Camping Season Officially Opens For Us

We ran off to the woods last weekend with Caveman of Ohio. We abandoned the idea of looking for a backpacking loop and ended up just car-camping at Cook's Forest State Park. They have a nice variety of short trails for day high-hiking and the forest up there is really pretty, older-growth with lots of hemlock. I would recommend hitting this park up before the season starts, because with the amount of miniature golf places and cabins for rent and ice cream parlors that line the country highway up there, I assume this area gets pretty packed come June. But it was relatively quiet in April, and the water was already turned on in the park, which was kind of nice, so we could take showers before we headed off for a quick stop in Saint Marys to visit the Frey clan.

I slept blissfully, both at night and after our hike on Saturday when I strung up my hammock. Caveman of Ohio was in charge of grocery shopping for the weekend and he really outdid himself. We made A LOT of mountain pies. The weather was really warm and sunny, and I am now definitely aware of my new limitations. The boys literally bounded up this rickety fire tower, while I took a more leisurely approach. We did sort of a loop down a steep trail to the Clarion River and then back up the hill through a lot of older growth groves of trees.

Yesterday I drove up to Slippery Rock to give a presentation on our thru-hike to this lunchtime lectures club. So much has happened in the past two years, it feels like forever ago. Around this time in 2007, we had just passed through Pearisburg, VA, where we met Caveman of Ohio for the first time, face to face, although we had been following his journal entries since the beginning (he started two days before us). We spontaneously ditched the trail for the weekend by renting a truck and driving to Pittsburgh to surprise Mary for her college graduation. I remember feeling homesick for the trail as soon as we got to Pittsburgh. The leaves were starting to come out, and Virginia was carpeted in wildflowers. It had finally warmed up enough so that we didn't leap into our sleeping bags as soon as we finished dinner. Katahdin still seemed a million miles away.

Yesterday they asked me if I would ever consider doing the AT again, and without hesitation, I said absolutely. I know at some point the circumstances in our lives will once again open up the opportunity to throw on some packs and wander. Until then, I'm pretty content to do some weekend hiking in Cook's forest.