It was supposed to rain all day and the booking service reached out to see if I was still coming to camp this weekend. I said I would be there. The campground isnt fully open and the owners are working on making the tent sites better, as well as running new electrical and plumbing for another section of the grounds. I have the whole campground to myself! The rain stopped pouring around Charlottesville and then picked back up around Staunton. After that, though, just clouds clinging to the mountains. The ground is dry at camp with the exception of a short sprinkle after I set the tent, and the sky has been partly to mostly cloudy with lots of patches of blue sky.
Being the only guest and seeing me set camp as they worked on the electrical cable trench for a new section of campsites, the owners ran an extension cord from the bath house for me and brought me load of firewood… for free! Great hosts, very friendly. In chatting, one fellow at the campground is from Mechanicsville. Small world.
The campsites at Cold Sulphur Springs are rustic, at the moment. New sites will have electrical and water hookups. This combination of sites is nice when the rustic sites are still near the bathouse.
The campground has a swimming hole and fishing pond. It is at 1488ft elevation near Goshen pass along the Maury River. River fishing and hiking are available nearby. I hear nothing but birdsong and the breeze this evening.
I have built a fire in the fire ring, not using my firestartere today as there are some very gummy pinecones strewn about the site for tinder, and lots of small sticks for kindling.
I am looking forward to a relaxing night of rest under the trees and clearing sky.
The fire lasted for a couple of hours, from 8pm, just about sundown until it began to sprinkle again about 10:20pm. I had let the fire get low and the rain was not so much dowsing it but making sure that nothing around the site was bone dry. I covered up items on the picnic table and folded the chair under against the bottom of the table, and went to bed. The rain was soft on the top of the tent.
A few times I heard something make thunk or scurry sounds and I thought, “what was that? oh, just rain falling out of the pocket of the tent, must be.” Indeed, the very slow sprinkle would fill the folds in the tent and then make a sploosh sound as it ran down the rain fly. I had left the remainder of the bean chili in a sealed container on the picnic table in case any animals smelled it. Oh, I forgot to mention dinner; I fried up some ground beef and added it to my bean chili… here’s a picture of that.
May 14
When I was breaking camp in the morning, I found that my sealed bowl of chili was perfectly untouched. However, the ziplock bag of firestarters was torn into and its contents scattered on the ground. About half the firestarters were gone. Apparently, even though I had used unscented wax, the scent of the wax or maybe the paper had caused some racoons or possums to consider my firestarters a treat. I did hear something scurrying around in the night after all. Sunday morning was mostly sunny and I broke camp about 9:50am after getting myself up and going.
Part of the reason for going to Goshen was to see if I could catch a train going through this small town along the C&O Railway and near former Virginia Central railroad routes. Among the old railway equipment that has been “stuffed and mounted” near Goshen’s downtown, there is this well restored and/or maintained small locomotive with some cool marker lights on the side walkways.
Near the campground, there is a factory that manufactures and warehouses railroad ties; large stacks a couple stories high can be seen from the road near the entrance to the campground. The line running from that factory is behind me in the picture above of the locomotive, and runs northwest – to my right in the photo – connecting to the former C&O via a wye near Goshen station. There’s also a B&O Bay Caboose at Goshen which used to be someone’s cabin. It’s been disconnected from electricity and phone, but could be hooked back up if the owner wished to do so. What a great little cabin a caboose would make out in the rolling Shenandoah Valley. A nice little research project for me over the summer perhaps, find out who owns the caboose and if help preserving it is needed.
Back safely home, now the tent is airing out in preparation for my next adventure coming soon!
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