Good Central VA trail (Shoe Creek)

So i talked to a buddy about a good place to go that was not super technical and where the likelihood of getting any damage would be small. I just got my tacoma in January, and my sister just picked up a brand new jeep, it had been off the lot less than a week (i tried to talk her into buying a toyota) so we decided to head out to shoe creek. I searched around the internet looking for directions to get to shoe creek, however, there were not many directions. I found a few out there for directions from the top down, but we were looking to go from the bottom up so that we could camp at crab tree falls that night. So I figured I would give a post and give directions to the base of the shoe creek trail. If you are planning to go I would get on maps.google, or google earth, or any other site similar to those and scout out the roads, it makes it alot easier to actually get there as some of the road signs are easy to miss. Also note that this trail is a "fire service road" and the property on both sides of the trail is private, and from what I have read the property owner will not hesitate to call the police. Now for the directions...

->Get on 64 going which ever direction you need to in order to go towards Charlottesville.
->Take 29 South
->56 west (29 south and 56 west are one road and then 56 will branch to the right)
->151 south
->Right on Lowesville Road (should be state route (SR) 778)
->Right on Woodson Road (SR 666)
->Stay right on Woodson
->Woodson should become Perkins mill road (SR 827) however it takes a sharp right at some point and another road continues straight
->You will want to stay on perkins mill road
-> you will end up on a gravel road that goes down between some houses, it almost appears like you could be in their drive way, but stay straight and it will head into the woods, and you have found Shoe Creek trail, and your first river crossing should be about 1/4 mile down the trail.

Once again if you are planning to make this trip, please do your research and check it out on the web so you don't get lost. My girlfriend actually plugged in perkins mill road on her GPS and that worked pretty well too.

As far as the trail goes, its a fun trail. I believe it is about 6 miles long, with several river crossings. There was like 1/4 mile to a 1/2 mile that were pretty technical, it took us close to an hour to get through it. However, that is because we were in 2 brand new vehicles and were doing our best not to get any damage. I got a small scrape on the running board, but nothing serious. If you have a vehicle that you are not overly concerned with damaging, or have even just a 2/3 inch lift you should be solid to run this trail with no problem.

Directions back to 64 are as follows:

->You will come out at the top of crab tree falls (its only a 1.5 mile hike down and a really good view), stay on that road until you get to the stop sign at the bottom of the mountain.
->56 East
->151 South
->Left onto 56
->29 North

 

cool ill definately have to check it out sometime. im from Petersburg so i dont havethat long of a drive