With mountain biking and tenting at Pocahontas State Park, plus well-known historic websites, a highway journey cease in and round Virginia’s capital metropolis affords a enjoyable break from the I-95 grind.
We rolled into Pocahontas State Park on a Sunday night in late July. The quiet woods and rolling hills exterior Richmond provided a welcome distinction to a busy drive. We’d spent a lot of the day towing our camper in the proper lane, whereas each third car on busy I-95 someway managed to chop us off. Dashing automobiles whipped round semis. Oblivious drivers hurtled in from onramps. Essentially the most impatient motorists floored it to go us, swerved instantly in entrance, slammed on their brakes, and veered off on the subsequent exit.
“I feel I virtually sprained my ankle from reacting to site visitors,” I joked with my spouse, because the harrowing ordeal got here to an finish. We’d reached our first campground on a monthlong summer time highway journey.
After my spouse and I purchased our first journey trailer, it modified our highway journeys in a number of methods. After we used to tent camp, we often skipped previous stifling cities on lengthy drives, aiming for cooler temps and better elevations. However as soon as we have been towing a 17-foot fiberglass Casita, we moved slower. Our cruising velocity was round 60-65 mph, and we stopped extra typically. Plus, we added time for packing, hitching, checking, unhitching, leveling, and setting-up. We quickly determined that about 300 miles was probably the most we needed to drive in a day. Typically, we most popular about half that on calmer rural roads.
However to succeed in some distant locations, it was more durable to keep away from interstates and cities. Fortunately, we now had an air-conditioned bedroom-on-wheels for maintaining cool. So the purpose turned determining which metros we needed to go to alongside the best way. Whereas planning stops on this journey north from our residence on the Coastal Plain, I recalled a tip I’d gotten throughout a current path chat. Final spring, I used to be driving the extremely enjoyable Browns Creek Bike Park in Elizabethtown, N.C. A pleasant building employee, on the town for a job, beneficial an analogous bike park exterior his hometown of Richmond. An internet search advised that good issues have been taking place throughout the 8,000 acres of Virginia’s largest state park, the place we ended up staying for a couple of nights.
Pocahontas State Park MTB Trails
We began our experience with cool temps early the following morning. Our hope was to beat the climate, with a forecasted excessive within the mid-90s and a probable likelihood of afternoon thunderstorms. One good factor about tenting right here is you could bike or hike proper out of your campsite. First, we adopted a sequence of multiuse gravel paths via hills to the park’s central space, surrounding a big swimming advanced. One other close by spotlight is the attention-grabbing CCC Museum. Reveals and artifacts inform the story of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which helped construct the park through the Nineteen Forties. Downhill from the central space, on the northern finish of Swift Creek Lake, is the trailhead for the newer bike trails.
Pocahontas State Park has over 50 miles of trails for quite a lot of makes use of, plus a roughly equal quantity of unpaved hearth roads that can be explored. About 10 of the path miles are for mountaineering solely, whereas the remaining mileage is generally multiuse. About 14 of these, south of Seashore Highway, enable horseback driving. In the meantime, there are three totally different mountain bike areas. The Morgan MTB Trails have been constructed first, within the Nineties, and so they provide 9.4 miles of tight turns over roots and rocks. The Lakeview MTB Trails have been created subsequent. These 9.5 miles are extra like backcountry forest driving, much less twisty however nonetheless rugged, passing via rolling terrain atop hand-built surfaces across the south aspect of Swift Creek Lake.
First opened in 2015, the flowy Swift Creek MTB Trails are what folks are actually speaking about. As of late, the machine-built system has expanded to over 20 miles with an equal variety of newbie, intermediate, and superior trails. The purpose at Swift Creek was to create a path system that will enchantment to each studying and skilled riders. We had deliberate to experience for simply two or three hours max. 5 hours later, my spouse and I have been in full settlement. The path managers—a mixture of part-time employees and volunteers coordinated by Buddies of Pocahontas State Park—greater than succeeded.
One aspect of the newbie Blueberry Hill loop led us to a hub the place a number of trails converge. There we met a number of native riders with whom we’d chat all through the day. In a couple of locations, academic indicators supplied suggestions for driving rollers and berms, together with a brief pump monitor. We began on inexperienced trails just like the mellow Gateway I & II and enjoyable Bell Lap. My spouse was having a blast, and her confidence was rising. Subsequent, we moved on to blue trails like Blue Jay Method and Corkscrew. In every single place we rode, it was nothing however speedy traces, buttery curves, and enjoyable jumps. When my spouse took a break, I checked out the black trails like Millstone and Moonshine.
“That is certainly one of my favourite bike parks,” declared my spouse, as we rode again to camp. In different phrases, we’d be stopping right here once more.
As we re-crossed the bridge, we noticed two kayakers exploring the lake. In the meantime, billowing clouds have been filling the sky. We made it again to camp at 2pm and cranked up the camper AC to chill down throughout lunch. An hour later, a large rainstorm hit that will shut the paths for the remainder of our keep. Fortunately, there was a lot else to do across the space.
Out and About Round Richmond
After our mountain biking day, we have been undoubtedly going out. We began at a close-by brewery, Steam Bell Beer Works. My spouse had a refreshing Blood Orange Seltzer, whereas I went with a stable Hop and Stomp Hazy IPA. Then we spoiled ourselves along with her favourite sort of meals, an amazing meal at Pakwaan Indian Delicacies.
One other night, we walked the paths at Belle Island within the James River, which is reached by way of a strolling bridge. There was clearly extra to do in Richmond, together with mountain biking on the city James River Park, which we’d have to take a look at subsequent time. For dinner that night time, we stayed nearer to camp with a stable meal at El Caporal Mexican Restaurant.
“This salsa is superior,” I informed our younger server.
She’d admitted to being overwhelmed by her first week on the job, so we have been attempting to cheer her up. She nodded eagerly, after which thought of it additional.
“However I actually solely prefer it once I’m consuming it. Not once I’m carrying it round.”
“I can perceive that,” I stated, dipping one other chip.
Colonial Nationwide Historic Park
On our final full day on the town, we took a visit out to Colonial Nationwide Historic Park. It’s situated on the Virginia Peninsula, which extends east from Richmond into Chesapeake Bay. The spotlight is Historic Jamestowne, the positioning of the primary surviving English colony within the U.S.
A little bit over an hour’s drive led us to the NPS customer middle, which co-manages the waterfront archeological park together with Preservation Virginia. It’s vital to notice that Historic Jamestown is totally different from the adjoining Jamestowne Settlement, which is a state-managed residing historical past museum with a recreated townsite populated by actors in interval costume.
We opted for the genuine web site, Historic Jamestown, which incorporates strolling paths via authentic ruins, recreated constructions, and restored buildings just like the redbrick Jamestown Church. The fascinating Voorhees Archaearium is an onsite archeology museum that shows excavated artifacts and reveals concerning the settlement.
Established in 1607, Jamestown would turn out to be notorious for its early report of battle, dying, and hunger. Salvation for the precarious settlement would seemingly come from a younger Powhatan woman nicknamed Pocahontas. She turned a legendary determine in American historical past for allegedly saving English captain John Smith from execution, plus repeatedly delivering meals to the malnourished colonists. Later she married English entrepreneur John Rolfe, who cultivated Virginia’s first money crop, a candy pressure of tobacco that led to over two centuries of rampant plantation slavery.
One other spotlight is a five-mile loop drive round Jamestown Island with a brief path to a waterfront level. The drive and hike provide views of a swampy panorama that, in hindsight, was a horrible selection for settlement. These buggy and soggy lands have been exhausting to farm and surrounded by brackish waters.
From Jamestown, we drove the 23-mile Colonial Parkway via wetlands and forests to go to two different standard websites. The primary was Colonial Williamsburg. This huge residing historical past district is discovered inland throughout the small trendy metropolis of Williamsburg. Operated by a non-public basis, tons of of buildings from the seventeenth via nineteenth centuries have been restored or recreated, with costumed reenactors working vacationer outlets and offering interval demonstrations.
We are likely to want historic ruins and out of doors museums to reenactment websites, so we went with a suggestion from a pleasant native. A pricy ticket will get you contained in the buildings, however you may stroll exterior via the historic district without spending a dime. Strolling a couple of miles round city was undoubtedly sufficient for us. That stated, we might inform they do a high-quality job right here, particularly for youths.
Our third cease within the nationwide historic park was Yorktown Battlefield, an NPS unit subsequent to the York River on the japanese finish of Colonial Parkway. That is the placement of the 1781 Siege of Yorktown, the place George Washington and the Continental Military secured a decisive victory in opposition to the British through the American Revolution. Along with a small museum, a driving loop leads via the battlefield.
As a result of time, we determined to skip the close by state-managed American Revolution Museum, which mixes indoor and out of doors historical past reveals with reenactment zones. It does sound attention-grabbing, and entry is obtainable as a combo ticket with Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestowne Settlement.
As we drove again to camp, we did our regular recap of what we’d seen. We’d lengthy needed to see these U.S. historic landmarks. That field was ticked. Now we have been enthusiastic about our subsequent cease within the mountains. However the rolling hills of Pocahontas State Park could be on the high of our minds the following time we drove north on I-95.
Cowl Picture: Paddling in Swift Creek Lake, at Pocahontas State Park. Picture by Mike Bezemek