Memorial Day Weekend Camping/Trail Ride
May 22-25, 2026
Adventure awaits in the mountains of the Washington – Jefferson National Forest near Harrisonburg, VA. Reconnect, recharge, and explore the mountains with fellow veterans and families for a weekend of guided off-road trail rides, scenic overlooks, primitive camping, and meaningful camaraderie
Day 1
GREEN TRAIL MEETUP (Chris Leading) location is the parking lot of Riverside Grocery, 23 Scenic Highway, Churchville, VA @ 1200
We will drive up to Reddish Knob to an amazing overlook (38.46244, -79.24173), then head to the Flag Pole overlook (38.50994, -79.18424) before heading to setup camp.
BLUE TRAIL MEETUP (Jim Leading) location is the parking lot of Walmart, W. Market Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22801 @ 1200.
We will then head up to the the Union Spring Trail and follow it up to Flag Pole and over to the same camping location.
**PLEASE FUEL UP YOUR VEHICLES PRIOR TO GETTING TO THESE MEETUP LOCATIONS, YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANOTHER OPORTUNITY THE ENTIRE WEEKEND ONCE WE LEAVE**
Green Trails = A easier trail ride, should have a AT tire of your choice, you will be less prone to trail badges (pin stripes). Most of these roads are gravel/dirt with minor obstacles and river crossings
Blue Trails = A more aggressive Trail Adventure, You need 33” off road tires or above, be ok with potential trail badges (pin stripes). Skid plates/rock sliders are a nice to have, but you'd survive without them.
Day 2
Sunrise is at 5:57 for you early bird types, and if the view east is unbobscured, it can be pretty amazing up there.
For the rest of you, start stirring between 0700-0800, we would like to have camp struck by 0900 with the first crew ready to roll by then. We have a long (ish) drive to the second camp site (where we will stay for the remainder of the weekend). We will head down Flagpole Knob trail to HWY 33, then west into WV to a great lookout for lunch (38.57994, -79.16909).
After lunch we will head up Westside Trail to Fort Seybert trail and up to our next camping spot.
Day 3
We get to slow down here, we are going to keep this campsite and then go and do a few trails that loop back around to the campsite. Plan is to start moving by about 8, and for those that want to run the trails, we will depart no later than 0930 (sooner if we have guys ready to roll out), head down German River, follow some country roads around to Gauley Ridge Forest Road that links up with a Vepco Road that leads back up to the camp site.
There are a few offshoots on this trip, we may take, it will just depend on timing. Jim and I had lunch at the top of Cold Springs Hol, which had an absolutely amazing view! (38.71039, -79.05791) There is also a park we found along the way that has a swimming hole for those that want to rinse off :) (38.75697, -78.93894)
Day 4
Sadly, all good things must come to an end, but don't worry, we will be doing this again soon!
Plan for today is to wake up by about 0800, and have camp packed and ready to roll out by 0930. We are going to head out via Long Run Trail that heads off to the South East, and down back into Harrisonburg.
If your feeling froggy on day 4 and your vehicle can handle the Blue Trails, Rocky Run trail is a down and back that we enjoyed last fall. BE AWARE, YOUR VEHICLE WILL GET SCRATCHED UP ON THIS TRAIL (IT IS NARROW)!
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