Sunday, July 26, 2009

"HighPointing"

Okay I think I have been officially been bitten by the "highpointers" bug. While geocaching back in early April of this year, my friends, Mrs SeeKPeeKRs, VinceHayter, and I got a chance to climb to the highest point in the state of Maryland - Hoye Crest - to find a cache. Since then I have been looking at the Highpointers website to find out where some of the other "highest" points in various states are located. Well with my trip to western North Carolina this past week I was able to check off another state. Not only that but Mount Mitchell is also the highest point east of the Mississippi River. We didn't have much of a view, due to clouds, but it was still a lot of fun. Where next?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

July 5th - 12th (Across Pennsylvania)

Now that I am pretty well rested from the week that was - let me tell some of you about it. My wife and I had decided that we were going to spend some time in Pennsylvania. One of my good friends from growing up lives in the Chambersburg area and one of my colleagues has property in north western PA in Clarion County. That coupled with the fact that my wife's cousin was getting married at the end of the week in the Poconos, in eastern PA, made this a great opportunity go out and have some fun. Sunday morning, July 5th, we loaded up the Highlander to the gills. Two kayaks, two bikes, sleeping bags , enough clothes for a week and other assorted stuff we couldn't have fit a flea in there if it wanted to stow away.

We decided this summer that we would try and have the family participate in "THE HUNT for Abraham Lincoln" put on by the M-NCPPC. I had visited one site the previous week with the boys and we knew that we would sort of "pass by" a couple of others along the way. We decided to stop in Antietam at the PRY HOUSE Field Hospital Museum. President Lincoln was said to stop there and visit with General George McClellan. My oldest son seemed a little more interested. So he and I paid the very modest admission fee to take the tour. The home had been used as a field hospital, as mentioned in the name, and several officers had been treated there. Over 500 enlisted men had been treated in the barn just outside. A humbling experience that I don't think that my son will fully grasp for a couple more years. From there we drove up to Gettysburg to visit the National Memorial Park and the location of the Gettysburg Address Memorial as well as the David Wills House, the site where President Lincoln stayed overnight the evening before his famous two-minute speech. After that we drove on to Chambersburg for a visit with my friend and his family. He and I even tried to take out one of the kayaks that evening with one of his four daughters but alas the river where we put in was way too shallow.

The next morning we drove to our friends in Clarion. They own quite a piece of property in the area and have set up their summer camp there. We stayed there three nights and enjoyed every minute of it. The weather never got above 78* and in the evenings we needed sweat shirts to stay warm even with a small campfire. Our kids played well together with lots of games of hide-n-seek, ladderball and just good clean running around and having a blast. One evening we drove into the town of Clarion itself for dinner and our boys remembered that they enjoyed the park just across the street from the restaurant. The kids loved yelling "FIRE" as they sat on the various old cannons there.


Having the kayaks with us we had to take them out for a little ride down the Clarion River itself. In years past we have canoed other parts of the river, and an image of one trip you can find in an earlier post from last year. But this time we had our own and wanted to try a different location. Well to say that the first trip was hard would be an understatement. My friend and I hadn't even put the kayaks on the ground before my oldest son says "Hey look a snake in the water." That set off my friend's children screaming. If people had gone by they would have thought that we were torturing the kids. We tried for a little after they settled down but it was no use. But the next day was 1000 times better. We put in at the Mill Creek boat launch with my wife and I in one kayak and my friend and his son in the other. My two sons wanted to be towed in inner tubes behind us. My friend's daughter ended up in the front of her father's kayak. And oh yeah - his wife was on shore waiting for us four miles down the river. She was our ride back to the car. It was fantastic! A bit on the long side for the kids, but I had a blast. We were on the water for two and a half hours and I enjoyed every bit. (Well towing the boys was hard at times - but it was worth it.) We even spotted a bald eagle, in flight, about 40 minutes before the end of our journey.


Now I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I had a couple of nice chances to go out and find some geocaches while in the area. I had learned from a friend earlier in the summer about the Allegheny GeoTrail. Similar in nature to other geocaching adventures, this program has geocachers finding caches within the various counties of Pennsylvania, particularly those along the Allegheny Mountains. Each county has a set number of geocaches within it and a finder must find only six within that county to earn a trackable geocoin.While in Clarion County, I was able to complete the necessary six caches, as well as a few more for extra measure, to earn my coin. The nice thing about the coin: the one for Clarion County has on its back a person in a canoe as well as a bald eagle. Could it get any better than that? The fire tower pictured here is located with in Cook Forest State Park and one of the caches in very close by.


Thursday morning we packed up and started our drive back across the state. But not before another stop at Beartown Rocks. We have visited the area before with the kids and always like to stop by and allow the kids to climb around. My oldest son loves climbing and I hope that he learns to be a little more cautious soon since he likes to jump from one to another. And I can't quite keep up as easily anymore. We even paused for a moment for a family portrait But please forgive me it was taken with just an iPhone with no zoom of course. After that it was lunch and heading on to Scranton. Our stop for a couple of nights before we hit the Poconos.
Now while in Scranton for a couple of days we wanted to use our time well so we thought that it would be neat to visit the Lackawanna Coal Mine. Once a working mine, it now serves as a tourist stop to learn about how the mines once worked and how the people of the area made their living. The mine tour took us down a shaft which, as we were told, was 520 ft below the surface. We got a chance to walk the shafts, see and feel how the ventilation worked and even at one point the lights were turned off so that we could see how dark it was. Amazing that the workers were able to get their jobs done and support a family if you ask me.

That afternoon we visited Nay Aug Park. What a neat place! There children's playgrounds, hiking and biking trails, two pools and a water park and a David Wenzel Treehouse. To see it built with in the trees and the trees coming through the roof was spectacular. An amazing feat of craftsmanship! Our family even took to one of the hiking trails for a little while so that we could see some of the waterfalls there. Maybe not exactly Niagara Falls but just as pretty within the wooded area.
Saturday morning we packed back up and headed the rest of the way across Pennsylvania to the Poconos. My wife was attending the wedding of her cousin and I got the chance to take the boys to our next night's stay. The boys, including this 40 year old boy, love staying at the Great Wolf Lodge. It is the kind of place that you can just relax and have a great time. While my wife was at the wedding my sons and I spent our time riding the water slides, especially the one that the boys thought that they were being "flushed" down the drain since you ended up going around a basin a couple of times. All totaled we spent probably 5 and 1/2 hours in the water park itself before calling it a night.
The next morning the family went down to the water park for a little more fun. Who am I kidding? A lot more fun before making the 5 hour trip back to southern Maryland. People, who care, have asked since I got back did we have a nice time last week. And my answer has been NO we had a GREAT time!!