This year, as Cherie and I have done for the last 5 years, we decided to head to Crabtree Falls Campground in Tyro, VA for Memorial Day weekend. And like the last 2 years, we had family along as well as people from our off road club joining in the festivities! My folks and Cherie’s folks joined us at the campground for the weekend, as well as Nikki and Adrian Friday night. A few guests of our club also managed to snag campsites and would also join us on the club trail ride on the nearby Big Levels Trail on Saturday.
Friday Cherie and I took off work and spent the morning doing last minute prep. I had been on a business trip all week so had not been very helpful in preparing for the trip. Lucky for us this was just one week after our extended family camping trip to Pennsylvania so a lot of our camping gear was pretty much ready to go. We headed to Charlottesville to caravan the rest of the way with Cherie’s folks, and arrived to camp around 4pm, shortly after my parents had arrived. Our club guests arrived just before and after us and setup camp down by the river.
The highlight Friday night would be a surprise for most in attendance. Cherie and I had a big announcement, that our family will be getting bigger this December! Everyone enjoyed the ultrasound images that Cherie brought along, and there was a lot of hugging and some tears of happiness, and then we went on with our weekend.
Saturday
The main entertainment for most of us Saturday would be hitting the trail! My folks hopped in their Tundra, James in his Land Rover LR3, Chris in his 4Runner, and Cherie and I leading in the Xterra. We met the rest of the club at a gas station 45 minutes away, topped off on fuel, and away we went. We went to the trail head on Coal Road. After airing down and a brief drivers meeting we were on the trail!
I won’t go into detail of every rock we passed but there were a few highlights. My Mom drove the entire day (because she had to keep her arm clean… sure!). She actually was the only one to get stuck the entire day out of our group. Once was in a deep mud puddle which my Dad valiantly hopped into to attach the recovery rope to their receiver hitch. The second would be on some big rocks which we knew she would high center on but we figured we’d try out those new rock sliders and skid plates! That one ended up with her stuck good. At one point Jendra was winching his Jeep toward the stuck Tundra rather than the other way around. But with several new pieces of recovery equipment properly used we got the truck off in a few minutes.
My Dad also brought his quad along and got some great aerial shots at lunch and shortly after at the only overlook on the trail. Despite how many times I’ve done this trail I’ve never seen aerial shots of it. It really is a thin ribbon of dirt through a thick forest!
Other highlights included pushing a few other vehicles. This was a shakedown run of sorts for Wook with his recently upgraded suspension. It was Chris’ first time wheeling a trail this difficult in his stock 4Runner. Jendra got to try his new winch out and Wook got to try out his Maxtrax. And Jan let his friend Lanka drive his Frontier for most of the day which I believe was her first time doing this!
Most surprising were the puddles at the top were very low or completely dry. Cherie and I have never seen the mountain as dry as it was that day. It was odd to see what the bottom of the biggest muddiest puddles looked like devoid of water.
At the end of the trail we aired back up and headed different directions. It was only my 2nd time getting to try my new automatic tire inflation system (more on that soon). The group heading back to Crabtree Falls Campground stopped by the Montebello Country Store to grab a few more supplies needed back at camp, like fudge.
Saturday evening shortly after returning to camp the heavens opened. Sid and Linn were back from their adventures for the day and we all huddled under our popup trying to stay dry. This was a largely futile effort because the storm that was upon us was an utter downpour. At one point, as hail had been falling for a few minutes and we were all standing in 1in deep streams that were unavoidable, we wondered if the increased wind was the first sign of what could be a tornado! Lucky for us about an hour after it started, and after we were all at least a little wet, the storm passed and we were able to pull together some dinner.
Big Levels Route
Profile
Sunday
Sunday morning we were slow to get going. With no firm itinerary we weren’t sure what we should do for the day. Shortly before noon though we decided to head down to the Natural Bridge area and check out the bridge and Caverns. On the way we stopped for lunch which took way too long because everything was closed for the holidays!
At the cavern Linn decided to stay with their dog Roxi and the rest of us headed into the Caverns at Natural Bridge. The tour was pretty neat and included seeing some cave salamanders, beetles, spiders and bats. It was also surprisingly chilly compared to the unseasonably warm and humid outside air.
We were the last people to leave and by that time we were all already thinking about dinner so we headed back toward camp for an early evening spent around the fire. Sid and Linn would head out after dinner to head home and pick Brandon up from the airport after an unplanned return home trip from Seattle.
Monday
James was gone before I was out of bed and Chris left shortly after. Cherie, my parents, and I got packed up around noon. We left as my parents were headed off to take some showers before they departed. They would head to the falls after to take drone shots. It was sad for Cherie and I who didn’t make a point to make reservations for next year because we figure we’ll probably want to consider other Memorial Day plans next year, you know, with a family member under the 6 month mark… We’ll see.
