As Northern Virginians, I think we sometimes take for granted how accessible West Virginia is to us. I know that I’m guilty of that, and made it a point to join some friends at Twin Mountain Off Road Adventure in Williamsport West Virginia a few weeks ago. While I couldn’t stay the whole weekend and didn’t get a bunch of time on the trails (I had less than 24 hours for the trip) , it was a great escape and reminder of how awesome West Virginia is.
Some of Twin Mountain owner John Bradshaw’s Land/Range Rover collection
A little bit about Twin Mountain:
Twin Mountain is the brainchild of John Bradshaw, lifelong adventurer and 4×4 enthusiast. John and I met during the Vermont Overland Trophy in 2013 and bonded over endless tire repairs and bushwacking our campsites on the second and third nights. John is quite the campsite entertainer and has forgotten more about offroading, expedition travel, and vehicle mechanics than I can ever hope to learn (and despite all of that experience and knowing better, still loves Land Rovers!). John also has a sharp (British) sense of humor that’ll keep your ego in check!
Action shot of John doing a little trailbreaking at Twin Mountain
John’s passion and experience are well represented at Twin Mountain. John’s idea (I’m paraphrasing) is to provide a diversity of trails and challenges in a scenic setting – making Twin Mountain both as challenging and accessible as it needs to be for most of us weekend warriors. Hardcore rock crawlers might want more than is offered, but for the rest of us with prepared, but not extreme rigs, the park is a good fit. Twin Mountain still being a very new, John is still actively building the trail network and I expect it’ll expand a bunch in the next year and continue to get better.
One of the nice things about the park (depending on your situation) is that the facilities are much more family/wife/girlfriend-friendly than other places or remote camping. We’re talking real bathrooms, complete with showers and hot water!
Scenic Camping Spot (1 of 12) at Twin Mountain
My Trip and First Impressions:
My quick overnight jaunt to Twin Mountain was more of an informal meetup with a couple local guys to check out the property and help John with some trail building. Several of the guys were old friends that participated in the Vermont Overland Trophy, so it was great to see everyone again, including my teamate Roudy! KC Steiner from Maxtrax America also joined us in a badass Local Motors Rallyfighter done up in Maxtrax livery.
The Rallyfighter is the epitome of a “big boy toy”
KC is a seasoned Baja racer and is on a cross-country tour spreading the gospel of MaxTrax. For anyone skeptical, the MaxTrax work exactly as promised and KC easily sold our group several sets. I was mostly distracted by the LS3-powered long-travel Rallyfighter that KC was hotlapping and jumping on the property.
The Rallyfighter interior is all business!
The drive out to Twin Mountain was nice and relatively quick! Door to door from my place in Fairfax to the park was about 2 hours on the dot. Also, the drive itself is really scenic in the second hour, as you wind down 48 West through the Mountains, with no cell phone signal in sight to distract you…
My camp site for the night!
The property itself is picturesque and the trails (so far) are mostly narrow, steep, and off-camber in spots with the amount of medium-rockiness we’ve come t expect in Appalachia. More difficult than the trails we normally drive in George Washington National Forest, but not as crazy as some of the stuff you’d see on a Vermont Overland Trophy challenge section or crawling course. I think most 4×4 high-clearance trucks with sliders and good all-terrains can handle 90% of the routes today.
The camp spots have a great vantage point for catching the sunset, are only a few minutes from the “facilities”, and have enough space between them for folks to have a reasonable amount of privacy. Not complaints from me here! The fire pit that John has built is enormous! Clearly he is having too much fun owning a front-loader tractor…but the execution is great and we had a great time around a bonfire on Saturday night.
Yes, there is a fantastic Mercedes Unimog on the premises…
We will be getting back to Twin Mountain for sure, and I’m excited to see the park grow and get more visitors – I’d put money on the place doing really well as it really hits all the marks for those of us looking for a quick-fix trip out of the DC area. You can check out Twin Mountain on their website or on Facebook.
You just made my day – my brother and I JUST bought some recreational property 30 miles east of here. Can’t wait to check the place out.
Another great writeup Ben! And a great new park as well.
Well said!