Rain in the Swamp

Sandy flew to Pennsylvania for the holiday and Alex was staying with his Grammy so I headed out towards the coast on Black Friday.  It was raining in Raleigh when I left but stopped for a while, then started again and was pretty heavy when I got to Dismal Swamp State Park.  There was a new floating bridge over the canal and it was cool to watch it operate.  Once across, I started hiking down Canal Road.  In about two miles, I turned on Kim Saunders Road and started hiking west across the swamp.  The rain seemed to pick up and get even heavier.  I was so wet by this point, I stopped trying to avoid puddles in the trail.  When I reached the far end, the rain had finally stopped.  I turned left on Forest Line Road to hike south.

At the end, I turned onto Bull Boulevard, which continued another 2 miles.

At one point, I saw a black bear along the trail ahead of me.  Rather than get out the camera, I tried to act big and talk loudly to alert him to my presence.  Once he saw me, he disappeared into the swamp.  I couldn't get a picture of the bear, but did get a shot of some evidence he had been there.

After around 11 miles, I decided to turn around as it was a very long hike back.  Fortunately, the rain had stopped for the day and I was drying out on the hike back.  I stopped for a break at Western Boundary Trail.

It was about 4 miles back to Canal Road from here and I was definitely counting down the miles by the time I got at this point.

A small herd of deer crossed the trail in front of me.  They seemed more curious than scared by my presence.

With just a mile to go, I stopped for a picture of the Lighter Boat Display.

And another break at the Liquor Still Replica.

Finally, I made it back to the floating bridge.  The canal was very scenic as I crossed over.

Altogether, it was almost 22 miles round trip.

From here, I headed to Gatesville and got take-out from China King then went to Merchants Millpond to eat and set up camp.  I built a small fire, but everything was wet.  Not long after the sun went down, I went to sleep.