From the South to the North

We've almost made it to New England. We're currently in Catskill, NY, staying with my Aunt Lisa and her husband Dick at their lovely house right on the Hudson River.

It's amazing to think that our US portion of the trip is coming to a close. We're staying in Catskill for the long weekend visiting with my Aunt and Uncle and my sister and her wife came up from Boston for the weekend as well. The foliage is turning and today turned out to be a beautiful fall day.

After camping and hiking in the Smokies we went to Durham, NC to visit some friends of ours who moved there from Seattle last winter. We actually have seven Seattle friends who have moved to Durham. They moved there for cheap real estate, more sun and change of scenery. I thought Durham was a pretty nice place. There were some nice places downtown and you can have up to ten chickens at your house, unlike Seattle which only lets you have four! Here's our friend Mike dealing with one of his chickens.

There's also a lot of cool history in the area, much of it involving the Civil War. We went to Bennett Place, the site of the largest Confederate surrender involving over 20,000 troops.

From North Carolina we made our way north, stopping in Snow Hill, Maryland to stay with a couchsurfing friend who had stayed with us in Seattle. Mary and her husband Dave were super hospitable and we got to stay in their historic house from the 1800s.

We also went to Ocean City, Maryland for dinner with Mary and Dave. Ocean City is kind of a cross between Atlantic City and Cape Cod, but apparently with antique cars. There was some sort of car show so people were cruising the strip in their cars.

The next day we traveled north through Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and finally into New York. Luckily we didn't run into very much traffic and got to my Aunt's house . We did conquer one more "peak" on our way - Ebright Azimuth, at a lofty 448 feet it's the high point of Delaware. I'm not going to count it as Peak #35 but I thought I should record the "accomplishment".Now, for the next two weeks before we head for Australia we'll be visiting family and friends in New England and do any last minute preparations for the international portion of the trip.

Six peaks, four days

We settled up the bill at our hotel in New Orleans. Somehow the $45 per night hotel ballooned into $76 after adding in all the taxes and fees! Apparently Louisiana state law requires safes in all hotel rooms and hotels charge $4 per night for this? That was just one of the many hidden fees charged. I felt a bit duped with all the extra taxes and fees, but we were glad to see more of New Orleans. It's a great city and one that I hope to visit again in more depth some other time.

From New Orleans we cruised through Mississippi and most of Alabama to camp at Cheaha State Park in northeast Alabama. We got there right as it was getting dark and we found the campground to be a little difficult to figure out. There was an area for RVs but the tent area was labeled "semi-primitive" without designated camping sites. Plus there was a group of American Heritage Girls building fires and roasting marshmellows all over the area. Although the one group leader seemed very nice (they're so polite in the South) we decided to go back to the RV area and pitch our tent in a RV spot.

The next day we got up and climbed the 75 foot tower marking the highpoint of Alabama.


We also discovered the other tent camping area lining the road leading to the tower. But again, there were no designated sites. People just pulled their cars over and camped on the side of the road. I've seen more orderly homeless people in Seattle.

We left Alabama and crossed over into Georgia, seeking out the highpoint of Georgia. There was a road almost to the top, but it was a 6/10 of a mile walk to the actual highpoint.

From Georgia we headed into the Smokies, camping for a night at Great Smoky Mountain National Park. This is the busiest National Park in the country and October is the second busiest month of the year (after July) although we did find a spot in the campground. In the morning we drove up to Clingmans Dome, the highpoint of Tennessee, and also the highest point on the Appalachian Trail. I thought the structure they built on the top was pretty ugly and wouldn't mind seeing them tear it down to make the highpoint more natural.

We detoured south into South Carolina for a quick walk up Sassafras Mountain, the South Carolina highpoint before getting on the Blue Ridge Parkway to head toward Asheville. We had a quick beer and dinner in Asheville, but apparently it wasn't quick enough because when we got to the campground at Mt. Mitchell State Park it was padlocked shut! We couldn't get in, and if you were already in I don't see how you could get out either! We also saw a black bear on the road going in to the park.

We continued on the Parkway for a few miles hoping there would be another campground but there was nothing out there. Eventually we gave up and ended up sleeping in the car. It was raining so camping might not have been that fun either. After 50+ days on the road, to have to sleep in the car for the first time wasn't that bad and we slept pretty well actually.

In the morning when the state park opened we drove up to Mt. Mitchell and walked the short walk to the top.

We then drove further on the Blue Ridge Parkway up into Virginia where we camped at Grayson Highlands State Park, probably the nicest campground we stayed at yet. It was super clean, there were free showers, the host was very hospitable and there were tons of trails. Plus, ponies! (Seriously, there were ponies grazing in the "high country".) We also saw another bear crossing the road.

In the morning, admist lots of rain and fog we braved eight miles (round-trip) of the Appalachian Trail to the top of Mt. Rogers, the Virginia highpoint.

We are now in Durham, North Carolina visiting several of our Seattle friends who have moved here. Durham is an interesting place. It's definitely a place of contrasts. Block to block it changes a lot and while there are some nice areas there are also some very scary areas that I definitely would not venture into at night. But overall, we're having a nice visit here. Tomorrow we head north for our final push to New England. We'll stop one night in Maryland and then it's on to the Catskills of New York for the weekend...

Here's a link to the rest of our pictures from our highpoint frenzy. Also, I have now done 34 peaks of my 35 peak challenge. I'm open to suggestions as to what the 35th peak should be. Let me know in the comments what you think...

Southern Highpoints