Day 1: Events in Stokesville, Virginia

This trip is a reprise visit to a favorite spot in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Our friend Bob, an avid mountain biker and accomplished competitive racer, and Paul, a.k.a. Del to our Second Life friends, had planned this trip to Stokesville late trip last summer, long before my cancer was to be discovered. We had visited here once in 2021, when the original covid had subsided, only to rise a few months later like an ugly Phoenix, transformed into a new variant.  We really enjoyed our time here, so of course, we jumped at the chance to visit again.

Stokesville Campground (formerly Stokesville Park) is located on the edge of George Washington National Forest, just south of Harrisonburg and a bit north west of Staunton, both about 30 mins away.  Besides its lovely placement on a mountain road, there are views over the trees, stretching out across the valley to multiple layers of mountains beyond to the east. 

It’s most notable for its own mountain bike trails and access to those in the national forest. At least to the biking folks who run this campground and those fellow mountain biker enthusiasts who stay here. I am sure there are hiking trails to walk as well. There are also some very picturesque wooded road ways that take you all the way to the top of the an old mountain overview near by.  You can get great views up there of the surrounding forest and West Virginia.

 

There’s a swimming hole here as well, located at the bottom of the dirt road leading up to the campground, with a historic metal bridge marking its spot.  When we were here last time, you could hear the voices and  laughter of folks through the woods below who were taking advantage of it. It was super hot here that visit.  

I am thinking not many people, other than the most brave, stouthearted or foolish, will be taking advantage of that hole just yet, as the temps are projected to be in the 60s most days and 40s most night during our stay. 

I was going to take a new photo of the valley and mountains this morning for the banner image above, but it is kind of gray and cloudy this morning and the most distant mountains are totally obscured from view.  So, I am posting a photo from our original visit. It will have to do until I can get a good updated one.

Overall, we had great driving conditions. There were a few roadwork slowdowns on our way south as people needed to merge in zipper style. There was one accident on an off ramp to Baltimore, which was just starting to back up traffic to 95. Ambulances were starting to arrive and it looked like it would turn into a long backup. But, we made it around that with out any delay.

As we made our way further south, we could see how much further along the growing season had progressed compared to home. There were many more colorful wildflowers growing along fields and highway, as well as full-scale vegetable farms with busy produce stands. 

The rolling hills of the Shenandoah Valley, dotted with their beautiful farms sitting on top of hills and tucked into deep valleys, peeking out to beckon you to linger a while to explore those twisty little country roads.  Their picturesque hay fields were super high, ready for harvest any day. Their colors were changing from the usual green to slivery green or gold green that bent to the will of any breeze that passed over them.

As we got further south and closer to our destination, the hay fields had already been mowed. Some laying down flat to dry, other having been raked and turned into neat rows, and still others already made into large rolled green bales standing like sentries in the fields.

We left home about 10:30 and arrived about 3:30 yesterday afternoon. There were no convenient rest areas along our route so I made a sandwich for Paul as we bounced along the highway. There were only a few people here when we arrived. Those that are here are very far away from our campsite. It’s like we are the only people here. 

We’re staying for 6 nights, in site 21, the same site as last visit.  Since we are here for so long, we decided to set up the full camp, which includes a full outside kitchen with stove and Blackstone grill, plus electric extension cords for the Instapot. (The camper has a fridge and sink in its outside kitchen.) We only do this full setup if we know the weather will be very hot (to keep the cooking heat outside the camper) or if we are going to settle in for a while. There is a bit of relearning how to set up the crazy folding camp table that holds the oven and grill as well as how long it takes for the camp oven to get to your desired heat.

Bob pulled in a little bit later, while we were putting the finishing touches on our set up. I had prepped a pizza dough early in the morning before leaving and let it rise and ferment a bit on the way down.

We had a caprese style pizza and also a mushroom with caramelized onion, fontina and blue cheese our first night in. While they were both yummy, the mushroom one was the boys’ favorite.

 

 

 

 

 

Last night, we saw a tom turkey get up very high (maybe 40’) into the tree tops to roost for the evening. He was too far away to get a good photo of him and we didn’t really want to disturb him from his nightly roost. Saw him again this morning patrolling the campground.

 

When darkness fell, a Whip-Poor-Will started his very distinctive nightly calls.  He was alone for a long while then some others finally joined him in their nightly chorus.  You could hear them moving through the woods pretty much all night.  We recalled how they also took over the nighttime sounds the last time we were here as well.

Our little home network tower and mifis are not working here, so our connection to the outside world will be limited this week. I will have to use my phone or iPad to connect to the internet.  I will try to post daily using those, but may have to skip a few days here and there, maybe cuz there’s nothing to say, or maybe I just can’t a good connection out.

Well more later on, thanks for reading.