Heading home again

We awoke to cold temperatures and still more clouds.  Before leaving the park, we chatted with a man across the camp road who was traveling in a new Airstream, Classic model, and he invited us in to take a look.  It was gorgeous!  Beautiful light wood, a full-sized bed with room to move around both sides to make it up, dinette, and sofa.  He was heading for Florida for the winter.  A four-hour drive brought us back to Montpelier, where we spent time unloading all the stuff from the RV and starting the unpacking process.  Tomorrow:  CLEAN the RV, after a week on the road with much rain and mud!

A day at Greenbrier State Park

Thursday was overcast and very cool, but we packed our raincoats in the backpacks and headed out on the trail.  The trails at Greenbrier were particularly well marked, blazed on the trees plus park maps (with "you are here") at every intersection.  The only difficulty was that they were covered with leaves and one had to walk with care over the numerous rocks to avoid a twisted ankle.  But we  spent two hours exploring the area, hiking around the lake (with deserted beach area that must be much used in the summer, judging from the hundreds of parking spaces and picnic tables).  That was not enough to wear Ranger out, but it was enough for us.  Dan started a fire early and we huddled around it; still very cool and overcast weather.  The rain held off, though, allowing Dan to grill pork chops and bake potatoes for dinner. 

Moving to warmer climes

Wednesday was the day we were to travel from Ithaca to Alleghany State Park, about three hours' drive west.  However, a look at the weather forecast for the far west of New York State revealed rain for the coming days with temperatures in the 40's.  NOT good camping or hiking weather!  So I cancelled our reservations and headed south, through rain, toward Maryland.  We landed at Greenbrier State Park, just east of Hagerstown, MD. 

I had an immediate good impression.  A friendly person at the camp office reinforced that.  We headed for Cedar loop, the only section with electric hookups, and had our choice of sites, with only 2 other campers there on a rainy Wednesday evening in October.  Our site was level and gravel-covered, a nice change from the site in New York!  After a dinner of spaghetti, we watched a DVD and stayed warm and dry in our Navion. 

Day trip around Finger Lakes

On Tuesday, after a slow start to the day, we drove up Route 89 along the west side of Cayuga Lake.  Many of the leaves were already fallen, but the ones still on the trees were brightly colored.  We took a short break to walk Ranger at Cayuga Lake State Park, which had nice RV camp sites which were, unfortunately, right along the highway.  (Great location for exploring the area, but not a place to stay.)  Continuing to travel northward, we had lunch at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge where Dan got out the spotting scope and we saw thousands of waterfowl.  Most were Canada geese, but we also saw yellowlegs, northern shovelers, piedbilled grebes, and great black-backed gulls.  Proceeding on, we drove through Seneca Falls and Geneva, then turned south on Route 14, along the west side of Seneca Lake.  A stop at Prejean Winery for a tasting resulted in the purchase of some great dry Riesling and a really delicious dessert wine.  Completing the loop, we arrived back at Robert Treman around 5:00, with plenty of time to grill dinner and enjoy a campfire again.  It was, by then, overcast and quite cold, so the fire felt especially good. 

Hiking at Robert Treman

Despite the all-night rain, we had a reasonably nice day on Monday, mixed clouds and sun and cool.  We hiked from our muddy campsite up the Rim Trail, which followed the path of the stream through woods.  There were views of the waterfalls and rock formations from above.  At the top of the trail, we reached an old mill where we stopped for a rest before descending the stream on the opposite side.  Part of the trail had been damaged by the heavy rains earlier in the season, ,but we were able to bypass that section.  After our five-mile hike, Ranger was ready for a relaxing evening---early to bed, while we stayed up and enjoyed our campfire.

Camping trip in October 2011

We drove north through rain in PA and spent the weekend at brother Bill's in Dingman's Ferry.  Dad visited for the afternoon on Saturday and had lunch with us, Bill, and Clay.  We left early Sunday, driving into New York state through Scranton and Binghamton. 

We had reservations at Robert Treman State Park, just outside Ithaca NY from Oct. 16 til 19.