We looked at a few options and decided to try out a few paths in a place called the Great Dismal Swamp.
Brilliant!
We hop on the highway with some basic directions written down. Lesson 1-- get good directions. We managed to get all the way to the vincity of the swamp and just... cruise on by into what can only be called the deep south. It's scary out there. We didn't get to far before realizing that this was NOT the right place. and made a u-turn. We found some signs for the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and followed those.
Here's a little something about back roads in the rest of the US-- people drive really fast. Really fast. I mean, I was doing 60 on this little 2 lane back road and there were people creeping up and passing me. Now, add in the fact that apparently the state of Virginia doesn't believe in placing signs further than about 10 feet from the intersection you need, well. Just be glad that there aren't a whole lot of prohibition on random u-turns in the state.
So after all these false starts and random U-turns, we finally reach the swamp. Except the entrance that I wanted to use is closed because of... well, who knows why. It's closed. So we head back to the other entrance that we saw on the way there and nearly miss that intersection as well. This time, I say, the hell with this and just back up on the road.
The road is a dirt path. With some gravel. Through a peanut farmer's field. Wonderful. So now I feel like I'm trespassing through peanuts.
Eventually we reach the parking area, and I realize that I really have to use the bathroom. With delight, I see facilities on the one end and happily trapse over there, pushing the door open.
*GAG*
It's an open septic system; they are great for the environment, but HELL on the nose. You basically pee in what looks like a giant hole with a toilet seat on it. There's no running water. If you drop something down that hole, it's gone. Gone. You do not want it back. I have encountered these before in Wawayunda State Park in NJ-- they seem to work better there; ie don't stink that bad. Thankfully, the NPS was smart enough to put a Purell dispenser in the bathroom. I had that stuff on my hands all the way up to my arms.
We choose the Boardwalk route, which as I understood it would be a meandering path that should take us to the lake in the middle of the swamp. The boardwalk was in the shade of some serious maple and cedar trees and it was slippery as hell. Every step was a danger, and not only was it slippery, but you know what happens to wet wood?
It rots.
I was terrified of stepping through the boards. There were some broken out, and there were some that were freshly replaced. The further we went along, the more I thought that this was a bad idea.
Dayglo orange mushroom scare me.
So we trapsed on a little while long and just about the time I was going to quit, turn around (another u-turn!) and go back, we saw the path leading to something. We emerged on to the Washington Ditch, about 10 yards from where we had started the Boardwalk path.
Meh.
So, instead of heading back to the car, we made a left and headed deeper into the swamp.
A little history: the Great Dismal Swamp, while HUGE at 112,000 acres, is only a portion of what they believe covered nearly 1 million acres of land at one time. Our esteemed General George Washington wanted to harvest the trees that stood in this swamp and create a canal to use the water in Lake Drummond. Swamps and wetlands were, until recently, considered a waste of space and were drained and filled to settlers' delight. Well, this swamp proved a little overwhelming to everyone and eventually the plans to harvest the trees was scrapped.
The road we were now walking on is the Washington Ditch-- the straightest path to Lake Drummond in the center, a 4 mile walk.
However, what lives in Swamps? That's right. Bugs.
Big ones, you can hear coming. Oh yeah, the grow them big down here.
We started walking and swatting. And walking and swatting. And Swatting. And SWATTING. And SWATTING!
"Ok," I finally said, "Tell me when you're ready to head back."
We walked a dozen more steps. "OK, I'm ready."
We turned around and headed right back the way we came. Perhaps if the road had been a little more winding and interesting we might have put up with the bugs. But when you looked a head, you saw:
and when we turned around to go back we saw exactly the same thing. *sigh*
So we marched back the mile we had come. The place was littered with butterflies:
and with this really cool looking bush:
I don't know if you can really see it, but the flowers looked like little trumpets.
We hiked and swatted our way back. We had seen neither the white tailed deer that were purported to live here, nor the eastern black bear who roamed these swamps. And our final conclusion was that 1. we had to come back after the first frost and try this again, and 2. the Great Dismal swamp was neither dismal nor great.
On a happy note we found the fair grounds for the Suffolk Peanut Festival.
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*if you don't smoke, you can't take a break. Do. Not. Get. Me. Started.
