VA Meet & Greet

[shaggywaggy88]

Calling all Virginia FSJeepers! Lets get together and have a meet and greet. Im fairly new to this site but Ive been around for about a year and I have noticed a lack of activity in the state of Virginia. Judging by the recent posts I notice there is no shortage of VA members here on IFSJA. The numbers are here we just need to get together and share the passion of FSJs. This is a poll to see who all would be interested in a VA meet and greet. If this poll gets a good response I will follow it up with a poll to determine the best time of year in 2012 to plan the event. Thanks for reading and I really hope this gets a warm response. I hope to Meet you all Very soon!

[kiharaikido]

I'm not a VA fsj'er but I would attend assuming it was held closer to Lynchburg than DC.

[shaggywaggy88]

I would like to get the interest up first. After I know that some people are behind this then we can pick a meeting place and date/time. The poll has been up for a few days and so far its just me and a guy from NC. Not a good look for VA:confused:

[thatguy]

I'm not a VA fsj'er but I would attend assuming it was held closer to Lynchburg than DC.

I think we were looking at the Richmond area which is not bad from DC, hour & fourty five minutes or so. LOL may be a small group. Im definatly interested though.:thumbsup: If I EVER get my jeep working that is.

[draglink]

Count me in:fsj:

[shaggywaggy88]

I think Richmond would be the most logical place to hold a meet and greet in VA. When to have the event is the real question. I think sometime in the spring would be good because its only 6 months away but that is plenty of time to wrangle up some members and nail down a hard date. What do you guys think? is the spring of 2012 a reasonable time frame to start with?

[Chris R]

Count me in. I live in SW VA but only three hours to Richmond. Another option would be Nelson County just south of Charlottesville. My family and i camp there often. There is a tiny town on top of a mountain called Montebello. They have a campground there that is top notch!
http://www.montebellova.com/

From this campground there is a trail called Shoe Creek. Great trail for FSJ in my opinion....just a thought.

Yes spring time is best at this point.

[shaggywaggy88]

Count me in. I live in SW VA but only three hours to Richmond. Another option would be Nelson County just south of Charlottesville. My family and i camp there often. There is a tiny town on top of a mountain called Montebello. They have a campground there that is top notch!
http://www.montebellova.com/

From this campground there is a trail called Shoe Creek. Great trail for FSJ in my opinion....just a thought.

Yes spring time is best at this point.

I am a member of a local 4x4 club in Lynchburg, the club runs shoe creek every other month or so. Im interested in organizing some wheeling trips and trail rides but I think a meet and greet would be more appropriate for the first FSJ get together in VA. If you are interested in getting in on an upcoming wheeling trip with myself and a few local buddies shoot me a PM and ill keep you posted. I would love to see more FSJs out on the trail!!

[shaggywaggy88]

9 people interested so far:D. Whats do you guys think about the spring of 2012? someone needs to throw a good month out there, or does it need to go to poll:confused:. Im leaning towards April but I would like more input before trying to narrow it down that much.

[Chris R]

All for Apriil as well. Daylight savings time, days are longer and warmer...

Thanks also for the shoe creek invite. Yeah I guess a meet and greet is probably not the best for first timers but the location is still good I think, and if we had a couple that did want to wheel we could...


Baby steps though...let's set a date first.

[rebeljeep]

I'm game! Saturdays are good for me. I have no season preference.

[capdaddy222]

well my GW may not be on the road (and i may end up driving my FJ cruiser), but i vote for somewhere in central VA, crabtree falls or crozet...

Crabtree is closest to everyone by virtue of being right smack dab in the middle of the state.

Picking location by virtue of least mean distance worked for Jefferson placing the UVA, why wouldnt it work for our IFSJA, VA meet and greet?

Also why wait till spring? we have the best weather of the year right now.

capdaddy

[shaggywaggy88]

well my GW may not be on the road (and i may end up driving my FJ cruiser), but i vote for somewhere in central VA, crabtree falls or crozet...

Crabtree is closest to everyone by virtue of being right smack dab in the middle of the state.

Picking location by virtue of least mean distance worked for Jefferson placing the UVA, why wouldnt it work for our IFSJA, VA meet and greet?

Also why wait till spring? we have the best weather of the year right now.

capdaddy
I understand your reasoning on the location of the meet and greet. As for the timing, waiting till spring will give everyone time to plan ahead. Im open to meet at shoe creek or crozet. its up to yall:thumbsup:

[paddyp]

Count me in, I'm pretty flexible with times and locations. I would love to meet somewhere that has some wheeling. :thumbsup:

[Chris R]

I cannot do it right now as I have three boys and our calendar is already full with Boy Scout and sports activities til Thanksgiving.
So I see Crabtree Falls/Shoe Creek and Montebello is only three miles from Crabtree. What I can do is contact both Crabtree and Montebello once we have a date set and see about getting a group rate.

I like Montebello over Crabtree in that there is much more room as far as camping and trailering if that is an option for some jeepers. Also Montebello has gas :thumbsup:

[shaggywaggy88]

I like where this is heading! Im in for a wheeling/camping/m&g. The more aspects of the FSJ hobby we can bring together the more appealing it will be to all who plan on attending. Is everyone happy with april? If so, now we need a weekend! Any weekends not work in april? keep the ideas coming guys, looks like we are making some good progress on this. Thanks for all the input:thumbsup:

[shaggywaggy88]

Lets keep this going! Is anyone else interested????

[chris_N_NC]

I'm interested. April sounds good. May even be able to convince the wife to let me take the boys for a "man" weekend. :thumbsup: I'm just south of the VA border in currituck so wherever it is I'll be driving a bit. Nothing like the anxiety and excitement of a road trip :drivin:
,Chris

[shaggywaggy88]

April 2012 is the time slot for the meet and greet. Im going to nail that down now because it seems like april works for the majority. April holds a few holidays depending on your religious preference so there are only a couple weekends to play with. Im assuming that Saturday works best for most and because of holidays in the first part of the month the last 2 weekends are looking the best. So how does everyone feel about 4/21 or 4/28?

[Chris R]

I vote for 4-28...

[paddyp]

Date isn't too important to me, but later in April is preferred, we will be in FL the first week of April.

[resqjeep]

Sign me up, I hope to be off for whatever weekend is planned.

[shaggywaggy88]

Anyone put any thought into what weekend in April would be best for the VA FSJ Meet and Greet? Throw out some dates folks, we need to set this in stone so everyone can plan accordingly. Just give it some thought...

[thatguy]

its still a little too far out for me to plan. My wife works every other weekend and we have a one year old so it takes some planning. I hope that we get something together & that its on a weekend I can come!:thumbsup: Its cool that 16 people voted in the poll if we could get 10+ of them together it would make for a cool parking lot scene! By the way Shaggy, saw your rig parked in the upper lot at the college. Lookin good! Like that grill. I just sold off my rhino, sigh, just decided I wanted to find one of the black pignose from a J truck or a cheesegrater for my finished look.

[paddyp]

My input for date would be the last weekend in April or in early May. I will be in Florida the first weekend, and will headed to Uwharrie probably in the second week when the trails open. But if it doesn't work for everyone else, no big deal. I'll try to make it if I can. :fsj:

[shaggywaggy88]

The last weekend in April seems to be a favorable date, Lets Make the plans for April 28 2012. Im excited to have it narrowed down to specific day but we still need to decide about location. Im like the idea of a trail ride/wheeling Meet and Greet at shoe creek but I want to know what you guys are looking for. Do you want to have a parking lot M&G or take 10 FSJs for a trail ride in the National forest?? Lets hear what yall have to say......

[paddyp]

Jeeps were made to go off-road;) That's my input:drivin:

[shaggywaggy88]

Jeeps were made to go off-road;) That's my input:drivin:

I agree, if we can get some positive feedback about a wheeling/camping trip at shoe creek, I say we go for it. But i want the majority to be pleased and a good turnout. :thumbsup:

The option to camp would be nice for people traveling from various parts of VA and would open the event to saturday and sunday allowing the campers to wheel both days and people who couldnt come on sat. would be able to make it on sun.The folks that dont camp can just link up with us on the trail for the day and head home when they are done. again feedback is key...... lets hear it:D

[Cory]

I could make the sunday of that weekend. Working night shift and rotating schedules every quarter, I believe I will have off sun, mon, tues for that time frame... so y'all could wheel saturday, and have a grill'n greet on sunday, wherever it is. The wife and baby wouldn't do too well camping just yet anyway. The baby won't even be a year old by then.

I'd be a "tentative yes" to this.

[thatguy]

Hey Shaggy, can you still run shoe creek from the top side down from crabtree falls? If so, there is plenty of camping there. Even have cabins for rent. I dont see any stock rigs making that trip though, but its been a long time since Ive been through it. I just want to see some other FSJs!

[shaggywaggy88]

Hey Shaggy, can you still run shoe creek from the top side down from crabtree falls? If so, there is plenty of camping there. Even have cabins for rent. I dont see any stock rigs making that trip though, but its been a long time since Ive been through it. I just want to see some other FSJs!

You can run top to bottom or bottom to top, both ways are fun. I agree stock Wagoneers would have axle/rocker/bumper clearance issues with rocks. 31s and 4" or lift is about the minimum you need to get through the trail without any scraping or grinding on rocks. Its a really fun trail and anyone looking to get your feet wet in 4x4, this would be the perfect place to go on a challenging trail ride (challenging for me). Crabtree falls has camping, there is camping on the trail, im not sure about cabins but since we are planning ahead, anyone interested in a cabin could call ahead and rent one if they didnt feel up for camping. I dont know about yall but Shoe Creek/ Crabtree Falls is sounding better and better;)

[chris_N_NC]

This sounds like a fun trip, but I can't commit just yet..... I'm still on deployment and need to bounce this off my wife and make sure she doesn't have other plans. I think I can convince her to let me take the boys for the weekend. The time frame sounds good to me and if I can make it I'll be in for camping as well.
Haven't had my jeep on any trails to speak of.... just a little mud and beach driving. Should be interesting:rolleyes:
I'll post up again once I get back and discuss with the family.
,Chris

[paddyp]

Is there camping close by with RV spots? Hook-ups would be nice, but not necessary. If no RV parking, I can bring the tent also. Either way, wheeling would be great.:fsj:

[shaggywaggy88]

Shoe Creek April 28-29 camping/wheeling/meet and greet.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME

Bring your FSJs, Family, Friends, Tents, Campers,Grills and lets have a good time. Im going to start a planning/Info thread in the events section, join in and lets try to work out some of the potential "fun killers". Not enough food, drinks, fire wood, ect...

any and all help is appreciated, thanks guys for all the great input and getting it this far. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[capdaddy222]

i know this threads dead... but i missed the meet and greet. does anyone want to meet up for a day run on Sat May 26th at Shoe Creek? I may not bring the wagoneer but i will be out on the trail for an exploratory trip (FJ Cruiser). oh and i was at shoe creek coming from the top down last week. it was much eroded and there were some spots that gave me pause even coming down hill. just a heads up.

capdaddy

[sXeMike]

My band is playing a cancer benefit show in Charlottesville at the Elks lodge from 4-8 Saturday.

I can't do the wheelin trip but if you want to stop by on the way home, I should have the Cherokee with me.