Let's Play!: "Trail Questin': The Search for Badges"

Gotta do York River and  Occoneechee. 

Tumblr informs me that the blog was created a year ago! 

9. Chippokes Plantation State Park, P2 recap

Trails: I’m afraid that this park was disappointing for several reasons. As I’ve learned from Sky Meadows, the hiking-only trails are the best! This is a smaller park than the ones we’ve been used to; they likely tried to use what they got and made several trails multi-use as a result.  For Chippokes, none of the trails really looped; we did lots of out and backs, which is not preferred. The longest trail was the College Run, which was an asphalt path along the river and then the farms. The Sun Beats Down. We tried to find the Chipoax Trace Trail, but we couldn’t see the start of it near the Saw Mill Exhibit! After wandering a bit into the woody area, we decided to turn back and siesta. In conclusion: The majority of the folks enjoying this park was on the James River bank; P1 and I decided that this is not a hiking park and that we were using the park “incorrectly”.

Code: Pink! 10! The out-and-back trail for the overlook was just covered in flies and mosquitoes. P1′s gentle bug spray was emptied here on the way to the outlook. Things were so miserable on the way back that we resolved to bring DEET for the next outing. P1 escaped with no bug bites; I had 5 that got immediately welty. Luckily, P1 brought diphenhydramine goop! 

Tree Identification side-quest: P1 bought a tree ID book from the Chippokes park store! P1 read the intro out loud on the College Run trail while I herded her from other folks. We’re learning to ID trees in VA state slowly, starting with the ones we’re suspended from during siesta. 

Sky Meadows State Park, P2 recap

This park is bisected by a main road; there is a horsey side and a human and horsey (to a lesser extent) side. We finished the horsey side and drove over while blasting Norwegian Wood with the windows down. The desire to hear it on repeat was so strong, I still remember it today. We were smart; actually, let me start the song again while I finish this blog post. 

Trails: Many were in farm and pasture settings. I remember P1 stating that she felt like she’s walking through someone’s backyard in high school. I was on the lookout for cows, but didn’t see any up close. Parks, more cows pls. I saw the warning signs for cows, but no cows! I remember needing to take lots of breaks since almost all the trails here were ascents to more up-trails. Mtn hiking is much more difficult than flat hiking! For a bit before we were briefly on the Appalachian trail (!!), we had to brave Code Pink, 11/10. It was EVERYWHERE. Small flies and mosquitoes were in my face and wove themselves into the fabric of my shirt. I’m certain that I inhaled and ate several for a gross and accidental hiking snack. The Appalachian trail is quite nice! The hiker-use only trail was much more pleasing since I had to pay attention to where I was placing my feet on the narrower, rocky paths. It felt much more like an engaging hike instead of a casual walk through the woods. I’m eager to do more hiking in the mountains! 

Shenandoah River State Park, P2 recap

Oh no, I hardly remember spring break 2016. I remember almost nothing of the trails. There were more up-and-down motions in the trails; I remember huffing because I was out of shape! The BIG UP (thanks for the reminder, P1) was a bit scary since it was so high up, but it was fun to climb! The trail here was made of the sides of many flat rocks stacked together; looked like rock-bark! 

The photos help me remember the park! The river scenes were very pretty. Since the park is near (in?) mountains, we were able to see the river from up and far. The houses were tiny and the cars were cute and small. There was one trail that was made of recycled/treated planks over swampy terrain. It made a giant loop around pools of still and discolored water; we kept thinking about body farms.

All in all, a solid experience. I don’t think that we used all parts of this park; for example, I think I remember something about ziplining here? (Man, I gotta keep up on the reviews; the lack of detail isn’t cutting it). 

Code: Just as P1 has summed up! Code Black was established when we first camped for the flying spooky in the night (owls, bats); we didn’t not call this code while in this park. 

New game: I forget what my hiker build and class is. Definitely had lower stats at this point than after the winter. Hmm, we’ll have to play this game again and determine my class. P1 is defo a bard who aspires to mage; perhaps she can dual class as a bardic mage at later levels. It’s true that her songs already give me temporary CON buff. Work on singing your spells, P1! 

Sky Plantation House With Ponies, Level 8

I don’t have so many pictures from today.  We’ll have to rely on P2.  I actually liked this park way better than Shenandoah River, which was odd b/c I expected the opposite.

Trails: SUPER AWESOME!  So much up-and-down.  This is from the pony-themed side of the park and is therefore a bit crap.  The human-themed side of the park is way better.  We went up and up and up and then all around the houses and downish and then over some more and it was great.  We were even on the Appalachian trail for a hot second, which was Very Exciting and led to some deeply misleading but really fun to say out loud sentences for a while there.  There were nice benches where we could take appropriately-timed rest breaks.  It was awesome.  

Code Not Sure but Maybe Pink: There was a section of under a mile that was Bug Bonanza.  Seriously, we had to swat with our arms and breathe carefully to progress.  It was a wee windless zone and the bugs were like tapioca pearls in pudding, they were so thick.  That’s a gross image.  Believe in its emotional truth in your heart.

What Was In My Nalgene: I started off with mostly watermelon Gatorade, then kept drinking half and refilling with water.  In general, I really like watery Gatorade when hiking.  There’s a certain point, though, where this becomes something you definitely do not want: a thin pinkish bitterish fluid that makes a person think about nothing quite so much as blood plasma, except that I bet plasma is a bit less gross, what with no artificial flavoring.  Wasn’t as bad as when I did it the previous day with Diet Coke, though.

Siesta: One part idyllic, one part frustrating.  The one big bummer of this park is the total lack of viable siesta sites.  There were a couple of picnic tables chucked about the park at random intervals, almost as if they were in awkward storage awaiting some final placement.  There wasn’t really a good spot to siesta, particularly if you want trees for hammock time.  So we wound up in this brushy spot behind a place to park that had two trees relatively close (no one wants to feel isolated during siesta!).

At that point, friends, it was pure bliss.  We had a good long hike that day for people recovering from mystery crud and not in hiking shape--7-ish miles?  And we decided to siesta only at the end, since we’d stoked the boilers well beforehand with eggs and biscuits.  Tuckered out and hungry, I laid in my double-sweet hammock and ate these:

(Photo provided by theimpusivebuy and used under a CC license.  As if there’s a world where I have the presence of mind to take a photo of these while in hammock time.)

Holy bananas, do I love Combos.  They are possibly my favorite crap snack food.  Until I bought these at a Sheetz on the drive up, I did not know (!) they came in 7-layer-dip flavor.  People of the Internet, these have replaced Pizzeria Pretzel as the Most Desirable Combos option.  They are incredible and I long for more of them deep in my soul.  Looking at this picture makes me mourn the lack of convenience stores between my apartment and my office or I swear to you I’d stop in and buy some at 8:30 in the morning tomorrow.  I ate at least 2/3 of the bag in one go, then ate a giant apple under the Mitch Hedberg Theory of Nutrition, and then read Star Trek books on my phone for an hour.

Shenandoah River Park, Level 7

P1 Recap:

You want me to remember spring break?  Okay then, I’ll give it my best shot.

So today started off with both players rolling disadvantage against some sort of nebulous creeping crud.  No one felt tip-top, but listen, time was taken away from work and other work, so friends, we hit the road.

Ima be real, I had to go look at the park trail guide to remember what we did.

Trails: We did one that went very up for a while, and then there was a pleasant outlooky area where we took the top right photo.  It went back down and looped around and we had a real pleasant walk next to the river, complete with the aforementioned bluebells.  You can tell it was nice because of the big red smiley face.  Then we did a BIG UP to the blue star and had more nice scenic vistas.  It was all very pleasant and I enjoyed the nice variety as well as the fact that up means a more realistic up.

Clever Code: Last summer we made up a system of alerts with colors and numbers.  We realized we forgot most of it, except code gray (spider webs), code yellow (bees, hornets, other stingy things that give P2 the adrenalines), and code piiiiiiiink (mosquito by your ear; I still think this is clever and P2 is, well, indulging me on it).  1 is low level.  10 means run or hit the deck, whichever is more relevant.  Black is flying spooky things of the night, maybe?

Super-double Sweet Siesta: Both players are now equipped with parachute fabric hammocks.  P2′s is the standard “cocoon” model.  Mine is this enormo double-wide flat thing that doesn’t cocoon very well but which, incredibly, I can lie flat the wrong way in.  Everyone is deeply happy with this set of outcomes.  Siesta has grown considerably longer since the implementation of the new dual hammocks.

New Game: Hiker Builds and Classes. By this we mean that you view yourself as a tabletop dice game character, both in terms of your actual stats (so for example, I’m high CON but low STR) and in terms of what you want to be.  Also feel free to claim job class.  I am clearly the bard character of any party I’m in, though I aspire to mage.  I gotta buy one of those plastic outdoor ukuleles.

First Impressions: This park is newly renovated. The outsides of the bathrooms didn't have cobwebs and wear. The trails are all spread out through the park.

Humans: This was a weekend hike; many more people out and about. One particular group was trying to get their human-powered watercraft into the river for the entirety of our lunch and siesta. Lots of looking, pointing, and standing happening over there.

Favorite Trail: Gold Dust Trail. It had EVERYTHING: large rocks path with up-down, small rocks with up-down, flat grass portion with taller grass on the sides, Tall Field of Bees* portion, shady forest-y portion, muddy parts, all leading up to an elevated view of the James River.

Animals Seen: Three doggies: two were damp, gross, and very pleased. The husky was fluffy and wasn't having it.

So. Many. Butterflies! Small and big, mostly in the brown/orange range.

*After my last experience with large flying insects, I was particularly jumpy near the Tall Field of Bees. Proximity of head buzzing prompted terror then dashing away (see below). P1 was doubled over in laughter at my response.

Kon and Yuzu in  "Kon's Great Plan" (S01E15)

No photo from me; we’re all assembled in P1′s post.

NPC friend accompanied us on this one; it was a great addition for P1's optional objective, "Birthday Hike".

Distance from homebase: ~1hr

First Impressions: much larger than Twin Lakes. Nice dam/water feature as we were entering the park. The main refreshments area was a '50s feel, ice cream and outdoor diner set-up near the beachy, swimming area. Hot; it was pretty hot that day. Soon found out that there were informational placards on the trails. On one of the first ones we saw, NPC and I found an Easter Egg; there were mentions of "interactions" of inhabitants and the "structure" of the forest.

Favorite trail: Channel Cat.It was shady, followed the water, and had some up-down action. This was ideal after a non-shade trail; I'm looking at you, cabin-side of Lakeside Trail.

Animals seen: Two worth noting:

1. Butterfly that had long and slender wings. It was velvety black, but with messy dark blue circles on the lower halves of the wings. I threw some victory arms and called it pretty + "like the night", but it didn't come closer. Fickle.

2. Horsefly was felt more than seen. This was a thigh-friend for both NPC and myself for sometime. It began to nom into the back of my right thigh, but then re-evaluated the situation for optimal bitey angle. I stopped hiking to investigate my leg. Horsefly then tried the back of the left thigh with great enthusiasm; I yelled for assistance! NPC friend came closer for, what I thought to be, removal assistance. But, NPC wanted to ID the creature while it was burrowing into my skin through a pair of leggings. With hollering from me, brushing and stomping from NPC, and boisterous laughter from P1, horsefly finally went away. I was on high alert for the rest of the hike. 

Level 2: Bear Creek Lake

See here pictured the Players and a helpful NPC!

Trails: Let’s see.  There were pleasant up-and-downs of a trail-y variety.   I seem to recall Instructional Placards; something about how to catch various types of fish and whatnot.  A nice blend of Easy Stridin’ Paths for the Ill Equipped and some more difficult walks.

Cool Plants: I think this was the park that had a weird groundcover version of cedar.  It looked cheery.

Weather: As I recall, it was a bit warm.  Sun Beats Down!  All players lose one water.*

Hammock Skill Tree: During the siesta, the NPC upgraded his hammock-use skill tree from 0 to 1, though not without a moment of comedic slapstick. It was this upgrade that allowed the NPC to perceive the value of siesta, I think.

Noteworthy Feature: A cancer-themed grotto.  Both weirdly un-contexualized, and therefore off-putting and creepy, and at the same time actually quite nice as it is shady and breezy and overlooks the dam.  

All in all, a nice “neighborhood” park: not necessarily a drive-to destination unless you’re a-Questin’, but a pleasant park that would be a good choice if it is nearby.

Bear Creek Lake, Level 2

Total Mileage approx 5. Orange paths weren’t touched. We didn’t plan this one as well as we could have. In this park, we were pretty sweaty.

Quest List below:

Level 1: Twin Lakes!

Total miles hiked around 5.5. Orange lengths in the map below are trails that we didn’t take for one reason or another. In this park, we didn’t do those two lengths (as far as I can remember) because it wasn’t on the way. The count isn’t accurate since this was done a while ago.

Quest List below:

Distance from home base: 1hr, very close!

First Impressions: Nice and small! It wasn't overgrown, but wasn't manicured either.

Learning curve moment: Noob + error. Speaking for myself only, P2 was still getting the hiking groove down.

Level: Error --> Oh man. I had the wrong map. We were deciding between this park and another. I had printed out the map for the OTHER park. Y'know, that wasn't even the bad part; see next subsection.

Level: Noob --> I spent much time in the beginning figuring out the trail signs with a park map that did not feature two lakes.

Favorite trail: It's difficult to remember since it was so long ago. There was one with a bit of up+down in the trail (confirmed, P1). I think that I liked the rainy trail the best, but I sure that I'm voting for more rainy hikes instead of voting for the trail itself.

Animals seen: small deer startled near park entrance. Snake near water trying to eat a group of aquatic, black-specked squishies with clear, gelatinous bodies. Bright orange salamander in the middle of rainy trail. Two turtles: one damp, another dry (separate trail).

Other humans: minimal contact with other park-goers. Due to the afternoon rain, P1 and I were in a forced siesta with an elderly mom and her grown-up daughter. Mom snoozed and daughter boozed.

Final Impression: Rangers are super helpful and kind! Both players got self-esteem boosting props for being awesome. Hiking in the rain is lovely. This was a great Level 1 park.

Tradition established: hike*, siesta with hammock, hike, pub/bar, homego

Twin Lakes State Park, 5/29/15

P1 Recap:

TL is the first level we played, and we’re now on level 4.  I am crap at remembering landscapes, so please bear with me as I struggle madly to remember anything about this place.

The Noteworthy Feature: A couple of lakes

The titular lakes were very pleasant indeed, as I recall; the trails were largely divided in two sections, and kind of went around them.  One option, I think, was more short and flat and the other more up-and-down?  P2 for the confirmation?  No swimming was done.

Weather: Highly Desirable.  First hot, then rain after the siesta, which was an awesome last mile and a half.

Siesta: Fantastic What With the Rain But No Tea = Slightly Sub-Optimal But Overall Pretty Rad.  In a little hut, what with the rain.