This is another one of our many recent 4WD journeys. This time, however, I had my Canon instead of my phone.
Three people: "You can't do that road in a stock suburban." One person: "You are brave if you are going down that road in THAT!!" Clint: "Move aside and watch me." We had to wait for a couple to turn around because the first 100 yards scared them. It took them 45 minutes to do that 100 yards. Besides them, we saw a few motocross bikes, a nice young couple in a Jeep, and an older couple on a four-wheeler. For most of the trail, we had it to ourselves.
We had a BLAST! This was the worst part of the road, and the suburban scraped just a little. That's OK. No damage was done, and now there's slightly more clearance for the next driver! We did it alone and had no issues with the trail at all. We met one of the men who told us we couldn't do it at the bottom of the trail. He said Clint was one heck of a driver!
We have been able to do many trails people did not think a stock suburban could do. The key is tire placement. Clint will study the rocks and find his path through. Then he takes it easy.
For our rock crawling friends, there are some great picture-taking opportunities on this trail. For overlanders and campers, there are some very nice, very large campsites.
Clint and I just like to go for the remoteness and scenery. As someone very strong in naturalistic intelligence, I thoroughly enjoy "getting away" from it all. To be honest, I need to do it ever now and again. It recharges me. I enjoy observing the changes in the topography and flora and fauna. I use to collect different kinds of rocks, so I pay attention to things like that. I also enjoy finding medicinal and edible plants and mushrooms. There is plenty of history to enjoy in the places we go too.
There are many unmapped 4WD and hiking trails off of this area that we did not have a chance to explore, so Lord willing, we're going back! We took one ridge that had hip to waist-high grass in the middle. It appeared no one had been down there in ages. It gets quite narrow with very sheer drops on either side. We had to pull in our mirrors to fit in some places. At the end is a small grassy field where you can turn around. It was filled with flowers, bees, and butterflies. As we explored we walked through hundreds of busy bees, and they never bothered us.
There was very spotty cell phone reception. If you get stuck, you might have to walk a mile or two to get reception. There were no running creeks or streams for water when we went. Everything we did see lower on the mountain that might have had water was very dry due to the drought. If you plan to camp, you need to bring all of the water you need with you. There is plenty of firewood to gather. All of the campsites except the few on the knob had plenty of privacy.
We will probably head to Ferrum soon for business. We'll see if we can find any places to explore there.
Location: I-81 to exit #235 on to route 256 west , north on route 11, west on route 727, north on route 613, west on route 257, this turns into route 924 west, which becomes a ridge road up to the intersection for Forest Road 85A / Flag Pole Road. Keep going and you will find the Stoney Gap section of this road (Forest Service Road 225 aka "Stone House" Road). Be safe, and have fun!! Love to all!
