George Washington National Forest (Solo)

First time in 40k miles taking the truck truly off-road and into the forest for three days. It was a solo trip to I stuck to easier trails and moderate traffic area.


Stayed the first night on a ridge off of Coon Bridge Trail. It was rainy and foggy and everything was damp, so I had to use a Firestarter to get anything to light. But sleeping in the hammock next to a fire with a slight breeze was the best sleep I could have asked for.


Found some uses for my recovery gear.



I know it's not an impressive water crossing but still, for my first time out there for several days by myself, I wanted to get the experience without the risk of getting in too deep.


The second night I found another small hill crest to camp on. Just the hammock, rain fly and truck. This was on the Greasy Springs trail just after you turn off of FR1176. The rest of the trail was a ton of fun.





The whole point of this trip was to catch fish to eat and only eat the food I brought when I didn't have fish, but that turned out to be short sighted since Piney River wasn't stocked and was super low and this lake only allowed lure fishing, no bait, so I never caught a single fish.


On my last day before heading home I went up Crabtree Meadows from the south all the way to the private land gate. Ate lunch on the river. Then I drove to meet the family at Carters Orchard for some cider and apple picking before driving back to Hampton Roads.

My full gear list will be posted here. The mods on my truck are in my profile page.

Three Things I Wish I Had:
1. Tire pressure gauge. Dummy me only had my Viair 88P and had to screw it in to air down.
2. Skid Plate. Everytime I hit a rock I just imagined my oil pan leaking out or my transfer case shattering. Unrealistic for the trails I was on but I would have just felt better.
3. Better phone mount. My Niteize Steelie is good for roads but every bump I hit I had to move it back to see the map.

Three Things I'm Glad I Had:
1. Front Anytime Camera. On the trail just threw this on to have something useful up on the display and saw so many rocks or downhill that was blocked by the hood.
2. Hidden bumper light bar. Literally turned night to day and saw things on the same trail at night that I didn't see during the day.
3. Puddle pods. Exactly what they were meant for. It was a muddy and rainy weekend and I could see what I was doing at night.

Two Things I Had I Could Have Done Without:
1. Waterport with bed rail mount and extension plate. The weight of that thing caused two of the rail mount screws to come out while I was bouncing around and bent my bed rail. Could have just used my 5gal jug and been fine.
2. Gasshole. Just in general.

 

Could you post some general entry and exit points for your trip?

 

Following on bishtaco. Very interested in this route

 

I found and downloaded a GW and Jefferson forest map. It's 92 pages but very detailed.

 

Awesome! Thank you!

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

FWIW, I'm finding trails on the trailsoffroad.com app which has the ranger district listed. From there, I think you can find the specific paper map just in case you need it.

 

I started at the Big Piney Trailhead and then just explored all to the west on the trails and forest service roads. There's private property at the start of the gravel road but then there's a GW National Forest sign then everything is fair game.

 

Map 28 denotes the area I was exploring.