We left on Friday morning and drove to Popular Forest outside Lynchburg Virginia. We arrived about 11:30 and just in time for a tour. This is the restored summer home of Thomas Jefferson. The house is built in an octagon shape and all the brick are original. Because of the way Jefferson built his house it was saved from being completely destroyed by fire. I really enjoyed looking at the kitchen where the slaves prepared the food for the guests of the house. For its time this was a very modern kitchen and very ingenious as well. There was a baking oven, stew pot and three different size coal burners for cooking.
We stopped in Lynchburg to eat lunch at Cracker Barrel and see Nicole. Amy had Grilled Chicken Salad and I had the Baked Chicken. After we had eaten we left and went to WalMart for supplies and then headed to Crabtree Falls.
Crabtree Falls Campground
The campground is about 1 hour from Lynchburg and fairly easy to get to. You can take 151 to 56 or you can drive on up 29 and take 56 to 151. We found through trial and error that we can get groceries in Lovingston at either Food Lion or Family Dollar and its only a 30 minute drive.
When we arrived at the campground we checked in and spoke to Dave, one of the owners. He asked us to promise that we would not steal his cats, cut any trees or plants and not openly show any firearms. We promised and then went down and started setting up camp at cabin #7. The cabin had a full size Murphy Bed in it, small picnic table, shelves, clothes rack, ceiling fan, heater and tile floor. The front porch had a two person bench and small table to cook on if needed. The fire pit was extremely nice and the firewood is available at the store for .50 a log and $6 for a bundle of kindling. There are plenty of trees for tying up a tarp and very little sun.
After we had camp set up we cooked supper which included filet migon, BBQ beans and mashed potatoes. Afterwards we started a campfire and just sat around and relaxed. Later we made some smores and then went to bed about 11 that evening.
Next morning, after showers, I started breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and donuts. After breakfast we cleaned up and headed to Wintergreen.
Wintergreen is about 45 minutes from Crabtree Falls and is fairly easy to get to. We had to wait while there for our reservation time. While we waited Amy eat a small pizza and I had Peanut M&M's. We also watched the people riding the zipline and decided if we ever visited Wintergreen again we would check into it. Our time finally came and we boarded the inner tubes to take the Plunge. The track was much faster than we thought and it was extremely fun. After tubing for an hour we found the ski lift and took a ride down and then back up the ski hill. They also had a July 4th celebration going on and we walked around looking at the different booths. We left and went to the grocery store before heading back to the cabin.
We had beef sausage, pasta and seasoned peas and green beans. After supper we headed to the falls.
The Falls
We started up the falls and neither of us thought to bring our hiking shoes so we had on our tennis shoes. On top of this, it was also very muddy from all the rain. The trail is 1.7 miles to the top and by the time we got to milepost .8 we had to turn around and go back because it was getting dark. The falls were really running with plenty of water because of all the rain over the past weeks and was very beautiful.
We started a campfire and it was a good one, even bigger that the night before. It was warm enough that we had to sit back a ways to keep from getting to hot. We also had smores again and they were really good. We also thought about making apple pies next time we go camping, they are good too.
Leaving
We got up about 7 on Sunday and had breakfast, pancakes, spam and donuts with coffee (sorry no picture). We started packing up after we both had showers and we had all packed and ready by 10:30. After we settled our bill we left and headed to Lynchburg to eat lunch. Amy ordered strawberry shortcake for dessert and she had no idea how big it would be. After lunch we headed home and I napped while Amy drove. We got home and unpacked and it only takes about 10 minutes to put camping gear up and it is ready for the next trip.
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