Maryland - Day 13

Point Lookout State Park

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

I slept almost 10 hours last night, which I never do, so I guess I needed it.  The sun is out today and, though it is by no means warm, it’s still good for raising spirits.

For some reason, this campsite doesn’t even pick up the TV signal I could get in the previous site that was more closed in.  So no morning weather report and still no wifi signal.  Fortunately I do have some cell phone reception so called my brother to be sure at least somebody knows where to start looking for my body if I should disappear.

I’ve paid for this campground until Friday morning so will go ahead and stay here 2 more nights, but I won’t be coming back here after visiting the Baltimore/Annapolis area as I’d intended.  This campground hasn’t even got a bathroom, let alone a shower.  And combined with the other lacks, it’s just not a very inviting place for me this time of year.  The other camper down the road seems happy so must have a different wifi provider and a satellite dish, because they seem completely dug in.  But if I come back here, it won’t be in the winter.

I made a reservation at one of the expensive private campgrounds in the Baltimore/Annapolis area beginning Friday and will play the rest of the month by ear.

Now that the sun’s out, I’m more willing to take the dogs for longer walks.  I’m sure there’re deer in the area because the dogs both keep alerting when we’re out, which is a nuisance.  Oddly, one time Gracie alerted and Dexter got excited only because of Gracie – he never did find what she found, I could tell.

I am once again glad I brought plenty of books and DVDs.  As long as I’ve got a plug-in, I can use the video player, and even without it I’ve got the books.  I told David to call me if a war breaks out, but short of that can forego daily knowledge of current events.  What I can’t easily do is plan my future travels.  I’ll go tomorrow to see about visiting the Naval Air Museum and spend a little time in a parking lot somewhere to check the weather and a driving route for Friday.  Meanwhile, we’re all okay.

For our afternoon walk, I took the dogs along the Periwinkle Point Trail, marked on the campground map and having an access point not far from our site.  The map said we didn’t have to walk the whole trail but could get off at either of the next door (closed) camping loops.  

The trail turned out to be a narrow avenue between towering walls of grasses, up to 9’ or 10’ tall.  The only trees were pines and not many of those.  I could see trunks of what once were something other than pines but had all been snapped in two.  I’m guessing a strong storm took out everything but the pines – or maybe even the pines too but they’ve grown back faster – and the grasses of course crowded in.  Along the trail there was also access to some large body of water, that the map later told me was Point Lookout Creek.  But the map also says the “creek” is the same size as nearby Lake Conoy that nearly surrounds part of the campground, so either they’ve underestimated the creek or overestimated the lake.  At any rate, there’s an awful lot of water around.

After walking for a while I started paying attention to footprints on the muddy path.  I’m certain some were from deer.  Others I’m not so sure about and wished I had a naturalist with me to tell me what I was looking at.

The map lied.  There were no access points to the other camping loops. The first chance we had to get off the trail was at the Civil War Museum (still closed), where there was also a sign saying no dogs allowed.  And I thought fine, just challenge me about bringing my dogs here and I’ll tell you to show me where exactly those other alleged access points were.  But nobody was around.  I know there’re supposed to be park rangers around here, and I see them out on the main road, but I never see them here in the campground and feel really isolated.  The folks in that other camper keep completely to themselves, so I can go all day without seeing another person.  Felt really creepy when the weather was bad and the clouds were at ground-level; feels okay in the sunshine; but I can’t say I really like it.

I’d started thinking we’re lucky not to be here during mosquito season, and then I saw a notice on the camp bulletin board that they’ve put larvae-killing pellets in the standing water ponds around here.  They don’t say anything about West Nile virus, for instance, but I’ll bet they’re worried.  Southern Maryland’s in the neighborhood.

On the way back to the campsite I heard a chickadee, but the song was different from the chickadee sound I’m used to in Texas.  At first it was just saying “chick-a-dee” and saying it in a sweeter, higher tone than I’d expect.  After a bit it finally started in with “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” so I was reassured.  Never did see it but the song was definitely different, so I looked it up in the bird book and, sure enough, it said a Carolina Chickadee sounds just like what I heard.  The bird book says that's the kind of chickadee we got in Texas, and I don't know why it'd sound so noticeably different, but it did. 

Carolina Chickadee