Many many moons ago, a CORE Club veteran’s mother told him “Sonny, whatever you find yourself doing on the first day of the year, you’ll find yourself doing all year long. So choose wisely my boy”
Whether that happened or not, it’s been a tradition for the club ever since, and we leaned into it once again to kick off 2023 the right way with a trail ride at Peter’s Mill and Taskers Gap in Shenandoah County Virginia!
Attendees:
- Ken & Jendra – Jeep TJ
- Brent & son – Ford F-150 Raptor
- Alex – Tahoe
- Kathy – Toyota FJ Cruiser
- Brady & Sarah – Jeep JL
- Kirk – Toyota FJ Cruiser
- Mike – Jeep JK
- Jeff – Land Rover Defender
The day kicked off with a drivers meeting at the 7-11 at 340 W Reservoir Rd, Woodstock, VA 22664. That location is one of a few nearby that also sells the $5 day passes for the Peters Mill/Taskers Gap trail system.
After our drivers meeting, we drove over to the parking lot by Edinburg Gap, to air our tires down in preparation for getting on the trail.
Peters Mill and Taskers Gap are not aggressively challenging trails, but are certainly very scenic and beautiful, and have some interesting sections and short fun climbs. The main reason for airing tires down on this trail is for comfort on the rocks, as well as for tire protection, allowing the tire to give a little as you drive over rocks and sticks on the trail.
After airing down, we headed over to the Taskers Gap section, a 6 mile round trip out and back for full size 4×4 vehicles, going south off of Edinburg Gap Rd. .
This is a really neat trail, with the mountain side on the west side of the trail, and an overlook on the east side as you drive along the shelf road. It also has some fun mud puddles, one of which we stopped at to grab some photos and video!
From there, we continued on to the turnaround at the end of the full size 4×4 section, and made our way back out.
Once back at the Taskers Gap trailhead, we parked up in a clearing at the start of the trail and sat for lunch. It was a great chance to chat and learn about some new CORE guests for whom this was their first ride with CORE, and in some cases, their first off-road ride!
Once we finished our lunch, we loaded back up and headed over to the start of the Peter’s Mill section, going back north.
Once again, a beautiful scenic ride through the woods along the ridgeline. Interestingly enough, this trail takes on a different type of pretty during the winter when the trees have lost their leaves. With the trees more bare, you can actually see through them to the valley below!
We also had some fun rocky climbs that we could bounce over a bit. Still stock friendly for most 4x4s, but definitely fun to clamber over!
We continued on the winding trail through the woods, on this unseasonably, and amazing, warm day! Perfect weather for a New Years run!
The trail itself was still a bit icy from some snow and rain that had fallen over the few weeks before the trip around mid to late December. Nothing precarious, and the trail had plenty of traction. But still interesting to see, since parts of the trail remain shaded all day, and don’t warm up enough to melt all of the ice.
Once we wrapped up the ride and got to the small lot at the end of the trail, we all aired up our tires, chatted for a little bit, and then called it a day. It was a great ride with an awesome and diverse convoy, with perfect weather! Thanks to everyone who came out and helped us kick off the New Year right!
Peters Mill and Taskers Gap Track
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Trail Report written by Jendra Rambharos. Pictures contributed by Jendra Rambharos and Ken Kyler. GPS tracks provided by Jendra Rambharos.