Every once in awhile all the forces in the universe come together and you have a journey that would be hard to improve upon.....We just completed a short one over the past four days.....

The Catoctin Mountains (foothills for you Westerners out there) are located on the central MD/PA border, about 85 mi from Wash. DC. The area is probably best known for Camp David, the Presidential retreat, named by Prez Ike in the '50's....

Beautiful mature & virgin forests, impressive rock outcroppings, babbling trout streams & waterfalls, miles of trails (the Appalachian Trail cuts thru) and mountain top lakes all make for an incredibly peaceful setting to spend a day or two....

The Nat'l. Park Service and the MD State Park system both offer first-rate camping facilities throughout the mountain range - several private campgrounds also appeared inviting.....

All the secondary roads are useable by motorhome for exploring, although I would have been a little nervous in a 45' Prevost in many spots....Many roads don't wind their way up or down, but just go straight up and straight down with some severe grades, giving you the opportunity to verify that your engine & tranny temp gauges are working properly.......

3+ days of perfect weather, 300+ miles of flawless Barth performance, beautiful scenery and capped-off with meeting up with the kids & grandkids for a Father's Day picnic....I gotta tell ya, it just don't get any better than that!
It makes all the money, time & scraped knuckles worth it........

We should take something special away from each journey we make....In this case, it was our stumbling across nature's very definition of the word: Perseverance.

Lee it sounds like a fantastic trip. This is the kind of thing that keeps us all going.

"There is no picture window that compares to a windshield going around the next corner"

During our years in the nation's capitol, we lived in Clarksburg, MD, a few miles Southeast of the Catoctins. Our favorite Sunday entertainment was driving the back roads of Western MD & WV, enjoying the scenery, & seeking out small town restaurants for lunch or dinner. Had some noteworthy experiences, both good & bad.

We tent camped more than once in those mountains, it is indeed beautiful country. In the '60s when the Cold War was heating up, we developed a case of nuclear nervousness. I put a compass point on the major cities that looked like nuclear targets, a drew circles around them. The town furthest from any of them was Elkins, WV. Almost bought a farm there, but fate took us in another direction.

I like to get out in the woods for the peace and quiet.....hard to do when you get around one of those streams that has babbling trout in it. .....sorry, i couldn't resist.

Shadow man,

At first glance it may have appeared to be just bad syntax.....But it's still accurate.....I called it babbling 'cause I'm not fluent in Trout

Ah yes....i understand how not being fluent in something it will sound like babbling.