With the DirtRoadTrip Winter Camp Out right around the corner, we gathered up the crew to do a quick scouting run around George Washington National Forest.
The previous Summer Camp Out was hosted at an excellent site directly off of Long Run Road, and we were looking for a change of scenery. In the past we had covered a lot of the trail in the same vicinity, but we’d never really spent any serious time looking for large campsites.
Normally we only need to accommodate 3-5 trucks, but when a larger group shows up, some of our favorite spots just don’t cut it. The goal for the weekend was to check trail/road conditions in the area, and try to find some alternative campsites for future trips.
We rendezvoused at the main gathering point which we utilize for most of our adventures going west; the Sheetz in Haymarket (also known as the gas station 1 minute away from Jason’s house). Then we pointed the rigs west and headed for the Gospel Hill Mennonite Church that sits right at the intersection of Long Run Road and Hopkins Gap Road (612).
As we hit the trail, conditions were very wet and visibility was pretty poor due to a heavy fog in the area. It had been raining for the previous 2 days, and to say things were muddy would have been an understatement.
We decided to take a quick detour onto Second Mountain Road and headed over to the parking lot to pick up some trash. We usually try to fill a few bags on every trip out, but unfortunately sometimes we feel like we need a dump truck. We also took the time to take the mandatory poser shot so all of our friends of Facebook can see we don’t just crawl curbs in mall parking lots.
Our next stop was the previous camp site for the Summer Camp Out and then we proceeded to take some of the spur trails. Unfortunately we didn’t find any good group alternative group camp sites on this run, but Long Run Road was still a nice scenic drive.
We were surprised at how many campsites we found along the road, and there were at least a dozen options that could host 2-6 trucks in varying locations. Anyone looking for a stock friendly (don’t mind the picture of Mark’s taco, he found the one mud hole in the entire place) scenic drive through George Washington National Forest should consider Long Run, you can easily run the trail and then find a nice campsite to settle down into for the night.
Unfortunately we didn’t have time to camp on this trip, but we’ll be back out there soon for the winter camp out and to check out some of the awesome campsites we marked down.
[…] he lent me a unit for our scouting trip for the Winter Camp Out and it created a perfect track of Long Run Road. After the trip I was completely sold, so I ordered a unit and quickly went to work designing a […]