Days Zero, One, and Two

* For this post, we're trying a format in which we each type a couple of paragraphs and just paste it all in together without editing or combining. Some stuff invariably will be repeated because we typed everything independently, but you will get both perspectives in one post. Let us know what you think about this layout in the comments! *



Day Zero (Tuesday, August 30th)

We meant to leave Tuesday because Wednesday was the last day of our lease. We did some packing Monday night but not nearly enough, obviously. I had written the previous post on Monday expecting to get some pictures to post it Tuesday right as we were leaving, but I didn't really think about how much there was to pack up and get rid of. We planned to leave at 9 but were nowhere near packed up by then. So we decided to stay another day, had another nice dinner (California Pizza Kitchen this time, we had Longhorn Sunday night and that was magnificent - the Outlaw Ribeye is the best steak I've ever had, thrice now). It was better to leave a day later because it meant we were much more relaxed. We loosely planned to leave Tuesday in case we had too much stuff to still do, and that's exactly how it went. Good thing we plan ahead.

-Karol

some of the shit we got rid of

Day One (Wednesday, August 31st)

Watkins Glen

Walking in to the state park, right off the main road.

We had intended to leave the day before on Tuesday, August 30^th, but we didn't finish packing and disposing of things Monday night like we wanted to. At around 9am on Tuesday, when we looked around and saw what we had left to accomplish, we decided that our best option was to leave the following morning. This way we did not have to rush around to finish things up and we could also get an early start on the drive to Watkins Glen State Park in New York. We left at around 10 am Wednesday, having to make two stops (getting gas and dropping off our router and modem at Optimum) before really hitting the road. I had two balloons from the farewell party at my job, and as Karol drove us out of the parking lot of our former apartment, we each let one go out of the driver and passenger windows. Perhaps a little silly, but it was a symbolic letting go of our previous lives. My friend (a huge thank you to him is in order), told us about freecampsites.net, a great resource for finding free camping spots throughout the country. Karol drove the four hours to Sugar Hill State Park, a free campground only twenty minutes away from Watkins Glen. When we pulled up, we thought this had to be a mistake - there was no way this place was free. It was a beautifully maintained loop of campsites with clean restrooms, a water fountain, and a sink at the center. There were plenty of people already stationed, primarily in RVs and there were even stables for horses. It was as nice as, or perhaps even nicer than, some campsites you would have to pay for. Since there was plenty of space, we decided there was no need pitch our tent and mark our territory before we left, so we would go to Watkins Glen and set up camp when we returned.

center of the free campground at Sugar Hill State Park

This was my second trip to Watkins Glen and Karol's first. It's a little odd because the park entrance is on the main drag of the small town, right next to a Burger King. To avoid the parking fee (I know I know, paying would be the right thing to do, but perhaps you can cut us some slack since we are currently unemployed nomads), we parked at the Burger King and walked over. My knee started hurting a few days before our departure (hilarious, I know, I've never had issues with my knee before) and as we strolled up to the entrance I immediately recalled that this entire park is a series of staircases.

STAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIRRRRSSSS

Going up stairs is the worst for my knee. Pain is slight or nonexistent when walking or going down stairs or a hill. Even uphill slopes are manageable, but going up stairs hurts and my knee makes an unsettling clicking noise (I guess I still need to figure out that health insurance thing, eh?). Speaking of “eh?” we met a wonderful Canadian guy during our hike but I'll get right back to that. The Gorge Trail is the most scenic pathway through Watkins Glen. Stone walls tower over you as you cross bridges overlooking blue-green pools of water. 

Rainbow Falls

Some of the walkways are covered so you can be positioned on the inside of a small waterfall cascading down to those blue-green pools. 

Charlotte. Dodging and weaving.

At one point a tunneled spiral staircase leads you to the next breathtaking view. 

Spiraley cave stairs

Watkins Glen definitely has a majestic feel to it. It was when we had reached the point where we could continue on to a dead end or take a new trail back to the entrance that we became acquainted with the Canadian guy. Karol had kindly removed himself from the photo he would have been in, and after that the Canadian said hello and we started chatting. He and (I believe a girlfriend, but she had continued hiking so we never met her) had been in New Jersey for a wedding and were now doing a little traveling before heading back to Canada. We told him about our adventure and he asked if we had a blog before we even had to pitch it to him. We gave him the link and he gave us one to a blog of a friend of his who is doing a long cycling trip across Europe and Asia. It was really nice to have met a friendly stranger on Day 1 of our trip. The trail back (I think it was the Indian Trail) was high above the Gorge Trail and therefore you could not see all of the bridges and waterfalls and staircases. It took only a short time to get back to the car and back to Sugar Hill State Park. We backed the Buick up to a campsite on the edge of the park. We pitched our tent and then walked down to the woods to gather wood for a fire. We had a small camp stove with us but wanted to save that for when wood was scarce or if it were too late in the day to spend time gathering and making a wood fire. Karol managed to break a really long, thick branch between two trees to get some good big pieces to use.

Treesmasher

We ate ramen noodles out of our cooking pot and by the time we were done it was dark. There was a fire tower that the public was welcome to climb in the picnic area of the campgrounds, so we walked up to the top and and enjoyed the night sky for a while. It was quite chilly and we were exhausted, so after a short time we went back down and went to sleep.

-Charlotte

We finally left Wednesday morning at 11 because of Optimum and the various leftovers we had to put on the curb. My grandma called right before we left, probably because my sister told her we were about to leave (I texted my sister when I put up the leaving post) so she was the last one I talked to before departing. The drive up to and through New York was fine, it drizzled a little and was generally cloudy. There was some rain toward the tail end of the drive which made me worry that there would be rain at the campgrounds as well, but luckily it stopped about half an hour before we got there. We signed in and drove to Watkins Glen. I didn't really expect it to be as rocky as it was, but I didn't really know what to expect. 

Plentiful parking for polite patriots

Charlotte had been before and said it was gorgeous. The only “Glen” I knew of was Ricketts Glen where I went with a group of people and had a spectacular time. Watkins Glen was tremendous for the fact that it was mostly canyons formed over fuck knows how many years by some river(s).  

Jagged and ragged

There were many great pictures to take and we kept stopping, especially in the first half of the hike. We actually got into a bit of an argument over the pictures-taking, but it was probably also mostly the stress of leaving and having expectations of each other and ourselves. We raised some important concerns, various things to keep in mind as we travel in general and develop as people. Eventually, we met a really nice guy from Canada, stood talking to him for a bit. He actually came over to thank me for moving out of the way of a picture he was taking. He was probably pleasantly surprised to find a conscious/courteous American. He and his girlfriend were taking a little trip back up from a wedding in Mount Arlington, NJ. Convenient, that we both just left New Jersey to go to Watkins Glen... Anyway, here are some more of the myriad pictures we took!

This campground was amazing for how free it was. There were mostly people with campers or RVs, but specifically people came with horses. 

first free campsite

Juuust missed it.

We felt like we were immediately being spoiled, but whatever. It was a nice transition from having an apartment – there were bathrooms and everything. Unfortunately, we didn't notice this pile of poop before setting up the tent – it was like a foot away and we decided to just get out of the tent on the other side. After setting up a little, we went into the forest to gather some wood. 

These were the usable chunks

It's bigger than it looks in the picture...

I found a thin tree (I like to think it was a tree rather than a branch) that had fallen and I jammed it between a twin tree to break it apart. I got a few nice logs, some that were too large but that didn't stop me from using them! They just didn't burn all the way. Or even half way actually... 










We went up this fire tower at night after cooking some shitty ramen (extra cayenne, thanks Charlotte) and just sat for a little before going to sleep.

Fire tower from the bottom

We saw some lightning and felt a little drizzle before we went back down. It fucking rained overnight. Poured in fact. It woke me up twice, but we were nice and dry in the tent.

I wanted to have some Doiritos that first night in honor of my sister.

-Karol

Day Two (Thursday, September 1st)

Maine

Maine welcome center. This is the western entrance of Maine.

We woke up a little later than planned on Thursday, so we just got up and left without cooking any kind of breakfast. We had an 11 hour drive ahead of us and I still remember how shitty it was to arrive near Acadia (I had gone a few years ago to camp with some of my friends and I drove the whole way) in the dark without a place set up to sleep. We listened to an audiobook of Dune most of the way. It has actors for most of the chapters, and it was quite enjoyable on such a long ride. I was especially excited to share the story with Charlotte, since I read the first book and half of the second book in high school. I just started rereading the first a few weeks before we left, but it was nice to switch to the audiobook because Charlotte would experience it with me.

Quick look back at the car (hidden by bushes) before hiking to the campsite.

We got to Schoodic Bay around 7, with plenty of light left to hike the half mile to the campsite on the beach. I was really terrified of leaving the car in the middle of the woods at the end of a dirt road because getting robbed would just be the fucking worst. A woman who pulled up after we did said she usually sleeps in her car which made us feel a little better, but I also would have been so mad if she was the one who robbed us in the end. We encountered a trio of miscreants younger than us on the hike in and I of course worried that they would take all of our stuff and smash up the car or even just spray paint shit and dicks on it, but we had to get to the campsite before it got completely dark. It was a really good spot, albeit unfortunately already too dark to gather wood for a campfire. Learning from the night before, we set up the tent AND the sleeping pads/bags. This time we used the little campstove we bought to cook some actual pasta and it was great except for the copious black pepper that I didn't realize I poured in. We switched the rest of the food over to the bear bag my coworker suggested for us and jammed it between two trees before going to sleep.

-Karol

Camping on a beach!

We woke a little later than we wanted to the morning after Sugar Hill, but we quickly packed up and started our 11 hour drive to Maine.  On the drive, we started listening to Dune by Frank Herbert.  Karol has read and loves this book (he has read part of the second book as well - it is a series of six books).  He wanted me to read it so it's perfect that we can listen to it together on our long drives.  So far it is really, really good.  Just, wow.  I highly recommend it to anyone.  We were headed to another free campsite for the night, about an hour from Acadia National Park where we wanted to spend a day or two. The campsite was on Schoodic Bay, and we didn't arrive until around 7. You had to park your car and then walk a half mile down the beach where the camp sites were and as we were gathering stuff to take down, a lone woman pulled up in some kind of Jeep near us. We asked her if she had ever camped there and she said she usually just slept in her car, but had heard that others really like it down there. Slightly paranoid that this was some innocent looking old lady who was actually going to rob us blind, we trekked down to the beach. Someone already had a tent pitched directly on the beach. We found a site far enough way to give them privacy while still only being a few steps away from the beach. We placed our packs on the picnic table and went down to the water. 

Crossing things off the bucket list one by one

I was again amazed at the fact that we were camping for free, this time on a beautiful beach. We enjoyed the sunset and then decided it'd be best to just use our stove to cook since it was already dark. We made some pasta and after we ate we looked up to see the sky completely filled with stars. I don't think I'd ever seen so many. It was astounding. Then I saw my first shooting star. I was starting to believe they were a myth – that people just thought they saw a star move when really it was just some trick of the eye. Now I knew they were real, and I was tremendously happy going to sleep that night.

-Charlotte  

Sweet ass beach

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