With it being peak camp season, I am reminded of some of mine & Mike's experiences while camping. We preferred back country camping with all our gear in backpacks but if time didn't allow, we would often throw our gear into the car and head to one of the nearby state parks for a quick escape from the city.  
     One of these state parks was Greenbriar State Park about 20 minutes from our home in Frederick, MD. We often went there as there was a swimming lake there too. We had not gone backpacking yet at the time but we camped in the park campsite and hiked to the section of the Appalachian Trail that passed thru the park. I noticed camp sites along the trail and asked Mike how anyone got back in there  to to camp and he explained backpacking to me and I immediately wanted to try it! It looked so peaceful & inviting.
    Another closer park was Gambrill SP where we were married at the Tea Room on the mountain top. There were campsites at the base of the mountain and although they were often crowded, it was only about 10 minutes from home. We had a family campout their once and it rained much of the time.
     We also had a family campout at Green Ridge state forest about 2 hours away in western MD. It was very primitive & private and that was the first time we experienced Whip-poor-wills all night long! We liked Green Ridge & went back several times.Once was with Mike's sister Linda & husband. It had rained most of the day but cleared off by dark. We had eaten and a campfire going so Mike & I decided to take a walk along the logging road within the forest. As we walked along with our flashlights, we each noticed a filmy vision to our left in the woods, it crossed over the road and into the woods on the other side. It was a transparent filmy rectangle shape that sort of wove in between the trees and disappeared. We never did figure what it was! We certainly had lots of interesting ideas of what it might have been!
       We did our first backpacking trip with a friend in the Shenandoah National Park. I was hooked after that trip. We were introduced by the same friend to the Dolly Sods Wilderness in WV and fell in love with it. We went many times before we decide to buy land in WV. One such time we had packed in about 7 miles and made camp in a designated area. We had finished our dinner & were just chatting & getting ready to turn in when a group of 3 younger(early 20s??) people came traipsing right thru out camp site. Mike stopped them and they said they were looking for some location we were unfamiliar with and suggested they continue on their way. That was the last we saw of them but about 5am some adults with flashlights wandered into our campsite and were looking for the youngsters that never came back to their camp.We told them the direction they had gone and never heard any more as to what happened but I was glad Mike always had a firearm with him because it was all suspicious especially in a remote wilderness.
    We spent a whole week in the Otter Creek Wilderness of WV one spring. It was dense forest and a good creek ran the length of it to meet the south fork of the Potomac. We had a baby deer sleep up next t our tent one night. Mike spotted a bear while getting water from the creek. As we hiked in to our main camp, we followed tracks of a bear tracking a deer - perhaps it found the mother of the fawn? There was a large bear presence in Otter creek  so at our main camp, MIke set up a perimeter "alarm" with twine & utensils attached. We took it down thru the night because deer & raccoons kept triggering it.We never had any bears come into our camp. It was at Otter Creek that we first heard the Wood Thrush's beautiful song. It is still my favorite song bird.
    Spending time in he wilderness areas inspired us to find our own bit of wilderness and we did find it in Roane county WV in 1995. We never regretted living back woods as we did. It was our "forever " home and a dream come true. Mike spent the rest of his life there and his ashes are scattered there.
     

(From Frank) Just a thought about Mike……a most unconventional guy:

As we are currently experiencing an especially frigid & icy winter, I am reminded of how Mike solved a problem for us on such years. Our driveway is scary to many when it is dry but when covered in thick ice it is nothing to be careless about.  The springs that make it damp throughout the year, continue to flow even in the coldest conditions. It becomes glacier like as the top water freezes while more is flowing from under the ground. It builds into a thick icy coating across the width of the drive and most of the length of the hill. In the early stages of this, you can see the water actually flowing beneath the thin layer of ice.  During long frigid periods, we would leave our vehicle at the bottom of our hill. Even 4WD cannot navigate 4 inch thick icy hillsides. So that we could venture out if the cold snap lasted too long, Mike created ice boots for us. He snipped the heads off of screws and backed them into the thicker part of a boot sole. He placed about a dozen on each boot with about 1/4" extending outward. We were actually able to walk at a steep decline on 4 -6 inch thick ice and not slide at all. It was a little "off putting" at first as it seemed like you should be slipping all over the place. We were able to use those for years until we just started waiting out the cold snap in the future and also had a 4 wheeler ATV to take us out the back way & around the property.