Maryland's High Point and a Tiny Church

Swanton, Maryland
Deep Creek Lake State Park



Happy to have our rig fixed and back on the road, we head a short drive down to Maryland which took about an hour, to hit up their High Point.

We stayed at Deep Creek Lake State Park and found this nice, deep site at the top of the hill.  We chose no hookups, but they do have water and electric as well as a couple yurts to rent.  The lake is really pretty and would've been nice to kayak on, but we had some time to make up due to the repair.

 

The next day we drove out to Backbone Mountain which is 3360 feet high.  The elevation gain is only 700 ft.  It was not the easiest trailhead to find, but once you did find it, there were strangely several signs along the trail itself.

It was a short but rather steep hike.

 

It seemed like every 50 feet there was a red "HP (High Point) painted on the trees.

And to make sure you couldn't get lost, there were also several signs.  Along with the High Point of Maryland was a marker for the borders of Maryland and West Virginia we wanted to find.

Since this trail and High Point aren't popular, we found all these markings and signs kind of funny.

View at the top.

And here is the nice spot with the plaque.  This was one of the few High Points that didn't have an actual geo-marker.

The High Pointers Foundation puts these nice mailboxes at the top with a log you can sign.

  

Next we took another trail and Steve located the WV/MD marker as well as a couple of geocaches.

 

There are always hidden gems in these small towns that most people drive right past and miss.  We spotted a sign for the smallest church in Silver Lake, WV and stopped by.

 

 

This tiny memorial Roman Catholic church was constructed in 1958 by Mr. and Mrs. P.L. Milkint in honor of their parents.  It's 12x24 and surrounded by beautiful flower gardens.  They claim to be the smallest church but there are others with similar, if not even smaller, sizes.

This would be a very cute place for a small, intimate wedding.

And right next to it is the smallest Post Office.  They still get mail delivery there.

Post Office to the left, church to the right.

On the way home Steve spotted this old Ford truck with a wooden stakebed much like one he owned before we headed out fulltime.  He hated to have to sell it.  Steve's was a 1930 Chevy though.

There were many small town parades and celebrations for 9/11 still going on.

This is the nice lake at the campground which we were staying at.  As soon as we headed out,

we came upon several steep, windy roads that we weren't too thrilled taking the trailer down.

Thankfully they weren't too long and soon enough we would arrive in Ohio.