The Autumn weather was perfect this past weekend, so my son Steven and I headed out to the mountains for some adventure. We ended up in the George Washington National Forest west of Harrisonburg. I had always wanted to camp on the awesome mountaintop lookout of Flagpole Knob. We bounced up miles of rough and rocky jeep road to the 4300+ ft. summit. When we got out, we realised there were winds gusting at 30 mph and it was really cold.
Sadly, we had to retreat to lower ground along the North River. This was an awesome campsite nestled amoung mountain laurel with a huge stone fire ring.
We couldn't resist a drive up to Reddish Knob to catch the sunset.
We returned to camp for a nice fire and some dinner. Shortly after turning in, we heard something walking around outside the tent. Deer? Bear? Whatever it was eventually worked its way upstream. We fell asleep to the sound of the water cascading over rocks about 15 ft. behind the tent. Very quiet and peaceful. Ahhhh.
The next morning we awoke to a perfect, crisp and clear fall day dawning. After some breakfast and breaking camp, we hopped in the truck and set out to decide which of the many lakes in the area we wanted to fish. Since we were only about a mile from West VA, we decided to head west down into the Sugar Grove Valley of WVA and work our way to Brandywine Lake. Lots of nice fall scenery along the way.
We arrived at Bradywine Lake and tried our luck with the fish. We saw several large golden trout swimming around in the clear water as well as several nice bass but nothing wanted to bite. Oh well, it was to nice a day to care.
We moved on up and over Shenandoah Mountain and back into VA to Switzer Lake to see if our luck would be better with Virginia fish. Switzer was an impressive lake but the water level was way below normal. The wind had kicked up again and our thoughts turned to Mountain Biking.
I got out the trusty forest map and Steven and I decided to ride from Switzer Lake up to Flagpole Knob and back. The ride would climb over 1,900 feet in elevation over about 8 miles on Jeep roads. This would be Steven's first "real" mountain ride. We grabbed everything we thought we would need and started peddaling. The road started to climb pretty quickly but not too steep. We crossed Skidmore Fork a few times which was dry, then started up Dunkle Hollow. The jeep road started to get more rocky, rugged, and steep as we ascended but Steven was doing great.
As we were nearing the top, we were treated to a bear hopping across the trail. The bear quickly disappeared down over the mountainside into a laurel thicket. We soon reached an intersection and familiar jeep road and new we were almost to Flagpole Knob. One final push and we were there. What an awesome spot! I was really impressed and proud that Steven stuck out that tough climb.
After some snacks, pictures, and admiring the views, we started the 8 mile descent.
It was getting late and we had to race the sun as we rolled back down the rugged descent. We were treated to our second bear of the ride about halfway down. A little cub this time. We both thought we heard others in the fading daylight. We arrived back at the truck right as it was getting too dark to see. What an awesome ride. It was great to share such a great experience with my son.
We pitched everything in the truck and headed off to Harrisonburg in search of some grubb, then started the long journey back to reality.
Nice job Steven! JOEL
ReplyDeleteVery Jealous & inspired!
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