October 17, 2020
Saturday, October 17, 2020
Michaux State Forest Fall Foliage
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Promised Land State Park
Vanlog, Lancaster, PA
October 11, 2020
For mid-October, it was a pleasant temperature to sleep last night--not too hot, not too cold. We slept in a little this morning and took our time getting underway. Then we drove about 15 min to Promised Land State Park. After walking around the beach area for a few photos, we drove on Park Avenue to Conservation Island, a part of the park that we had not explored on our previous two outings here. We made a 1.3-mile loop around the island, just admiring the fall colors.
On the drive home, we stopped to visit my family near Reading, PA. Dad helped us with a few repairs in the van. The flip-up counter in the doorway next to the sink was loose and had fallen off last weekend because the screws for the hinges were a little too short. So we went to Dad's Hardware Store and got some longer screws to hold the hinges on better. Then, the swinging door on the outside of the fresh and gray water cabinet was not closing correctly. It appears as if one of the hinges got bent backwards. So we took that off, straightened it, and added some new magnets to the closure mechanism. Everything else worked great on the trip. We are both very happy with the Dometic fridge and how spacious it is with the dual zones and how little DC current it draws overnight when the solar panels aren't charging. Likewise, we used the WeBoost cell phone booster to greatly enhance our upload speed when writing the vanlog or downloading photos from the Cloud. I was able to use the sink faucet and heat up some hot water in a pot and have a hot shower out the sliding door of the van this morning and we are getting used to when it's worth using the bucket toilet and when it's just better to go in a Solo cup! Not everything about vanlife is glamorous and space is certainly a premium, but you can't beat having everything you need in one place permanently and being able to just pack a few things on a moment's notice to get away for the weekend. The DCNR in PA is excellent. Usually, I can reserve a campsite for the weekend only a week in advance at one of the state forests and it is 100% free. Free camping, reservable, and usually very private with a fire ring and picnic table. You just can't beat vanlife especially during fall foliage season.
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Delaware Water Gap in the Fall
Vanlog, Maple Run campsite, Delaware State Forest
Oct. 10, 2020
We drove the scenic Silver Lake Rod back through the Delaware State Forest to our campsite, where we had mammoth-sized steaks and broccoli cooked on the coals and then a nice early campfire! Living the loca #vanlife vita.
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Falling for Fall in the PA Grand Canyon
Vanlog, Lancaster, PA
October 4, 2020
Our journey began on Friday, October 2 after my class was kind enough to change its start time from 6:30 PM to 3:30 PM, so that I could get home by six. I had asked Jessica to have everything ready by then, and wouldn't you know it? We were in such a hurry to send off that neither one of us had remembered to unplug the shore power from the house. We made it about a mile down the street to the gas station before a man came over and said I have been beeping at you for the last mile--you're dragging your extension cord down the road and I didn't want it to hit anybody! You just can't make stuff like this up! The sagas of 3vanlife. We had a four-hour drive ahead of us in the dark, the last four miles on gravel forest roads to our campsite in Tioga State Forest. There was no cell service here of course and our satellite navigation was going in and out. All we had to rely on was an email from the state forest district office with the GPS coordinates and a description that it was just off the road. We stopped where we thought it was and set up camp.
This was our first time taking the bikes with us, so they had to sit in the aisle of the van between the kitchen and the bed/bench (in bench mode). Jessica was unable to fold out her bed unless we left the bikes unsecured outside the van, which we did nto want to do because we were literally "just off the road." So she squeezed into the twin size bed with me, the bed that is already too short for me to lie fully straight from one side of the van to the other. Needless to say, it was not a restful night of sleep.
October 5, 2020
We did sleep on the later side and didn't break camp (aka drive away) until about 8:30. We headed first tot he very busy Leonard Harrison SP side of the PA Grand Canyon. Because part of the canyon was still in shade at this hour, we opted for a 2.2-mile hike down tot he canyon floor and back. Along the ay we passed a fairly dried up waterfall. At the canyon bottom, we intersected with the Pine Creek rail trail, where we were going to bike later in the day. On the return ascent, 744 feet, we really booked it, not wanting a pair of fit 20-something year old girls to show up us 50-something hikers! Jessica was amazing, blazing up the trail like it was gravy without any rests at all.
After our hike, we drove tot he other side of the canyon to Colton Point SP and parked in the lot opposite the trail to Barbour Rock. The leaves were beautiful in the sunlight and the canyon looked much nicer from the west rim. We hiked another 2.3 miles here.
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