Seeing as we started our day down by Fort Bragg and have been driving pretty much all day it was time to stop. We parked the truck at the Albee Creek Campground. One of the rangers at the visitor’s center told us that it was one of the less popular campgrounds, mostly due to the narrow winding road that leads up to it. I can see how you wouldn’t want to drive your fancy RV down that! The campground itself was actually super nice with lots of private feeling spots nestled into the trees. I think I would come back here. After choosing our spot we realized that there were even a few more spots hidden behind a row of trees. We should have gotten one of those! (we spend a lot of time and effort avoiding other humans, don’t judge.)
Since we’ve spent over 1000 miles dragging our mountain bikes around behind us, it was time to go use them! Jason located this “super fun” trail that began just outside the campground and ran along the ridgeline back down to the road. Well that sounds pleasant! Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. 😉 I believe the final total was over 2000 feet of climbing and we didn’t even make it all the way up. We never did figure out how far it was until the trail actually reached the top, but it just kept climbing with switchbacks and every time you thought you’d finally make it, it was just another corner with no end in sight… Eventually my legs stopped working and I was no longer having any fun. So it was a terrible 2 hour climb with a “rewarding” 15 minute descent. Whomever said that “hills build character” can kiss my ass…
We were both pretty much beat by the time we got back to the campsite, however it was still fairly early in the day. We had a cooler full of food that we meant to cook, but due to our revised routing and multiple hotel stays, hadn’t found the time or motivation to do it. So, problem solved! I went to take a much-deserved shower while Jason started cooking both the Savannah red rice (with shrimp and sausage! YUM!) AND the beef stew. Jason likes to cook when there’s nothing else he could be doing. I like to supervise. It works out nicely (for me…) and it gave me some time to wander around and take random photos.
At this point I got even more fidgety and got out my macro lens (ok, it’s just an extension tube because I’m a cheapass) and wandered around some more…
Falling asleep in the tent was not difficult after our epic bike ride and tasty rice dinner. Overall it was a nice day full of activities, sightseeing, and great food!