Friday, May 27, 2011

July 29-31 - Virginia Creeper Trail

Thomas' and Dawkins hosting.   We rode bikes on this "rails to trails" trail a couple of years ago - it was great.

From Clark :
Here is some information on the campsite and bike rentals for the upcoming trip.


Campground: Creeper Trail Campground http://www.creepertrailcampground.com/

It's located at the top of the Virginia Creeper trail and it's a Christmas tree farm as well. They have a primitive area (field) and camp sites available where we can set up a few tents per site. The cost is the same for either at $5 per head per night. We can choose where we stay when we get there. The camp site area has trees if you want to hang a hammock.

The nice thing about the location is that we don't have to pay for shuttle service if we leave a few vehicles at the bottom to carry our bikes back up when done. I have a trailer that will hold 10 or so bikes. However, if you want to rent a bike and take the shuttle, we can easily coordinate the timing with the group. The campground also has about 50 bikes to rent at $15/day but they don't have a shuttle service.

The campground appears to have a good bit to offer - check out the website. Late arrivals won't be a problem since they don't lock the entrance gate.

The last time we used the following outfit for bike rentals & shuttle service: www.adventuredamascus.com/ They did a great job and we can use them again. Click on the link for pricing and details. They have hourly shuttle service and will drop us off within walking distance of the campground.


Date: July 29 - 31

Campground address: 2238 Whitetop Gap Road, Whitetop, VA (276) 388-3426

Travel time: about 4 hours

Va Creeper Trail info: www.vacreepertrail.com/

If you have not been before, the trail is very nice with neat things to see. The very gradual downhill grade makes the biking very easy.

We have about 30 attending so far. Ronnie will work up a food list a little later.

It's going to be a fun trip! Looking forward to seeing you there!!


Clark Thomas

Thursday, May 26, 2011

June 17-19 Chau-Ram County Park Outing

We will be camping at the "Original Long Creek Campground" (this is where we camped on last Summer's zip line trip) with the activity being a day trip to Chau-Ram Country Park (where a lot of folks went last year, too).

Camping
Directions coming soon.
Note that this is a rustic campground with a privy toilet (outhouse), picnic shelter, primitive showers, and a number of smallish wooded campsites.  This is a great place to hammock camp as a number of us did last year.

Chau-Ram County Park
This is about 15 minutes away and is at the junction of the Chauga River and Ramsey Creek.  It's a really nice park and the creek/river are a lot of fun to play in.  There is camping here, but it was not suitable for planning a group trip (i.e. no reservations).

Other Activities
There are a lot of hiking opportunities, including lots of waterfalls.  The Chattooga River is nearby, too, offering canoeing / kayaking.

Monday, May 2, 2011

May 13-15 Y Indian Longhouse

The Trailblazers will be hosting an activity, a "watermelon race" from 1:00-1:45 on Saturday.  We are also invited to participate in the Pinewood Derby on Sunday.

Pictures : https://picasaweb.google.com/scott.broam/YIndiansSpringLonghouse2011#