Jag and I just got back from another mini-vacation in a Virginia state park. This time it was Occoneechee, which is right on Kerr Lake (or Bugg’s Island Lake, if you’re in Virginia). It would be nice to take these vacations in-state, but North Carolina has exactly 2 parks that offer climate-controlled cabins, while Virginia has them in 14 parks, all of which offer online reservations. Our state’s park system is kinda sad and the web sites suck. Also, alcohol is forbidden in NC state parks, whereas Virginia only forbids public use/display. What’s a nice vacation without a glass of wine/mug of beer in the evenings? Sheesh.

It would be hard to overstate how nice the cabins were at Occoneechee. The cabins at Fairystone were adequate; these cabins were simply amazing for a state park facility. Clean, nicely decorated, and supplied with a full kitchen that had nicer appliances than I have at home. The lake views out the back windows/from the back porch were stunning.
For the price (~$100 a night), you can’t beat it. Our cabin had 2 bedrooms (1 queen bed/2 sets of bunks), and they allow pets! Since you can cook all your meals in-house, it would be especially affordable for families with kids.

We brought the loom and spinning wheel, a bunch of food and books, a few bottles of wine, and just hung out. Some nice previous visitor had cut a pile of firewood, which we put to good use, along with the complimentary firewood bundle left at the cabin.

Jag finished his weaving project while we were there, and it looks great. All the closeups I took came out like blurry crap, so I’ll try to take more pictures later on. (I spun up 4oz of Coopworth roving and finished half of a secret knitting project, which I will discuss in a later blog post.)

The back of the cabin faced west, and the sunsets were spectacular.

I love this picture of Jag. It looks like the jacket photo for a novel about The Immigrant Experience. “Young Lars knew that he could not remain in Sweden to take over the family lutefisk business, not when tales of the rich cod fisheries of Canada reached his ears.”

It was pretty windy while we where there,

I found some kites hidden in the back of my car, and we tried playing with those.

If Occoneechee had as many hiking trails as Fairystone, it would be hands-down my favorite park. It has only about 3 miles of trails, and just outside the park border is a 15-mile “multi-use” trail for hiking, horseback riding (there’s an equestrian campground in the park) and mountain bikes. It’s paved with loose gravel, which is really not pleasant to walk on, and during spring/fall there’s hunting allowed in the area, so hikers/riders are advised to wear blaze orange. Does allowing hunting where people are hiking and riding horses (and conversely, encouraging hikers/horses to wander around in a hunting area) seem like a Bad Idea to anyone else?

Despite the few little quirks, I wish we were still there!