Blue Ridge WMA

Ahh, dangit. I'm getting out of order here... I've been going through photo albums on flickr and trying to remember what I did. The Nashville Spartan Race was in October, but I apparently created the album for it in November. So, I used it as a starting point, and ended up skipping something notable from early November.

On November 4th, I went car camping up at Jones Creek with my buddy JC, his girl Saige, and his friend Kaylie. We had the greatest time. Let me tell you...

I drove up Friday night, after work, stopping only at the Gold Creek store for snacks, along the way. The rest of the crew was already up there, so all I had to do was drive down the road until I saw them. It turned out that they were in the spot directly across from Silver Dollar, just past the second ford. Saige saw the bike on the back of my car and came running out to the road to flag me down, as I drove by, which was good, because I didn't immediately recognize JC's truck on the way in.

When I got there, it was perfect car camping weather - not quite freezing, but definitely in the 30's. Kaylie had apparently driven up the night before though, it had frozen Thursday night, and odds were good that it would be cold again that night. Fortunately, they had a raging fire doing when I arrived...

...JC had made some kind of soup/stew, and as hungry as I was, I had 2 bowls of it.

I contributed some snacks...

...and we all feasted, told stories, relaxed, stayed warm, and you know, had all the fun one generally has around a camp fire, before eventually calling it a night.

The last time I'd car camped was the previous September up at Mulberry Gap. It was ok, but it wasn't exceptionally satisfying. In the intervening month, I'd purchased an Exped DeepSleep Duo mattress that completely fills the bed of my vehicle, almost as if it had been precisely designed for my specific car, and a North Face Dolomite One sleeping bag, composed of 3 different layers that can each be their own bag, or be zipped together into a multi layer, 2-person bag, rated down to 15 degrees F. I also just brought the pillow off of my bed, rather than bringing my standard inflatable camp pillow. I was dying to try it all out, and I got my chance that evening.

I want to say that I downloaded some movies, and watched one of them on my phone, but I can't remember which one, now. I do remember that I got really, really good sleep. I was warm all night. I slept all night. It was fantastic.

The next morning, we all got up at about the same time, cooked eggs and other standard camping stuff for breakfast, and generally hung out around the fire, having a good time.

It was trying to be fall, but some flowers were still hanging on to summer.

I got a good look at everyone's camping setup too.

Mine was less elaborate, but as it turned out, much warmer. Saige and JC had to snuggle to stay warm, and Kaylie had to snuggle with her dog.

I also got to see who was camped at the next site over - a really big group of equestrians. They had the most elaborate tent-city I'd ever seen, complete with a dining hall and dormatories. I had a good idea who they were, so I went over and talked with them a bit. Turned out they were exactly who I thought! A buddy of mine had talked to them a few months earlier. They'd been camping up there for generations, and over the years, they'd placed various road signs back up in the woods there. I'd thought I'd discovered all of them, but it turned out that there were 2 more, that they gave my buddy directions to. Well, after talking with them a bit, it turned out that there was yet one more, that none of us had seen yet, that I'd have to mount an expedition to find, sooner or later. They were a super friendly group, and it was great to talk to them.

After eating breakfast and meeting the neighbors, I took everybody up to Silver Dollar Falls. I call it Silver Dollar Falls because it's on Silver Dollar Trail. Apparently it's "official" name is Smith Falls, per Google Maps. We called it the Unnamed Falls for years and years before that.

JC had been camping in that exact spot for 10+ years, but somenow never knew about the trail, or the falls.

We had the greatest time!

I ate crap climbing onto this rock, but fortunately only got my foot wet.

Kalie's dog Apollo followed us, and seemed to have as good a time as we did.

The plan for the rest of the day was pretty loose. I was going to ride my bike while everybody else hung around camp, or maybe walked around the campground, but we'd all meet back up that evening for dinner. As such, I got my gear together and started climbing. It was kind of a long climb out, back to FS77. Its funny that it's even a climb, because it seems like it follows the creek downstream, and thus ought to be downhill. It does, but it also just climbs the backslope the whole time, eventually diverges entirely from the creek, and ends up being mostly a climb.

Then, on FS77, I just had to climb more and more, all the way up Winding Stair.

I ran into Scott Hanson somewhere in there, but neither of us immediately recognized the other! Partway up Winding Stair, there was a guy on a gravel bike fixing his tire. I offered help, but he had it under control. The gravel was super loose and dry, and it was a awful wrestling match on the last run up to the ridge. I nearly stalled out several times.

My plan was to take Ball Mountain Ridge back to FS877, climb Silver Dollar, descend Gold Coin, then figure things out from there. Problem number one is that I'd never ridden Ball Mountain Ridge before. I'd hiked down it once, from the BMT, but missed the segment that leads over Ball Mountain knob. I needed to find the other end of that segment, where it joins FS42, but I'd never seen it in person, and I had only a vague idea of where it ought to be. I ended up riding past it at first, wondering if maybe the next knob was actually Ball Mountain, deciding no, and backtracking, only for it to be really obvious in the other direction.

Ha!

The trail up over the top was easy to follow, but when it intersected the BMT, I was at a loss. I didn't really see much of a trail on the other side. When I'd first hiked Ball, the trail was easy to find, but that was a while ago. Summer and fall had both occurred since then. Thorns could have grown up and leaves could have fallen. I didn't see anything to the left or right. What lay ahead of me didn't look much like a trail, but to be honest, I'd followed less distinct paths before, and they proved to be the right way to go.

So, I headed downhill, looking for it to become a distinct ridge at some point. Unfortunately, it never really did, and there was nothing but horrible thorns in every direction.

I was determined though, and I wove my way back and forth for maybe 100 yards before deciding that this couldn't possibly be the trail and heading back up. The whole time, though, it was just briars in every direction, and I got shredded to death.

I finally ended up back on the BMT, just a bit west of where I'd come down to it, laid my bike down, and wandered back and forth a bit, looking for the trail. Just then, a pair of hikers strolled by: "Did you... misplace something?" "Ha! Yeah, the Ball Mountain Ridge Trail. Have you seen it?" "Ha! Sorry, no. Never heard of it." "Yeah, it's kinda obscure." And right then, I found it. "Oh! Here it is!" I have no idea what they thought of me, but they were gone in a few seconds, and I'd probably never see them again, so it probably didn't matter too much.

Having found the trail...

I began my descent.

And, pretty quickly remembered that early fall isn't the best time to explore steep downhills by bike. There were lots of rocks, hidden by leaves. It was also occasionally very steep, and easy for the back end to start sliding around on the leaves. I'd been needed a dropper post for a while, but at the time, I just had to make do with what I had, which was barely adequate, and really sketchy. It seemed like forever before I made it to the Morgan Dairy sign.

And it seemed like another forever before I made it to the food plot at the bottom. Just sketchy, sketchy leaves, all the way down.

I forget now what it was, but I'd forgotten to bring something with me, so I stopped back by camp to get it. When I got there, everybody was asleep. I guess, with the cold the night before, they needed to catch up a bit.

The climb up Silver Dollar was chunky and difficult. I'd climbed it once before, a very long time ago, and had a fairly easy time of it. I mean, it was steep here and there, but I didn't remember it being so chunky. I didn't notice the actual Silver Dollar sign. It made me wonder if it had been stolen or otherwise removed. Fortunately, the Farm Road sign was still there.

The kick up to FS77 was extremely chunky, and I had to walk a bit of it. That section has changed a lot over the years. When I first rode it in like 2004, it had like a foot of leaves on it. We just called it the Deep Leaves Trail. Several times, I'd asked people who I thought might have ridden it if they'd ridden "The Deep Leaves Trail" and if they had, they knew exactly what I meant. Then, the leaves got cleared, and for years, it was really smooth and tacky. That perfect loamy duff. But, as is common on steep, unmaintained trails, that duff wore away, followed by dirt, until only loose rock remained. Hopefully it will fall out of favor for a while, get a chance to collect more leaves, get a chance to collect more dirt, and fill back in. One can dream, at least.

I eventually made it to PR Gap, and began climbing Gold Coin. I hadn't ridden Gold Coin in like 15+ years. Years earlier, it wasn't very contiguous - there were individual, distinct trails, leading over each knob, but they didn't really connect to each other. Or maybe they once had, but didn't any longer. Word was that it was one long, well defined trail now, and that turned out to be true.

There were a couple of guys camped up on the first knob, and we waved at each other. It was nice to see that the old ammo box orienteering marker was still there.

I rode along the ridge until the trail dropped precipitously down to Montgomery Creek. The trail was braided and rutted down there, and I had to walk a bit. IDK, I guess I've lost some skill because I remember it being rutted and braided way back, and I rode it on an 80mm 26er with 1.9 tires, with no problem. Maybe it was slightly less chunky back then, or slightly more grippy. IDK.

On the other side of the road, there was a cool little bridge...

...but I still managed to get one of my feet wet crossing it.

I noticed another orienteering marker back over there too.

I eventually passed by False Black Falls, and figured I should enjoy it while I was there.

When I reached FS28-1, I had some decisions to make. There was a trail out there that I'd never ridden, but wanted to explore. I could climb up to Cooper Gap, ride over to Long Mountain, take it all the way down to FS243, and pick up the "new" trail on the other side, or I could just take the road to FS243, climb it, and take the trail from there. Sadly, I'm so far removed from the decision, now, that I don't remember what drove it, but I opted for the shorter, easier route, and just climbed FS243.

I remember there being a black vulture just standing in the middle of the road as I climbed. It didn't fly or even walk away as I passed, and I got the closest look at one that I've ever gotten.

I found the trail, right where I expected to find it, and ripped it back to the paved road.

People were calling it Whissenhunter because it basically leads over to the Whissenhunt OHV system. I could see that it continued on the other side of the road, and I had the urge to explore further, but camp was actually quite a ways away, and I did need to get back and actually hang out with my friends, rather than just ride my bike all day, so I proceeded back in that direction.

I also remember the Rangers setting up an ambush somewhere near the base, but I don't remember exactly where now.

I got back to camp in good time though, and we enjoyed ourselves that evening, as we had the evening before - cooking, eating, stories, and just generally staying warm by the fire. It was even colder that night, and again, I was perfectly warm. The next morning, we all packed up, ate breakfast, and headed home. On the drive back, I ran into Mark Baldwin and Scott Hanson across from Nimblewill Church. Scott realized that it was me that he'd seen the day before. Classic - I run into people I know 100 miles from my house.

It was a really great trip, aside from getting shredded on thorns...

Sadly, though I've camped up there since, by myself, I haven't again with friends. It'll be fall again soon though. Maybe I can remedy that.