We were so happy. A whole two weeks of vacation coming up in our brand new, never been used pop-up Coleman camper. It was thrilling and exciting to be heading off for our very first trip with the new camper. We were gathering up everything we thought we’d need and heading from our home in Illinois to visit our kids who lived in Virginia. My husband, Chuck, was meticulous about getting everything done with getting the camper ready while I loaded up our clothes, sleeping bags, and everything I thought we may use. Then we started to load our food. “Well, I said, “we aren’t going to be camping every night.. just one night on the road to get there for now, so I will just put one night’s food in the camper.” Ominous words! Chuck came in and pronounced, ” ah no, we need to take more than that and began throwing cans of beans and beef stew and who knows what all in the camper.” Under my breath I was thinking, why is he doing all that for one night on the road camping.
We finally had it all together and took off happily down the road toward Virginia. It was a long but happy trip as we hit the beautiful mountains of Virginia. We were so delighted to be in the state even though it was raining slightly and the radio was issuing heavy rain warnings. Well if you are going to camp in a camper, we thought , we’d be safe and dry and happy. Sleeping under the tent top would be nice sleeping weather. We entered the beautiful state park at Douthat and were instructed to turn left onto a little drive that went over this lovely little stream. Then to drive up the hill to our site. We had picked out the perfect site for us…on the topmost part of the hill and near the restrooms… 🙂
We set up the camper and fixed our evening meal and happily listened to the little pitter patter of the rain on the top of the camper. The smell of wet woods and new camper filled the air. Finally the exhaustion of the drive hit us and we decided to call it a night. Sometime late during the night I was awakened to loud popping, crashing noises. It was a little unnerving because I didn’t have a clue what it was. It was still raining… heavily… and I was starting to wonder if anything would leak. The noises kept on.. loud popping noises and roaring water sounds. I woke my husband who probably could sleep through most any kind of storm and he said, “Aww it’s nothing… go back to sleep.” However when we awoke and he went to the bathhouse, he ran into a fellow camper who said, “Looks like we aren’t going anywhere today!” Chuck took a deep breath wondering what he was talking about. “The stream flooded” our fellow camper said, “and the bridge is underwater!”… Chuck came back to the camper with this little tidbit of information and we just looked at each other. A bit of panic made its way to my voice as I said, “that little stream we crossed last night??” “Yes, let’s go look at it.”
We made our way down and were totally aghast at what we saw… that tiny little stream which so quietly had crept under the little bridge last night was an angry, muddy, swirling mass of floodwater. Trees had broken off in the night and were floating along with the water and there was no way in the world we were going to be leaving that day! Immediately we thought of getting word to our daughters that we were stranded at Douthat. We tried the cell phone… of course, no service! Then we walked back up to the camper. Just as we did, a ranger came walking by the bathhouse notifying campers of our dilemma. I was so glad to see him altho the campground was pretty full of campers so we were not alone. It was reassurance that there was some way to get out. Chuck asked him how he got here if all the roads were flooded. He told us that he had climbed the mountain and showed us the direction to climb out and get to a phone at the ranger’s station. The campground was fine up on higher ground.. the lower levels where we met some fellow campers from Illinois were somewhat flooded. Getting in and out of their campers was a watery experience. It wasn’t long though before the rangers had a backhoe down by the now raging river. They were going to put in a culvert to divert some of the water away from the bridge and then when the water receded, we would be able to leave.. But that wasn’t going to happen today. It was going to take some time.
So we started thinking food… yes, thank you husband, you packed all that other stuff that I didn’t think we were going to need. So I had to eat my words but thankfully, we had beans and beef stew.. So many of the campers were sharing food and willing to help out anyway possible. It was a great group of people and a great group trying to “rescue” us. Indeed we still had to notify daughters or the state police would have been on our trail. So we decided to climb that mountain to get out to make a phone call. It didn’t look all that bad, I thought. 🙂 So we started and it was a whole lot steeper than it looked. We started to hold on to little trees and pull our way up…It was some good exercise! At last we made it… called our daughter and told her the story. Her only request… call me back in a few hours and tell me how it’s going. Sure, right…climb that mountain again.. I think not! So we assured her that as soon as we got out, we would call her. Then we climbed that mountain again to get back to the camper and took a nap. Diligently, that crew kept on working hard as they could. By the next day at lunchtime, a ranger had appeared again to tell us that they would have a window of time for us to get out that day and to be ready. It could be anytime. So we hooked up, packed up and decided to eat more beef stew. As soon as I got the pot hot and we were ready, they came around again and said, “Now, you need to come on down, now.” We threw that hot pot of beef stew in the trunk..and started on down the road. You could still see a little layer of water coming across the bridge but it was down enough to cross. Crossing that bridge was a little scary as you could see the water still swirling but their culvert worked.
We still sing the praises of those workers who worked so diligently to get us out. We loved the adventure and the wonder of mother nature at her best and worst as we visited Douthat State Park. We plan to go back there again soon as we are now Virginians and guess what… this time, we will pack a lot of food! Happy Camping!
Editor’s note: While it is still possible to get “stranded” in White Oak Campground, we have replaced the bridge since this story in 2000. Rest assured that in an emergency situation we would have been able to rescue stranded campers. This is most likely to happen in March or April with combination spring rains and runoff from snow at higher elevations.