I just got back from a quick trip to George Washington National Forest. My friend, Travis, and I met up last night just to get away from Northern Virginia for one night. I was actually coming from Chaos Off Road Park in Capon Bridge, WV, so I just met him at the Walmart in Harrisonburg. Cherie is off in Texas having a girls weekend so she did not join me this time.
We grabbed the last supplies we needed from Walmart and headed off into the woods. Our goal was find a campsite off the main path up the mountain to Flagpole Knob. We took US-33 almost the whole way to the West Virginia border and turned left onto Switzer Lake Road. This road, which quickly downgrades to dirt and gravel, has great camp sites all along it.
I won’t disclose our campsite of choice, otherwise it might be occupied next time I show up, but we were pleasantly surprised to find no one else camping in the area. Odd because the weekend had perfect weather!
We set up camp which was a fairly quick affair and broke out dinner. After dinner we did… nothing!
Travis and I had both been running full steam ahead for some time. He with a new baby and me with just a lot of work and other stuff on my plate. We considered going out for a night run, maybe up to Flagpole, maybe down to the lake, maybe on one of the lesser known side roads. But in the end we decided to just hang out in camp, have a few drinks, and just talk and relax.
This morning came too soon. We were in no rush to pack up, but it still didn’t take long. We decided to check out Forest Road 1197 which is commonly called Skidmore Fork Road. Logging has been occuring in the area so we figured we’d check it out from this road to see what was going on. The path was very overgrown in spots, and some trees had been cleared with exactly the clearance we required. Eventually we came to a tree that would take more work to clear than we were ready for so we turned around and headed toward home.
I know it was just a one night quick camping trip, but with the right people and in the right location that can still be very refreshing. Travis, we’ll have to make another trip like this happen again!
