Sparkle Pony Sprinter Van: On the road: WV and NC

Sparkle Pony cross-country tour has officially begun. We got our hides out of D.C. last Tuesday, May 27, so I guess that means today marks a whole week that we’ve been on the road. We can corroborate one cliché: we are definitely dirty. And the other cliché: van life is RAD.

Seneca Rocks, WV

Our first destination, Seneca Rocks, WV, satisfied a loin-deep yearning to breathe cool mountain air and touch real mountain rock that the stick-to-the-back-of-your-car-seat D.C./Baltimore gridlock road rage intensified by an order of ten on our drive out. Worked a few pitches up to the summit, then washed ourselves in a river bend in the eve. Really felt like we were finally “doing the thing”!

Sloshed a muddy 8-mile loop through intermittent downpours in the ridiculously beautiful Dolly Sods Wilderness the next day. Worth it.

My new Nomad!

Oh yeah, hold up!

How I acquired a “free” kayak:

The last stop Daniel wanted to make before he left home was to see his kayaking mentor and past employer, Tom. Tom is a 60-something fellow (could be 55 could be 75—and that’s how I’m beginning to understand that it goes with diehard outdoor types, you can’t confidently guess their age within 20 years) with a gentle disposition and a thousand kayaks stacked against his modest suburban home outside D.C.. For a guy who does not say much, Daniel has told over ten stories about Tom. Paddling adventures to Mexico in a Ford Econoline with the makeshift wooden-slatted roof rack (the inspiration for ours); to the Ottowa and Gatineau Rivers in Quebec--a detail in whose story described Tom being detained by border control regarding an issue in his hitch-hiking past when he attempted to enter Canada but was rejected for not having more than $10 in his pocket (or to his name). Tom subsists solely on apples—apparently no one has seen him eat anything but—and applies a stiff learning curve to his paddling students: Daniel says the first river Tom ever brought him down was a Class III. He did most of it on his head, and within three years he was dropping 35-foot waterfalls (with the then 55-65 year old Tom). The way it has been described, Tom’s mentorship was not so much “tough love” but rather representative of the kind of thinking that matter-of-factly accepts that you are very talented and very un-scared. That’s just how it is.

So we stopped by good old Tom McEwan’s place on the way out of town, and after an exchange I was out of earshot to catch we were trading Tom two of Daniel’s boats for a Dagger Nomad 8.1 for me. By coincidence only we have three boats on our roof and they are all red.

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"Sandstonia" climbing area, NRG

After Seneca, we drove west to the New River Gorge and spent four days climbing and paddling. Set paddling shuttle once by bike: 5 miles back to the put in on a gravel road on shitty, dry-rotted tires but still no flats.

Table Rock summit, Linville Gorge, NC

We found our way to Linville Gorge, North Carolina yesterday, June 3^rd. We remember now, unequivocally, that bugs suck, and will return to the route today with tea tree oil and spray and if that doesn’t work we have considered picking up smoking cigarettes to ward them off. If this becomes the case, we might also have to pick up drinking whiskey which we’ve heard (only in books) pairs well with smoking cigarettes. And then of course will follow fist fighting each other, speaking poorly of one another's mom, and running red lights (that’s the only one that is statistically reported to be more likely for those who smoke cigarettes, says research). -Delilah