July 14th – Day 7 Hocking Hills State Park, OH to Plum Orchard Lake, WV

We all slept in the tent right next to our cabin again.  Time to head out of Ohio and onto new adventures.

After we packed up we headed down the road a little more than three hours to get to a state park named Plum Orchard Lake in WV.

The lake was almost completely covered in some sections with lily pads.  The bullfrogs were in heaven and serenaded us all night long.  The campground was the opposite of the campground we just left.  While there wasn’t a spot to be had at Hocking Hills, we were the only campers at Plum Orchard Lake. And luckily, it was only 3 miles down a gravel road…after Waze sent us the wrong way. Scott had fun chatting up a local while asking for directions. I happened to spot a friendly gentleman peacefully rocking on his porch as he waved to us clearly lost.  I was surprised Scott didn’t get us invited to dinner as he usually does, but nonetheless we were sent back in the right direction.

After setting up the hammocks we decided to explore the state park.  We wandered into a tiny cove covered in trees and were surprised to find dozens of butterflies all around us. We grabbed a quick lunch of turkey, cheese, and Wheat Thins.

The pier closest to the campground had a sign stating that swimming in the lake was not allowed.  We spoke with a local who shared with us that the lake used to contain a lot of runoff from coal mining which made it not safe for swimming.  That helped us understand why the campground had not water.

The gentleman we spoke to had two dogs – one with only 3 legs.  Cody can’t help but pet every dog he sees.

Scott took a break to go read in his hammock, so the kids and I made dinner and started on the fire for the dessert.

After dinner we hopped in the canoe and went for a peaceful float.  We chatted for a quite a while with two former coal miners who were fishing. They suggested that we visit the New River Valley, including Thermund and the New River Bridge. During the long conversation we discussed how the retired coal miner now delivers camper trailers after getting bored being “retired.”

We crawled into bed and were lulled asleep by the boisterous bullfrogs. And unfortunately the fishermen mentioned BEARS, so I spent the night on high alert.