Wed June 14
Gifford Pinchot State Park to Claytor Lake VA
Claytor Lake is beautiful. Small, and the campsites are cramped, but new and immaculately clean. And trails all around. Not long but good enough for me to jog on. Lots of bear warnings. Dumpsters are secured shut with steel cables. Lake would be great for the kayak.
Sadly, I didn't make any other notes on the park. But I suspect it would be a good place for a two-night stop.
If memory serves, it was the place where the camping area was a big rectangle with about 4 long rows of camp sites, all full of people. Lots of people with dogs and lots without; a couple of big families with huge setups of tents and canopies and such. A little like going camping in a KOA....
But when I bushed whacked across the field that looked like a golf course but wasn't, beside our campsite (we were at the far corner of the rectangle, last site on the last row), I came out on an immaculately groomed trail up through tall pine trees to the lake end and on. A trail or two opened off to the side leading up to an overlook, but I didn't have time to go on up there. I had on my jogging shoes and managed to keep going for an hour. Slowly, of course.
If it weren't for all the people and the general "blah" rectangle of RVs that made up the campground, I'd definitely go back. Swimming in the lake or taking the kayak would be a great possibility.
Brown thrasher, catbird, robin, towhee. Wren of some sort. Warblers, nut hatches, woodpeckers, Pileated Woodpecker for sure and probably others.
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