Wildlife Wednesday: the Black Bear Revisted

(or rather "The Black Bear Almost Visited")

I wrote a somewhat pedantic post about black bears a while back. If you want to know a few bits of trivia about black bears in Maryland, courtesy of yours truly, that's the post for you. This is more of a story.

I'll begin it right.

Once upon a time, a mom and her two boys went to Deep Creek Lake State Park for a Park Quest. It was a beautiful day and they enjoyed the drive over the mountains from their campsite near Cumberland to the westernmost reaches of their state. They arrived at the Deep Creek Discovery Center and enjoyed  exhibits about local mining history and native wildlife.

A ranger at the center gave them their quest packet and they began following a series of clues to find three letterboxes, the first of which was in the Discovery Center. The other two were out on a trail.

They followed the advice of a fellow quester and drove to the trailhead where they found this map.

 

The mom compared the photocopied map in their quest instructions with this sign and found they didn't quite match. The portion of the trail they needed was smudged out on the sign and alas! The family walked right past a small sign with a symbol of a mine.

They walked and walked and walked. The trail was very steep. After a while, the mom realized they were on top of the mountain and walking along a ridge. It was very beautiful and very quiet.

"Boys, I think we're on the wrong trail," the mom said. It was at that moment she looked down and saw four deep lines in a soft patch of ground followed by a large roundish indentation.

Unfortunately for my photo, Gabe stepped on the print.
You can still clearly see three of the claw marks.

 "Hmm, let's turn around now," she said and the three made record time back down the mountain.

- The End -

On the Trail of the CCC

The sleepover seems to have gone well. At least, there were no calls in the middle of the night. I'll get the full report in a few hours.

And with that mini-adventure behind us, we may now return to our camping stories.

On the first morning of our expedition, we kissed Aunty M goodbye and headed west toward Western Maryland. It takes about an hour to reach the first ridges of the Appalachians and we stopped there at Gambrill State Park for a picnic lunch and Park Quest.

The quest was a short hike, collecting clues about the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC was one of the New Deal's most popular programs. It put young, unemployed men to work on various projects across the country.

In exchange for their labor, the men were provided shelter (often in army-style camps), food and the standard wage of $30/month with $25 going directly to the worker's family.

In the nine years the CCC operated (1933-1942), an estimated 3 billion trees were planted and 800 parks developed nationwide. A list of CCC contributions in just our tiny state of Maryland can be found here.

Many, if not most, of the parks I've detailed on this blog were built by the CCC.

Boys standing on one of three stone overlooks built by the CCC in Gambrill State Park.

I'm very grateful to those young men. They've left an amazing legacy.

Boys with the statue dedicated to Maryland's CCC workers.

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Sources and Additional Reading

Civilian Conservation Corps, American Experience, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/ccc/

Civilian Conservation Corps, Roosevelt's Tree Army in Maryland, Maryland Department of Natural Resources
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/centennial/CCC_History_Part_II.asp

Civilian Conservation Corps, Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps

Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy
http://www.ccclegacy.org/ 

Gambrill State Park Civilian Conservation Corps
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/gambrillccc.asp

A Seat Fit For a King

Between excessive heat, a series of summer colds and one ginormous wind storm, we're a little behind in our Park Questing. Going into the weekend, we'd only completed Cedarville and the online History Mystery quests.

According to my thermometer (which hangs mostly in the shade) Saturday was 103 degrees. We barely left the house. Sunday was forecast to be 95, mild by comparison.

Sunday morning, we got up early, packed a picnic and plenty of water and headed to Rocks State Park.

There were several quest levels to choose from and we chose moderate. It was a good decision. Rocks turned out to be the perfect quest for us.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, Gabe isn't particularly fond of hiking. Part of this is because he'd rather be in the air conditioning drawing dinosaur field guides or watching re-runs of Shark Week. But Gabe also has some balance issues and he struggles a bit with uneven ground.

This quest was a manageable challenge for him.

Our mission was to follow instructions and a map to four markers. The markers were topped with metal plates for us to make a rubbing of in our passport book.

It took us about an hour.

We spent at least another hour exploring and climbing around the rock formations.

The boys loved this one. It's called Gator Rock, for obvious reasons. They immediately wanted a picture of themselves in the "mouth."

But it was the largest formation that was their favorite. It's called the King and Queen's Seat and was once a ceremonial site for the Susquehannock Indians. I can see why, it's pretty spectacular. Located near the top of the ridge, the formation itself is190 feet tall. The trail we used to reach it, came down from the top. The boys are maybe five feet off the ground in this shot.

After the above photo, the we climbed down and then back up to where you see people in the background. The drop off where the farthest man is standing turned my knees to Jell-o.

The view was amazing.

Park Quest #3 completed and a favorite hiking/climbing place found.

First Park Quest of 2012: Cedarville

 A couple of weeks ago, we went on our first Park Quest of 2012. The boys are much more involved in choosing where we quest this year. They know where we are on the map and seem to enjoy researching quests and locations. They pored over my laptop and the three of us debated the pros and cons of each option.

After extensive consideration, we chose Cedarville State Forest for our first quest because 1) it's within an hour of our house 2) the quest was marked "easy" and 3) we enjoyed our letterbox quest last year. This year's quest was another letterbox adventure, but with updated directions. We had the option of a basic quest (finding two boxes) or a bonus quest (finding all four).  It was hot and we were all a little sniffly, so we decided to wimp out and complete the basic quest.

Boys at the trail head.

Cedarville is such a beautiful, peaceful place. The gentle woodland trails remind me of my grandparent's woods.

 The boys seem to enjoy it too. As I've mentioned in several previous posts, our normal hiking order is Matt half jogging, half walking out front followed by me pulling Gabe. On this hike, however, Gabe took the lead!

Taking his first turn as trail leader.

We found our first letterbox with ease and moved to the second area for letterbox number two. Our instructions said we would walk past a beaver's dam.  We knew we were getting close when saw trees like this:

It wasn't long after we saw the lodge.

It was a pleasant, but slightly longer hike to the second letterbox. We were counting our steps and looking for the circle that would mark our way when a deer ran across our path.  We watched her bound into the trees and saw not only the marker we were looking for, but the second letterbox!

Park Quest 1 - complete!

Photo Friday

Jerusalem Mill, Gunpowder Falls State Park

Hurricane Irene took out power at the boys' school for most of the week.  We used one of the unexpected days off to complete our tenth park quest. We qualified for the  Rendevous!

Sandy Point Park Quest

Last Saturday, the weather was very different. No rain, no wind, no hurricane. And what else does our little family do on a lovely weekend day, but park quest?

Usually, the boys and I plan where we're going the night before, but this quest had been in the works for some time. For one, Sandy Point is one of the boys favorites (there's a beach).  Two, the quest was billed as a pirate quest complete with treasure map.  And third, our full team planned to participate: dad, mom, mom and boys.

Sandy Point fills to capacity most weekends, so we got an early start. We printed our treasure map ahead of time and began at the park's marina.  We found our first clue with ease and set off across the park to find clues two through ten.

We learned about bats, the park's origin as a farm, and our junior geologist found a favorite rock.  This one, he couldn't put in his pocket (my washing machine is grateful).



This was one of the easiest quests we've done.  The boys were able to guess most of the clues and our hike was more of a stroll.

Nine quests down, one more to go!

Paddling

One of the highlights of our summer campout was the Park Quest on Jane's Island.  I've wanted to do this paddle quest the past three years, but the weather has always interfered.  So, when Sunday dawned overcast, but thunderstorm free, I was pretty excited.

Jane's Island is located near Crisfield, near the southernmost point of Maryland's Eastern Shore.  The park features 30 miles of water trails and our quest took us on the Short Trail through a section of saltmarsh. 

The boys have grown exponentially this past year and I was unsure of my ability to maneuver a canoe with all that weight in it.  Happily, my cousin, Sherri, came with us.  She's been an honorary member of our team from the beginning and we were happy to have her.  She took Gabe in one canoe and I took Matt in mine.

It was still early and warm, but not hot.  The sky was overcast and there was a nice breeze as we paddled through the saltmarsh.  We saw osprey and seagulls.  We investigated tracks in the mud and learned the difference between rushes and sedges (sedges have edges, reeds are round).  Gabe saw a crab scoot by.  We all saw lots of little snails called periwinkles.

But best of all, I saw this:



A boy who can now use his paddle!

Wildlife Wednesday: Seed Ticks

I already hated ticks.  To me, they're spiders that won't brush off (and we all know how I feel about spiders). After this weekend, I have a renewed disdain toward the parasitic arachnid.

The boys and I woke Friday morning and emerged sleepy-eyed from our tent.  I built a fire, made breakfast and packed our daypacks. By nine we were headed for the Pocomoke Park Quest in Milburn Landing.

We easily found the park and the starting point for our quest.  We opened the lid of the wooden chest containing our quest equipment and instructions.  The lid was heavy and it opened with a crash. I jumped back with a squeak.


Not a seed tick. Very big wolf spider.

We quickly grabbed our gear, checked it for other eight-legged friends, and hit the trail.  All three of us were coated in bug repellent, but it was the natural stuff.  Deet makes me sick and I've always figured, unless we're hiking in malaria prone areas, we'll forego the chemicals.  I may revise this thought process.

We completed our quest (a sort of combination letterbox/activity deal) with ease.  But somewhere between the oversized Wolf Spider, the cyprus swamp, and the Pocomoke River, Matt walked through what others on the Internet call a tick bomb.

We didn't know until he used the restroom post-quest.  He opened the stall door to show me a spattering of bug bites in the area of his shorts.  At first, I thought he got an ant in his shorts, but by the time we got back to our tent, he had over a hundred bites on his torso.

"What are these little black things?" he asked.  I looked closer and realized they were teeny tiny, smaller than a pinhead, ticks!  We stripped him naked and began picking the things off.  I did my best to squish each one with my fingernails and deposited them in a ziplock bag.

The blurred dot by my thumb is the tick.

BugGuide has a clearer image.

I lost count of how many we pulled off Matt, but the real problem came when we realized twenty-four of the evil things had attached themselves where no boy should have ticks attached. My boy was not letting me anywhere near that area with my tweezers.  I didn't have vaseline with us, but I tried a thick first aid cream to see if they would release. No luck.  We tried a long soak in the chlorinated water of the pool. No luck.  In the end, we went to the emergency room.

The E.R. staff was very sweet.  The nurses tried several applications of vaseline and a special soap (which it turns out, is the wrong thing to do), but still no luck. The doctor saw us for less than a minute and was convinced the boy had chiggers. She sent us home just before midnight with a prescription for an antibiotic and instructions to get some lice shampoo, kill the little buggers and use sticky tape to remove the carcasses.

I did not buy the chigger diagnoses, but the lice shampoo worked to some degree.  A day in the ocean got rid of even more. A conversation with a sympathetic ranger at Jane's Island pointed me toward the seed tick diagnosis.  As soon as we got home, I hit the Internet and confirmed her suspicion.

According to my research, chiggers leave flat, welt-like bites.  Ticks leave raised, hard bites.  Chiggers are nearly microscopic and difficult to see with the naked eye.  Seed ticks are extremely small, but I was able to make out legs even without my bifocals.

Seed ticks are not a specific kind of tick, but are "baby" ticks. They hatch in the thousands.  Walking through a newly hatched nest is like being sprayed with tick shrapnel. Hence the term "tick bomb." Matt was lucky in that he picked up a hundred or so, but not a thousand.

I'm scratching just thinking about them.

In the end, I waited until he fell asleep and got the last two with my tweezers.  Hopefully, the kid hasn't been traumatized for life by the great ... or rather tiny outdoors.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sources and Further Reading

"First Aid for Tick Bites," Oklahoma Poison Control Center
http://oklahomapoison.org/general/tick.asp

"Seed Ticks: The Devil's Spawn," Mayaland
http://mayalassiter.com/2009/08/seed-ticks-the-scourge-of-the-earth/

"Seed Ticks," Flea and Tick Control
http://www.flea-and-tick-control.info/seed-ticks.htm

Martinak

I parked our car in Martinak State Park and the boys looked out the windows at the steady drizzle.

"Okay, let's go," I said.  They looked at me like I was crazy. Normally, I told them to stay out of the rain. But they complied and with a few giggles, we set off across the parking lot.

The Martinak quest was another letterbox quest. I carried the clues in a plastic sleeve and we were able to find the first three boxes in twenty minutes. Somewhere between the first and second boxes, the rain slowed to a drip.  It allowed us to take a little time to walk around the remains of a boat found in nearby Watts Creek. Matt liked the idea that it may have been sunk by pirates.

The fourth box required a walk along the creek.  Despite the rainy haze, it was beautiful.

 

We struggled finding the fifth and final box.We actually gave up and got in the car. We were about to leave when we spotted a park ranger walking across a soggy field.  We bolted out of the car and across the parking lot to beg for asssistance.  She pointed us in the right direction and within minutes, Park Quest #6 was complete!

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Quest Summary

both boys liked:  walking in the rain

both boys disliked: searching for letterbox #5

Summer Campout 2011: Smarshmallows, Park Quests, and Tick Bombs

As you may have guessed from my last post and the lack of posts since, the boys and I have been off the grid and in the woods.

As of Wednesday night, our proposed itinerary looked something like this:

Thursday
Depart early (possible donut bribe). Head to Martinak State Park in Denton for a Park Quest. Have picnic lunch and continue to Pocomoke River State Park, Shad Landing Area. Set up camp, chill (nature center?). Cook dinner over fire.

Friday
Get up, breakfast, attempt Pocomoke River Park Quest. Picnic lunch. Cool off at Delmarva Discovery Center (1/2 price for Park Questers). Cousins arrive in afternoon.

Saturday
Beach day! Breakfast and head out with picnic lunch. Maybe Assateague Park Quest in the morning?

Sunday
Breakfast and then canoeing at Jane’s Island for another Park Quest. Cousin's depart for home. Chill afternoon and evening at the campsite.

Monday
Leisurely pack. Farewell visits to nature center and playground. Head for home. Maybe ride Oxford Ferry?

With only a few exceptions, we stuck to this schedule. For reasons you'll learn in future posts, we skipped the Discovery Center and the Assateague Park Quest (I'll give you a hint: review title of this post). On the ride home, I was like a horse turned toward the barn, so we also skipped the Oxford Ferry (I'm thinking another day when we can maybe combine it with Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and/or St. Michael's).

Stay tuned for detailed stories of our adventures! I'll get on that just as soon as I take another nap!

The Failings of an Outdoors Mom

I can build a campfire after it rains without using lighter fluid or an entire box of matches.  I can (mostly) follow trail markers and read an elevation map. I can identify our area's most common birds, a few plants and a handful of animals. 

I cannot, however, use a compass. Not even a little.

When I was ten, the fifth grade participated in a series of outdoor/survival-type activities. One was a compass task.  We were taught how to use it and given a series of coordinates to follow.  We were supposed to end up on the steps of the school. I ended up in a patch of poison ivy 30 feet away.

Two years ago, at the Park Quest Finale, there was a mini quest involving a compass.  A ranger once again showed me how to use a compass and handed me a series of coordinates.  It was limited to a relatively small area and I still ended up a good 15 feet from where I should have.

Sunday morning, the boys and I loaded our car with a picnic lunch, snacks and several gallons of water. We traveled to Greenwell State Park in St. Mary's County for our fifth park quest.  It was already hot, but I was hoping we could complete the quest quickly and retreat to the air conditioned Calvert Marine Museum.

The quest was billed as a "Navigation Adventure" and I had carefully read the description and printed the worksheet the night before.  I knew it was a compass quest, but was cajoled by the gentle description: "a scenic one-half mile stroll along the shoreline of the Patuxent River while learning to read a map and compass."

We'd been to Greenwell before. We knew the trail. The directions were detailed. Piece of cake.

We got to Greenwell, ate half our picnic (it was too hot to really dig in) and started our walk. The first post was only a few yards away from our picnic table.  I picked up the compass hanging from the post and re-read the directions five times. 

"Can we just get on with it?" Matt said impatiently.

On the sixth read, I thought I understood.  I showed Matt how to point the travel arrow at the landmark described on the post, adjust the orienting arrow with the compass needle and read the degrees.

Gabe recorded our coordinates.

There were seven posts on the trail.  Each post had three coordinates to collect.  At the end of the quest, we added the coordinates for each post and used a key to decypher a word.  We decyphered gibberish.  Only one of our answers even appeared on the key!

I really thought I understood this time, but obviously I'm compass challenged.

It's a good thing we only have to complete a quest to get credit for it.  And an even better thing we've never had to use a compass to find our way.

We have Matt for that.

Park Quest Slackers

I'm happy to report the Rocky Gap quest went smoother than the hike with the cousins the day before.  After walking six plus miles on Saturday, Sunday's two mile quest was a piece of cake.  Plus, there were bits of history, the aviary and some wonderful views thrown in.

The first leg of our quest took us down the colonial road to Cumberland.  According to our quest instructions, George Washington once surveyed it. The boys had lots of questions about George.  I foresee trips to Westmoreland and Mount Vernon in our future!

Look! Gabe is smiling on a hike!

My favorite part of this quest was the canyon overlook.  The photo below is now the wallpaper on my work computer.

Rocky Gap was only our fourth Park Quest this summer. We need to finish ten by Labor Day in order to qualify for the Rendezvous. I refuse to stress over such things, but I'm not sure we're going to make it. Especially given the weather we're expecting the next four days--temperatures, without factoring in humidity, will be in the 100s!

I'd planned to quest this weekend, but Saturday may be more of a pool day than an adventure day. We'll see what Sunday holds.  Ninety-four degrees might feel chilly after 106!

 

Park Quest 3: If At First You Don't Succeed. . .

We checked the weather obsessively this morning.  The forecast was for thunderstorms, but we were hoping to get both a quest and the pool in.  The coast was clear at 10 a.m. when we left the house armed with a picnic lunch and our daypack.

We headed down 301 for about 50 miles to Brandywine, Maryland.  Today's quest involved letterboxing at Cedarville State Forest.  The park quest website explains letterboxing well:

"Letterboxes are small, weatherproof boxes that usually contain a log book, a rubber stamp and an ink pad. They are hidden in publicly accessible places and the clues made available participants. The finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp on their stamp sheet or personal log book, and leave an imprint of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook."

So, it's kind of like geocaching, except instead of following gps coordinates, you follow a set of clues.  To complete the Cedarville quest we had only to find two out of four letter boxes.  Piece of cake, right?

We set off for the first box in good spirits. It was hot (about 90 degrees), but we had plenty of water and the forest was lush and beautiful.

We seemed to be following all the clues with ease and it only took 30 minutes to get to where we expected the first box to be.

Did you note that language?  Where we expected?

We couldn't find that darn box.  We saw this little fellow.

And these cool mushrooms.

And even a big pile of horse poo.

But no letterbox.  In searching, I very nearly put my bare ankle up against this fellow!

(My apologies for the blurry photo.  I hate spiders. . . Let me rephrase that, I HATE spiders and my hand was shaking when I took the picture.)

The black widow about did it.  After an hour of searching, we officially determined Letterbox 1 missing in action.  We trudged back to the car: hot, tired and in poor spirits.

At the car, we revived ourselves with some Gator Aide and grapes.  We turned down another path to find Letterbox #2.  We found it in 25 minutes!  Buoyed by our success, we decided to try Letterbox #3.  Another quick success!  We returned to park headquarters and got our passport stamped. 

Park Quest #3 Complete.

We drove home, dropped our gear on the floor and quickly changed into our swim suits.  We had time to jump in the pool and dunk our heads a few times before the rain started.  Followed shortly by thunder.  The boys were bummed by the short pool time, but they rallied with a promise of ice cream after dinner.

Lesson of the day:  success doesn't always come in the manner you expect.

- - - - - - -

Quest Summary

Favorite Thing:

Both boys:  Seeing the Black Widow Spider.

Least Favorite Thing:

Gabe:  Walking very hard.

Matt:  Not finding the first box and the buzzy bugs.

A Park Quest Marathon

Candus Thomson, the possibly crazy but endearing outdoors writer for the Baltimore Sun, is attempting all 24 Park Quests in seven days. This is her second year of Park Quest 24/7.  You can follow her adventures on her blog: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/outdoors/blog/.

Good luck, Candus!

Two Moms, Two Boys and Park Quest #2

We were joined for our second Park Quest by the boys' step-mom, Tammy.  This year, she's an official member of our Park Quest team and I think we're all excited about that.  The boys because they love having all their parents in one place (their dad will be joining us when his work schedule allows).  I like it because she's a good companion, an enthusiastic participant and brings a picnic lunch!

With 24 parks to choose from (or rather 23 since we completed Patapsco), it was hard to pick where to go next.  We eventually decided on Soldier's Delight because of it's proximity (27 miles) and because of the quest's title "A Miner's Life."  I figured mining with it's dirt, rocks and danger would be up there with forts and cannons in keeping the boys interest. I was not wrong.

The tasks on this quest were very hands-on, which always goes over well with my boys.  We learned about a buddle mine, sifted dirt and panned for chromite.

Matt and Tammy made good miners.

Gabe didn't like getting his hands dirty.

We went on a short hike to see a cabin where the miners lived and a longer hike to an overlook where we watched birds of prey soar over forrested hills.

According to our quest guide, at the time of the mines, you could see all the way to the Baltimore harbor from here. There were no trees back then.

Another short hike and we were at the Choate mine.  This for me, was the coolest part of the quest.  I didn't realize we could get so close.

The boys are obsessed with a certain fictional archeologist. They called these "Indiana Jones" tracks (a la Temple of Doom). Maybe because of the Indiana Jones reference, Gabe was not convinced it was safe to be even this close.

We finished our quest at the Visitor Center and spent some time visiting the critters there.  We saw a barn owl, box turtles and a gray rat snake getting its bath.

We got back in the car sweaty and tired.  The ride home was very quiet (except for boys snoring).

We topped off our day in the best way possible, soaking off our miner's grit in the community pool.

- - - - -

Favorite Part of This Quest

both boys: watching the snake get a bath

Least Favorite Part

Gabe: walking - it was hot

Matt: getting in trouble for not listening.  It was good except for that!

Questing

If you're one of three people who regularly read this blog or if you know my boys and I in person, you'll know for the past two years we've participated in Park Quest through Maryland's Department of Natural Resources. It's a great program that encourages families to get outdoors and enjoy Maryland's state parks. We've had a few rocky quests (I'm looking at you, Merkle), but overall it's been a wonderful experience.

Or I should say, I view it as a wonderful experience.  My younger son, Matt, would likely agree.  Gabe on the other hand. . .

Gabe does not like bugs.  He does not like to sweat.  He does not like to walk. His idea of enjoying the great outdoors is reading National Geographic in the air condition.  You can imagine his views on hiking in a state park.

Last Sunday, we ventured on our first Park Quest of 2011.  We drove 17 miles to the Hilton area of Patapsco Valley State Park. Our instructions were to begin at the Nature Center.  We were greeted at the door.

Gabe was done right there.  Bugs in general are bad enough, but spiders are the worst.  Giant attack spiders, as he called this one, are the stuff of nightmares.

We managed to collect our instructions and get out on the trail without losing any extremities to the attack spider.

The trail was a relatively easy one--a pleasant .8 mile walk through a wood of enormous poplar, maple and oak trees. There were eight stops on our map with various activities.  At stop three, Gabe asked when we'd be finished.  I told him we had five more stops.

"We're going to die!" he moaned.

Despite Gabe's lamentations, we made it through with little trouble and spent some quality time on the recycled tire playground.  When we returned to the Nature Center to get our quest book stamped, we learned the poor attack spider had accidentally been squished in the door. 

"Is he in heaven now?" Matt asked while examining the mangled body.  I nodded but secretly hoped heaven was spider free.

Once in the car, I asked the boys what their favorite and least favorite parts of the quest were.  Their answers surprised and amused me.

Favorite

Matt: snacks, playground, walking in the woods

Gabe: looking at the giant spider

Least Favorite

Matt: Gabe's whining

Gabe: giant spider was dead

 

Final Quest of the Season

The morning of our last quest dawned as beautiful as the day before.  The sky was brillant blue and once again we piled into Sargeant Sherri's car armed with our picnic lunch.

I explained the day's destination to the boys.  We were going to Fort Frederick State Park.  After already completing two quests that weekend, they groaned.  Then I explained what a fort was.

Soldiers? Cannons? Indians?  In their mind, the only way it could be better was if the fort walls were made of LEGOs and the soldiers fought with lightsabers.

The quest was another hike-for-clues mission.  We started in the Visitor's Center and watched the introductory movie.  I think we'll do this from now on.  The boys grasped more of the history than I would have thought.

We walked the short trail to the Fort.

Matt and Sherri take the lead.

We visited the Blacksmith's shop and the park's tiny nature center.  There was a small display of locally found fossils in the latter.  They were a big hit with our paleontologist.

We then walked around to the entrance of the 18th century fort.

We marched across the parade ground and meandered through the museum located in one row of barracks.

We strung wampum beads on a string.

And we took in the view from the fort walls.

Gabe looks wistfully in the direction of the naturalist's fossils.

In these early years of day tripping, I've avoided historical parks like this one.  I didn't think the boys would understand. I thought the history would bore them and I'd spend my entire time trying to calm them down and make them listen. 

I underestimated them.

Obviously, my boys are not yet experts on the French and Indian War, but given in age-appropriate quantities, they understood the basic history of Fort Frederick just fine.

Which brings us to a new era in our adventuring--one my mother would be proud of--the next generation of Mystery Day Trips of Probable Historic Value!

* * * *

Since the boys showed so much interest, I think our first MDTPHVs might have to be other forts in our area. I can think of two:

Fort McHenry

Fort Washington

Know of any others?

From Bay to Mountain Lake

After completing the Sandy Point quest the Friday before Labor Day, the boys and I headed west.  My cousin, our self-appointed Park Quest Drill Sergeant, lives part-time on a ridge above Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.  We decided to make her house our headquarters for the weekend.

Saturday morning, we ate a hearty breakfast and climbed into Sergeant Sherri's car armed with an equally hearty picnic cooler.  The 90 minute drive to Rocky Gap State Park was beautiful.  The sky was dotted with puffy cotton ball clouds and the air was crisp and clean.  Each ridge the highway climbed was higher than the last. 

A little blurry--taken from the window of our moving car.

Gabe, our budding paleontologist, particularly loved Sideling Hill, where the highway cuts through mountain exposing 850 vertical feet of layered rock. He was convinced there were fossils in them there hills.

Sideling Hill

As we came around another ridge and the park came into view, the entire car breathed, "wow."  The mountains surrounded a glittering lake speckled with the occasional canoe or small fishing boat.  It was breathtaking.

We checked in with the park office and began our second hike-for-clues quest of the weekend. Sherri and Matt led the way.

I'm not sure there could have been a lovelier day.  The wind was fairly strong, but the sun was warm.  The trail was easy to follow and I could have admired the beauty of lake and mountains all day.

The boys were sometimes more interested in admiring Sherri's camelbak water carrier.

We saw a tree beavers had gnawed.  We stood on a small foot bridge and tried to guess which critter had made which tracks in the mud below us.  And we had a one-winged buzzard welcome us to the aviary.

The boys explored the shoreline.  Gabe as always looked for fossils.  Matt skipped around winging the occasional rock into the lake.

We ate our picnic in rare silence, admiring the view and already looking forward to our next trip to Rocky Gap.