on red clover

Wild carrot (Queen Anne's lace) was one of the predominant flowering plants in the area we surveyed

After my work-related diversion, it was suggested to me that the Ledges Trail would be a literally cool place to visit for some hiking. With the tall trees, hidden springs and small caves, a cool breeze was present during much of the trek around the ledges area. 

The Civilian Conservation Corps left their mark throughout this area of the park.

The rock faces were marred with these honey-comb patterns from years of rain washing over them. It made me think of boxwork in Wind Cave.

It was quiet, cool and peaceful among these rocks.

One of the many small springs

Life finds a way

A jelly fungus

I finished the day by getting a campsite at a nearby KOA campground, one that Pat and I stayed at on the end of our 2019 trip. They've made some improvements, including covered picnic tables since we were last there. I heated up some water to rehydrate some spicy sausage pasta, which turned out to be one of the best dehydrated meals I've had (good enough that I literally sought out a Cabelas later in the trip just to buy some more!). 

This was a great spot

The trusty Biolite campstove with the kettlepot "attachment". This thing has been so great over the past 8 or so years since I bought it.

Spicy sausage pasta

The sunset made the sky look to be on fire as I wound down for sleep. I had no idea where I'd be going the next day, and I would figure it out as I went along. 

Goodnight

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