Red River

 Red River

90 degrees (a day to kayak in the shade), 4 hours, 11.5 miles)

Scotty had been planning to kayak the Boundary Waters in a week with 3 other guys. Last night, it was determined that boaters wouldn’t be allowed in the area due to fires in Minnesota and Canada. So today was a consolation paddle and possible regrouping. Nothing was determined because it’s so hard to get an agreed date with 4 adults and different schedules. In any case, I went on this paddle because it’s NOT flat water paddling, there aren’t tons of bugs, I didn’t have to portage my boat and food. (Some of the reasons that the Boundary Waters is not for me.)

Today was hot, and there were a few shallow spots, but all was manageable. (BTW, just 3 days earlier, there was massive flooding in Waverly, about 80 minutes south of us. These events are definitely happening more frequently and to me, a definite sign of global warming.)  We stopped at our favorite little creek for lunch. After one gravel stop, we saw cows ahead in the water. And shortly after that, we saw a small group of cows go running from one side of the river to the other side. Wish I had a video of that! And the best thing of all is that we spotted an eagle flying in front of us a few times. Wish I could get a better photo when this happens. More than anything, I enjoy being out on the river, seeing all that nature has to show us!

Hiking - Long Point Trail & Beckley Coal Mine Exhibition Tour

 Hiking - Long Point Trail.               3.3 miles

We are woke to predictions of rain all day which changed our plan ideas. We had briefly considered doing a white water rafting trip, but with thunderstorms that was out. So we drove up to the new river gorge visitor center. They had nice exhibits inside and a partial view of the bridge from their patio. Also here is the boardwalk trail where you can walk down and get a better view of the bridge, Scotty was hesitant to go, but I wanted to see the view and down we went going to meet a heavy rain storm when we returned up the boardwalk. It’s a very nicely done boardwalk and a great way to see the bridge. We decided to go down into the valley and hike at the bottom where we could look up at the bridge. The road down is narrow and at some sections, it becomes one way. Just as we were close to the bottom we encountered a rafting bus stopped in the middle of the road. A tree had fallen across the road and block the one-way road down into the valley. Rangers were on the way to cut up the tree, but that did not help us at this point. Scotty had to back the truck up the one-way road and take another local road back up the mountain. We headed to Long Point Trail which is higher up and looks out over to the new river gorge bridge. This trail starts off through fields and then goes into the forest. I’m sure this trail is very pretty in the spring as there are a lot of rhododendrons along the way. It started to rain but the trees kept most of the rain off of us, but we did put on our raincoats. This trail ends with some large flat stones where you can stand and look out at the new river gorge bridge. There were low hanging clouds and the sun is just starting to come out and it provided a beautiful view. I think I prefer this view compared to possibly a sunnier view.

The view from the Visitor Center Boardwalk

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The view from the Visitor Center Boardwalk.

On the one-way road down into the valley, a tree had fallen making it impassable!

I can't get enough of this view!!!

We hiked in some rain so we look a little waterlogged!

It was a great walk through the woods, and really beautiful
when the sun came peeking through!

We then headed into Beckley West Virginia and went on the Beckley expedition coal mine tour. This coal mine had been owned by a private family in the late 1800s, but in the 1960s the town of Beckley bought it and turned it into a tourist attraction. I thought it was a very well done exhibition. Whistle equipment from the minors, Pictures and books and other relics of the coal mining era. We then boarded a train it took us into the mines any tour guide told us about mining. During the mining days, the minors had to crawl into their minds at heights that were no higher than 48 inches.  Put the town of Beckley head dugout an area said that the train could go in to the mines. It really shows what a hard life the minors had. The tour guides at all apparently been minors at one point in the earlier days. One man told us that his father had started mining at the age of 12. They were also buildings to tour which included a supervisors home, a church, family home, a bachelors shanty, and a school house. I highly recommend this tour.

This was the one man shanty.  Coal miners often lived apart from their
families in these coal mining towns.  

In the coal mining communities, there were segregated schools for the children.

Two 'antiques' from the schoolroom.  I USED THESE at the start of my career!!!

Camping - Little Gorge National Park

 We got two little fever State Park in West Virginia and this was our hardest and lengthy us check in to date. Apparently when I made the reservation, it was never completely submitted online. And it was probably my fault, but the confusing thing was that I had a confirmation number and a site number. This is a pretty little park with the lake at the entrance and surrounded by pine trees and grassy fields and we noticed the deer coming out at night. The sites are large and you have plenty of room between sites. For dinner we had Aldi tortellinis,  Aldi pasta sauce and a bag of stirfried vegetables mixed together. It was a quick easy meal and we enjoyed it as we ate outside.

Kayaking- Susquehanna River & Frances Slocum State Park

 Susquehanna River, White’s Ferry to Apple Tree Access, 10 miles

We left Scotty‘s bike at Apple tree access and drove up to White’s ferry where we put in.  There’s a sloping paved ramp into the water and it’s a very easy put in.  Susquehanna river is very wide and there are sloping hills on both sides.  It didn’t feel like we were going very fast, but we averaged 16 minutes per mile. After going for miles we went under a bridge and paddled over to the left where there’s a small creek. We left our kayaks on the rocks and hiked just a short distance up to see buttermilk Falls. We continued down the river and made excellent time. We completed 10 miles in two hours and 40 minutes. The takeout at Apple Tree is also very nice. There’s a gentle wooden dock and rode up into the parking lot. Scotty got on his bike and rode the 9 miles back to the truck at White’s Ferry. We headed over to Susquehanna brewing Company for a 2 o’clock brewery tour. This brewery has been around since the late 1800s. It was started by a German man. Most of the beers had a fruity flavor. Although I’m not usually fond of fruit beers, these beers were excellent. We came home with a case of seltzer beers and a six pack of a grapefruit beer, a lemon shandy, and an orange ale.  We then headed to the tipsy turtle for dinner we had excellent burgers. I had a burger topped with Gouda cheese and bacon, and Scotty had a burger flavored with old Bay seasoning.

We camped at Frances Slocum State Park, site 30. We noticed that all sites were level here. The highlight of this park is a large U-shaped lake, and they also have a pool and playgrounds available for kids. It was packed over the weekend, but when we left on Monday morning, most sites were empty.