catsittingstill

The weather is cooling off, the leaves are just beginning to turn, and the urge to go camping once again flares into life. I asked a couple of local friends if they knew someplace other than the Smokies nearby, and they suggested Cumberland Gap, saying it was only about an hour or an hour and a half away.

Kip agreed to come along provided I got him back by 2:00pm today so he could grade papers and computer projects.

Garmin the Not-Lost turned out to be a very useful little gadget for finding my way through the twisty-turny state and federal highways to get to the park (which is at the corner of Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky), and it was indeed only an hour and twenty minutes, perhaps, from my house.

My new tent (from Christmas) finally got used (it wasn't my first time putting it up; I did that at home a few days ago to make sure I understood it *before* it was my only place to sleep). It is a wonderful tent. Technically I think it is a "4 man" tent--which means you could fit four people in it if they were slender and affectionate and you left their gear outside. Which makes it a very comfortable "2-person-plus-gear" tent, with room to take in a third person in a pinch, for instance if someone else's tent blows over in a storm.

We actually cooked hot dogs over coals from a wood fire, which is not something I do very often. Unfortunately we forgot to get s'mores materials. But we had plenty to eat.

We went to bed shortly after dark, as we didn't have strong enough light to read by, very well. Our campsite had a nut tree. Note to self; in the future, remove nuts from ground *before* setting up tent. I slept okay--kept waking up when other campers made noise, and once when sirens in the nearby town started all the dogs in the area howling which started all the *coyotes* in the nearby area howling too. But I mostly got back to sleep okay. Kip didn't sleep so well, and got up about 5:30 am, which is his usual time to get ready for work anyway. I got up about half an hour later because I couldn't go back to sleep, and really, I'd gone to bed about 8:00 pm so why not?

My Trangia stove worked fine for boiling water for hot chocolate and tea. 2 Tablespoons of alcohol really will boil water for 2 people before it gives out, so filling the stove all the way is wasteful (it is theoretically possible to put the stove out without burning it dry, but it's a pain and I never get all the alcohol out again, so in practice I usually burn it dry, which makes it a good idea to start with the necessary amount of fuel and no more).

Cumberland Gap Park is very pretty, with lots of wooded mountain ridges. You can see it has been a dry summer, but here and there a tree is turning orange and red. There is an overlook about 4 miles in, up a pretty steep, windy road, with a really great view. There is a lake in the area; apparently named Fern Lake, which I plan to check out for canoeability. There are also lots of hiking trails there; Kip's knees were feeling iffy, so I made the walk around the 2 mile "Fitness trail" myself in about 45 minutes--not bad considering the elevation gain. Next time Dad and Jake come to visit, maybe I'll take them there for a hike or two.
It was fun. I'm glad we went. But I want a cushier therm-a-rest for Christmas :-)