Revisiting Pohick Bay

Friday, April 27

I still have a couple of posts to do from our trip last week.  However, we’re at the campground at Pohick Bay Regional Park (PBRP) this weekend, so I thought I’d post about this trip now and come back to the Smokies later.

This is our third trip to PBRP.  The first one was in the fall of 2010; it didn’t end well.  In fact, it was a Roughing-It-Not-So-Smoothly experience.  Our next trip was in April 2011.  That was when we discovered the great site we’re in again this time.  That was also the trip on which we strolled over to nearby Gunston Hall, the estate of George Mason, one of the Founding Fathers of our nation.  We had such a great time on that trip that we made reservations to return in September.  It wasn’t to be; Tropical Storm Lee made sure of that.  You can’t cancel a reservation made at Virginia parks, but you can transfer it to another date.  So, that’s what we did.  And that’s why we’re here now.

We came in last night.  The 32-mile (50 km) drive was a pleasant surprise.  Our truck GPS brought us down via a much shorter route and it took us just 45 minutes to get here (that’s in comparison to the 54-mile (86 km) drive that used to take us 1½ hours).  Once we arrived at the campground, we did little more than set up, grab a bite to eat, relax with some mindless TV programming, and hit the hay.

The VA-7100 S / VA-123 S route not only shortens the trip, but also reduces our time on I-95.

As is the case with most of the places around here, camping at PBRP is not cheap.  Our 50-amp FHU site is $41.50/night + tax.  That’s the jurisdiction rate; those who don’t qualify pay $2 more.  We do have a really neat site, though.  It’s extra long and plenty wide; the neighbor on the right faces away from us; and the only neighbor on the left side is quite distant, separated by lots of trees.  So far, the sites across the road from us are empty; we’ll see if they remain that way over the weekend.  There’s no wi-fi or cable, and since the park is heavily wooded, satellite coverage is iffy.  We get plenty of TV channels with the antenna, however.  Cell signal is spotty; 3-4 bars on this visit thanks to our Wilson antenna/amplifier set-up.

If there is one disadvantage to the site that we’re in, it’s that the play area (for adults and kids) is just through the trees to our rear.  This hasn’t been a problem for our early/late season stays, but I think it could get quite noisy once the camping season is in full swing.

The park map (left) and the campground map with Site 71 circled in blue.
[courtesy of the Pohick Bay Regional Park website]

Site 71 is big-rig friendly, and its location on the loop makes it a cinch to maneuver into position.

Small puddle; small reflection.

Although Mui took the day off, today was a day of work for me, and it started early with a proposal project.  For six hours, I worked the documents, which were due by 1:00p.  But that’s OK; I had a quiet, relaxing view to look at when I needed to clear my head.

My ‘office’ view is of open space, not another campsite. 
(this area is to our left; You can barely glimpse the neighboring site through the trees.)

While I worked on my project, Mui took care of some clean-up chores — the toad’s windows, especially, were in dire need of some attention after our rainy day drive back home last Sunday.  After lunch, he took off to do a bit of shopping while I stayed behind to finish out my workday.  By the time Mui got back around 3:30p, I was ready to set out to explore some of the hiking trails.

After picking up a trail map from the office, we headed off on a cobbled-together trail that took us through heavily wooded areas to the marina and back.  All told, our round-trip hike was somewhere around 2 miles (3.2 km).  The temp was a comfortable 60F (15.5C) with the sunshine keeping the chill from the constant breeze at bay.  Not that we were complaining; the breeze helped to keep the brine flies from bugging us :-)

There wasn’t much entertainment value to our trail — meaning there weren’t any views during the hike.  But we did have a bit of a payoff once we reached the bay, which is an arm of the Potomac River.

Through the woods to the water.
At high tide the strip of beach is under water.

Of course, I found a few things worthy of a shutter click or two … and here they are.

Most of the hedges of mountain laurel were just coming into bud, but I found a few
where the blooms were coming along quite nicely.

There were plenty of snail shells on the narrow strip of rocky beach;
the occupants of these shells had already vacated the premises.

Yellow poplar blooms were everywhere … on the trail … on the beach.
Not surprising after last weekend’s heavy rains and the breezy conditions since.

No idea what these blooms are, but there were a lot of these flowering trees near the water.

The bay was reasonably choppy, and there was just one boat out on the water that came into the boat ramp as we were wandering around.  We did see a kayaker contemplating putting in; not sure whether he did or not, but if we he went out, he sure was in for a rough paddle.

a pair of owls were keeping their eyes on the fireboat that was tied up at the marina.

Rather than returning home the way we came, we opted to walk past the boat rental shack and take a shortcut back to the campground to sate our grumbling tummies.  Pizza, salad, and beer was on the menu for dinner, but I’m going to leave you with the picture of one more poplar bloom instead of a picture of our simple meal.

The yellow poplar is the tallest eastern hardwood; it’s also known as the tulip tree.

We’re not sure what tomorrow is going to bring.  The rain looks like it’s going to hold-off until late Saturday night, so we might see if we can spot some eagles at the nearby wildlife refuge.  Or we might go check out another regional park.  We’ll play it by ear after we get a good night’s rest.