RI-NY-PA-MD

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We have 6 more nights before we are to arrive at our next reserved campsite near Richmond Virginia. The most direct route is down Interstate 95 - about a 575 mile drive. However this route would take us through some of the larger east coast cities. New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC are cities we try to avoid driving the motorhome through so we select our intermediate stops accordingly and will drive an extra 200 miles to keep away from them as much as possible. Besides avoiding the big city traffic, we had a couple of things we were hoping to see along the way and with that in mind we selected 4 Elks Lodges to cover those 6 nights.

Our first mission was a simple one - spend a night in the state of Rhode Island. It’s one of the few states we have never camped in and even though it was less than 70 miles to the South Kingston RI Elks Lodge, we decided it would be the easiest place to stop along the way. The only problem with our plan was that we would end up having a total of 10 nights between dump stations since none of the upcoming lodges have that amenity. Finding a dump station along our route looked to be a challenge so a few days ago we looked around for campgrounds on our route figuring if we needed to pay to dump, we could probably just get a campsite instead. We discovered that Fishermen’s Memorial State Park had availability for the Monday night we would be coming through. Even better, the site would have full hookups so we would be able to dump and get caught up on laundry before heading on.

We arrive early enough that I was able to go out and see if I could find a geocache or two while Chris started washing laundry. Just south of the campground was a place named Point Judith. There were a couple of caches in a park on the small peninsula and I was expecting a quiet place to look around and find my caches. As I pulled in, there were well over 50 cars in the parking lot and lined up along both sides of the road for over a tenth of a mile. So much for having the place to myself. It quickly became clear why all these people were here - surfing. Some people were heading back to their cars in wetsuits with their surfboards while others were just arriving and suiting up to go out.

There is a large Coast Guard Station and lighthouse at the tip of the point. The whole facility is behind gates so visitors can’t get a close view of things but it is a very pretty setting.

Coast Guard Station and Lighthouse at Point Judith

I sat down and watched the dozens of surfers out in the water. One of the geocaches I was looking for was near the top of a ledge overlooking the water. There were a fair number of spectators around so I had trouble being super stealthy and needed to use my cell phone camera to look under the large rock so I didn’t draw too much attention to what I was doing. After signing in, I sat and watched as the surfers took turns trying to time a wave. There was one guy further away that seemed to have a unique surfing setup. It looked like a surfboard with a foil underneath that would raise the board above the water. I had seen these used by wind surfers before. But this person didn’t have a parasail to propel him thru the water. Instead he had some sort of small unmanned boat that was pulling him along thru the water - presumably with a remote control of some sort. It looked pretty fascinating.

Surfers at Point Judith

Hanging Ten

Surfing Without Waves!

Before heading back to the car, I walked over to the south side of the point. This area was much quieter with just a few people on the beach enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. I found a second cache and took a few pictures before heading back to camp.

The Quieter Side of Point Judith

The next morning we go into Connecticut heading east. It was just over 160 miles to our next stop. The drive initially was across I-95 but then we cut north to I-84 to get away from the traffic along Long Island Sound. Our destination is just over the state line to the Elks Lodge in the town of Brewster New York. It’s about 50 miles north of NYC so we hope the traffic won’t be too bad. We knew this lodge had one 30 amp electric outlet on a side building. We pull into the lot and survey the situation.

Beautiful Brewster Elks Lodge

We had arrived early enough that the lodge wasn’t open yet so we unhook the Jeep and leave the motorhome on the far side of the parking lot, out of the way of members showing up later that evening. With plenty of daylight remaining and being in a part of New York we have never geocached in before, we head out to find some caches in the nearest counties. The cemetery just up the road worked well for this county then we headed south to a different county. We found a park with a cache but after a 20 minutes of searching with no luck, we were forced to go to another park. We had better luck there and even had a nice view at Baxter Preserve. We also made a short drive back over into Connecticut for a third county.

Pond at Baxter Preserve

When we got back to the lodge, the bartender was working so we head in to ask about staying here for the night. The bartender knew a little about campers staying over by the shed but didn’t know the details. We told her where we were going to park and she gave us the okay. We got parked and hooked up. More members arrived later in the day and the bartender came out a little before sunset to tell us that she shouldn’t have told us it was okay to park in front of the shed. We needed to move to the side of the shed in case they needed to get something out of the shed. We moved but it turns out nobody came out to the shed so we would have been just fine where we started.

The next day would take us into Pennsylvania on a singular mission. We wanted to go to the town of Pottsville to check out the Yuengling Brewery. When we had passed through the area in May of this year on our way north to New England. We had seen signs about taking a tour at the brewery but as luck would have it, we happened to be there on over Memorial Day weekend so there were no tours. For this trip, we actually planned our route and timing to make sure we would be passing through on a day of the week that would work to get in on a tour.

There is no Elks Lodge in Pottsville proper and we have stayed in the lodge in Hazleton before but the one in Frackville was even closer to the brewery. It was a 191 mile drive to this lodge. We didn’t have any info on whether there was RV parking permitted but we thought we would give it a shot. There was only one car in the lot when we arrived. I pulled into a spot that was as far out of the way as possible and went to check if we could spend the night. The sign at the front door had the lodge closed today, but a woman was working inside and came out to talk with me. She was fine with us spending the night but did say they were having a private party that evening so there would be some people showing up in a couple hours.

We had gotten in too late to get on the last tour of the day, but they start the tours at 10AM so our plan was to leave the rig at the lodge, drive into Pottsville, take the tour, then come back and move on by lunchtime. Normally I would go on a brewery tour later in the day especially since they have a beer tasting session as well but this was the best plan we could come up with short of staying 2 nights in Frackville. This lodge was in a quiet residential neighborhood so we got a peaceful night of sleep and got up Thursday morning to go to Yuengling.

The museum and gift shop actually opens at 9 so we get an early start and find the visitor parking area and head to the museum. After signing up for the first tour, we have time to wander around the museum. This worked out well because we likely would have skipped the museum if the only option would have been to visit after the tour since we still have a lengthy drive this afternoon to our next stop.

Old Yuengling Sign

Miniature Boat

There are lots of displays to check out and a great deal of history. Yuengling is the oldest brewery in the country founded in 1829. As a former collector of beer cans, I was impressed with the great old cans they have on display. The gift shop has all sorts of clothing, mugs and all sorts of other Yuengling branded items for sale. The Oktoberfest t-shirt was just a little too much kitsch for either of us to get!

Yuengling Family Tree

Advertising Signs

Oktoberfest T-Shirt

When 10 o’clock rolled around, we had decent sized group of nearly a dozen. Our tour guide walks us across the street from the museum and into the brewery to start the tour. At the first stop are a few displays showing some of the different size kegs that have been used over the years as well as the equipment used to fill them. Since it is such an old business, there is a lot of history to be shared and the tour guide seems to know it all very well.

Kegs

Raw Ingredients Awaiting Brewing

Early Brewery Photos

From here we head into possibly the coolest part of the tour - at least from a temperature perspective. Tunnels and rooms have been carved into the rock hillside forming a natural cooler where the beer used to be stored. It’s a little spooky to walk around with water dripping from the ceiling and all sorts of side doors and stairs that lead into the darkness.

Kind of Spooky Cave Entrance

Stairs to Upper Level

Story Time Break

Next we head to one of the old tasting rooms. Normally visitors only get to look into the room from the doorway but since we are the first tour of the day, she brings us in and explains about the history of this room and how it has a view of the church next door. Of course the two buildings are just inches apart so it’s not the greatest view.

Old Tasting Room

Neighboring Church Wall Out Window

The tour goes through some back rooms and hallways as we work our way over to a production area. The machine shop looks to get a fair amount of use and they didn’t  clean up for the tour group. The area above one of the brewing vats was quite warm but has some very nice murals and stained glass ceilings.

Machine Shop

Cooper Mural

Stained Glass Ceiling

We come up to the canning line from outside. The tour guide needs to go in first to make sure the staff knows a tour is there and we are brought in to take a quick look at the cans flying by on the conveyor belts.

Cans Overhead

As we finish up there, we start to walk back to the museum and present day tasting room. The hill between buildings is impossibly steep and can not be a fun trek in bad weather. As we cross the street again we can see the beautiful stone church right next to the one Yuengling building we had just walked through.

Steep Hill Down to Museum

The Church Next Door

As part of the tour, we were each given tokens to get two samples. They had 8 different beers to choose from. It was still morning but as they say “it’s noon somewhere!” Within the past year or two, I have discovered Yuengling Black and Tan and found it to be quite good. They also have their porter so I needed to try that one. Our guide informed us that Black and Tan is a 60/40 mixture of the porter and their normal beer. We sat around with the group and enjoyed our beers before heading back into the gift shop. We had picked out a t-shirt and they also had excellent prices on 24 packs of their beers. We picked up a porter and an Oktoberfest which tend to be rather hard to find elsewhere.

Tasting Room

Sounds Good to Me

Owner in Neon

Medicinal Liquor Prescription from Prohibition Days

We made it back to our rig at the lodge and had lunch before hooking up the car and starting our travel day a little later than normal. It about 140 miles to our next destination but most of the drive is easy along Interstate 81. Hagerstown Maryland is just across the PA-MD line and the Elks Lodge is on the eastern side of side of town right off of I-70. This lodge has a huge parking lot and a couple of electric outlets along the perimeter of the lot. We arrive and fortunately find nobody parked in the RV spot. It’s not to say we couldn’t have dry camped there, but having electricity would be nice since we want to spend three nights here. We head into to the lodge and fill out the form they have.

We haven’t camped in Hagerstown before but we are very familiar with this area since it’s only about 10 miles to Martinsburg West Virginia where we have camped several times including the most recent stop for 2 weeks this past May. We know there is a lot more to see in the area plus it is a good midway point before we head into Richmond Virginia.

For our first full day in the area, we picked Greenbrier State Park less than 10 miles southeast of the lodge. We saw that the park has over a dozen geocaches hidden along its many miles of trails. It sounded like a great place to visit. We studied the trail system and the cache placement to try to get to as many of the hides as we could knowing that one visit would not give us enough time to get them all. We started out in the morning hitting the trails to the east of the lake - mainly on the Water Tank Trail. It was a chilly morning but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We got in 3 miles and found 4 caches. The trails were nice and we only saw one other person.

Switchback on Water Tank Trail

After this hike was done, we stopped at the lake to have our lunch with a view. There is a nice beach area that is likely quite busy on hot summer days. It was empty in the middle of October even though it was sunny.

Greenbrier Lake

Empty Beach

Our next hike would be to the opposite side of the lake. We had scoped out a variety of trails that would get us to 6 additional caches. One of the maple trees next to the lake was displaying some excellent fall colors even if the rest of the woods were still mostly green.

Early Fall Colors

Clump of Mushrooms

About 2.5 miles into the hike, we saw a trail that looked to head exactly where we wanted to go which was on the west side of the lake. The thing that confused us was the trail sign stated the trail ends up ahead. We decided to go anyway and in a short distance we saw what the problem was. We were nearly 100 feet below the earthen dam that holds back the lake and the signs explicitly states that no hiking is permitted. The cache we wanted to find was in the woods on a hill that overlooks the lake and while there was no trail per se that goes that direction, there also was no sign preventing us from going that way. It was a steep climb of roughly 40% grade but we slowly made it to the top of the hill and found the cache.

Bottom of Earthen Dam

Jack Signs In

By now we were starting to feel tired and we head back along the trail that goes around the perimeter of the lake. This trail was quite popular and a very pretty walk. We made it back to the car with another 3.5 miles and 6 caches. It was a fun day and there are more caches and trails to try when we make it back in the area.

Lake View

With one more full day, we decide to return to a place we visited back in May. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal runs for 184 miles from Washington DC to Cumberland Maryland along the Potomac River. We had hiked and biked some of it in past trips and really enjoyed the ride so head back to the town of Williamsport to a place called Cushwa’s Basin. We had hiked some of the trail to the east back in May, but this time we wanted to try the trail heading to the west with our bikes so we can cover more ground.

Cushwa's Basin Visitor Center

This was an extremely busy place especially since it was a very pleasant fall Saturday. Fortunately most of the pedestrians don’t make it very far so once we get a mile or so from the parking area, we have a rather isolated trail with just an occasional cyclist heading the other way.

C&O Trail

Old Railroad Support

Potomac River View

Around 6.5 miles from Cushwa’s Basin, we see a detour ahead sign. The trail has been in excellent shape but there must be some sort of construction going on. At least there is a posted detour rather than a trail closed sign. There is a short side path up to Dam Number 5 Road and we follow that west for a half mile. It is a decent road with very little traffic. When we reach Dam #5, we see a major construction project in progress. While we pause to take some pictures, a couple of people on e-bikes come from behind and head across the rest of the detour that is pretty much just a dirt path around the perimeter of the construction. It wasn’t very smooth or wide but we managed to follow them.

Detour at Dam #5

From the vantage point overlooking the site, we could see two excavators sitting in a large hole in the middle of rebuilding a section of the dam wall. The two e-bike riders had turned around and passed by us saying they could not continue the last part of the detour. The final obstacle turned out to be a wooden staircase that led back down to the trail. We didn’t have any trouble lifting our bikes down but they could not manage their heavy bikes. Another advantage of a normal bicycle.

Dam #5 Construction Zone

Stair Back to Trail

Back on the trail, in a quarter mile we hit a section of the old canal path with no remnants of the actual canal. The large rock cliff at this location didn’t permit the canal to be constructed here. So the barges were routed from the canal onto the river and then back into the canal a few hundred feet beyond the cliffs at location called Two Locks. We stopped here to check out locks 45 and 46 and the old lock house. It also served as nice spot to have our lunch. Across the river in West Virginia is a large RV park. But from the looks of the buildings that cover the RVs, it must be a private ownership park.

Entering Cliff Section

Old Lock House

Lock #46 Remnants

River Bend Park

After lunch, we continue west and less than mile away we discover the old Charles Mill site. Sections of the old stone walls are still standing but the place is very overgrown and difficult to see.

Old Charles Mill Walls

In another half mile or so, we get to the 4 Locks section of the trail. Besides the anticipated 4 locks, there is the old lock house and well as a park with a boat ramp into the river. We stop to find a geocache and while looking I noticed these unusual bugs. At the time I wasn’t aware what they were but I now know they are spotted lantern flies and they are an invasive species from Asia. I didn’t realize I should have squished them after taking the photo.

4 Locks Section of Trail

Old Lock House Looks Good Enough to Live In

Colorful but Invasive Spotted Lantern Fly

By this point we were just over 9 miles into the ride but it was only 1:30 so we decided to continue west. I had seen something on the map called Big Pool, roughly 4 miles out and thought we should try to make it that far before turning around. There were a couple of camping areas along this part of the trail but no more locks. We made it to Big Pond and noticed a sign for Fort Frederick State Park. Not knowing what this was, we bike up the road in that direction.

Overlooking Big Pool

Road to Fort Frederick

We didn’t know if there was an entrance fee, but we didn’t see any signs at least coming in from the canal trail. It was a a decent grade to make it up to the fort. We saw the fort but didn’t wander in to it. We simply found a picnic table, had a snack and moved on since we knew we had over 13 miles to get back to the car. This was a nice ride today getting in just over 27 miles into total. This section may not have had the Paw Paw Tunnel like we did further west from here in May, but it was still a good section with other sights to see. I suspect that most sections of the C&O Canal Trail would be a fun ride.

Fort Frederick

Visitor Center at State Park

When we got back to the lodge, the parking lot was nearly full. We had been warned that there was going to be a large party that evening and 500 guests were expected. Good thing we didn't need to get out that evening because we were blocked in.

Hagerstown Elks Lodge is Packed