Motorcycle Journeys Trip Logs

Category: camping

  • Holiday traffic and Delaware Gap National Recreation Area

    Days on the road: 6
    Day mileage: 313
    JF total mileage: 3667
    Gale total mileage: 2135
    States/Provinces: Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont

    We wanted to take 209 to drive through the Delaware Gap National Recreation Area and ran into 2 several mile long traffic stoppages – no accidents, just a lot of traffic trying to get into the area.

    We drove through Albany and took 7 into Vermont, drove through Bennington, VT which is a very quaint New England town, to stay at the Greenwood Lodge and Campground on Vermont 9 — beautiful campground with large private sites and only $24 a night.

  • Skyline Drive through Shenandoah Mountain National Park

    Days on the road: 5
    Day mileage: 363
    JF total mileage: 3354
    Gale total mileage: 1822
    States/Provinces: Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania

    Skyline was definitely more crowded with both people and wildlife. I saw a buck walking toward the road, a doe eating right at the edge of the road, and I had 2 different black bears run across the road in front of me (no pictures since both were on curves and disappeared into the brush right away).

    The speed limit for the entire 105 miles of Skyline drive is 35 MPH. Considering I came around curves 2 times to find a vehicle parked in the road in front of me, it’s a good thing I wasn’t going any faster.

    We head into Pennsylvania after leaving the park to stay at Jonestown KOA and have dinner at “The Buck” complete with Karaoke entertainment in the bar next door.

  • Blue Ridge Parkway Part 2 – Lots of Deer

    Days on the road: 4
    Day mileage: 338
    JF total mileage: 2991
    Gale total mileage: 1459
    States/Provinces: North Carolina, Virginia

    This part of the parkway isn’t as mountainous and has sweeping curves running along the top of the ridge. The entire parkway has well marked scenic overlooks often so there’s plenty of opportunity to stop and see the view. Yes, the speed limits are 35 and 45 miles an hour, but it’s worth slowing down to see the beautiful scenery here. The week before the 4th of July and we felt like we had the 460 mile Parkway to ourselves most of the time since there was so little traffic.

    I had a half dozen deer spill out of the underbrush on the left of the road, run across in front of me to disappear into the brush on the right.

    JF was too far behind so see this but a short time later had a doe run along side his motorcycle. He wasn’t sure what the best course of action was – slow down and the deer might choose to veer in front of him, go faster and it could hit him. He opted to gas it and left the deer safely behind.

    We make it to Sherando Lake State Park to find the sign “Sorry campground full”. We were directed to a primitive area 4 miles down a gravel road and camp next to a running stream. Sounds idyllic, but there are many serious ATV riders in the area who ride until about 2 AM. And these ATV riders don’t believe in mufflers… the 4th of July holiday has officially begun.

  • Blue Ridge Parkway

    Days on the road: 3
    Day mileage: 200
    JF total mileage: 2653
    Gale total mileage: 1121
    States/Provinces: Tennessee, North Carolina

    We left Pigeon Forge around 9:00 and rode through Great Smoky Mountain National Park to Cherokee where we started the Blue Ridge Parkway. LOTS of curves, incredible scenery and views, many tunnels. Windy and cold in the mountains – that is NOT a complaint. We’re both so glad to be out of the heat.

    This first part of the Parkway is very mountainous so it was slow going. Now that we are out of the heat we can start camping and Julian Price Memorial Park had been recommended to us at the park ranger station – it’s absolutely gorgeous camping.

  • Dehydrated food for camping

    Jean-Francois mentioned a couple weeks ago that he had dehydrated food in the past to take on camping trips. He knows I am into healthy eating.

    I’ve seen the dried food at REI and other places and have no interest in paying that much for a meal while camping. The idea of preparing tasty, healthy food to take along appeals to me a lot.

    I checked out some books and ended up getting Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe. I have also found great ideas on http://www.backpackingchef.com/index.html.

    I bought an economical little dehydrator — Nesco FD-75PR 700 watt. I was pleasantly surprised when the box arrived because I didn’t know it came with 2 plastic trays for liquid items and 2 plastic mesh screens for small things. After using it I feel the ideal situation would be to have 5 each of the liners for liquid and the mesh screens since the dehydrator comes with 5 trays. So far I’ve been improvising by cutting parchment paper to fit the other 3 trays and it’s been working well. The FD-75PR model has fan to circulate the air which I read prior to buying is critical to the drying process. I put it in another room with the door closed since it does produce a lot of heat while drying. I have been very pleased with it’s performance so far.

    I started out simple by drying vegetables. I have done broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, and multi-color peppers so far. It is amazing how small everything gets when all the moisture is pulled out. Lesson: use the mesh screens. Small pieces fall through the trays when the items are dry.

    I tried the pumpkin pie bark on backpackingchef.com and love it so much I had to get it bagged up and put away or I was going to eat it all. It’s just pumpkin, pumpkin pie spices, and maple syrup (the real stuff). I think I spread it a little too thick because it took a long time to dry and I’m not certain it’s dry enough to not go bad on the trip. It’s just one of those things I’ll have to find out as we go.

    Prepared a recipe from Backpack Gourmet this morning — Thai Noodles. I hope it’s as good rehydrated as it is right out of the pot. I used a food processor to mince the shallots, garlic, mushrooms, and peanuts to make sure they are small enough to dry properly.

    I’m excited about being able to take meals and dishes that I know are healthy and have only good ingredients in them. We’ll report during and after the trip how my food works out on the road.