Wheel-In 2009

After work Wednesday night, Mark and Dawn arrived at our house in time to watch us throw the last items in the backseat of the Jeep. Every great trip should start with a great meal so we caravanned over to Zingos to pick up a phoned-in order of Mediterranean food. We took the food on the road and headed toward Virginia. Around 12:30 AM, we rolled into Charleston, WV for the night.

After a tasty continental breakfast at the hotel, we were back on the road by 7:30 AM. Fortunately, the remainder of the drive was as uneventful as the first day and we arrived in Montebello, just short of Crabtree Falls, by about 11 AM.

Montebello is the "big" town on RT 56 as it crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains. Post office, yes. Stop light or stop sign, no - but they do have a gas station/souvenir shop. Words of wisdom for the next group heading down this direction, if someone is using the standard grade gasoline pump (87 octane and there is only one), wait patiently as the only other gasoline pump is 93 octane and the price was unbelievably high ($4.099 vs. $1.999 for 87 octane).

After the ransom was exchanged for the fuel, we headed up the road to Crabtree Falls in search of our reserved cabins. No one was in the office when we pulled in and since the weather was so nice (55°F and sunny) and the inquisitive dogs didn't seem to mind; we opened the coolers, full of turkey and salami sub sandwiches, Gatorade and water we had prepared and packed the night before, and we had a mini tailgate party in the driveway. Mid party we started wondering if the campground had left the keys in our cabins for us. We didn't see any numbered cabins near the office where we were standing but there were some cabins within eye shot across the street from of our festivities but we could not see a driveway leading to the cabins.

We finished eating, packed up and bid farewell to the dogs and headed over to check out the cabins. When we found the driveway for "our" cabins, it became obvious we ate lunch at the wrong office and property for that matter. We ate at the Cabins at Crabtree instead of the Crabtree Falls Campground. Honest mistake, but funny nevertheless.

The ladies checked us into the campground while Chef Mark and I inspected the arcade (Pacman has a new high score thanks to us.) The cabins were rustic with a single Murphy bed (which folds down out of the wall) and a sleeping loft for extra guests (without any mattress at all), but the cabins were heated and that goes a long way after seeing the weather reports calling for snow and rain. OK, the view and sound of the meandering stream outside the cabin door does not hurt either. We unloaded the bedding (not included with the cabins) and unnecessary trail items and headed for the Wheel-in so the Chefs could get registered for the Trail Chef Competition.

Once we arrived at the Wheel-In, everyone registered as planned and Chef Mark and Chef Dawn commenced the cooking clinic, paying attention both to how they were cooking and ensuring proper sanitation was used when preparing it. To be honest, the bag of shoulder loins Chef pulled out of the cooler was nearly the size of a small duffle bag. Chef started prepping the meat by removing the "silver string" or the white stuff in the meat you could chew on for hours without making any progress and excess fat. With the meat trimmed out, larger chunks of meat were cut down into near bite size pieces.

Their dish of choice was influenced by the club several weeks ago; beef medallions in Port wine cream sauce served over wild rice and mushrooms with all the fixings - things I can't describe properly other than saying an appetizer of bread with a tasty covering and sautéed asparagus. Chef Dawn contributed a pineapple upside down cake, cooked in a Dutch oven of course, which was a pure hit with the judges.

The competition brought an interesting variety as well. Entrant #2 (Jimmy Hyman) brought a full tray of food anchored by filet mignon. Entrant #3 brought an interesting dish of trail seafood (not actually seafood, see photo) which combined several food items cooked on the engine while rapped inside tin foil. The items were then cut and placed specifically to look like sea creatures such as snail, octopus, clam, etc.

One funny comment heard from one of the other competitors was that "I hope the judges enjoy what is surely a $100 meal for free" (I believe referring to Mark and Dawn's entry). When the smoke cleared (pun intended), the judges declared the first annual Trail Chef Contest a 3 way tie for first on everyone's own merit - the Chefs' for the pineapple upside down cake and attention to detail, Entrant #2 for the filet and Entrant #3 for their creativity with the seafood. Overall, the Trail Chef Competition was a great way to break the ice and get everyone mingling together.

After the judging of Trail Chef Competition and the Best of Show Jeep Competition, the Chefs packed up and we headed back to the cabins, thankful we were not part of the hearty bunch camping on site. Eric P and his friend Rocky arrived from Delaware sometime around 11 PM.

We were greeted by a light dusting of snow Friday morning, which made for a chilly walk to the bathhouse. Anyhow, we got around and left the cabins around 7:30 AM and made the trek over to Oak Ridge Estates in time to sign the waiver and attend the drivers' meeting. Just before leaving Thursday night, we were invited to join another group of Jeepers so we met up with them when we arrived. The group consisted of mostly Wranglers (YJ, TJ and JK) with a couple of Cherokees and Pinzgauer (Austrian built, 6 wheeled personnel carrier with Portal outer axles).

Eventually we headed out leaving substantial amounts of red clay mud on the road out of the parking lot, much to the dismay of VDOT. There was much trail riding throughout the day with the highlight being a trip through the quarry trail.

A couple of times during the day, we had to turn around due to the weather making some trails unsafe, environmentally unwise or very difficult to pass. At one point during one of the unexpected u-turns, Eric P's rear bumper and flare got caught on a huge vine hanging from a tree and he drug it for a few feet prompting the nickname Tarzan.

Our day ended about 2:30 PM due to other groups breaking or winching in the trails that we were supposed to explore next. We fueled up and headed back to camp. The Chef's combined leftover shoulder loins with peppers and onions to make steak sandwiches for dinner and once we finally woke up from a much needed nap, we ate our dinner and it was delicious. Chef and Eric got the camp fire going and later that night when we were all up at the office gathering fire wood, Larry pulled in the driveway (fresh from Quantico, VA) just in time to throw all the fire wood in the back of his empty Jeep and haul it all the back to the cabin. It was funny how the heat of the campfire was causing clumps of snow to fall from the trees.

We left the cabin early in order to get Larry fueled up and hit McDonald's before making our way to Oak Ridge. The day was highlighted by: gratuitous amounts of rain and overall chilly weather, a small rock pile that all but two in the group chose the safe route and only run one side of the vehicle over the rocks and a "greazy", steep hill climb that, in some sections, you could not even hold your ground with the brakes locked up. We checked-in to our last hill climb at about 11:30 AM and did not check out until we winched every vehicle up the hill, about 4 hours later.

Eric P made it 3rd furthest up the hill behind Gaylen (a trail guide) and a guy with a small front locked TJ. It seemed that the automatic transmission and generally lower center of gravity rigs did better on this hill climb. Larry lucked out by being the second vehicle to the top with a winch so he got to stay warm running winch for four hours while Chef and I helped the trail guides pull cable. After this trip, I would highly recommend synthetic winch line and rope.

We finally made it back to camp but it was too early for the dinner so we headed into Lovingston to wash the Jeeps and air up the tires. Afterwards, Mark, Dawn, Eric and Rocky headed back to the cabins and Larry, Cindy and I went back to the Wheel-In for the dinner and entertainment. The dinner was great: barbecue pork, spicy coleslaw, barbecue beans and some kind of noodle casserole from Buz and Neds. We did not hang around for the raffle because we were driving out that night.

We went back to cabins, threw our suitcase in the back and headed west out RT 56 through some of the most dense fog ever with added bonus of the roads looking like ice.

While we regret not having enough time to run Shoe Creek or hike to the top of Crabtree Falls, everyone had a great time and we would highly recommend attending the next UFWDA Wheel-In at Oak Ridge Estates.