Weekend Activities

I checked out Coopers Rock State Forest on Saturday. I saw Cheat Lake but did not have time or fuel to explore it. I will have to do that soon to see if there are good places on Cheat Lake to take Kimberly and Angel. Coopers Rock State Forest was great! The first place I went was the Coopers Rock overlook. The view was gorgeous. You look out over the Cheat River gorge. However, you can tell the difference from Mt. Mitchell. I hiked the Raven Rock trail. It takes you to another overlook which might even be prettier than Coopers Rock, but it is undeveloped and out in the woods. It was about a two-mile hike, but it is very rugged and steep, so you get a lot of exercise for the two miles. In any case, I now have 7 miles logged for the Hiking West Virginia program. I also visited the small campground. It is nice and I picked up a lot more literature there. I now have a fairly complete file on West Virginia for planning trips there. Ohio is coming along, so now I'll have to accumulate some material on Maryland. Those are all the places close by. Places like New York, Ontario, Virginia, New Jersey, and Delaware are a bit less local. I used to have a ton of info on Quebec in French. I have made 5 trips to Quebec. It is about 600 miles to Quebec and can be driven in one day, because the entire trip is basically on highways which are not crowded. I would like to start visiting Quebec again. I go to Quebec more to practice my French and to be immersed in French rather than to hike, although I walk a lot when I go there. Montreal is 600 miles away, but if you're going to speak French you don't necessarily have to go to Montreal. About the closest larger town is Salaberry de Valleyfield. Crossing into Canada adds hassle to short trips, so with the exception of Mt. Mitchell, I'm sticking mostly to PA, Ohio, West Va, and Maryland.

Sunday I went to church. My friend Bobbie came on the bus with her scooter. So I decided to give her a ride home in the truck. It was interesting taking her scooter apart and loading it into the truck, but it all worked out and I got her and her scooter home. I'm going to take Bobbie to Coopers Rock because there is an accessible overlook. She can ride her scooter out to it, and that will give her a nice break from life in downtown Pittsburgh, where she lives. After that, it was out to the Redd Up Campaign to do my recycling and my usual tofu run to the food coop. Naturally, I couldn't resist the organic plantains, so I had Nicaraguan food for dinner!