07JAN10-10JAN10 Dictums Ridge, VA

[korisu56]

Dictum's Ridge Camping and Trail

Attendees:

korisu56- Thurs-Sun
cjgumby- Thurs-Sun
jeffb_79- Thurs-Sun
shadow- Sat-Sun
Don-Sat-Sun
ezjeep- Sat
muddluxury- Fri-Sat
Kevin-dunno his screen name - Sat-Sun



Around lunch time on Thursday 07JAN10, we (cjgumby rode shotty) met with Jeffb at Sheetz off of Rt. 33. After fill up and last minute goods picked up we took off for the bottom of Long Run Rd. by the church. We air down the Titan and Jeff's TJ and I decide to attempt to tow the CJ up the trail as far as
possible.

About a quarter mile up, I decide to unhook it and warm up/air down because I didn't want the CJ to take the whole setup off the cliff to the right. There was a lot of ice and because the dolly pivots to allow tighter turning, it also allowed the rear end of the CJ to slide freely on the ice. With several hundred feet drop offs being only a few feet away, we decided not to risk it.

CJGumby leaving the comfort of the Titan to drive the CJ. He wanted to drive the cheaper vehicle in case of damage.

A couple of hours later, we arrive to the campsite up from the ATV unloading area and immediately began building camp utilizing what little light we had left.

 

[korisu56]

It started snowing right after dusk, and we started cooking dinner. We had all major food groups- Bacon, Steak, and Chicken.

The temperature was easily into the teens, but we had a nice fire, plenty of liquor, and lots of laughs. Around 0030, we saw a trail of lights and began fortifying the perimeter. Turns out they were house lights far off and we were just a lot drunker than we thought. We ran down the trail with an e-tool and a hatchet among other things. We retired to our tents for the evening after another drink

08JAN10:

Woke up around 0800-ish with this right out of my tent window:

It was considerably colder the morning (easily single digits) and a little breezy. By 1100, the tops of trees were swaying. The night before, CJGumby attempted to sit down and his chair exploded. If there was a joint, it broke in one sit.

We found out that noone was bringing a chain saw and we had nothing to lock down wood with. So we went out to explore another way down the mountain and forage for wood and maybe hit up town to buy some.

 

[korisu56]

Enter our first speed bump. We run into a fallen tree.

You can imagine our problem as we were already in a predicament without a chainsaw. Now we found ourselves SOL after we'd been heading down this trail for a couple of hours scouting a route to town. With our gear combined, we began moving the beast.

With some minor assistance of a local who pulled up, end result:

 

[korisu56]

We continued and got a phone call from Shadow who was going to bring wood and a splitting maul on Saturday. We lost our urgency to get down to town when we found a large pile of usable wood. We loaded it into the back of Jeff's TJ and rolled back to camp. The temperature was dropping fast and so was the sun.

Shane drove most of the way back.

 

[korisu56]

We ran into MuddyLuxury on the way back to camp. After jeff and myself backing back down the hill, Jeb backed into a tree conducting a 9 point turn. Once we arrived back at camp, it was all business. The temperature had dropped into the low teens and the wind had picked up to drop the temp below zero at gusts. Since the wind was giving us ****, we lit a propane single burner and sat it on the ground next to the starter log and it started right up. It just needed the temperature rise WITH the flame to catch.

Turned out the wood we got was crap. It smoked and burned this thick black smoke that burned everyone's eyes and throats. We started drinking with a purpose to make the cold and wind bite a little less. CJGumby and I ditched the tent and set up in the back of the Titan. It was a lot better than the tent. Don showed up at about 0100 Saturday morning, scaring the **** out of me. Dusty started going ape **** in the bed of the truck and nothing will get your heart going like hearing a door close and someone walk up to your truck in the snow. Oh well, all went well.

Only picture of that ****ty *** night:

 

[korisu56]

09JAN10:

This morning was all business. Jeff, Shane, and myself woke up, jumped in the Titan and ran to town using the long side of Long Run road. It took us almost three hours (I think) to get to Rt. 33. We were going through trails where people hadn't been in a long time. There was a lot of ice and plenty of powder for us to go through. Luckily nothing happened to us because we had zero comms, zero gear, zero food, and were all hung over and hungry.

We arrived back to camp around 1400 to find a different sight than that of which we left. There seemed to be people everywhere. We had met up with Rob (ezjeep) and Kevin (u/n unknown) at the Sheetz on Rt. 33 on the way back up to camp. It took us 45 minutes to get back up the original route up to Dictum's as opposed to Day 1's couple of hours. Shadow had arrived in the morning and our little camp turned into a bustling camp.

Jeff, Don, Jeb, and Rob all went trail riding down 2nd Mountain for a little bit in the afternoon while Shane, Dale, and myself stayed back and built the fire, thawed food, and prepped for Sunday's departure. Jeb and Rob left on the group's arrival back to camp.

There was no wind, it was very very very cold, but we had an amazing fire.

We all pretty much ate like kings, including the dogs. We ate dinner then started pounding the whiskey and such around the fire swapping stories and engaging in general shenaniganry. People started fizzling off and Kevin got plastered. He tried to convince us that hand guns were unnecessary if you had ninja skills via a demonstration that almost landed him in the fire. Hilarious.

 

[korisu56]

10JAN10:

Don bounced out super early.

I led the way so we would get down there sometime that morning. Took us under 45 minutes.

On the way home, Shane and I used some bungees to hold down a tarp in the bed. He was ************* around and pulling on a bungee and said "How bad would it suck balls to get hit by this?". Turns out, it sucks a lot of balls as it whipped back shortly after his comment and put a welt on his head.

 

[mustangwarrior]

nice pics, looks like a good time, i'd like to go on a winter camping trip, just to try it, but i cant get any of my buddies to go, huh imagine that...lol

 

[korisu56]

nice pics, looks like a good time, i'd like to go on a winter camping trip, just to try it, but i cant get any of my buddies to go, huh imagine that...lol

Haha. Its definitely a lot harder than any summer trip I've been on. Helluva challenge.