James River State Park 3/22/14-3/23/14

The weather for the weekend of March 22-23 was supposed to be warmish, with highs hovering close to 70 and the nights dipping down to 45. We started trying to plan for the weekend with the idea of hiking McAfee Knob, and perhaps backpacking.

Then we decided we weren't really ready for that, and we would hike it but tent camp somewhere nearby as kind of an interim step.

Then, we decided we weren't really ready for THAT, either, and we wouldn't try hiking McAfee for a few more weeks. We'd just tent camp.

Finally, we decided we wouldn't do that either--that we wanted to take Ollie with us one more time, and we would take the camper to accomodate him.

Then we had to start the process of deciding which park to go to---which I won't bore you with.

Phew! So with a very long and drawn out decision made, we headed off to James River State Park with the camper for a 24 hour trip. I prepared dinner for Saturday night ahead of time--italian sausage with onions and fried potatoes in foil packs that just needed to be tossed on the grill.

On Saturday morning we rolled out a little later than we intended and made it to James River around lunchtime. We grabbed some drive through at McDonald's and ate it when we arrived--had to go to the cheeseburger store for Ollie, you know!

We surveyed our choices of campsites and found one we liked.  We hooked up the water and I fought with it for a few minutes because the fitting wasn't very good at the spigot, and then realized that it was spewing out from under the camper. When I went inside I saw that there was an inch of water in the bathroom and closet. We must have busted a water line over the winter, apparently in the hot water heater cubby, so we knew we would have no water for the weekend. Then we discovered the electric wasn't working so we unhooked everything and moved. Grrrrrr! We ended up in the same spot we used last time. We hooked up the electric, which worked, and then sat down to eat our cold McDonald's.

Once we had the slide out set and everything the way we wanted, we changed into hiking clothes and took off. We left Ollie sleeping in the a/c, but he didn't seem to mind. We decided to go down to the Visitor's Center, pick up Cabell Trail there, and head out to the Tye River Overlook.

The Visitor's Center is new-ish and we had never stopped in before. Of course, I had to check out the gift shop and I was suckered in by some beautiful mugs that say "James River State Park" on them. I figured they would brighten up any morning I was stuck home and couldn't get to the park.

We finally set off on the trail and immediately we had issues with trying to find it. It's not very well marked and it's very unclear where it goes around the VC. At last we figured out a different way to get to the top where we could pick it up and head out to the Tye River Overlook. We walked down the road until we got close to Dixon Landing; Dixon Landing Overlook trail picks up there and goes up the hill to connect to Cabell.

 

The hill kicked my butt but I was glad to go up to Dixon Overlook, which provides a nice view of the river and the old mansion on the other side.

 

Once we picked up Cabell it was pretty much a gravel road. I mentioned to Dave that it would be a lot of fun to trail ride, provided of course that Apache has shoes, since she gets sore-footed on gravel otherwise. He still seems a bit nervous about the idea but I know he would enjoy it.

We walked out to Tye River Overlook and were impressed by the view, because of the 90 degree angle of the Tye meeting the James and because of the distant but clear sight of The Priest in the background. I didn't realize it was only 19 miles cross-country to Crabtree from there!



There's a nifty little gate to keep horses off the Tye River Overlook Trail...

 

...and they kindly provide a hitching post and a mounting block so you can walk out and see the rivers meet.

 

 

That's The Priest in the middle.

We continued hiking around Cabell until we got to the Branch Pond Connector, which we followed to the pond itself. Then we picked up the pond loop trail and followed it to Branch Trail connector at the campground, which took us back up the hill to Cabell again. We stayed on Cabell, now a regular trail through the woods, until we got back to the park road, which we followed to the car. All in all we hiked around 3 miles. My knees started out really killing me but by the end they felt pretty good. Weird, right?

 

 

We got back to the camper and hung out with Ollie for a bit. Then I took a shower and put on more comfortable clothes to start dinner. We built a campfire and put the foil packets on the grill to heat while we had a beer.

I put together pineapple cake foil packets while Dave cooked, and once the sausage and onions packets were done I put dessert on the grill. Dinner was delicious and I'd make so much that we shared one sausage packet and one potato packet, leaving half of it unopened for another trip! Dessert was delicious and by the time we were all cleaned up (including a trip to the bathhouse to wash dishes and hands, since we had no running water at the camper) it was starting to get dark. We sat around the fire for a bit, feeding Ollie marshmallows, until we got too cool and decided to go in and watch a movie.

Ollie was having a rough time and spent most of the night whining. I got up with him several times to let him out. Unfortunately, there was a dog at the camper next to us so the first time I tried to let him out by himself he didn't stay even though I was standing in the door watching and calling him. I had to throw on shoes and go get him. After that, every time he had to go out I had to put on clothes and shoes to take him. Not fun. between him whining and having to get up, I don't think I got more than an hour or so of sleep all night. And it was pretty darn cold! I was grateful that we took the camper. I even got the heater out at one point about 4:00 a.m. and plugged it in. Turns out, according to my phone, it was 29 degrees in the morning when we got up!

Breakfast on Sunday morning was frozen pancakes and sausage that was already cooked, so there was very little clean up. Again, I washed the dishes at the bathhouse. I was glad I packed plenty of drinking water in the cooler for coffee, although I could have hauled some in the Brita pitcher I guess.

 

After cleaning up breakfast and getting showered, we headed off on a short trip around Green Hill Pond Trail. This is short, level, and paved, with a few boardwalk areas. We figured this would be fine for Ollie and he would enjoy it, and we were right. We were glad it was short, though, because by the tim we got to the parking lot it was starting to rain.

 

We walked around, then drove around the park a bit looking at the amenities. We decided that we would definitely come back and primitive camp down by the river for our next step in easing into "roughing it".

By the time we got back to the camper and got it ready to pull out, the rain was starting to be laced with ice splats. Just a few miles in to Buckingham the rain and ice gave way to snow! Yikes, I was glad we hadn't tent camped! We got home safely and by then of course the snow stopped. All in all it was an enjoyable trip, and I'm looking forward to many more adventures at "my" James River State Park!

James River Park System, Richmond: Belle Isle 3/15/14

With the promise of nice weather on Saturday, and the need to drive to Richmond to return some ill fitting boots to REI, we decided to explore part of the James River Park System. We opted for Belle Isle since it was a hike along the river.


 No one told me I was taking my life in my own hands JUST TO GET TO THE ISLAND.

 

 

What is this craziness? I've never seen such a thing. It was the wobblyest bridge you can imagine--I mean, I've seen rope and board bridges built by kids that were more stable than this puppy. Holy cow.

 

The fact that these photos exist is a testament to how pretty the day was and how badly I wanted to hike. Seriously.

 

FINALLY!

 The river is amazing at this point. It's HUGE and filled with an incredible amount of rocks. The rapids are glorious and dangerous at the same time.

 

That thing, in the distance? 14 foot dam. Yikes.

 


This is why it's called the Fall Line, 4th graders.

 

We kept saying "Yeah, we could kayak that--holy crap, never mind, look at THAT! Yikes. But it looks FUN!" And then we even saw some brave souls out on the very fast, very cold river.

 

I call this picture "Braver Than Me"

 

This park is cool because it has a little something for everyone. The main path around the island is easy and I saw strollers and even a wheelchair.

 

But there are side paths that go practically straight up to climbing walls with built in footholds and to sheer cliffs with rappelling spots. These are some teenagers trying out the climbing wall.

There's also a steep path to a wooden-fenced trail across the bluff above a quarry, as well as a trail around the edge of the quarry itself.

 



The quarry, with the river behind it.

And we did them all.

It also combines science with history. Belle Isle is the site of a Monacan fishing camp from the 1600's, a notorious POW camp from the Civil War, and a late 1800's hydroelectric power plant. There are also a variety of mineral resources on the island. Signage gives the details of all of these, and I enjoyed reading about the various uses of the island as we explored it.

 

 

The day was lovely, the park was enjoyable, and we had a great time.