Campground Review
This state park is tucked in the largest tract of forest that lies between New York City and Washington D.C. and it is absolutely stunning. The area is full of whitetail deer, raccoons, opossums and other abundant wildlife so be watchful when driving especially during dawn and dusk hours.
The park has tons of amenities from freshwater ponds to a fish to a staffed swimming pool. There are multiple playgrounds for kids to play on and plenty of green space to roam. There are four camping loops (A, B, C and D). Loop A, B and C are in close proximity to one another while D is a bit further away and may be used for overflow camping. Loop A offers simple sites with no hookups. Each site has a fire ring and grate of some sort, picnic table and flat space for pitching a tent. Some sites in this loop have lantern posts but not all of them do. Unfortunately, the flat spot in our site that was not gravel was low-lying and would have flooded in the rain (which was forecasted). We wound up pitching our tent on the gravel to avoid waking up in a puddle. Beware, there is a TON of poison ivy riddled throughout the grounds. Some of it looks like it has been sprayed but it is still rather abundant.
The facilities in loop A are VERY nice and look as though they have been remodeled recently. There bathroom has roomy toilet and shower stalls, nice sinks and is all tile (very nice, clean tile). Outside the bathroom are two dish sinks with both hot and cold water. It was nice to not have food caked in the bathroom sinks!
The sites in loop A are rather impacted and there was a fair amount of garbage littered about which was disappointing. However, the sites in this loop are nicely spaced and while the campground was busy, we felt like we had plenty of space.
We drove through the rest of the loops and found that Loop B was very packed and sites were on top of one another. This was a loop with full hookups so there were RVs and other vehicles everywhere. Loop C, which allows pets was also a bit of a mess. Part of it is just an open field that looks more like a parking lot, however, if you keep driving the loop you will find more normal sites in the trees. We didn't have our dogs this visit, otherwise we might have stayed in this loop.
All in all this is a great spot close to the Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site (totally worth a visit). I would certainly recommend staying here and checking out the area.
Gear Review
As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time - today I am testing the Ledlenser MH2 Headlamp. This headlamp is interesting and will definitely be great for certain applications, though it will more than likely not be my go to light in the backcountry.
Pros:
- When on the concentrated fish eye setting it is quite bright and would be great for point specific lighting needs. For instance, setting a bear hang in a tree where you need more focused and centralized lighting.
- Several settings including a strobe mode as well as a red light setting (more about the red light in the con section below).
- Seems to be well built and relatively durable. The strap itself is quite nice and comfortable across both the back and forehead.
- Batteries held up well compared to some other models on the market but this may be attributed to the lower lumen (100) rating.
Cons:
- When not on the fisheye/centralized setting, the light is not too bright. While the casting area is greater you definitely loose the brightness and any setting between the two doesn't yield great lighting results either. I would probably only use this for applications where I need light focused on one area.
- The red light is relatively useless in my opinion. It would be ok for reading but due to it's positioning on the actual housing, it is difficult to direct in a useful direction.
- The headlamp itself is quite heavy. After wearing it for an extended period of time I felt as though I would have liked it to be a bit lighter.
- The headlamp requires 3 AAA batteries but only came factory sealed with 2.
Overall this is a nice little headlamp. I keep one in my car as well as in our car camping box as an extra light source around the campground. As I mentioned, it won't replace my backpacking go-to model but it certainly worth the investment if you are looking for a spare or heavier duty model for those instances when weight doesn't matter.
Thanks for the opportunity to check out your product.