After leaving my daughter's, we headed to Pocahontas State Park for the weekdays (August 22 to 26) while remaining on standby for my daughter to begin her labor. The campground still had full occupancy on the weekends so our plan was to go to my daughter's on Friday the 26th if her labor didn't start before then. At that point we planned to stay there until our newest grandson was born and then a few days after. Spoiler alert: she didn't start laborn while we were at Pocahontas.
I was somewhat familiar with the biking trails at the park after our previous stay there earlier in August for our grandson's birthday party. (The party ended up being cancelled since my grandson came down with a fever.) On Tuesday, I stuck to the dirt roads to reduce the risk of falling on some of the single track bike trails and stopped by the CCC field. The CCC's bell which they rang in case of emergency was still in place. The park, originally the Swift Creek Recreation Area, housed two CCC companies and a plaque showing the camp was next to the bell.
The park has three sets of mountain bike trails. On our previous stay I had ridden one of the Morgan Mountain Trails. I was reading the description of the Swift Creek Trails. They were handicap accessible, meaning they were accessible to hand trikes, and "these trails have engendered to kids and adults a love for mountain biking. Regardless of skill level, these trails are a must." Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to try out the beginner/green trails and a multilevel trail that was rated beginner for a portion and intermediate for a portion. I was glad I did. The trails had minor root exposure and essentially no rocks. I enjoyed biking them thoroughly. Here is a picture of one of the trail signs showing the handicap/hand trike accessibility. Note, like the Morgan Mountain Trails, the Swift Creek Trails are one way to avoid any head on encounters.
These trails had man-made mounds and banked turns to add to the adventure. I think if we had stayed a little longer I would have tried another intermediate rated trail and then either reverted back to the beginner ones if it was to challenging or explored the intermediate ones further if I was comfortable.
The park has a pool complex that was closed for the first part of the week due to school starting up and limited availability of lifeguards. On Friday, the lifeguards were available and the pool complex was open so we swam there on Friday before heading to our daughter's. The pool complex has two pools and a kiddie area. Two slides are visible at the rear of the pool on the left but those slides were closed for maintenance.
On Monday, August 29th, my daughter went into labor and our newest grandson, Benjamin Ivory, was born. The newborn came home with his parents on Wednesday and we stuck around until Sunday to help out. I'm not much help but Jane is and makes up for my limitations. We are heading back to Tennessee, first to Jane's sister's in Tennessee for a gathering of her siblings and parents. After that we have another stop or two to make in TN before heading back to NH.
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