Camp Staff Reunion

The trip ended in a weekend at the summer camp I worked at for three summers. We had our first ever staff reunion - anyone who ever worked on staff was invited.

Initially it was set up to be staff members only, but at the last minute they changed it to include families. Kiddo was already in New York with family, and so instead my partner bumming around my hometown, she came too.

I didn't take many pictures. I hung out with some old friends from camp, had my first camp style campfire in 9 years, dug up some old inside jokes, and felt old. It was a pretty good time.

During the open rec period the second day, we shot bows, went canoeing, swam in the pool, and I did the climbing wall. We also went to the shooting range that was built after my time there. They didn't have the silhouette targets, so I made my own.

Great Smoky Mountains

Driving east in Kentucky, we stopped first at Cumberland Falls. It's a big ol' waterfall, and if you come at the fall moon, you can apparently see a rainbow at night (which they call a "moonbow"). We weren't really sure it was for us, though (because after you look at it for a minute or two... then what?), and tried to time how much longer it would take to get to Great Smoky Mountains park in Tennessee.

But we decided to make the best of it, figuring there were some trails in the area we could walk on, and we'd just set up camp there and roll with it. So we go over to the campground... and it was just lame looking. Meager-looking sites, all of which seem to have either a wooden deck for your tent or a sandbox filled with gravel. We got information about which sites were available... and then saw a sign that said the trails from the campground were closed due to "bear activity". Since that was pretty much all the park had going for it at that point for us, we hit the road. Turns out we didn't take a single picture of this place.

 Pigeon Forge, TN, which is on the way to both Dollywood and Great Smoky Mountains Park, is the biggest tourist trap area I have ever seen in my entire life. There are no adequate words for it.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is pretty awesome. It's pretty big, and while there's not really a central attraction in it, there's a ton of trails, mountains, and waterfalls. Not a fan of the model here where entrance is free but they nickel and dime you on maps. But other than that - no complaints. Really neat park.

We weren't here a really long time, so we focused on hiking trails that went to waterfalls. We saw two in the evening, bumbled our way through another campfire (seriously, you would never know I was briefly a Boy Scout), then got up and went in search of more waterfalls.

We drove by a few of them that are close to roadways, then went on a loop drive towards more. I was pretty worried about the effect of a long hike on my knee, considering I'd been walking all week on the trip and still had a weekend full of walking ahead of me. Eventually I decided to stay back while my partner pressed on.

A creek intersected the trail, small enough that there was no bridge (picture above). Most people I watched just stepped on rocks to avoid getting their feet wet. While she walked on, I took my shoes off and stepped in the water. Upstream looked interested, so I went. After I climbed (carefully) over some mossy rocks, I was alone.

I was in a really neat area, quietly hidden just out of sight. I continued climbing in and around the water, occasionally stopping to sit on a rock and enjoy the area. I missed out on a great waterfall you can walk behind (check the next group of pictures), but I had my own Eden. Eventually I went back to the car and read and waited for my partner to get back.

We pressed on to the last fall on this stretch, which is called The Place of a Thousand Drips. Silly name, fun place.

I climbed around in it barefoot for awhile until I found a place where shoes would really help me. My partner was nowhere to be found, exploring another area, so I put my shoes on and went back to climb higher. It's right next to the road, so people would see it, then brake to look at it, sometimes taking a picture out the window. I didn't know whether I should be looking at them while they took my picture...

Mammoth Cave

So the super secret destination was Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Kiddo and I went to Carlsbad Caverns this summer. Of all the parks we went to, that seemed to be the one my partner most envied. And kiddo got kinda bored in the cave. So I hatched a plan to someday take my partner and NOT Kiddo to Mammoth Cave. And it turns out I got to enact that plan sooner than I thought.

It was a long drive down, and I really wanted us to get there before the Visitors Center closed (6:30pm) so that we could pick up some guides and figure out which cave tours to go on the next day. Unfortunately Mammoth Cave is not set up for any self guided tours (as Carlsbad is), so you have to go as part of a group.

We got there a few minutes after 6 (aided by the switch to Central time), and it turns out they have a 6:15 lantern tour. So we went straight at it.

I actually found the lantern tour less cool. Because the electric lights were off, you couldn't see far. And because you were generally surrounded by lanterns, you couldn't really see much beyond your group. So I felt like I missed some of the awesomeness of the cave. We eventually figured out that we were happier up front where our lantern did give us a bit of a hint of the darkness we were always walking towards.

Americans found Mammoth Cave long before they found conservationism, so there's a lot of historical graffiti in certain sections down there. Apparently it was often commissioned by white tourists - and actually put on the walls and ceilings by tour guides... who usually happened to be slaves.

After the tour we set up our tent and checked out the tour schedules. We were both interested in the tour that visits the underground river, but that is only offered in the middle of the summer, so that wasn't an option (until the early 90s they actually had boat rides on a stretch of river. How badass is that?).
The two we considered are the two longest:
the Wild Cave tour, which involves crawling around in tight passageways ("Chest or hip measurement must not exceed 42 inches; if you are larger, you cannot physically pass through the crawlspaces") and
the Grand Avenue tour, which is basically 4 hours over 4 miles (they stop and talk to you, sometimes too much).

We kept wondering if the claustrophobia would be too much on the Wild Cave tour and ultimately decided on the Grand Avenue tour. We figured out later we probably would have been turned away from Wild Cave because of our lack of boots. It also starts too early in the morning for vacation...

Anyway, a good thing about the Grand Avenue tour is that it didn't involve any of the cave that we toured the night before. So we heard new things for the most part. I think it's a good choice if you're only going on one tour. And if you're going on two, this one pairs well with one of the historical entrance tours (Historic Tour, or the aforementioned river tour).

We ended up eating lunch down there. And bathrooms in caves are always kind of neat.

Near the end of the tour they shut off all the lights. Now that, my friends, is total darkness. (obviously none of these pictures are of that moment)

Side note: my annual pass didn't get us anything here. The park is free to get into, but you have to pay for tours. Kind of lame that you can't even get a discount with the thing.

A few weeks after we got home we watched "The Descent", which was utterly terrifying.

The Abandoned Turnpike Tunnel

For my partner's birthday, I arranged a trip for us. I kept the ultimate destination a secret, but I also made plans that I shared with her before we left: visiting an abandoned turnpike tunnel.

Background: when the Pennsylvania turnpike was built, they dug a bunch of tunnels through mountains. They were all two lane tunnels, which became traffic bottlenecks. So for the most part they dug a second tunnel next to each of the existing tunnels. But for whatever reason, three of the tunnels were abandoned and the road rerouted.

One of the tunnels is still owned by the Turnpike Commission, which apparently leases it to a racing company, which runs some sort of Super Top Secret Racing Experiments there. The other two are on one common stretch of (abandoned roadway) and are discreetly open to hiking and bicyling. They were sold at one point to a group that wanted to fix it up a bit, with lights and whatnot. That group has apparently not raised the funds they needed to, because nothing has happened.

I'm actually glad. The lack of lights is the experience.

I chose Sideling Hill tunnel over Ray's Hill tunnel because it's longer - something like 1.25 miles. The internet claimed that in the middle, you wouldn't be able to see out either side because of the tunnel's curve. Sadly, this was not the case.

The internet also claimed it was pitch black, can't see your hand in front of your face dark. Also not the case. At least during the day.

So despite not living up to those particular pieces of hype, it was still really neat.

The two of us walked the whole way. We only turned on our flashlight at the end because other people were coming in the other side and we didn't want to be jerks and scare the ever loving crap out of them. We rested and turned back. We took pictures at each side but not in the middle.

So what was it like inside? Well, you can't see the other side at first... but the light from the other side reflects off the ceiling. So you're always walking towards light. It's just far off and you can't see anything ahead of you. You're dimly lit from behind for a long time, though. So during the daytime, it's never pitch black.

I would call it a good amount of scary. I wouldn't have conquered it alone. But with my partner, it was fun to hold hands and enter the void. I was slightly the more scared of us.

As a postscript, we drove on and camped for the night at Coopers Rock State Forest in West Virginia. It has a nice overlook we went to just before dark. But mostly it was just a place to put our tent down.