George Washington NF Group Trip During the Nor'easter

[JamesDowning]

I have a running semi-annual trip out to the George Washington National Forest with some guys from my Trailblazer forum. The acronym for the trip is TECORE (you'll see that in the videos).

We normally camp up on top of Meadow Knob, then explore the areas north of Rt 33.

No pics for the first bit of "Flagpole" trail. One of the other guys took some good video though... looking forward to seeing that. I'll repost his videos here if anyone is interested in seeing it.

Here's an optional obstacle on the way to the top of the mountain. One guy was able to go up it... and then I went down it with the guy pictured below.

Flagpole knob:

We would have normally camped at the top of the mountain, but knowing that it was going to snow that night (this most recent nor'easter), we decided to head down to a more protected campsite. At least that way we would be out of the wind.

And it started snowing...

Campsite:

And it kept snowing...

Morning, we awoke to about 4" of snow. This was my first view out of the RTT.

An additional inch fell over the morning.

Watch for falling snow...

 

[JamesDowning]

Time to hit the trails for the day:

We decided to head up 2nd Mountain next.

Dinner time:

At this point, we had the option to continue on to a campsite and camp for the night. But that idea was democratically voted down. The guys sleeping on the ground had a bunch of wet supplies and tents... and didn't want to deal with the snow again. So we headed back down the mountain, and parted ways.

 

[TangoBlue]

Nice pictures of a little fall and winter color - looks to be a memorable trip you'll be talking about for awhile.

 

[Rot Box]

Yahoo! :wings: Looks like a good time thanks for sharing

 

[BigAl]

Very cool, looks like fun:ylsmoke:

 

[BorntoVenture]

Great pictures and as usual your posts make me miss my TrailBlazer even more! Great looking group up there too.

 

[JamesDowning]

Thanks guys. I loved seeing the mountain in the snow. It's my first time up there with that much on the ground. It was also a good test of the weight capacity of the RTT. I had a good 4" of wet dense snow on it.

Here's day 1 video, no snow here. I haven't gone through the day 2 video yet... should be interesting.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Definitely was a fun trip. Great pics you got. I really do need to invest in a decent camera

I probably need to fix or replace the tent as well.

Few of my crappy cell pics...

 

[Clem]

Looked like a fun trip.

Thanks for sharing,

Clem

 

[NC_IslandRunner]

My riding buddy

 

[JamesDowning]

Heres the video from the trails on the second day. Big contrast to the previous video.

 

[firemanshort]

Where does someone find some good maps of these trails? I have been a follower on two lead trips to Flagpole knob and have seen dozens of intersecting trails - and I wonder where they all lead.

 

[4x4x4doors]

Best bet is probably a DeLormes of Viriginia. Many of those intersting trails are driveways either to embedded private property or to campsites just off the road.

 

[SWITAWI]

Great trip report! Obviously not enough Trailblazers in the world living up to their name these days. Well done.

 

[Rubicon_Fan]

Good Read! and looks like a great little adventure! Loved the snow camping. Thanks for sharing