Did you know there's a national park just outside of our nation's capital where you can
stay in cabins where future spies once stayed?
This park was mothballed during World War II and used for military purposes.
This is where the spies training would have lodged, eaten, and trained.
And just down the road you can drink beer at a brewery with a spy theme.
I was going to say every time I said cheers, I'm taking a sip and I'm like it's like 10 am.
And then follow it with Simit, authentic Turkish bagels at a family-run restaurant with
Turkish roots.
Simit is one of the most popular street foods I'm sure you saw when you went to Turkey as
well.
We're exploring Prince William County, Virginia, a short drive from Washington, D.C. that
can feel a world away.
Stay tuned for Hidden Gems in Northern Virginia on this episode of The Travels with Darley
Podcast, where I take you on location to meet local experts and enjoy the sounds and experiences
that you can only get when you visit a destination and talk to the locals.
So let's travel into nature and toast with a brew.
Calling all national park lovers, this next stop may surprise you.
We're taking a Ranger guided tour of Prince William Forest Park, a national park just outside
of Washington, D.C. that feels very far away.
I arrive and meet park ranger Brendan Bonner at the visitor center where there's a small
gift shop and museum.
He's wearing his national park ranger uniform with a broad brim flat hat, sandy tan short
sleep button down shirt and khaki trousers.
We're taking a walk on a few of the notable 37 miles of hiking trails to discover what makes
these serene wooded landscapes so unique.
It's early summer in Prince William County and the woods are a verdant green as we head down
the Laurel Loop Trail.
Brendan, how old is this national park?
National Park is created in 1936 as Chopawamsic Recreational Demonstration Area as
a getaway for the urban residents of Washington, D.C. to have a national park in their backyard.
It's the largest preserved green space in the region.
So I lived in Washington, D.C. for quite a while and I didn't even know about this park.
It's actually pretty common, pretty common.
We like to think of ourselves as the best kept secret of Northern Virginia.
How many miles of trails are there?
Thirty seven miles of trails for hiking and biking in the park.
And it means that folks can come out and have something pretty close to a true wilderness
experience out here.
So close to the city and a world away?
Absolutely.
Sure feels like one.
Being so close to D.C. this park holds its share of political secrets.
So during World War II, the park was actually closed off to the public and used as a training
ground for the Office of Strategic Services, which was the nation's first true multidisciplinary
intelligence gathering agency.
It's the forerunner of the modern CIA.
Huh, this was a spy zone
They were running all around out here, solving field problems, being spies.
This is where they learned how to do that.
Gorilla warfare, commando style training, small arms training, explosives and demolition
training.
So they would blow things up here?
Absolutely.
This was their training ground where they learned how to take those skills and their communication
skills and radio and go overseas and fight the secret battle of World War II.
That's so well.
So how long were they doing the spy training here in the park?
They came here in 1942 and they were here to the war's end in 1945.
Wow.
The forerunner of a very significant agency today started with a small group right here in
response to a problem that was developing in real time, which was a separate effort
needed in World War II.
Oh, there goes the beetle.
He's on the move.
Brendan and I continue walking to an area where park visitors can rent both cabins and
entire cabin campsites for their stay at very economical rates.
Four out of five of the cabin camps are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
They may be a bit rustic, but these cabin camps are rich in history and available to rent
for between 70 to 200 of your closest friends.
So this is one of the park's five historic cabin camps, which were built by the CCC in the
1930s as part of the facilities for the park.
So there have been a lot of young men in the depression area out here working to make some
money and build some infrastructure for the park at the same time.
And so they built five of these camps, each holding up to 200 campers for folks to come
out and be able to stay here and play here for a while in the summertime.
So I could come with a group of two, four, ten, 200?
Any size you like.
Yep, if you rent one of the camps, you get the entire camp to yourself, including a commercial
kitchen, dining hall and lodging for up to 200 people.
With a beautiful fireplace.
How much does it cost right now to rent a cabin versus the camp?
Right now renting one cabin in Camp 3, which is the only place where we do individual cabin
rentals is about $60 a night.
Renting an entire camp will run from about $600 to $900 a night.
Okay, not bad though, if you split it up among friends.
If you have 200 friends to bring, absolutely, that knocks it down a lot.
I think we could put a call out for that.
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the CCC program, or civilian
conservation corps, in an effort to turn the economy around with a program called The
New Deal.
Those seeking work could enlist in work programs where they would receive transportation,
housing, food, clothing, and a small stipend to work on various projects, including building
camps like this one in Prince William Forest Park.
You walk up the stairs to check out the dining hall built by the CCC.
This reminds me of my childhood summer camp.
Yep, exactly like my old camp experience.
This is the dining hall.
Even smells like camp.
Doesn't it?
With, that big fireplace.
That's great.
You can have 200 of your friends in here, even better.
That's a great place.
In the dining hall.
So if you can rent this entire cabin camp, you can make your own summer camp.
You can have experiences right here in the park any time you want with your friends.
That's so fun.
It is.
It is a lot of fun.
But before I decide to bring a group here, Brendan offers to show me one of the wooden
cabins where we'd be staying the night.
So there's a spy link with these cabins as well?
Yes, so the historic cabin camps when the park was mothballed during World War II and used
for military purposes. This is where the spies and training would have lodged, eaten, and
trained.
So you can stay in cabins where spies stayed?
Absolutely, you can.
It's part of the rich history of this place.
There aren't any secret notes still hidden inside.
If you find some, they're probably encrypted, so good luck.
So my spy skills are learning here.
Who knows?
Brendan and I hop over to The Crossing Trail
Another area where history takes center stage in this national park.
Travelers can hike along a half mile loop trail.
It takes you along portions of the trail that General George Washington and French General
Rochambeau took their troops during the American Revolution on route to Yorktown.
The Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historical Trail.
Brendan, now we're walking on a portion of the Washington Rochambeau National Historic
Trail.
We are on a military road used by General Washington and his troops to move down to Yorktown in
1781.
We're passing here in September of that year.
Why are we walking in a ditch?
This road is essentially a sunken lane, which is a very common historical type of road.
It probably leveraged an existing drainage of some sort that they would have cleaned up
the bottom of the drainage to make it a military road that can handle 7,000 troops and all
their equipment.
Wow, so a lot of troops marched through here in order to help us win the war and win
our independence?
Absolutely.
Within three weeks of passing through here, they were on their way to Yorktown, and that
was where the surrender of the British accord under Lord Cornwallis.
What would the conditions have been like along this particular part of the route that is
now the national park?
So this road is actually a series of roads that ran from Newport, Rhode Island, all the
way down to Yorktown, and there would have been portions of it that were in great shape
and portions of it that weren't.
General Washington actually provided for the road to be improved ahead of his troops
all the way down.
And so it would have been pretty good marching, the only problem was it was 680 miles to get
there.
That's a long time.
Yes.
So they would have been moving horses through here ammunition, artillery, all of that kind
of stuff.
Everything needed to support a major army in the field.
It took them from late June to late September to make it from Rhode Island to Yorktown,
so it was a long trip.
It's kind of neat that if you're visiting this particular national park, you can not
only experience the CCC and now also the history of the American Revolution, all in one
place.
Absolutely.
It's pretty fascinating that we have all this right here.
I mean, Northern Virginia has long been a cornerstone of a historical activity in our
country and that flowed through here as well.
And we're a stones throw from Washington DC, our nation's capital.
We are.
We are indeed so close.
To continue with the spy theme, I'm heading over to Evesdrop Brewery in Manassas
Virginia to meet entrepreneur Sam Madden, who drew on a few themes to name this brewery.
It has multiple levels and spaces, indoors and outside, where you play games, sip beside
of fire pit, enjoy the tiki garden or rooftop patio and more.
Sam is meeting me to choose a beer from a long list, eliminated on a large, light-box
sign in the tap room.
You all have a lot of different beers on your menu that you've produced here.
All the ones with the pigeon on the menu are the ones that we brew in-house, light-laggers,
Belgians, Estates, Sours, IPAs.
How did you come up with the name Evesdrop for Evesdrop Brewery?
So there's a lot of reasons behind the name.
The first one being that we were collaboration focused when we first opened up, you basically
would hear about us going to other breweries and seeing our beers on tap at their venues
and the name Evesdrop.
The second is the many different spaces that we have.
We've got the rooftop and the tiki garden, so you pretty much evesdrop in on the
different spaces.
The third reason is actually funny, the customer's always asked us, "Where does an evesdrop
come from?"
And they're like, "Is it because pigeons are spies?"
Because this area is also known as being an area where spies trained.
But those are the different meanings behind the name evesdrop.
Fun.
Yeah.
Well cheers.
Now this is a segment that you can also, like all of them in this podcast.
Watch in video format as part of the Travels with Darley series on PBS and Streaming.
But in the TV show, you don't always get the full backstory.
There's not enough time because the episodes are just a half hour.
We filmed this segment and taped for the podcast at 10am on a Friday morning when the brewery
was actually closed.
Sometimes when you have a beer for breakfast, you do ridiculous things.
And there was something about the creativity behind evesdrop's beers, illuminated on that
large menu, after I'd had more than a few sips while doing this filming and not enough
breakfast that got my real spinning.
We were tasting last night and now I'm tasting this morning and I was going to say every
time we say cheers, I'm taking a sip and I'm like, "It's like 10am."
It's like, "Story of my life."
Well, I like the names of your beers.
You've got grumpy old bird, Big Pigey.
I got a watermelon bird songbong, second-fogger, Irish Red Tail.
Chandelier and a dollar menu.
I got my drop off, heavy in my Irish Red Tail.
I got my broken wings bird songbong.
Yes, do prepare for my rap skills.
Not ones, I usually tout.
I don't even know how that much to drink, yeah?
Just wait.
She's rapping over here.
So maybe I should get some food.
This part of Northern Virginia, it has a lot of diverse dining options and when I heard
there was a Turkish restaurant, I had to check it out.
I also hear they have simit on the menu, which is the Turkish bagel.
So of course, I had to make a stop.
Serhat Yildizci and his family run MyCravingz.
A restaurant, bakery and cafe also located in Manassas, Virginia, about a 40 minute drive
from Washington, D.C. and well worth it.
I sit down at a wooden table with Serhat.
He set the table with piping hot Turkish tea served in glass cups, various spreads, Turkish
bagels and more.
You're working here with your parents, your mom started the business.
All right.
How did that happen?
One of my father's friends had opened up a grocery store and my dad wanted to help out.
So he asked my mom to bake some stuff for him and they would just sell on a daily basis.
My mom, she would sleep there in the morning and then bake at night so the stuff would be
fresh in the morning.
Her home baked goods became so popular that she branched out to a breakfast place and
now a full service restaurant, complete with Turkish bagels.
My mom has been an excellent chef.
She loves trying new things and she put all this together.
So your mom is quite the baker and she makes the simit and this is caught on here in Northern
Virginia.
Simit is one of the most popular street foods.
I'm sure you saw when you went to Turkey as well.
It's a good companion to everything served.
We break apart the simit which looks sort of like a flatter bagel with a larger hole
in the center.
Oh, looks so good.
Oh, it smells good.
And you can dip any of these in the cheese however you want.
I think I've got to get it on this cheese because it looks awesome.
I'm taking a big slab of cheese here.
The cheese here is called Muhlama or as some people call it in Turkey, Kolok.
It's a very popular dish in the eastern part of Turkey, northeastern part.
It's a mixture of corn flour, butter and cheese and it's just amazing.
Sesame seeds and the outside is just so well toasted and yet it's nice and tender inside.
Wow, well I could definitely get addicted to these.
Of course.
And now I know where outside of Istanbul to find them.
Of course.
Yep, you know where to go.
Everything looks so good and you're doing breakfast right because you have something that
I would say is as Americans would be like, oh, it's kind of like an omelette.
But what is it in Turkish?
So this one is called sucuk Murtar.
It's made with basically scrambled eggs and Turkish sausage.
Turkish sausage is very thin sliced with a little bit of herbs inside, herbs and spices.
It's not too spicy but it's definitely one of the most popular breakfast that's just
in Turkey.
Teşekkürler
Teşekkürler ederim
It's been a pleasure.
Bir zevkti
We'll say.
It was a pleasure.
So fun to find a little bit of Turkiye in Virginia.
It just goes to show you that you can travel the world without ever leaving the USA, especially
in Prince William County just outside of Washington, D.C.
From spies in a national park to spies and beer in a whole lot of simmit.
I hope you've enjoyed hiking, dining and drinking with me on the Travel with Darlley
Podcast.
See you on the next adventure.
And if you like these adventures, please share this with your friends and subscribe and
look for the Travels with Darley TV series.
And find me on the socials.
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