Building our Off-Grid Camp at Laurel Ridge: Selecting a Site

The spot center-right that seems to arc back through the trees is the starting point for the trail to our camp.

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

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As I shared in our prior post which you can read here, we are the new owners of a 130-acre plot of mountain land, which we have named Laurel Ridge, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of our home state of Virginia. In hiking the multiple trails already cleared, we have come across really interesting features as well as various found objects (about which we’ll write more in the future). We quickly found ourselves with a lengthy list of all the really cool things we want to do, as well as some of the less fun but practical necessities like clearing brush from the trails before nature takes over.

We thought about our priorities, and the one at the top of the list is to create a site for camping.

selecting a site for our camp

Besides the obvious - finding an area that is relatively flat - we first had to determine where to establish our camp. There are a large number of potential spots scattered throughout the woods, including one with a beautiful view of the layers of mountains. In fact, it is a spot that with a bit more clearing of small trees, could easily have a 180 degree view of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains. Yes, clearing those trees is also on our long list.

The spot with the gorgeous view is a quarter mile walk from where we park our car. The path is entirely uphill and somewhat rocky at spots. If our goal was to be able to camp as soon as possible, we didn’t want it to be an ordeal. Hauling our camp gear and three dogs up that distance would get pretty exhausting unless we also built some sort of storage shed. Building a storage shed would mean carrying lumber and building materials up that same quarter of a mile path. To say nothing of creating a fenced area for the dogs to stay safely near us during the day. At the end of a long work week, this is meant to be a relaxing getaway, which means we need to make it easy at least for starters. We quickly got pragmatic.

On one of our first trips to Laurel Ridge before we bought it, we had also found a relatively flat area not too far uphill from the spot where we park the car. The distance is pretty much on par with what we have experienced at walk-in sites at national park campgrounds. The spot is pretty in a Virginia forest sort of way, surrounded with thick, tall trees that have been decades in the growing, and smaller trees, scrambling for any sunlight seeping through the canopy.

This seemed like the perfect spot for an initial campground. Getting our belongings and the pups from the car would not be too tiring, and it would allow us the chance to work on building some basics like a shed and rack for fire logs without walking the supplies up and back a half mile each time.

going with the forest flow

Once we had made a decision for where to generally place the camp, it quickly became clear what we needed to do next. First up would be clearing a path, next would be identifying the exact area for our camp, cutting down the trees that needed to be removed, and clearing the messy underbrush and leaf litter.

Dustin started clearing the path during my work week and with a rake (for the leaves), brush cutters (for saplings), and a handsaw (for felled trees on the ground), he made significant progress in a short period of time. I joined him and his newly purchased chain saw on the weekend.

Our temporary storage for felled trees. You can see that to keep them off the ground, where they’ll start deteriorating, we propped them off the ground between a couple of larger trees.

We walked the path to the general area where we’d camp and assessed the spot. We looked for the largest trees to lend shape to the space. There were several roughly circular areas in a chain. We started removing the smaller trees that were contained within the first circle of larger trees. Dustin took the slightly larger small trees with the chainsaw, and I took the handsaw to the smaller ones.

Normally, we would avoid cutting down trees. In fact, we hated having to cut a large silver maple tree at our house years ago, but it was in the process of dying and could easily have fallen on our house.

But I’m not going to lie: It’s oddly fun and satisfying cutting these trees down, watching the space open up from a haphazard forest to something that begins to look more like an outdoor living space.

As we worked to remove the smaller trees and clear leaf litter, the future use for the space became more clear. There was an open area at the top of the path, then the first circular area with a perfect spot for a fire pit. Beyond that, the next circle of trees could be more of our hang out area during the day - an outdoor family room and dining room, if you will, and then the final circle beyond that, up just a small rise, will make a perfect place for tents.

While this will take quite a bit more work, we also plan on building a fence around the final two circular areas of trees so that the dogs can remain in those areas safely without getting too close to the fire. We have a decently sized collapsible dog fence that we have taken camping previously, but for a more permanent spot, we would like for them to have more room to be comfortable and relaxed.

The best part is that the trees we have had to cut down will serve as a combination of firewood and fence posts. And yes, that means that our list also includes building a holder for the firewood to keep it dry and off the ground.

Experience it yourself! Here’s the walk from where we park our car, up the incline to the start of our camp. Apologies for the shaky video - we tried our best on the rough ground walking uphill! For those wondering, the main bird sound you hear is the red-eyed vireo.

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