There’s no settling into normal on a Backcountry Discovery Route - every turn brings unexpected surprises. After we worked out a few kinks on day one, the next few days brought unbelievable beauty, fun driving, some crazy weather, and a lot of good time together.
One of the more interesting stops was the Horn Creek Schoolhouse. It was marked on maps and had been called out on one of the videos we had watched. That said, we had no idea that we’d find it so interesting. A family has taken it upon themselves to keep an 1800′s one room schoolhouse as a sort of museum of their ancestors and others that lived in the area. We spent the better part of an hour talking with Betty and Ernie who told us story after story of the life of a settler in the hollows of West Virginia. They should be considered a national treasure.
We’ve now traveled over 600 miles of backcountry roads, many of which are dirt, gravel, or just plain ol’ rocks. We find it hard to even write about the experience and frankly, there were times when we just didn’t take photos because we were so wrapped up in what we were doing. But we’ve had a lot of time hanging out at mountain lakes or sitting around a campfire making s’mores. We’ve had a lot of time sitting behind the windshield.
One thing that we’ve seen is that LunaChimp has quickly become an excellent offroad driver. Driving on off-camber rocky one lane Jeep trails with a 200′ drop off on the driver’s side will tend to encourage good driving skills. But we’ve also seen that Sophia has become an expert navigator. Juggling map reading on Gaia, coordinating turns on the radio, or choosing when to switch into four wheel drive, she makes them a formidable driving team.
This morning we woke up at the camp in Catoctin Mountain Park after a cold front blew through, dumping a sizeable amount of rain on our tents and dropping the temperatures considerably. We weren’t sure what to expect for our last day on the MABDR, but it turned out to be one of the best as we explored section five and part of section six as it passed through the mountains of southern Pennsylvania - simply marvelous.
As we ate dinner tonight at a fantastic Belgian restaurant in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the talk was already turning to other BDRs. LunaChimp and Sophia had started the research stealthily on others further west. We’ll see what comes of it. We close with a shot of three of us just before the final pavement ended on section five of the MABDR. Tomorrow we start the journey back toward North Carolina by heading into Shenandoah National Park.
