Prince William Forest RV Campground Trip, Dumfries, VA - Day 1

When? April 26-28, 2013
Where? Prince William Forest RV Campground, Dumfries, VA
Cost? $35/night (Good Sam Discount available)
Hookups? Full
Type? Pull-thru
Site #? E13
Check in? None listed (we didn't ask what the time was, but my guess is around 1pm)
Check out? Noon
Characters? Heather & Jon
Weather? Spring! (Finally!) 60s during the day, high 40s, low 50s at night


On April 26, we headed to Prince William Forest RV Campground. It's (technically) located in Prince William Forest National Park in Northern VA and relatively close to where we store the trailer.

We arrived at the campground right around 12:30 pm. We got all checked in and found our spot - E13. One look and we knew we'd be leveling using the leveler blocks this trip. Thankfully, we figured it out pretty quickly.

All parked and set up

Levelers this trip!

After getting everything set up and leveled and all of that, we finally sat down for lunch. We had stopped at Wawa to fill up with gas before getting the trailer and picked up lunch. Since switching to a real food diet in early April, we haven't had much (if at all) processed food. I would pay for the Wawa decision later in the day.

After lunch, we headed out to Prince William Forest National Park. We had some hiking to do! It was too beautiful of a day to just sit around.

Not the greatest picture, but the entrance to the park

Visitor's Center. Talk with the rangers inside, they're super helpful!

We decided on the 4.3 mile route. We went up to the right (on the map) and then down along the creek.

Pre-hike

Nice and quiet

Cemetery along the trail

On the boardwalk

We saw these blue bugs all over the place. No idea what they are.

Random pile of rocks for pets

Spring is making itself known!

The creek where we encountered a timber rattle snake (see story below).

Ok... snakes... We learned that we both hate them. The park rangers hadn't mentioned anything about snakes, and in retrospect, we should've told them about the rattle snake when we saw them on our way out. Anyhow. So, we were just about 2 miles into the hike, coming down a hill, and setting eyes on the creek. I decided I wanted to stop and take a picture (the one that mentions the rattle snake). Thank goodness I did. I didn't see the snake at all, I had my back to it. All of the sudden, Jon's hugging me and saying "snake!" and then we heard the rattle. I've never seen a rattle snake in person and definitely never have heard the tell-tale rattle, but it's VERY distinct. There was no mistaking what it was.

It was at this point that I was worried about one of us getting bit. We just stood still and it went off on it's way. I am First Aid/CPR certified, but the idea of sucking venom out of a snake bite isn't my idea of a good time. Also, there was no way I could carry Jon out of the woods. Again, we were about 2 miles into the hike. Now, we weren't that far from the road, but I'd say we were at least half a mile from the road (we had to cross it on our hike). Thank goodness we didn't have to do that. It was just a scary thought!

We continued down the trail and (maybe) 5 minutes later, we saw a black snake. Jon then decided he was going to walk in front of me.

Jon decided to walk in front of me after he saw the black snake.

Pretty!

This section of the trail was a little weird, but still very nice

Jon hanging out on a bridge

We did about 4.3 miles in just under 2 hrs. Not that we were trying to rush through it, but we were pretty proud of ourselves for this. We headed back to the trailer and made dinner (hot dogs and mac & cheese), showered, watched the rest of Wreck it Ralph!, and fell asleep.

Around 9:30, dude pulled in next to us and started unhitching and all that jazz. I give mad props to people who can do this in the dark, but seriously question why you'd show up somewhere at 9:30 on a Friday night and stay all weekend. Why not just show up early on Saturday morning, especially to a place that doesn't advertise a check in time? (He was relatively local, so that's why we questioned it a little.)

Up next, day 2.