Enthusiast III
Hey all, I'm fairly new to the overlanding community so I wanted to post a write up of my experiences during my first real overland trip. I went to Overland Expo East last year and I went to a group event in December 2019, but this was my first time planning my own trip from start to finish. It was just gonna be my buddy (in a lifted Jeep Wrangler with all sorts of upgrades) and me in my stock 2000 GMC Yukon Denali (My only real upgrade is stock size Goodyear Duratrac tires). We're both 20 year old college students who have to go back to school next week, so this was meant to be an end of summer trip. Unfortunately I didn't take nearly enough pictures, so this post is gonna be pretty text heavy. I live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which has little to offer in terms of unimproved public roads. We decided to go to Virginia and work our way through the Blue Ridge Parkway and the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. I went into GAIA GPS and planned for a 4 day and 3 night trip, including travel time. We would start at the top of the Blue Ridge Parkway and finish at a campground I found online called "Scales" in the Mount Rogers Recreation Area.
Day 1
We left from my house a little after 9 in the morning on Friday. Everything was going smoothly until we hit the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Its summer, so a little bit of traffic is normal, but this was different. It was standstill, bumper to bumper traffic. We eventually got off the highway and started creeping on side roads, but ended up getting turned around by state troopers when we finally got to the onramp closest to the bridge at around noon. We each had cheap CB radios to communicate, so I went to channel 19 and listened in on some truckers. Apparently 2 of the 3 Westbound lanes were closed due to a man threatening to jump (according to a news article he was there for 23 hours, but got down safely at 8pm that night). We made the decision to avoid the bridge and go through Delaware and around the Bay. We hit D.C. traffic pretty hard too, but ended up at the start of the BRP by 9pm. We drove through the mountains and fog until we got to our first campsite around 11pm (37.78757, -79.15251). We set up tents in our headlights and quickly fell to sleep. Atleast we knew the rest of our trip would have minimal traffic!
Day 2
In the morning we woke to see just how lovely the site we picked out was. I spoke to a nice fisherman who said the Piney River was great for fishing. We packed our tents and continued on, ready to explore. There were tons of little campsites sprinkled along Forest Road 63. It was rough dirt with big roots and rocks but nothing too bad. I discovered that my cheap roof rack (holding water, fuel and spare tire) wasn't holding up well to washboard roads. We tightened everything up as best we could and added a few shop rags to act as shims. For the rest of the trip we had to keep an eye on the rack, but it never became a real problem. I'm going to try to make a new mount for it soon. We continued on, eventually reaching the BRP again. We rode it for awhile, and eventually got off for the first slightly technical part of our trip. Forest Road 318 is a fun and stock friendly trail that I had discovered during the previous group trip in December. The trail is only open from August-January, so I was surprised at how much more challenging it was than I remember. After the trail we pulled back onto the BRP and broke for lunch at an overlook. This is my first time planning a trip, and I found that I simply planned way too much for one day. Instead of planning 200 miles, I will instead plan ~120 miles max! My original plan was to dip into the town of Bedford to visit the National D-Day memorial, but we decided to push on and cover as much ground as possible. At first we followed the BRP, then as it got later we decided to hop on the highway and used GPS to get to our next campsite near the Falls of Dismal. This is a great area for dispersed camping that I will be sure to return to sooner or later. We found a large campsite with plenty of room for our vehicles and tents at (37.21013, -80.87265). We made dinner and went to bed early.
Day 3
We woke up early, made breakfast and packed up our tents. Of course, the Jeep doesn't start. We pop the hood and the battery terminals are corroded beyond belief. We tried jumping with no luck. The Jeep is a manual so we even thought about clutch-starting it, but we quickly realized neither of us knew how to do this. I tested the battery with a multi-meter and its reading under 8 volts, so I figured based on the corrosion and the age of the battery we might as well throw a new battery in it. So we hop in the Yukon and drive 40 minutes to the nearest auto store, an Advanced Auto Parts in Radford. The employee we spoke to was really nice, and pointed out the meaning of JEEP - Just Empty Every Pocket. She said she drove a '90s Cherokee so she was able to say that. We drove another 40 minutes back, took the old battery off and broke the negative battery terminal. Shit. So we drive another 40 minutes, calling every auto parts store to see who has the terminal. Thankfully, an O'Reillys happens to have it. Another 40 minute trip back. Throw the terminal on, hook up the battery and it fires right up. Thank god. It was almost 2pm at that point, so we just wanted to cover some ground before we had to get on the highway to make it to that nights planned campsite. We drove along some switchbacks that seemed to last forever, and took Forest Road 202 near the Gatewood Reservoir that proved to be more difficult than expected for me. Ground clearance and departure angle was an issue, I scraped my rear bumper in a mud pit. I also managed to hit my exhaust pipe at some point, which came loose and now my Yukon is about 20 decibels louder. Oh well, I'll fix it when I get home. We then followed along some beautiful country roads that ran through an awesome valley (VA Route 600), before hopping on the highway to make it to our campsite before dark. We got to the foot of Scales (36.67000, -81.48674) at around 7pm, and discovered the ~5 mile trail up was pretty challenging. It was all worth it when we got to the top though. Wild horses wander around the campsite, blocked from entering by a cattle gate. There were 2 other groups at this campsite, but there was plenty of room to spread out (You could have fit another 20 rigs and tents very comfortably). There were pit toilets and we even had cell service. It was raining and cloudy, so the view was a little disappointing. We both decided to just sleep in our cars.
Day 4
We woke up, made breakfast and drove down and onto the blacktop. We had an 8 hour journey home, which thankfully was pretty uneventful. We hit some construction in Virginia, and the beginnings of the D.C. 3 O'clock rush hour, but nothing worth complaining too much about.
Take-Aways
1 - When planning, conservatively pace yourself. It will always take longer than you expect. I figure for future trips I will plan roughly 120 miles per day, maybe less.
2 - Take less crap! I brought way too much stuff. Did I need a full Plano box of cooking stuff? Absolutely not, especially considering we barely used any of it. I'm going to try to consolidate my gear down before my next trip.
3 - CB radios were priceless during this trip. I'm planning to buy a nicer unit that I can mount on my dash soon.
4 - You don't need a lift and 40" mud tires to have fun. My $1500 20 year old Yukon has its problems, no doubt about it. Still, it was able to do everything I needed it to. The little bit of cosmetic and exhaust damage probably could have been avoided if I would have slowed down and picked better lines. Oh well, adventure scars never bothered me anyway. I'm happy to have a rig that I can actually say I use versus a pimped out mall crawler.
5 - Don't just inspect your own rig, check those you are traveling with as well. A second set of eyes is rarely a bad thing. Had I seen how corroded my buddy's battery was before we left, I would have made him replace it, saving us alot of trouble.
6 - Avoid gas station food whenever possible, especially if you won't have access to an indoor toilet for the next 72 hours. Lets just say that we stopped at a Sheetz on our way and I found out why the hotdogs are so cheap.
As hectic and frustrating as this trip was at times, we still both had a great time. It was great getting to explore a new part of this beautiful country. I really regret not taking more pictures, but thank you for reading my write-up!
Day 1
We left from my house a little after 9 in the morning on Friday. Everything was going smoothly until we hit the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Its summer, so a little bit of traffic is normal, but this was different. It was standstill, bumper to bumper traffic. We eventually got off the highway and started creeping on side roads, but ended up getting turned around by state troopers when we finally got to the onramp closest to the bridge at around noon. We each had cheap CB radios to communicate, so I went to channel 19 and listened in on some truckers. Apparently 2 of the 3 Westbound lanes were closed due to a man threatening to jump (according to a news article he was there for 23 hours, but got down safely at 8pm that night). We made the decision to avoid the bridge and go through Delaware and around the Bay. We hit D.C. traffic pretty hard too, but ended up at the start of the BRP by 9pm. We drove through the mountains and fog until we got to our first campsite around 11pm (37.78757, -79.15251). We set up tents in our headlights and quickly fell to sleep. Atleast we knew the rest of our trip would have minimal traffic!
Day 2
In the morning we woke to see just how lovely the site we picked out was. I spoke to a nice fisherman who said the Piney River was great for fishing. We packed our tents and continued on, ready to explore. There were tons of little campsites sprinkled along Forest Road 63. It was rough dirt with big roots and rocks but nothing too bad. I discovered that my cheap roof rack (holding water, fuel and spare tire) wasn't holding up well to washboard roads. We tightened everything up as best we could and added a few shop rags to act as shims. For the rest of the trip we had to keep an eye on the rack, but it never became a real problem. I'm going to try to make a new mount for it soon. We continued on, eventually reaching the BRP again. We rode it for awhile, and eventually got off for the first slightly technical part of our trip. Forest Road 318 is a fun and stock friendly trail that I had discovered during the previous group trip in December. The trail is only open from August-January, so I was surprised at how much more challenging it was than I remember. After the trail we pulled back onto the BRP and broke for lunch at an overlook. This is my first time planning a trip, and I found that I simply planned way too much for one day. Instead of planning 200 miles, I will instead plan ~120 miles max! My original plan was to dip into the town of Bedford to visit the National D-Day memorial, but we decided to push on and cover as much ground as possible. At first we followed the BRP, then as it got later we decided to hop on the highway and used GPS to get to our next campsite near the Falls of Dismal. This is a great area for dispersed camping that I will be sure to return to sooner or later. We found a large campsite with plenty of room for our vehicles and tents at (37.21013, -80.87265). We made dinner and went to bed early.
Day 3
We woke up early, made breakfast and packed up our tents. Of course, the Jeep doesn't start. We pop the hood and the battery terminals are corroded beyond belief. We tried jumping with no luck. The Jeep is a manual so we even thought about clutch-starting it, but we quickly realized neither of us knew how to do this. I tested the battery with a multi-meter and its reading under 8 volts, so I figured based on the corrosion and the age of the battery we might as well throw a new battery in it. So we hop in the Yukon and drive 40 minutes to the nearest auto store, an Advanced Auto Parts in Radford. The employee we spoke to was really nice, and pointed out the meaning of JEEP - Just Empty Every Pocket. She said she drove a '90s Cherokee so she was able to say that. We drove another 40 minutes back, took the old battery off and broke the negative battery terminal. Shit. So we drive another 40 minutes, calling every auto parts store to see who has the terminal. Thankfully, an O'Reillys happens to have it. Another 40 minute trip back. Throw the terminal on, hook up the battery and it fires right up. Thank god. It was almost 2pm at that point, so we just wanted to cover some ground before we had to get on the highway to make it to that nights planned campsite. We drove along some switchbacks that seemed to last forever, and took Forest Road 202 near the Gatewood Reservoir that proved to be more difficult than expected for me. Ground clearance and departure angle was an issue, I scraped my rear bumper in a mud pit. I also managed to hit my exhaust pipe at some point, which came loose and now my Yukon is about 20 decibels louder. Oh well, I'll fix it when I get home. We then followed along some beautiful country roads that ran through an awesome valley (VA Route 600), before hopping on the highway to make it to our campsite before dark. We got to the foot of Scales (36.67000, -81.48674) at around 7pm, and discovered the ~5 mile trail up was pretty challenging. It was all worth it when we got to the top though. Wild horses wander around the campsite, blocked from entering by a cattle gate. There were 2 other groups at this campsite, but there was plenty of room to spread out (You could have fit another 20 rigs and tents very comfortably). There were pit toilets and we even had cell service. It was raining and cloudy, so the view was a little disappointing. We both decided to just sleep in our cars.
Day 4
We woke up, made breakfast and drove down and onto the blacktop. We had an 8 hour journey home, which thankfully was pretty uneventful. We hit some construction in Virginia, and the beginnings of the D.C. 3 O'clock rush hour, but nothing worth complaining too much about.
Take-Aways
1 - When planning, conservatively pace yourself. It will always take longer than you expect. I figure for future trips I will plan roughly 120 miles per day, maybe less.
2 - Take less crap! I brought way too much stuff. Did I need a full Plano box of cooking stuff? Absolutely not, especially considering we barely used any of it. I'm going to try to consolidate my gear down before my next trip.
3 - CB radios were priceless during this trip. I'm planning to buy a nicer unit that I can mount on my dash soon.
4 - You don't need a lift and 40" mud tires to have fun. My $1500 20 year old Yukon has its problems, no doubt about it. Still, it was able to do everything I needed it to. The little bit of cosmetic and exhaust damage probably could have been avoided if I would have slowed down and picked better lines. Oh well, adventure scars never bothered me anyway. I'm happy to have a rig that I can actually say I use versus a pimped out mall crawler.
5 - Don't just inspect your own rig, check those you are traveling with as well. A second set of eyes is rarely a bad thing. Had I seen how corroded my buddy's battery was before we left, I would have made him replace it, saving us alot of trouble.
6 - Avoid gas station food whenever possible, especially if you won't have access to an indoor toilet for the next 72 hours. Lets just say that we stopped at a Sheetz on our way and I found out why the hotdogs are so cheap.
As hectic and frustrating as this trip was at times, we still both had a great time. It was great getting to explore a new part of this beautiful country. I really regret not taking more pictures, but thank you for reading my write-up!
