Blue Ridge Overland Trip!
Back in 2018 when I got my Jeep, I was doing research online for where to take it off-road in the Mid-Atlantic area, near Maryland. After poking around, I found a Trail Report on the CORE 4x4 website about a multi-day overland trip and it sounded exactly like what I was looking for! Multi-day off road trip, with camping, hanging out with friends, exploring new-to-me areas, and just a bit of escapism!
Yearning for that type of trip, I joined the CORE 4x4 club ready for adventure! In that time, however, life got a bit busy, and a long multi-day trip like that became difficult to coordinate, so I enjoyed 1 or 2 day trips in the local area instead. Fast forward to 2023, and Matt, a new member to the club, proposed a 5 day trip through the Blue Ridge Mountains that run the length of Virginia. This was a great opportunity to finally get into a longer trip that was the reason I joined CORE!
After some working out the specific dates that worked for everyone, we were set and ready. Matt had done a great job planning the route, and had specific plans for each day’s route, and camping options for each night.
My camping setup had changed a bit throughout the year, so I needed to work on getting the Jeep prepped for this trip, which would involve setting up and tearing down camp every day, and making sure things were easily accessible. The biggest thing I needed to fix was the rear storage shelf in the cargo area. It’s a heavy duty shelf, that’s mounted on a hinge that allows it to be raised if needed. Problem is, in it’s original position, it was just barely too low to fit the fridge properly. So I made a riser to raise the rear hinge point, and a spacer block to raise the front. With that solved, I used collapsible crates for my cooking equipment and non-perishable food, and a off-the-shelf cargo organizer for miscellaneous items. Eventually I’ll set up a nice drawer system that will be more functional, but this got the job done for now!
The Jeep was also just fresh off of a collection of repairs after a hard spring of wheeling. It was running a new front driveshaft, as well as all new wheel bearings and abs speed sensors. There was also some damage to the front locker wiring which was fixed.
Finally, after all of the prep work, the day came for us to embark on our adventure! We started out by meeting at the Devils Backbone Basecamp, which is a super cool pub/brewery out in Roseland VA. They’ve got a campground attached to the back of the pub, which offers an awesome dynamic for the kickoff of our trip!
After camping out there Wednesday night, we set out for the start of our adventure on Thursday morning. We spent Thursday exploring the Big Levels area on gravel roads, occasionally hopping onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. We found a cool road side waterfall, where we broke for lunch and had a chance to dip our toes in the water and relax a bit!
We continued on and made our way towards the Shoe Creek Trail. It’s a mild trail, but lovely with a couple of very shallow water crossings. As we went along, we came across a huge tree that had fallen across the trail. After some planning, we determined that we could use a pulley block and Matt’s winch to pull the tree off of the trail, after cutting off the end. Luckily, Andy brought his chainsaw, so after a bit of sawing, we winched the tree off the side of the trail and continued on. At what we thought was the end, we ran into some locals, and they keyed us in on a cool little hidden waterfall spot a bit further up the trail. Certainly work the trek up, and a short walk through the woods!
After that, we made our way towards camp, which was an awesome primitive campsite along one of the gravel roads in the area, along the South Fork Piney River. We settled in for our first primitive night camping, and made ourselves some dinner and sat around the fire. I enjoyed a simple skillet cooked lamb shoulder steak and some mac n cheese. It was a lovely spot along the river, and made for a pleasant, albeit warm, evening!
Friday the next morning, we tore down camp and hit the road to continue south. This was an ambitious day, with a lot of mileage to cover! We made our way along paved roads through a few small towns in the area, Buena Vista and Lexington where we fueled up, and made our way towards the Pads Creek trail. This was an amazing fun trail, with some lovely railway views and various water crossings. The area has been quite dry lately, so the water levels were low and easy to traverse.
Right as we got off of the trail, and were airing up our tires to hit the road to our next camp, an huge storm blew through the area! We were on the highway when it hit, and witnessed several knocked over trees and debris all over the road. We were heading over to a club favorite, the Wilderness Adventure campground located near Clifton Forge. Right before getting to camp, we came across a fairly large water crossing. Matt hopped out to walk the crossing, to determine if it was safe for us to traverse. As he got in, at one point he was up to his waist, and Matt’s a tall guy! But he determined that there was a left hand line that was safe to go through. Ben went first, right up the middle, and it got up to the Toyota badge on his grille! I went next, going right through a deeper part of the crossing, and at one point got water over my hood. But a bit of right boot and the Jeep punted its way out of the river. The rest of the crew took the safe (smart) left line and got through no issues.
When we rolled into camp, we realized that the storm knocked out power to the campground. We had planned to eat at the campground restaurant that night, but because they lost power, they didn’t have their standard menu. Instead, they offered us some home-cooked pasta and meat sauce they had prepared for another group. This is why we love this place, they made sure we were taken care of! After another night hanging around the fire, discussing the next day’s plan, we hit the tents to get some rest after an adventurous day!
Saturday morning we woke up, packed up, and hit the road again. On today’s agenda as we continued south, was to go up Bald Mountain, an easy trail up the mountain with some lovely views. This is where we came across quite a bit of evidence of the storm that came through the previous day! There were multiple instances where there were downed trees across the trail, requiring some work for us to clear them. We happily did so, also happy to help the locals who use these roads to get around the area efficiently. Saturday was a lovely mix of gravel, trails, and paved country roads. It was amazing driving through the area, seeing an eclectic mix of houses and old cars and trucks along the road. We continued through to our next campsite, a dispersed site near the Falls of Dismal. While setting up, we heard storms in the distance, and rushed to get everything set up before it hit. Luckily, it was just a few minutes for us, but we heard later that our homes in Maryland got hit pretty hard, and had lost power for a period of time. We were fortunate to not get the brunt of it! For dinner I enjoyed some pork burnt ends and a side of carrots. We settled in for a lovely night and got some well deserved rest!
Sunday morning we broke down camp, and before we left, I asked Matt for a favor. I’ve been eyeing the Gazelle T4 tent for a while. I’ve wanted a bigger tent that i fit in more comfortably, and could stand up in. Also my cot touches both ends of my current tent, and will occasionally wick water into it. The downside is that it’s large when packed up, and wouldn’t fit inside of my jeep. So, after Matt packed up his tent, I asked him to toss it onto my Jeep’s roof rack to see if it fit. Luckily it did! Didn’t get in the way of my soft top or the rear hatch, so that gave me the info I needed to pull the trigger on a T4! Nothing beats a real life fitment test!
We hit the road for what would be our final off-road day. I had noticed the day prior that the Jeep was down on power. A lot of the trails and gravel roads we were on were very dusty. This was clogging up several of our engine air filters. The guys with paper filters could just knock them out and clear much of the dust and dirt. I however, had a K&N oiled filter that was washable. This turned out to be a problem, however, in that the dust had gummed up with the oil, and I couldn't knock it loose. I didn’t have the kit to wash and re-oil the filter, and even if I did, that’s a day long process for the filter to dry and for the new oil to be applied. That’s not something I wanted to do on the trail. So we swung into town to run some last minute errands, and I stopped by the auto parts store and grabbed a paper filter. Instantly the Jeep felt normal again. Lesson learned, for off-road, simpler is better and don’t run an oiled air filter!
We continued along, on another mix of twisty country roads, highways, and gravel roads. Eventually, we made our way to where we were staying for our final night, a campground called “The Scales”. This involved an amazing lovely heavily wooded trail up the mountain to this large open spot at the top for camping, where the Appalachian Trail passes through. It’s an amazing spot where we got to stretch out and enjoy our last bit of time together for this trip! We had a small spot of rain pass through, but we rolled out our awnings for cover and were able to enjoy our dinners with the fresh rain. I had a great chat with a thru hiker backpacking the AT. They were nurses on a long backpacking trip, going from south to north. Since we were in vehicles, we had a lot of on-board supplies, and I offered to top up their fresh water supplies. It’s great to meet other outdoor enthusiasts and learn about their journey!
That night we settled around the fire, and enjoyed the sunset show with the clouds that just passed through. After chatting about the trip as a whole, things we liked, things we would improve in the future, and potentially other trips we’d like to do, the takeaway was that we were thankful and grateful to Matt for organizing such a fun and memorable trip!
The next morning, Ben and I packed up early, and we had young families to get back home to, and wives that were bearing the brunt of parenthood solo for the entirety of our trip! We caught the early sunrise and headed back down the trail. At the bottom, as I was airing up my tires, I noticed that the pin for securing my disconnectable front sway bar was missing. I had removed the sway bar link for the trip for more comfort and flex offroad. Since I was about to embark on a 6 hour highway drive home, I wanted to reconnect it to have better handling on-road. I fashioned a catch with a zip tie temporarily, and successfully reinstalled the sway bar. On the way home, I stopped by a Lowe’s, and luckily they had the exact pin I needed, so with that, I was happily on my way worry free! It was an uneventful, peaceful ride back home.
That wrapped up what was a long time coming trip, and what I hope to be the first of many! Thanks to Matt, Andy, Steve, and Ben for a great trip, and I look forward to the next one!
