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Mountain Top Escape

solitary cabin on top of mountain in Virginia

By: David Shook + Save to a List

Mountain top escape 

 

I was taught in elementary school that technology was going to make our lives easier. Computers and robotics would do away with the 40 plus hour work week. My teacher said “Americans would take vacations longer and more often just like Europe”. I have forgotten how to write in cursive, but I remember the lessons about how life was going to be easier due to technology. It was a lie. 

 

Life is easier and simpler when we can escape the technology that demands our attention every waking hour. Today’ average person looks like they are wearing Batman’s utility belt with cell phones, pagers, Blackberrys, scanners, printers, and PDAs. From the bathroom to the car, technology follows us and causes us to work longer and longer. Everyone dreams of escaping to a mountain top cabin and stripping off the utility belt of technology.  There is such a place, and the cost is less than a hotel room. 

 

In Virginia is a Forest Service cabin that sits all by itself on the top of a mountain. Following Hwy 21 out of Wytheville, the drive is through rolling farmland to a well maintained gravel Forestry road. The road winds and climbs for six miles until it stops at a t-intersection. Go left for 3 miles and there is a primitive campground with potable water (very important). Go right and 2 miles later on the right is your gated driveway to peace and quiet. 

 

The driveway has a locked gate to maintain that you alone are on the mountain top. The driveway is a quarter mile long through the forest. At it’s end, you’ll burst into an open field with a 270 degree view and a cabin right in the middle of it. 

 

The view encompasses two mountain tops with a farmland valley on either side. My daughter said at night, the farm houses look like distant twinkling Christmas lights. The wrap around porch is the perfect place to sit and let your troubles melt away. No noise from planes or dogs, the occasional soft moo from the valley and twice we heard car sounds from the gravel road below. It is just you, the view, and the cabin. 

 

The cabin has electricity, but no running water. The bathroom toilet flushes using water from a cistern that captures rain water. There is a full kitchen with stove, refrigerator, and even a microwave and coffee maker some brought and left. The window over the sink is over six feet long starring out at the 2 mountains and their valleys. My sister said with view like that, she would volunteer to stay in the kitchen all day and bake. You must bring your own water for drinking and washing. If you run low on water, the campground is down the road. 

 

The three large bedrooms sleep eight comfortably. The enormous fireplace in the living room is the only source of heat for the cabin. Highs during the day for our stay ranged from 72 degrees to 37 degrees. Remember it’s a mountain top, expect wind and changing weather. 

 

Rain occurred during our stay and allowed us the ultimate escape from technology. Indoors during the rain we  read, talked, and played board games like Scrabble and Monopoly. The entire family from 63 to 8 years old enjoyed playing cards together at the large kitchen table. No one wished for a television, cell phone reception, video game, or current news report. Playing games together as a family is a dying pastime. 

 

If you would like to experience this, www.Recreation.Gov is the website listing all the Forestry Service cabins and campgrounds. It is amazing the information you can find on the internet. A search engine will save you hours of thumbing through brochures and saves endless phone calls to get the information needed for your next vacation. Maybe what I learned in elementary school wasn’t entirely a lie.

We want to acknowledge and thank the past, present, and future generations of all Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral lands we travel, explore, and play on. Always practice Leave No Trace ethics on your adventures and follow local regulations. Please explore responsibly!

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