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Hey guys, this is my second post here so please be nice. this will be mine and my cousins first roo, and since it was me I who convinced all of them to go, i am trying my hardest to make this the best experience we will have all year. I am from NY and me and my cousins will be leaving from MD on jun 4th in an RV and heading towards TN (lot of two letter abbreviations in that sentence, i know, so sue me.). I was hoping some people know some good campgrounds/attractions we can check out and/or stay at on the way. The way i figure it we will have 2 nights and 2.5 days to do some real camping. also i know this has been discussed at great lengths all over the place but it seems most people are talking about regular tent camping and not RV camping. when should we plan on getting into bonnaroo, wed evening when the campsite first opens, or really early thursday morning? i dont mind walking a little to get to centeroo, but i would of course want as close of a camping spot as possible. looking at the map it seems that the RV camping seems closer on the east end than the west end which is where we will be coming from anyways. also any other advice you all can give to a first timer i am all ears. THANKS in advance.
Welcome to the board, hsid! You and your cousins are in for an experience of a lifetime this summer. Hope you have a safe trip down here, and end up catching every band on your list.
Since it's not exactly a short trip in an RV, a lot depends on how you wanna break the trip up (i.e., would you be leaving MD late night/early morn, or mid-day/late afternoon? how far north in MD -- like, PA stateline on northeast side, or Williamsport on southwest? do you want to drive at least halfway before stopping?, etc.)
Two state parks I've stayed at --both of which are scenically awesome, and feature nice RV grounds-- are Natural Bridge in the Shenandoah Valley (VA), and Fall Creek Falls in east central TN. The latter leaves you with a fairly easy leg into Manchesteroo.
Might want to Google those two as you figure out your routing/timelines. Stay safe, and have a blast -- before, during, and after.
we will be leaving from Burtonsville, MD around 10:30 and get to the RV rental place around 11 which is in Gambrills. they said it will take them an hour or so to explain everything about the RV so we are expecting to be on our way around 12-12:30pm. we only have one driver for the RV considering only 2 of us will be 25 at the start of the trip and one of them is pretty much refusing to drive but said he will if we need him to (i am turning 25 on the 10th so i will be able to drive back so we can do the way home in one shot), so we want to drive at least half-way but we do not mind driving further if there is a better spot to camp. i will def check out both of the places you mentioned. in your opinion which is better and why? what are the main attractions to both of them? we did kind of want to do some kayaking/white water rafting if it was at all possible. this is also our first time ever renting an RV, so we gotta make it extra special.
Welcome back Bonz, but I do not find it strange that your presence being requested in the Orgy thread and then you showing up, like it was the quacking Bonzai Bat Signal.
From where you guys are starting out, I think you can plan on the Wytheville/Marion (VA) area to be your approximate halfway point. And it's not exactly a metroplex around there.
There's great golf/hiking/mountain biking @ Fall Creek Falls, but I don't know anything one way or the other about kayaking or whitewater in that park.
You may consider PMing "Dave Maynar" and/or "Abrakapokus", who are members on this board from the Knoxville area. I think they are fairly avid campers, and they're generally very helpful to folks with questions such as yours.
about the mountain biking..... we really want to bike some trails, but i know they do not allow them to be used in bonnaroo, but if they are attached to a bike rack on the back of our RV (the rental places offers rentals of bike racks if we need one), would they not let us in? we want to bring some bikes to use on the trails but will have no where to put them when we enter manchester.
Caney Fork River, Big South Fork, and Fall Creek Falls are all great places to camp, hike, and do some paddling in East TN. I'd go with others and recommend Fall Creek Falls. They have great camp grounds and the hiking trails are beautiful. Big South Fork is a great place too, but its up above Knoxville and smack in the middle of BFE.
I'm not much help on the bike situation though. ???
about the mountain biking..... we really want to bike some trails, but i know they do not allow them to be used in bonnaroo, but if they are attached to a bike rack on the back of our RV (the rental places offers rentals of bike racks if we need one), would they not let us in? we want to bring some bikes to use on the trails but will have no where to put them when we enter manchester.
You are correct. Technically, festival-goers are not permitted to bring bicycles onto the grounds. But that's not to say I haven't seen them more than a couple of times over the years. As the campgrounds are regularly patrolled, I expect you'd have some 'splaining to do if you got stopped while riding one. Whether you'd be strictly prevented from bringing them in if they were locked onto an RV rack is a slightly different question. Your best bet here would be to e-mail Bonnaroo directly on the question.
You could probably always find a gas station or motel right near the festival entrance that would let you off-load them and lock 'em to a lightpole for the weekend. ('Course, they would surely tell you they have no liability in case they were to be stolen.)
You also can't be sure that you'll be exiting from the exact same point you entered, so you could end up having to double back some distance to retrieve them.
Sorry I can't help more on this particular question. ???
i think we will err on the side of caution and forgo the bikes and do some good ol' hiking, espcially considering one of my cousins bikes is worth over a grand we do not feel at all comfortable leaving them locked up in a random spot for 4 days. i looked up fall creek falls and that place looks beautiful, although the 11 hour drive from MD would mean that we would get there at 11pm the earliest, which is way too late to setup camp imo, but that is my first choice right now. other than natural bridge, any other nice places in VA or east TN?
Last Edit: Apr 6, 2012 18:55:52 GMT -5 by hsid - Back to Top
Good idea foregoing the bikes. All you will do is worry about them and you want to worry about nothing but yourself at Roo. Not because it's a dangerous place (it isn't) but because that weekend should be all about taking care of yourself and enjoying yourself as much as possible. While riding a bike around Roo sounds cool it will also be hotter than fuck. Stroll around instead and enjoy the camaraderie.
edit: Also you are traveling through some of the most beautiful countryside known to man on the way there. I've never overnighted in an RV in that area but there has to be some really beautiful places to stay. Kudos to you guys.
Also, hsid, there's at least two or three RV campgrounds in Max Meadows/Fort Chiswell (VA), southern Shenandoah Valley. I've not camped there myself, so can't personally speak to amenities/attractions. But like Quacker noted, it's beautiful country. And it's gonna be at almost your exact halfway point to Roo.
Sounds good, I'll take a look at these places in Shenandoah valley. Thanks so much guys. Now about when I should plan on arriving at bonnaroo.... I want to get there wed evening around the time the tollbooths open, this way we have the full day Thursday to frolic and play! but are there any arguments as to why it would be better to get there thurs morning? Lastly is it necessary to bring a cooler if the RV has a fridge? Only thing I'm worried about is running out of propane/gas due to using the air conditioning and such. Anyone here previously bring an RV to roo know how long the generators last on these things with regular usage? Like will it last for the whole weekend? I spoke to the rental place and they really didn't have an hours per gallon information on the generator, all they said was that there is an auto shutoff when the tank gets to a quarter, so you don't run out of gas and get stranded.
Oh and quacker, I never planned on riding the bikes at bonnaroo, we wanted to bike the trails at the campgrounds we are planning on stopping at on the way there and leave the bikes locked up to the back for the duration of the festival
Oh and quacker, I never planned on riding the bikes at bonnaroo, we wanted to bike the trails at the campgrounds we are planning on stopping at on the way there and leave the bikes locked up to the back for the duration of the festival
Oh good. If I had a $1000 dollar bike at my site I would be distracted regardless of how well it was locked up. If you really want to do the bike thing then you could look into a storage place near where you camp and store them there until the way back. Biking in the Shenandoah valley must be awesome.
the storage place isnt a bad idea, but that would mean we have to take the same route back. and if the campgrounds was not directly in the path b/t md and tn, that would make our return trip even longer for no reason. we came to the conclusion to leave the bikes at home and hope there is a bike shop or something that offers bike rentals so we can take those up on the trails and just give them back when we done. worse case scenario is that we will just walk, which is A OK by me.
Back in the really Dark Ages when I was a student at JMU (Harrisonburg, VA), I worked four winters at a little ski area there called Massanutten Resort. Basically, just to get a free lift pass for the season. To this day, they operate a GREAT summer mountain-biking program.
You can rent Trek bikes and ride guided trails there for a nominal daily fee. And they maintain a bike slalom course throughout the summer on one of their black diamond ski slopes, where they also host Pro contests. If you guys are a little hardcore about your riding, you would absolutely flip for this place.
Problem is, it's only about 3 hrs southwest of your Balto. starting point, or 1 hr. due south of the I-81/I-66 interchange. So it would be pretty early on in your first day, and you'd still have a 3 to 4 hr. drive south on I-81 to get to the TN state line once you're done.
You should Google it anyway, just to check it out. (Massanutten Resort/McGaheysville, VA).
More to the point... As you're a new poster, and I understand you are doing most of the planning for you and your cuzzes, there's at least three threads you should try to read through when you get a chance. All were started by Roo folk who've been at this for a while, and who's advice can be trusted fully:
1. Fawnmart's "Unofficial Official Welcome to Inforoo" (The What Stage forum) 2. "Gene's FAQ on Bringing a RV" (That Tent forum) 3. Billy P's "The Health Thread Your Mother Wants You to Read" (That Tent forum)
Hoping you'll find a few ideas that might help you guys....
to be honest we don't consider ourselves hardcore bikers, what we really want is a nice long intermediate level trail with beautiful scenery. after posting the above i found genes FAQ and it was quite helpful. ill take a look at the heath and welcome to bonnaroo right now.
first off i would like to thank everyone who helped me out on this thread as well as in our PMs, so since it is getting close to crunch time and i have yet to actually book my campsites, i figured i would bump this thread to see if anyone else has any helpful tips for me. this is our plan so far
6/4 pick up RV from rental place in Gambrills, MD. should be leaving rental spot by 12-1230 - drive to luray caverns (2.5 hour drive) and take the tour ~1-2 hours - drive to natural bridge and camp the night (2 hour drive) 6/5 spend all day hiking/biking/ general camp fun 6/6 leave by latest 1pm (possibly earlier) and make it to the farm around 9pm. (<8 hour drive)
right now my main concern is that our campsite is too far from the halfway point, making the second leg of the trip longer than i would like. i cannot seem to find a perfect campsite further in. fall creek falls looks so beautiful but is too far west. any other places we should go or things to do? again our main activities we would like to do are going to be some type of boating (rafting, kayak, canoe), fishing (maybe), hiking, and/or biking
Post by screamersp on May 14, 2012 16:24:38 GMT -5
hey dude i've been to 'roo twice first time was in an RV with bunch of friends and we had a blast. air condition in the RV is a major plus!
when we entered 'roo we had a full tank, we used the generator most of the time and by end of the wknd the tank was pretty low and had to refill before hitting the road.
i would recommend stopping at Walmart on wednesday for 2 reasons. a) stock up on some stuff you may need/want (lawn chairs & propane for a grill, some meat, snacks, WATER, etc...)
b) its the pre-part to 'roo...the whole parking lot is full of people excited to get to 'roo...people playing beer pong, etc..
from my experience you can only enter 'roo from thursday morning at 8 or 9am.
there is no way to control where you get pointed to when you come into the gates, so don't try to hard to plan that. RV parking is pretty much set though, so don't worry too much about being far. especially since you can't control it.
thanks for bumping this post for me sammy. i was going to bump to update it anyways. first off according to the website the gates will open at 7pm on wed for all GA ticket holders so this should include RVs. the only thing about a late opening is for VIP campers who have to wait till the morning. worse case scenario, if i cant get in i will stay at the walmart. so we decided against luray caverns (because one of my cousins said hes been there 10 times and doesnt want to go) and natural bridge as the only decent campgrounds is a KOA and its too commercialized for me. we decided to stay inside the shenandoah natural forest at one of two campsites, our options are: Big Meadows - smaller campgrounds (total not per site), more activities Loft Mountain - biggest campgrounds (total), more secluded (although does not seem as secluded if i look at the available campsites map), better view (supposedly). this place has only 3 more campsites available for the dates we want to go, so i would need to book this asap if we decide on loft mountain.
anyone been to either or both of these places and can give some insight?
also... one of my cousins can no longer go so i have an extra ticket available for sale at face value, PM me if anyone is interested.
Last Edit: May 14, 2012 16:45:45 GMT -5 by hsid - Back to Top
last update... i promise (maybe, as long as nothing else changes)
decided on loft mountain, it was the furthest west, with the most amount of privacy.
if anyone wants to start their roo weekend early we will be at loft mountain monday evening to wed morning PM me or leave a message here. we will will be bringing plenty of booze as well as steaks/burgers/sausages and a great attitude. we are 3 cousins ages 25, 25 and 27. we will def be doing some hiking, possibly some biking if we can find a bike shop close by that rents bikes, and maybe fishing (again if we can rent equipment).
i found someone to take the ticket off my hands but in case she changes her mind last minute i would like to leave the offer still open.
LEAVING IN 10 DAYS!!!!!!!! WOOOOO! BONNAROOOOOOOO ;D
Last Edit: May 22, 2012 14:10:05 GMT -5 by hsid - Back to Top
Sooo just to add its not really on the way to ANYTHING but southern WV has some awesome whitewater, and it is in between MD and TN. My buddy used to be a guide on the New River until he finally made it to CO. Check it out: www.gauley.com/ You'll be travelling during prime New River whitewater season...
THANKS! we all (except one of us) really wanted to do some whitewater rafting at some point (it's on my bucket list). ill see how far out of the way it is then decide from there. thanks adam!
but I do not find it strange that your presence being requested in the Orgy thread and then you showing up, like it was the quacking Bonzai Bat Signal. 
;D 
