I’m catching the blog up…
Mid-March 2020, as the pandemic was starting, Julie (like many others) really wanted to go camping. I’d put that deposit on the KTM in September 2019, and parts for the suspension lowering were still delayed. Well, my excellent salesperson, Paris, at my favorite dealership, Bob’s BMW emailed me with two very good options for light ADV bikes. So this 2015 G650GS happened:
And we set out to go camping at Elizabeth’s Furnace campground which did not allow reservations but WAS VERIFIED TO BE OPEN on the website. We packed up and headed out (too late, of course) and got to the campground. The gate was closed and we figured it was because it was late, but there was another parking area with a path so we parked there. A couple of other people were there discussing whether they were going to camp or not. Today was Saturday, but one of them had called on Friday and verified that the campground was open. There was a sign, but it looked very cheesy/not official and didn’t cite any authority. There was no prohibition against overnight parking in the parking area. So Jaron & I decided to camp and registered/paid for our campsite at the self pay station.
After we had set up the tent and were starting on dinner, an older gentleman and his wife walked up and introduced themselves as volunteers with the Forest Service and told us that the campground was closed. I explained that it was verified to be open by phone on Friday and on the website this morning. This octogenarian said he didn’t know about any website. And clarified for me that this was the US Forest Service. I said yes, the Elizabeth Furnace campground. He kindly explained that he’d had to give several others this bad news and that they packed up and left agreeably. And that if we didn’t leave, he would call law enforcement and they would make us leave.
Well (surprise!) Julie was ready to throw down over our right to camp versus some local yokel deciding to close the campground with no authority. But Jaron pointed out that he’d come out to the woods to escape bureaucracy. So we packed up and left.
As we rode off, Julie pondered about the email she’d write and the $10 refund we’d get, and the receipt blew off of Jaron’s windshield. So we let it go.
Thus began the season of Picknicking in the Apocalypse. We’d pick a park, verify that it was open (however futile that sometimes ended up being), take the chairs and camp stove, and make a camping meal there.
So the next day we went to some state park.
The following weekend, we met up with a friend we were overdue to ride with and he took us to his favorite gravel spots in VA. We were headed in to the mountains and it was foggy AF and Julie kept slowing down, and at a certain point just pulled off at the next point because I couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t like riding in fog. Something about needing to be able to see. So we went towards a valley instead and then as the sun came out decided to try the mountains again after a stop for lunch. We found a state park parking area and broke out the chairs. We’d brought an extra chair and a backpacker meal for our friend. Jaron was rooting thru my bag and then said very loudly, like he knew the answer: “Julie, where’s the stove?”
See, I was super excited about taking my camp stove from high school on these picnics. I tested it out and found a pot to pack it with and packed 2 lighters and 2 sets of matches. We have a ton of fuel for it, but at some point we got a more weight and space-efficient Jetboil, so my old camp stove and its proprietary fuel canisters have just been sitting in the basement and I thought these picnics would be a great time to use up that fuel. But…when we got there, Jaron & I did the “I thought YOU packed the stove” thing, so…clif bars it was, and I apologized for creating stove confusion.
Now that the sun dried off the fog, we headed in to the mountains and did this super cool gravel road. I gotta tell ya, the Hovercraft did great. It was steep, full of turns, and there was an optional dirt side road thing, and it was really pretty. Afterwards we stopped at the top of a hill to catch our breath. We were feeling good and talking and taking pictures. Well, apparently we were across from a secure area, so we got asked to stop congregating there and were asked about the pictures. I volunteered to show them the pictures I’d taken and it was not a big deal.
A couple of weeks later in April 2020, we headed to Cunningham Falls. It’s a gorgeous area with lots of twisty roads. The main area of the park ended up being closed, so we turned around and went to where I’d seen a paved parking lot with some space open. It was a boat launch and it was on a slope.
Delicious glop. Chicken & Dumplings!
On a particularly nice weather day in the middle of the week, Jaron took Pedro out for a photo shoot on the Eastern Shore at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge.
Julie randomly picked Rocks State Park next. We had a nice ride and found this parking area near a stream.
My super-cool premarital camping stove.
The next weekend (still in April) we found a nice view of the water at a park, but there were lots of people there. So, we turned around and went to this trailhead parking area which was empty and had a nice afternoon.
No picnic table? No problem. That’s why removable topcases are great.
The next weekend, we went to Woodmont Natural Resources Management Area. Lunch was beef stroganoff and spaghetti with meat sauce.
It was a GREAT ride. So great.
I traded the orange reusable shopping bag for the Ryobi bag. Jaron asked me if I was packing my picnic bag. So, the Ryobi bag is now the picnic bag.
I realize that these pictures or our setup probably all look the same.
Keeping it classy.
The first weekend in April, we went to Patuxtent Research Refuge and Cunningham Falls (again).
We took the ADV bikes and went to find some gravel. Julie wants to get comfortable on the Hovercraft in non-extreme conditions. Jaron took the Tiger out, which just got new tires.
We decided to check out an area close to home, the Patuxtent Research Refuge. We took a right on the loop road until it dead-ended. 🤔 The road was mostly paved with some gravel in patches but there were a fair amount of potholes filled with water/mud. So that was fun, and we gave pedestrians a wide berth. We decided to take a break at a parking area with a sign warning about unexploded ordnance. There was a little path to the Patuxtent River under the trees, it looks like a great picnic site for when we can’t go far.
Across the street was Cattail Pond, so we walked over to check that out. And down the road a ways to a bench specifically for looking at Cattail Pond. Saw another warning sign about unexploded ordnance. We did not see any cattails. On our walk back across the road from Cattail Pond we saw another pond and walked thru the trees and found this pond totally full of lily pads.
Most of the gravel roads were gated off, but one was open (Area D). Super cool! Perfect amateur ADV road. There were a fair amount of people around, and there was a bench on some land in the middle of the lily pond that looked really cool, there was a natural pier of sorts. We’ll definitely be back to check that out sometime.
Continued to Cunningham Falls a bit later than we’d planned. We took a break at a high school parking lot and discovered that Jaron’s water bottle worked its way open and dumped like a liter of water inside his topcase. His drone was in there, and did not appear to have gotten wet.
The road to Cunningham Falls was closed except to local traffic, probably because it was 70 degrees out and the park is popular. (Maryland has been closing popular parks, which just pushes people to less popular parks and does not solve the crowding problem.) This limited our options on where to stop. There were lots of people, but many of them left after 5:00.
Dinner was spicy sausage & rotini and chicken fettuccini alfredo.
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