Laboring Under Our Own Delusions - Part 1

As I mentioned in the July posts about our trip with the dogs to the Great Smoky Mountains, Chris and I are heading to Scotland in less than a month.  We'll be doing all sorts of fun things while we're there - sightseeing, eating haggis, drinking whisky, and whatnot - and part of our trip will be dedicated to hiking the northern third of the West Highland Way.  To continue our training for this endeavor, we booked ourselves a campsite at Mammoth Cave National Park in Southwest Kentucky for the long Labor Day holiday weekend, and on Friday, August 29th, we started our adventures.

The two of us with the Green River, which runs through the Park

We began our day by dropping the girls at their doggie Airbnb, run by an absolutely amazing lady named Jackie.  Since we'd be taking the travel trailer and our campsite didn't have hookups, we wouldn't have reliable climate control while we were out hiking; thus, the doggos had to stay behind on this trip.  After eating lunch at home, we hit the road; overall, the drive was uneventful, and by leaving early on Friday, we beat the majority of the holiday traffic.  Check in at the park was easy and quick (per normal, the park ranger on duty was helpful and friendly), and before too long, we were relaxing in the shade, enjoying snacks and drinks.

Hooray, camping!  We were so lucky with our weather - highs were 82-83

with lows in the 60s while we were there, and we never had rain.

We had campsite 87 on loop C, and it was fantastic.  The site was huge and shaded,

and although we had neighbors on all sides, everyone was quiet and polite.

The trees made it difficult to use our solar panels for charging, but the shade made up for it.

Derpy tree says, "welcome to Mammoth, folks!"

As the afternoon turned into evening, a few visitors came through our site; they were clearly unbothered by our presence, and we enjoyed watching them.

The little one here still had its spots!  It clearly wasn't a brand new baby, but it wasn't fully grown yet.

We'd see even more wild turkeys over the coming days.

We trekked down to the nearby spigot (about three campsites away) to fill our large pot with water, and set it to boiling some pasta for dinner (enjoyed with spinach salads, topped by cherry tomatoes from our very own garden).  After dinner, Chris lit up the campfire, and we enjoyed listening to music and making S'mores until bedtime.

Dusk was around 7:15pm, but since quiet hours didn't start until 10pm,

there were quite a few later arrivals.  This one's headlights caught the campfire smoke in a fun way.

The next morning, Saturday, we put together some quick breakfasts (granola with berries and almond milk for Chris, avocado toast for me), and we headed to the Visitor Center (VC) to see what we might need to know for our planned day's hike.  The Center is a short walk from the campground, and on the way, you pass through a large grassy area with exhibits, including one of the engines and railcars that used to bring visitors to the Park back in the day.

Upon entering the VC, we looked at the monitors above the central ranger/information station and found, to my delight, that it was "Bat Day," and a host of programming and events were scheduled to celebrate.  We decided to hit up the "Bat Rehabilitation and Release" talk at noon in our campground's amphitheater, so we got started on our hike to ensure we were done in time.  Planning to stay close to the campground and VC on our first day, we covered all of the open trails in this general area of the park, about 7 miles total.

Pretty much the only sections shown here that we didn't hit were the Heritage and Sunset Point Trails,

as they were closed for refurbishment/improvement.

Let's go for a hike!

Mammoth Cave NP has the world's longest known cave system, and you see subterranean entrances all over the park.

Public access to the caves is only in certain locations, however, and this wasn't one.

This is on the River Styx trail, and here's the titular river, where it emerges from underground.

Do you have your coins to pay Charon?

This tree says, "this is my board now, thank you!"

We found some nice mushrooms.

So many deer!  We rounded a corner, and this one was RIGHT there.

We tried to get a picture with me in there to show how close she was,

but she decided she had other places to be.

There are bats nearby!

The Green River, from the overlook on the Bluffs Trail

Finishing our hike for the day at the picnic area near the Dixon Cave, we trekked back to the rig and had a quick charcuterie lunch.  We cleaned up and made it to the amphitheater right as our designated bat talk was starting!  Brigette from Second Chances Wildlife Center was our speaker, and she told us all about the amazing work the Center does to save the lives of baby and adult bats and release them back into the wild (they rehab all sorts of animals, but since it was "Bat Day," that was her main focus).  Of course, every now and then, animals can't be released, so they live out their days at the shelter, and the ones that are properly certified can play an important role in educational sessions like ours.  We even had the chance to meet some of the Center's permanent residents, which was a highlight of the session!

Mmmm, meats and cheese and hummus and fruit, etc.

(The plastic bins are our "no water hookup" dish washing station)

Meet Molasses, a large brown bat (she's about 4-5 inches long)!

LOOK AT HER TEENY TINY TOES!

With the bat talk over, we hung out at the campsite for a little bit and then made our way to the VC area once more; this time, we took a left before the VC proper and headed to the Historic Entrance, where our cave tour would start.  When we planned this trip, we knew our focus would be several higher mileage hikes, so the thought of ending our day by walking another few miles as part of a tour group, underground and on hard footing, wasn't particularly appealing.  Thus, we booked the self-guided Discovery Tour, which ran for about a mile and let us meander at our own pace inside one of the main caves.  Mammoth Cave NP has about a million different tours to choose from, though, and we'd love to come back and do another some day, perhaps one that was a bit more interesting.  

As you might imagine, there are super cool rock formations all over the Park.

This is on the way to the Historic Entrance, between the surface level and the deeper caves below.

Where's the escalator?

Eventually the space opened up, but Chris came close to whapping his head a few times on the way in/out.

A landslide that blocked one of the original entrances

While our tour wasn't the most exciting, it was informative, and it was cool to get underground for a little bit (literally!  The temperature in the cave was around 50 degrees).  Overall, it met our needs for this trip, and we look forward to hopefully getting back to Mammoth in the future for another look.

After the tour, it was time to head back to the rig for the rest of the day, clean up a bit, and relax!

I read in a Facebook group that folks like to pack foldable buckets for soaking their feet along the West Highland Way, 

so I tried ours out on this trip - it worked great (and it even fits Chris' giant feet)!

Drying out today's hiking clothes

Mama Deer visited us again, this time with TWO babies.

We had trouble getting a full family portrait, however, as one kept wandering away

Chris, trying to take a picture of his bourbon glass and the campfire.

We learned Legent is a good pairing with S'mores!

Me taking a picture of Chris trying to take a picture of his bourbon glass and the campfire

Before too long, it was time for bed - we had more hiking to do tomorrow!

Later!

Amy