The Wild Crow - Flight Preparations

Some road he likes to go down around there he said there's free camping spots. He seems to hit that area right rugularly

 

This looks amazing and right up my alley!! I camped at bald mountain last week and Crabtree meadows over the weekend.

Is st Mary's falls close to coal road / bald mountain? I explored that area last year but couldn't find what I was looking for.

I really enjoy those remote camping areas. The group I was with this weekend made the comment " nothing is out here. It's just woods." I was like "exactly" it's perfect! I woke.up early and got the fire going and myself some coffee. While i was drinking my coffee several deer passed by the campsite. That made my day! Heard some coyotes howling as well! I can see and hear that in my backyard but there is just something special about the mountains.

I would really like to check out that area if it is really quiet and secluded. PM me the location if you dont mind. You dont have to worry about me crowding the place as i usually only camp in the same place maybe twice a year and i always leave the place better than i found it. I usually camp on weekdays as often as possible to avoid the crowds.

We should all 3 get out sometime. I really need to get some welding done on the trailer but I bought a ARB awning room to get me by until I fix the trailer.

Anyway... thanks for tagging me and if you guys ever need some suggestions on new camping areas just let me know. I may have several hundred saved in my waypoints !

 

1. BACK THE TRUCK UP!
2. With the addition of the dual swing bumper and the 255/85/16 spare tire the oem back up camera was mostly blocked for any decent use. Not long after installing the bumper I found a kit that had a camera installed in the led brake light of the Jason Cap. I bought it and looked at it, set it aside, and pondered how to integrate the aftermarket with the stock system.
3. 
   
4. After many months and asking on TW I finally did this. With the wiring and switch kit from anytimebackupcamera.com which i installed first to make sure that system worked.
5. 
6. And no, I don't have a front camera, but if i need one i can add one.
7. The Jason Cap camera and led brake light unit bolted in place of the regular brake light. The brake light wiring was straight forward.
8. 
   
   The camera wiring was not bad to do but it took quite a while to get it wired out of sight and all connected weather tight.
   
   The camera 12volt power comes from the 7 way trailer plug. I tied into the aux power circuit (it's a black wire) and just screwed the ground onto the steel bumper. That actually powers the camera when the ignition is on.
   
   As @DaveB.inVa pointed out the red wire in the oem camera loom inside the tailgate was the positive video feed. The white wire was the negative feed. I clipped those wires inside the tailgate and fed all the camera wiring into there also.
   
   Clipping off the yellow rca connector in the Jason kit allowed me to tie its positive (center wire it was red) and negative (or shield wire, it was black where the sheathing meet the rca). By the way, those wires are tiny! My fingers are fat and that combination makes connecting wires securely a herculean task!
   
   So there's a power wire (red rca in the kit) coming into the tailgate, the video (was the yellow rca until I had to snip that connector off) wire ties into the stock loom. These screw onto the video cable. That cable feeds out of the tailgate and up the inside corner of the cap to connect to the wiring on the camera itself. I didn't take pictures of this, it was 104 outside (heat index) and i needed to get this done before I died.
   The Jason kit came with about 25 feet of video cable and some proprietary screw on connectors. I left those all bundled up and secured inside the tailgate. Padded with a piece of rubber and it should be gtg.
   
   
   The stock loom and camera is still there and if I want to return in to normal all I need to do is splice the red and white wires back together.
   
   
   
   
   After its all buttoned up (with much much much testing while the wiring was being done) it works like a charm. Truck in reverse and the backup camera comes on, driving down the road, hit the switch and the camera comes on. Sweet!
   
   
   
   Many Thanks to @DaveB.inVa ! for making this project a success!

 

Uh, I need to be able to get out there first

 

Eddy didn’t put a tab on your swing out for the camera? He placed mine where it works well and I didn’t even have to extend the wires. Got lucky I guess


I had to adapt it a little as the camera he used for a pettern must have been a bit different but made it work

 

No tab and i didn't ask for one. It's all good though. You know I don't like doing things the easy way!

 

Nice work and write-up. Cutting any of the factory wiring makes you feel like you're in bomb disposal...much stress.

 

That's really cool, nice work and write up

 

Thanks guys. If I'd had time (and less heat/ humidity) to take more photographs the write up would be much better. I did the best I could given the circumstances

 

Good stuff man i might have to steal that idea and see if that rear light camera works on my leer.

 

GETTIN' SHIFTY WIT IT





Around the same time as the backup camera I also (slyly) installed this bit of business. It was a surprise for Elizabeth and custom made by @JohnAcessCab . The shark tooth is one we found along the Potomac River It's from an extinct shark called a Hemipristis (snaggletooth) Serra. John turned the beautiful Cocobola shifter handle and inlaid the tooth. He did a great job and Elizabeth was very surprised the next morning when she drove to work. She actually called me and said it was cool.

 

That's really neat!! I like it a lot

 

HOT TOWN, SUMMER IN THE CITY, CAMPING IN THE MOUNTAINS IS NO PITY

At the end of July we managed a little camping trip into Jefferson National Forest with some old friends. Like most of our extended trips with these particular peeps, the sights we go to are usually preceded with the words:
"Have you seen.....?" or "I saw something interesting on the web"

The sight in question was The Devils Bathtub. Nope, never been there. We've never even been to that area. At an earlier 4th of July camping get together we all brought maps and books and gazeteers and reading glasses. Perusing the first three wearing the last it was decided what interesting things we wanted to see and where, in general we wanted to stay. In no particular order we wanted to see: Dismal Falls, Cascade Falls, the Devils Bathtub, the Channels, and bringing up the rear, Butt Mountain Fire tower (accessed by a 4wd road)

Our first stop was the Walnut Flats Campground outside of Pearisburg. Now, national forest campgrounds can be a little hit or miss. They usually have outhouses and water available, and if they are empty of campers they can be a hit. This time was a miss. The campground was absolutely full of people and equipment. While Beth and I were discussing our options we were approached by a man and a big, not friendly looking German shepherd.
The first words out of the dudes mouth were "He bites, I wouldn't try to pet him"
his second utterance was "you can camp next to my trailer right there"
Um, no. We're going to go find somewhere else.
His third phrase really got my goat, "You won't find anywhere else to stay out there"

Beth and I got back in the truck and took off up the road. Nearby was White Cedar Horse Camp (oh, look another place to stay), but it smelled like horse piss and it had garbage in the sites (come on people! clean up after yourselves!) We drove on up the road.

About a few miles up we found a decent looking dispersed site and backed the trailer in. The site was "good enough" but we thought we could do better. It was early in the afternoon and our friends weren't due until the next day, so we did what we do in these situations. Unhook the trailer and roll forest roads looking for better sites. Without the trailer the Wild Crow can eat a forest road alive and really get on down the road.

we found a few other decent sites, but none better than what we had. We decided to continue the loop we were on winding back to pavement then back past Walnut Flats. Up this particular forest road, the gravel was loose and softly muddy. I was in 4wd and rolling up a hill when a small murder of crows took flight at the top. I nonchalantly said
"Look, the crows were saving us a spot"
Sure enough at the top of the hill, way away from any other site was a very nice, dry campsite. Thank you fellow crows!

We immediately went back and got the trailer and hauled it the miles around to the this new home.




We set up our rain camp, lots of awning coverage, and good thing we did. It rained, a lot.


Or son was with us for one night, he slept in his Rav4, he requested movie night with this classic


We took it easy the next day, explored some forest roads and just bummed around. Our friends arrived in the afternoon and we got them all set up for rain. Good thing we did. It rained. A lot.

We all stayed warm and dry under the awnings and EZ Up with the Campfire in a Can providing the ambiance and warmth.


The morning dawned all misty and scenerific

 

Our first stop of the day was the Cascade Falls. A gorgeous hike along the lower trail led us along the creek to the Cascades.






With plenty of daylight left we decided to run the 4wd access road to Butt Mountain and check out the fire tower. The way in required 4wd nearing the top, it got fairly rough and rocky and took some careful driving to negotiate some of the rocks but we had no issues with either of our Tacomas.

The fire tower was, in my opinion, not very pretty and you couldn't climb it. The view was cool into the valley beyond though





We decided to make a loop back to camp and went down the other road going down from the tower. It started easy, then it got muddy with bypasses around some deep holes. Then came the spot. The road was off camber, wet and Jay was leading. His truck shifted to the right edge and he skirted past a deep hole by powering past and extremely close to a tree, his back tire of his first gen just dipping into the edge, but he popped up and made it past. I tried to do the same, but I didn't get close enough to the tree and my wider second gen slid sideways into the hole.

I tried to climb it out and all I managed to do was slide further left and more tilted sideways. I backed up a little and slid further into the ditch, tilting more sideways, scaring Beth, making myself say some bad words, and there we were......slid into a dirty hole and stuck in a crack on Butt Mountain.

 

After some careful and cautious shifting of the truck, I managed to get out of the ditch and get at least as level as the road was, but I still couldn't climb out of the hole.

Jay brought out the MaxTrax, and after a couple of tries and moving the 'Trax to different places we managed to get out the Butt hole.



The only damage done was the loss of a mudflap. That'll be fixed with a set of RoxBlokz flaps just waiting now for the install.

 

We spent another night in the rain but dry in the warm glow of the campfire


With the dawning of another day we made a visit to Dismal Falls. Quite unlike its name I felt very happy and fine there. Beautiful place to sit and relax and swim






Back at camp we had a brief lunch, packed up camp and headed souther and wester. We made our way down to the High Knob Recreation Area and its campground. Let me tell you, that road to High Knob may be paved, but it's steep and windy and towing a trailer up (or down) is very interesting.

High Knob is a small campground (11 sites) it was supposed to have a bathhouse and water, but those were shut down. It was a fee area but the fee to camp was discounted and we were the only ones there so we stayed. For the evening we drug out the projector and watched Pitch Black.

Thursday arrived dry and sunny and we loaded lunch in the truck and headed out to take a bath. The Devils Bathtub is a very popular spot in this area, but Thursday wasn't bad....I wouldn't want to be there on a warm Saturday. The trail crossed the creek 11 times, a very fun hike only a few miles and the creek crossings got you acclimated to the mountain stream water temperature.

Before the bathtub there is a very pretty pool of blue green water to swim in.


This pool is actually the image on the web when you google Devils Bathtub. It's not it. The actual bathtub is a short hike farther upstream. It looks the part for it's name. A 10x3 foot pool of roiling roaring water. We never found out how deep it is, none of us touched bottom. It is an experience to be had.

 

Looks like fun!!​

 

I think I want to retire.

 

On Friday, we had to hang around pretty close to High Knob and the Norton area, because someone in our party is a Quentin Tarentino fan and she just had to see his latest movie.

So, our day consisted of checking out High Knob lake, which was absolutely full of salamanders


Then we checked out the very near by Flag Rock Recreation area. It is a designated Sasquatch sanctuary (locally known as "WoodBoogers")


Beth thought he was adorable. If he had a teardrop and a truck I think I'd be in trouble




The Flag Rock part of Flag Rock was disappointing though. It's a Flag on a Rock overlooking Norton. You can't get remotely close to it. You can walk out onto a nearby rock, but it's got chainlink fencing meandering all around it. It feels confining, like you've been tricked into a cage. Not free like the high flying flag should make you feel.
The photo looks better, you can visually eliminate the fence at least


We spent the next couple hours driving some nearby roads. No camps found, nothing really cool. We did wind up making a 37 point Uturn on one little road that dead ended.

The movie was OK. Don't tell Sam, tell her it was awesome.


Our last day was a ride out to The Channels, a rocky outcropping you can sort climb all around. Kind of like being in a big open air caving system. Standing above the Channels is another fire tower (that you can't climb of course)









Of course there was some mild excitement back at High Knob camp when our lonely campground was invaded by a group of ricers from Richmond on a tour. They were friendly enough but the buzzing of cars and the basic noise of younger crowd killed the feeling of solitude. That's the downside to campgrounds and why I'll always choose a dispersed site when I can find one.

And that was that, one more night with a campfire and friends, with a wonderful lemon pie and some good Tequila our trip was over.

 

I know I want to retire......I could do this forever....