Quick Trip Report --
-- Past weekend hit the road to explore/camp/fish the upper North Fork of the Shenandoah, Little Dry River and German River Valley, an area I hadn't been in recent memory.
German River is listed as stocked trout water and the few photos of it online seemed to indicate a decent sized piece of water. Unfortunately, even with the wet spring/summer there were only occasional pools by the time we hit GWNF near Criders, VA. Figured might as well continue and do some scouting/exploring of little dry river and other tiny native streams in the area. We continue up Forest Rd. 232 over the mountain, which is listed as Public in both my road atlas and USGS map, though surrounded in sections by private property. Unfortunately, some jackass landowner has decided to put up signs saying the road is private and closed to public traffic. This is not the case, and a quick search of NF road maps (pg. 7 http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5392127.pdf) and 4x4 forums when i got home confirmed that this is just some joker trying to keep people out. I really wish there was some kind of serious fine for putting up posted signs either on public property or public right of ways. I've come across this probably a dozen times (that i know about) and it can really mess up a trip.
I didn't have cell service to look it up online and rather than trusting the maps i deferred to the signage and turned around. We tried heading up another nearby road that included several small stream crossings, some solid rock obstacles courses and were about 5miles off the pavement and up the mountain when my transmission started becoming less responsive and quickly overheated. Not fun. I've had to hike out several times from a variety of things -- sinking the car in snow/mud, blowing the transmission out and puncturing both a tire and then the spare (now keep a full sized spare). Unfortunately the girlfriend has been with me on a few of these and her patience for being stuck in the backwoods has thinned so i know my only goal at this point is to get back to civilization as quickly as possible. Finally the transmission cools down with no apparent long term damage, and rather than continuing on or setting up camp on the mountain, we head back... camping/fishing trip cancelled.
I was pretty bummed but it turned out to be a mixed blessing... We stopped in to grab some fast food in Woodstock, VA on the way back where i checked the wx radar and saw a line of severe storms popping up... The forecast had only given a slight chance of isolated t-storms and nothing on Map before we lost the data connection heading up the mountain. That night they got about 1.5"+ of rain on the mountain from a couple hours of t-storms, making camping less than pleasant and the small fords probably became impassable.
Basically -- German River, Little Dry River and the promising looking tributaries all turned out to be a pretty big bust. Even during a wet summer, with vegetation still bright green, there's not enough water to support native populations, much less holdover stockies. With so much great water nearby, don't waste your time. Another good lesson that i forgot when throwing together this last minute trip, check the 4x4 forums for info on forest roads... you can also call GWNF but usually get a recording and very hard to get someone on the line who can answer detailed questions.
Brendan
http://www.tpfr.org
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