Jeep Adventures: Peter’s Mill Run

Jeep

I just wanna do Jeep thangs with my franzzz!! Living closer to the mountains means more access to nature adventures. And while your girl still prefers indoor houseplants over grass and mud and bugs, I do enjoy an adventure safely from inside a vehicle. An off-road vehicle to be exact!

My husband was a dirt bike rider as a teen and used to ride out here all the time. Now as an adult, he’s really excited to do the same adventures with HIS kid (and me, I guess) but this time in the jeep. So we strap her up in the car seat, take off the roof and hit the trails.

The first place we went to is a trail called Peter’s Mill Run. It costs (at the time) $5 per operator (in our case, driver of the jeep) per day. There’s a 7Eleven close to the start of the trail that we had to get a wristband from. Very convenient. Make sure to empty your bladders and fill up your gas tank! We decided to get Slurpees. Bad idea when you have a toddler with a tiny bladder, so I don’t recommend doing that if you’re bringing one. I also got a taquito. That was a good idea. A light snack to get you through it, but don’t eat too much, especially if you get car sick. You’re basically scaling a mountain in an all-terrain vehicle.

The off-road trail is easily missed if you aren’t looking for the entrance. You can either start from the bottom of the mountain and work your way up then come down on a normal road and vice versa. Or if you’ve got a lot of time you can go up, turn around at the end, then come back down the way you came up. It is a two-direction road that is essentially one path, and you have to be courteous and share the road. We usually pulled over and let faster vehicles like dirt bikes and ATVs pass us.

The jeep love out there is great. We pulled over in a clearing to let some air out of the tires, (the road was so rocky that this made it a less wobbly ride) and about 3 jeeps stopped to see if we were okay. After hubs let them know he was just airing out, they all agreed that was a good idea and wished they stopped earlier to do that too. Splashing through the mud, climbing up rocks and being in the lush green scenery was a lot more fun than I’d expected and look forward to trying out more trails. MAYBE one day drive through some myself. For right now I will figure out how to not get car sick and hold my pee.

This trail I think could be rated as easy, or novice. Well according to hubs, I rate it by how terrified I was as a passenger. There were a couple of times where I felt like I could fall off the edge, but it still seemed safe overall.

When the trail was over, hubs drove us over to the Woodstock Tower, where he and our daughter climbed up to check out the sight. I wore flip flops and shorts and was not prepared to walk up the the tower so I opted out. But here’s a cute picture of my kid:

Afterward, we were hungry and wanted to pop in nearby for some local eats. We hit the nearest gas station to air the tires back up for normal road conditions and then picked out a grub spot. We chose Pavemint Smokin’ Taphouse It looks like it was a gas station that turned into a tiny restaurant. The food was good, everything came out piping hot. Service was really slow though, but we did go on Memorial Day weekend, so that could have added to it. It’s super cute. The building was accented with the mint color, so that alone made me like it before we walked in. The walls are lined with taps, and the wall overhead boasts specials on a chalkboard menu. There is outdoor seating, which is right next to a stream. Dogs are allowed. But be warned, if you are like me and see “BBQ” and immediately want ribs…know this, they don’t have them. I settled for a beef brisket sandwich. Which was yummy. I’d give it a 2.5/3 on the MiemoMeter for restaurants. It gets half a star because while the service was friendly and attentive, it was slow.

Have you gone on any off-roading trails? Let me know!

More about Miemo

Miemo is a bujo junkie and a food enthusiast. She is a full-time working mama, living in the DC Metro area with her doting husband, silly baby, and lovey lapdog pitbull.

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