Nature Break

More or less on a whim, Scott and I decided to enjoy an overnight camping trip to nearby Bear Creek Lake before the weather turns too cold.

We’d never been before, though it’s just a little more than an hour away and not far from our scout troop’s camp in Cumberland. Bear Creek Lake is a state park, not huge but nicely maintained, and quite a few sites are on the waterfront, including the one we reserved. We could sit at our picnic table and look out over the lake, which was smooth as glass until the occasional fish popped up and set ripples going all the way to the banks.

We were also about 20 feet away from a hiking trail that made a 2-mile loop right back to our campsite, so we walked the length of it and some some cool sights.

Towards the end of the walk, we came across the dam used to create the lake in the first place, and near it was a patch of berries like I’d never seen before; they had a bright purple I wouldn’t have thought you could find in nature, or anywhere other than the label on a can of grape soda. Apparently they are “Beautyberries” or Callicarpa Americana.

Since things were pretty quiet in the park and the roads were empty, we fit in a little low-speed behind-the-wheel time for Scott since he’s still working from a learner’s permit. No, I don’t have any photos from that as I was too panicked to hold the phone steady. Just kidding, he did fine.

We also fit in a side trip to High Bridge Trail Park — once we found it — and took another short hike across what used to be a railway bridge. It runs for a half mile at a height of 125 over the Appomattox River.

All in all, it was a nice break from work, and it gave Scott a brief respite from writing college admissions essays. When we were involved with the scout troop, we managed to fit in a camping trip pretty much once a month, but it helped that someone else was setting the schedule for us and making the plans. Many times I’ve thought, “We ought to go camping,” but that’s as far as it gets; there’s always some other distraction, chore or project to keep me from following through. But I can hear the clock ticking down Scott’s last months at home before he heads off to college like Jason, so I need to be on the lookout for mini-getaways like this.