Camping
Hiking (Backpacking)
Social Events
Stargazing
Charlottesville Amtrak Station
Explore Park, Roanoke River Parkway, Roanoke, VA, USA
Fuck Cars. I’m doing a trip with no cars for a number of reasons:
1. NO ONE HAS TO DD
2. CLIMATE CHANGE?!?!
3. WE CAN SLEEP OTW
4. TRAINS DON’T HAVE TSA
5. WE CAN WATCH THE HILLS ROLL BY
6. CAN’T GET PULLED OVER FOR RECKLESS TRAIN RIDING
7. CARS DON’T HAVE A COOL WHISTLE
8. Cars can’t teach you the importance of sticking to a schedule (I got tired of all caps)
9. Cars separate you from strangers and sometimes strangers are cool
10. Amtrak will lose even more money if we don’t ride it
Seriously though, this is a turning point for ODC trips, in my view. We need to rethink what is possible for accessibility in the outdoors and make these issues known. Cheap train tickets could be reimbursed the same way as gas (this is the part where the officers reimburse us!! I hope!!) and the outdoors should be a place for everyone, not just with people who have access to an automobile.
Here’s a rough timeline:
We take the train Friday morning around 10 and arrive in Roanoke around 1
Walk around and find stuff to do for a couple hours in the city
Walk two hours to Explore Park and set up camp for the night, cook dinner/hang out
Hang out at the park/campground next day and maybe sightsee more in Roanoke
Leave campground by 2 at the latest to catch the 4:30pm train home
Get back to Charlottesville around 7pm Sunday night
Stuff you should bring:
Tent/hammock
Sleeping bag
Sleeping Pad
Food
Water
Games?!?
Ball/Frisbee/Hacky Sacky?!?
Book (if ur a nerd!)
Train ticket (quite important)
Hiking Backpack
Warm Clothes
Stuff I will bring to share:
JetBoil
Games (maybe?)
Iodine Tablets (hopefully)
TLDR: i hate cars and want to prove that we can do a longer trip with no cars, will take train to Roanoke Friday mornin and walk around A LOT (7 miles from train station to campground) and take train home Sunday evenin, this is essentially just a backpacking trip with a train ride instead of car
Important!! Deadline to sign up is super early so we can secure the cheapest possible train tickets!! So if you’re interested and know you can come sign up asap!
Important Note: Explore park doesn’t rent campsites year-round unfortunately, but considering this will be the middle of january and we can keep a small ish group we should be able to find a secluded enough campsite at the park to not bother anyone (if there even is anyone)