NORTH
This
year, instead of taking our typical 4-week summer trip, we took a 2-week trip
to Idaho in July and a 2-week trip to New England in early Fall. I had a couple of goals for our New England
trip. First, New England is famous for
its fall foliage, and I was hoping to catch it at its peak. I was also looking forward to doing some
serious hiking and peak bagging in New Hampshire and the Adirondacks of New
York. Finally, Idaho was the 46th
state that I’d hiked in. I had four
states to go to hike in all 50. They
were Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. We decided to dedicate several days of our
trip to hiking in each of them.
We
started our trip a little early, on the afternoon of Thursday, September 23rd. Our motivation was to start the trip with a
football game in Boone. Appalachian
State was playing an old rival, Marshall.
We arrived in Boone late that afternoon, early enough for a couple of
hours of tailgating. The game was
fantastic, and Appalachian State rallied in the fourth quarter for a 31-30
victory. We spent the night at the Holiday Inn, and hit the road Friday morning after a
sluggish start.
We
didn’t drive straight to New England.
Instead, we headed for Williamsburg, Virginia. I hadn’t seen my dad since before the
pandemic, and a visit was overdue. Our
plan was to stay there Friday evening.
We’d drive to Delaware on Saturday, where we would hike and car
camp. On Sunday we’d continue north to
Rhode Island. After hiking there on
Monday, we’d drive up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where we would
spend the rest of the week. We planned
to backpack in the Adirondacks that weekend, before finishing up our trip in
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
WALK
AWAY > WEEKAPAUG
The
drive to Williamsburg was smooth, and we enjoyed a pleasant visit with my Dad and Agnes. The
next morning we drove through Norfolk and over the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge. We stopped in the
little town of Onancock for lunch. The
name of that town led to hilarity for me and a number of
eye-rolls from Christy. It didn’t help
that I was slightly mispronouncing the name initially. I seriously considered buying a t-shirt. For lunch I had a crab cake sandwich from a
little café on the waterfront. Christy
had something involving an avocado.
We
drove straight to Cape Henlopen State Park from Onancock, arriving early that
afternoon. I had picked out two trails
there, originating from the same trailhead at Herring Point. First up was the Walking Dunes Trail. This smooth path wanders through woods and
small meadows. I was expecting to see
sand dunes, but they failed to materialize.
Maybe they walked away? The trail
was pretty boring, so we cut the loop a little
short. We returned to the parking lot
and picked up the Gordons Pond Trail.
This one was more interesting and scenic. However, the trail was more of a glorified
greenway than a serious hike. It is very
popular with cyclists of varying degrees of skill and experience. The trail connects the state park with Rehoboth
Beach. As a result, most of the hike
featured bicycles whizzing by us.
At
least the trail was interesting. Early
on we passed through some sand dunes, which made up for the absence of sand
dunes along the Walking Dunes Trail. We
then circled one side of Gordons Pond.
The pond is large and pretty, and it featured an impressive variety of
ducks and other birds. There were a lot
of flowers in bloom, including huge fields of goldenrod.
From
the pond, we had views of two old stone towers on the coast. Those towers were two of a whole string that
were built during World War II. One of
them has been restored, and it is open to the public. The Gordons Pond Trail leads to it, and it is
even possible to climb the steps to the top.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to hike the full 3+ miles
there and back. Christy stopped at a
bench about halfway around the pond. I
continued to a wooden overlook that provided an even better view out over the
water.
We
returned to the car that evening, and drove to Redden
State Forest to camp. I would’ve
preferred to camp at the State Park, but reserving a spot there required a
2-night minimum. Instead, I reserved a
spot at the state forest. On the way we
passed the Crooked Hammock Brewery. I
was tempted to stop there because I liked the name, but we already had a meal
planned.
The
state forest features a handful of campsites back in the woods. Unfortunately, the spot I had reserved, #7,
did not have any useable trees for hammocking.
Some of the others closer to the entrance did, but switching sites
wasn’t an option as all of the sites were reserved. Finding the water was a challenge, too. I eventually found the spigot at the back of
the park office building, but I had to disconnect their garden hose to fill up
our containers. The campsites were also
near a busy road, so there was a lot of traffic noise that evening, and early
the next morning. Overall, camping there
was adequate, but I wouldn’t choose it again unless I was desperate.
The
next morning we had breakfast, broke camp, and drove
back over near Cape Henlopen to board the ferry to Cape May, NJ. The ferry eliminated a few hours of driving,
and it was a lot more fun than driving I-95 through Philadelphia. Unfortunately, we still had to drive through
the outskirts of New York City. There
were wrecks on all of the bridges over the Hudson
River, so I had to do some creative navigation to get us into Connecticut. We eventually drove up Palisades Parkway,
which took us near, but mostly out of sight of, the Hudson River. This is a pleasant area, and a very popular
cycling route. We crossed the Governor
Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (name change pending), which was wreck-free. The rest of the drive was uneventful, and we
made it to Weekapaug in Rhode Island for lobster
rolls. We stayed at another Holiday Inn
that night, as the state park campgrounds all required minimum 2-night stays
for reservations.
My
allergies were acting up, and I developed a runny nose and a cough that
evening. That was a little alarming, since we were in the middle of a pandemic. I was pretty sure that my issues were just
allergies.
Back to Delaware
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Please remember to Leave No Trace!