I figured since we'd be solo, a nice mild trail would be best. Vepco road seemed like a reasonable path since there's a nice meadow and a good powerline spot available and I've been in the area a couple times. Being that it was a Sunday night we figured we'd have our pick of campsite, and the whole forest seemed to be pretty vacant.
We got at Gospel Hill church about 1730 and headed into the trail. It was nice, and we got down to the meadow in around 45 minutes. It was a little damp due to raining the last couple days, but as anyone that has been there can attest, it's not that bad going down to the meadow. Vepco Road along it's entire length varies pretty drastically but never gets truly terrible. You need 4WD and some decent clearance, but it's still pretty easy going.
The first hangup happened when the misses saw the meadow and thought it was "inadequate". Admittedly, the grass is significantly more overgrown than when we see it during either TECORE. But there's still a nice area under the trees where the ground is clear and comfortable to be in with very minimal clearing. I tried to push for it but she wasn't having it.
So we continued to look for the powerline spot. Now I don't remember this spot nearly as well. I may have passed a couple overgrown trails that lead up to it. But I never did find it. I suspect that this site would have been inadequate from her perspective as well. But I was willing to give it a shot and show it to her. In the end we headed down some unnamed trails and eventually ended up at the end of Vepco onto another road about 2.5 hrs later. Other than walking up to some potential camping by powerline spots and almost pulling on a spooked doe that bolted out of brush 3 ft from me, it was mostly uneventful. The road we came to was Little Dry Lake Rd.
I followed Little Dry Lake Rd for awhile and ended up turning off it and ended up at a gas station. I figured we'd just head back home since we didn't find anything that was acceptable. Since there was a 20% chance of rain and the skies looked rough I figured it was probably for the best. But about that point the misses got mighty insistent that we head back in and go back to the meadow and set up camp there. Eventually she convinced me and we headed back to the church which was just a few miles away.
It was about 2130 at this point and mighty dark. The fog started a few miles in. It wasn't too bad, and I just turned off the high beams and roof lights, and continued in slowly. It took over an hour to get to the point where Vepco road starts. I also had to get out on foot with a flashlight and find the marker. I knew we were in the clearing where Vepco splits but I couldn't remember where exactly. Visibility varied between a half truck length and a full truck length. It got mighty challenging. I couldn't even see the the inside edge of the turns on the switchbacks. After the fog started the foggy picture was the best visibility I had the whole way in.
It took over 2.5 hours to make it down to the meadow.
I got the wood together and started making a fire in the fire ring and got it going decent, then set up the tent. Then it started to sprinkle a bit. But it wasn't a big deal since we were under the trees and I got the fire really going good. I figured we could stay close to it and make some dogs and smores and everything would be fine if not a little wet.
About that time it started a torrential downpour. We'd only gotten about half the stuff in the tent, and it was a serious deluge. I grabbed the rest of the sleeping bags and pillows and tossed in the tent and then I heard "the rain is coming through the tent". I couldn't think what to do except throw a spare tarp under the rainfly. It seemed to mostly do the job. Rain was still leaking in here and there and occasionally we'd get a good drop in the face.
I got in the tent, it was like I took a bath with my clothes on. I changed and crawled in my bag, had a beer, calmed down the misses a bit, then we laughed a bit at the irony that this was her first camping experience and I went to sleep when I saw she was asleep. Despite all the shitty events, the pounding of the rain was kinda relaxing.
We woke up in the morning to lighter rain and eventually got up and had everything packed and headed out by 830. Surprisingly the misses was pretty mild mannered about it all. Then the truck developed a flashing SES about a half hour away from GWNF that didn't clear up for about 4 hours. I suspect some water pooled up around the back coil. I'll check the codes in the morning.
Here's a few pics I grabbed during the trip.
probably my favorite picture...
