Rain, Snow & Ground Beef - Update Day #6

Before I left President Lincoln’s birthplace I went into the visator center and to ask some questions about Annual National Park Passes. I told them about my big trip across the country starting in June. They told me they didn’t sell them but they are sold at Mammoth Cave National Park an hour away. I told them I was actually heading there to camp. They told me I’d better hurry about because they close at 5. They told me there is a fee to get into the park and they thought the campsites were closed.  

Well I didn’t like hearing that so I drove down the street and pulled in grocery store parking lot to

came up with a new plan. Also needed to do a bit of work on my laptop. I spent about 20 minutes looking at Mammoth Cave National Park on Gaia to see if there were any dirt roads going into park that might have a secluded spot to camp.  I found one dirt road and verified it was a good place to go after looking at the satellite image, the public land map, the private land map and the National Park map.  I had a 50-50 chance that the road might not have a locked gate on it. 

After coming up with a route to get to the dirt road on the north boarder of the park I ran into the grocery store to grab some diced tomatoes to go along a very small container of chilly I had. I put both in My HotLogic so it could cook while I drove.  The plan was to set up camp and brown some ground beef and throw into my concoction.

I made it to the dirt road and there was a locked gate but there was another road that went along the north border of the park. Because of the maps I had layered on my phone on Gaia, I knew that all the land north of the road was private land so I could only camp on the left side of the road.I followed the road for a bit and came across a clearing that would be good to set up camp but it was right next to a very very old creepy cemetery. The thought of camping next to a cemetery kind of freaked me out a little bit...so I continued driving. I found another clearing but it was a bit small so I set a waypoint in case I wanted to come back to it. I went a bit further to see if I could find something a little bit bigger. I ended up going down a bunch of hills and based on the weather report of maybe ice or snow, I decided it would best to camp on top of a hill, not on the bottom of one. I had to do a 10 point turn (without a back-up camera) to reverse my direction on a really narrow road.  I followed Gaia to get back to the clearing. I parked about  three different ways before coming up with something that would work with two canopies. I set up both canopies and I was surprisingly dry underneath them so cooked dinner off the back of the Jeep.

Well eating dinner I thought it was just raining but it turns out it was snowing and it was building up on top of the canopies. Since the weather was starting to get a bit more sketchy and I didn’t have a winch, I decided it would be best to pack up camp and spend the night in a Love’s truck stop. It was a good move because once I got camp packed up the snow really increased quite a bit and it was a total white out driving for an hour to the truck stop. Visibility was only around 50 feet but I made it! Off to Nashville today for that needed shower.