HikeBikeFlyRV Blog

Well, it's been a while since I've posted a blog. Time to get moving!

Check and I had decided to volunteer again here at the Cradle of Forestry for the fall session this year, as we did last year. Before we left, though, we talked with the manager, Christy, about our interest in running the cafe' if they were going to be able to open it ...

Ah, it's good to have friends.

We left the Cradle of Forestry on November 18th and headed south. We'd already had some freezing temperatures, and even snow!, in October and more was threatening to arrive the next day. Check had been wanting to revisit a friend who had built a paramotor simulator and now had a newer version. Rob is on the ...

Fall is here!

We are still at the Cradle of Forestry near the Blue Ridge Parkway where we are volunteering, or work-camping as some call it. The temperatures are cooling down nicely and the colors are starting to appear in our daily walks. As expected, we love being here as autumn settles into western North Carolina. The jobs here at the ...

I'm a planner. Can't help it. It's what I do. I sit and pontificate for hours about what area of the country we should travel to next, where we should camp, what we should see, things we should eat; followed by explanations of why we need to travel there and camp where we should camp, and see what we should see, and eat what we should eat. I also ...

On Tuesday we took a hike that was both the best hike I've ever taken, and the worst hike I've ever taken. We had driven from Hancock Campground to a trail parking lot that was across from Lafayette Campground in New Hampshire. The plan was to just putz around the easy hike/bike path that runs through Franconia Notch and The Basin along I93 north ...

We made it to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Right now we are in the Lincoln/Conway area which is a fairly touristy area with lots of winter skiing. The hiking here is outstanding, and the views are wonderful.

Initially we were headed towards Maine, but unless you're headed towards Acadia NP, there doesn't seem to be a lot of camping ...

We left our winter home of Open Pond two months ago in early February. We thought we'd be moseying our way northward pretty quickly, but instead we've spent quite a bit of time in the Georgia and South Carolina area this spring, waiting for warmer weather. There's been quite a bit of late winter weather all over the country this year. Just two days ...

Our time in the west was drawing to a close. After a night at beautiful Lone Rock Beach NP Campground at Lake Powell in Utah, we drove through Monument Valley and visited Goosenecks State Park. Unfortunately it was rainy as we drove by Monument Valley. I'm sure it must be much more impressive than what we saw! Goosenecks was an unexpected surprise. ...

Twin Falls was a terrific stop. We enjoyed great scenery, got Check's bike fixed at the local Trek store, and had cheap hookups at nearby Jerome Fairgrounds. It was time to move on, though, and the local guy-in-the-RV-that-lives-at-the-fairgrounds (there's always one) warned us that there would be a "Mexican Rodeo" that coming weekend and ...

We were planning to head south out of Idaho, but we got stopped in our tracks at Twin Falls. What a gorgeous place! I'm pretty adverse to visiting any city and we certainly didn't plan on spending any time here, but we couldn't resist. It is pretty smoky here due to the wildfires in California and Colorado, and it's also very hot this week. ...

We've been in Idaho most of the summer now. One thing I really wanted to see while we were here was some wildlife. You know, the kind that grows in the northwest. Elk, moose, caribou, mountain goats, that kind of thing. We've hiked Elk Mountain, around Elk Loop, through Elk Meadow, we ate lunch on Elk Bridge dangling our feet over Elk Creek, and ...

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday with the Grateful Dead's line "What a long strange trip it's been" and it made me laugh. It's certainly been a long strange summer. This is our first summer in Weepy and COVID-19 has really turned it upside down. When everything shut down early this spring, I thought that meant that the summer would be quiet ...

Idaho is brand new territory for us. After spending a night at a Harvest Host in the border of Wyoming and Utah we headed north. We passed through the touristy areas of Sun Valley and Ketchum, ID up Highway 95. Most places here, including the official forest campgrounds, are boondock sites, and there are tons of areas that are dispersed camping. ...

Yes! The house is officially gone. Check had someone come get the Singer cobbler sewing machine, but other than that everything else was sold with the house. No more worries about what was left unfinished, when the yard needs to be mowed, how to manage the dying elm trees in the front yard, what to do about the awkward downstairs bathroom with the ...

Well, if we had to isolate ourselves somewhere relatively safe during the COVID-19 quarantines, this was the place to do it. Shady Lake Recreation Area in the Ouachita Forest in Southern Arkansas is just gorgeous. We ended up staying about six weeks here, which is our longest boondocking experience so far. Our solar panels didn't help as much as ...

We are really enjoying our stays at Army Corps of Engineers parks, and this one is no exception. Sandy Creek Campground is on Steinhagen Reservoir in Texas, near Martin Dies, Jr State Park in the eastern part of the state.There are 78 sites here, but they are spread out over about three miles of roads. There really isn't a bad site in the park.

For ...

Caprock Canyons State Park is less than two hours away from Palo Duro Canyon, so as expected, the scenery was much the same. The unique thing about Caprock is that it is home to Texas' bison herd, and they rule the park. We found them on the roads, on the trails, and in the campground! We took one hike into the canyon and another along the rim, then ...

Palo Duro Canyon, near Amarillo, Texas is the second-largest canyon in the US, after the Grand Canyon, of course. We stayed in Mesquite Campground all the way to the end of the canyon, which was OK but we probably would have preferred Juniper Campground. Miles of trails criss-cross the valley floor and make their way up the canyon walls 800 feet ...

Our favorite campground so far in Missouri is Onondaga Cave State Park. Along with its main attraction, Onondaga Cave, it also has Cathedral Cave, which at this time of the year was only open on weekends so we weren't able to tour it. We did take a tour of Onondaga Cave, and it was really worth it! I've toured quite a few caves in the past, but this ...