Bicycling - Great Allegheny Passage

We drove into Cumberland and unloaded our bikes. We headed over to the great Allegheny passage trail. It starts in downtown Cumberland and goes all the way up to Pittsburgh. It’s a gradual incline out of the city of Cumberland. We rode a total of 12 miles up just 3 miles short of getting to Frostburg. My battery was getting low and I was afraid I’d be on a dead bike by the time we got home. It turns out we probably could’ve made it because we coasted pretty much the whole way down the hill so it was a total of 25 1/2 mile bike ride. It’s a pretty ride and goes right along the trails and there are some scenic overlooks. It was a comfortable temperature today probably in the 80s and it was shaded most of the way. When we got down to Cumberland, we stopped for an ice cream town. We had earned it. Back at the campsite Scotty cooked bacon and eggs for dinner. It was a delicious way to end the day and even better after we had a piece of blueberry pie with whipped cream.

Camping - Rocky Gap State Park

 We drove about five hours today to Rocky gap State Park, which is in Maryland just outside of Cumberland. it’s a very pretty park lots of trees and a lake. We are in one of six loops in our loop. It is only us in the camp host. It’s very strange to see such an empty park. I had heard that Cumberland was being revitalise so I thought it might be a nice stop. There are several galleries in the town, but unfortunately they were all closed today. The downtown is Filled with old beautiful brick buildings and unique architecture. There are several art galleries downtown but unfortunately every single one of them was closed. Even though they’re trying to fix up this town there were many signs of poverty I saw signs for food stamps, thrift stores, And a recovery centre. The area near the C & O Canal Was very nice. There is a national park visitor centre there but it was closed today and will be closed tomorrow also. Back at our campsite we had grilled chicken and frozen vegetables for dinner.

Camping - Frances Slocum State Park

 It was a driving day and Scotty drove about 5 1/2 hours. We stopped halfway and had egg salad sandwich sandwiches outside the temperature was perfect and it was a nice lunch stop. We’ve been to Frances Locum before, and the main reason is because it’s near the Susquehanna Brewing Company. We loved their new beer which was Called Sandy bottom (cherry and lemon), But they didn’t have any for sale as it was a promotional beer. Darn. Of course we did come out with two cases of other delicious flavours. We had dinner down the street at the tipsy turtle I had fish and chips and Scotty head Mark and cheese with crab. Both were very good. Now we’re back at the camper and it’s lightly raining outside, which is a pleasant sound when we’re in the camper. It will be a good night of sleeping.

Last Day - Thacher Island

 Today was our last day on Thacher Island. It’s always bittersweet but to be quite honest we’re always ready. It’s hard work and very tiring to be outside working on something every day. We did stay a few hours later to train the three new keepers coming onto the island interesting enough,  none of them had been on Thacher Island before except for Christine for a few days a few years ago. Scotty showed them the tractors and the oil house. And then Scotty,  Leslie and I showed them how to work the winch and run the ramp. Good luck. They will be pros by the time they leave. We decided to walk around Rockport and go to the Rockport Art

Association. It’s a very nice art gallery and then from there we walked around Bearskin Neck. All these years we have been going we never saw photos or paintings of Thacher Island. Finally we saw several this time. We then got an ice cream which was a delicious treat. We walked over to the farmers market and we ran into Peg and Dave from the Island as we continued our walk back to the truck, we then ran into Sebastian from the Island. We drove to Leslie’s farm where our Trailer is parked and unloaded our supplies. As we needed to wait for the refrigerator to warmup, we just landed on our beds. I love my camper bed!! We went to Agawam Diner. Scotty had a fish sandwich and I had crabcakes they each came with slaw and Crunch fries. It was the perfect dinner and now as I’m writing this, I’m about to fall asleep so good night.

Thacher Island

Leslie trimmed around the North Tower and inside the cistern.  Scotty trimmed the north wall of the boathouse and the helipad.  Leslie gave another coat of green paint to the tram carts.  Scotty and Leslie filled the tanks underneath the AKH.  Julie cleaned the AKH.  Leslie cleaned the PKH. Julie helped Scotty traced the outlets on the 2nd floor back to the circuit breaker box.  Julie sprayed poison ivy along trail to North Tower.  Scotty replaced battery in the privy.  Sandy Bay Yacht Club Junior Sailing Program came ashore.  Several kids thanked us for being on the island.  They left a donation.  A whale was spotted between the ramp and the green can, surprising the kayakers who had just left the ramp.

Thacher Island

 It briefly rained in the morning.  Leslie cleaned the museum and Julie started cleaning AKH.  Scotty put air in the front tire of the small green tractor. Leslie put another coat of green paint on the tram carts.  Scotty and Leslie pulled the battery out of the privy to put on the charger, and Leslie made a video of this procedure.  Julie inventoried supplies in 3 houses.  Scotty and Julie completed tracing all 1st floor outlets of AKH and apartment to circuit breaker boxes in the basement. Julie put directions on rocks for campers to place their food in the campground treasure box – to deter our raccoon visitor. Julie typed up winch operating instructions and made a page with photos of positions for choke and throttle. Julie raked in front of houses.  Leslie raked near the boat house. Today we noticed a cormorant trying to follow a flock of geese, but they weren’t having it.  Later, he was at the AKH door trying to push it.  Julie walked up and he jumped off through the railings.  It’s possible, he is sick.   He ran behind the house and we didn’t see him again. Close to 6, 2 kayakers came ashore to camp.

Thacher Island

 When opening the boat house, we are finding lots of Lions Mane jellyfish on the ramp.  The boats started leaving Granite Pier at 7:15. We had 4 boat landings with crew and various other agencies.  Then there were 4 boat landings of visitors.  Leslie and Christine swapped places so that Christine could practice with the winch and working on the ramp; while Leslie experience being boat crew.  We had one minor medical mishap in the boat house.  I (Julie) got stung by a bee just above my eye.  Doc got the stinger out and it turns out that a one-eyed person can run the winch.  Saville, Moss and Narkewiczfinished bed repairs.  Stoddard and Mickus finished AKH roof repairs.  Hoch and Erb finished painting tram and wheels. Scottyremoved the hitch from the old 2-wheel cart and left it on the workbench next to the Kobata. Scotty and Leslie finished labeling wires coming out of circuit breaker boxes below AKH and apartment. And if you’ve never been in the basement, you should know that there are many zombie spiders hanging among the cobwebs above. Leslie raked the campground as 2 campers had arrived.  The elusive raccoon stole some bread and scratched at their tent at 1 and 3 am.  They got a video of the rascal.  We had a delicious lobster dinner!