Roughing It and Loving It on the Mountain

Twins Kayla and Matthew Shivers ride their bikes on the road near their house at the top of the Bull Run Mountain. (Photos Stephanie K. Kuykendal For The Washington Post)

The dividing line is Route 15 in Haymarket. On one side are the seemingly identical new single-family houses of suburban Prince William County, with neatly manicured lawns and price tags of $400,000 or more. There's not a tree in sight. It's flat.

But go west across Route 15, and that all changes. It's not just that the terrain is different. Follow Log Mill Road past the horses and the farmland. As you wend your way toward and up Bull Run Mountain, let's just say there is an eclectic mix of house styles and an equally unusual mix of attitudes about what people consider visually appealing. A Swiss chalet, a wood A-frame, a brick raised ranch, a house of questionable design, one that is hexagon-shaped, a log house or any combination thereof can follow one another without any regard for architectural continuity. The road shifts from pavement to gravel. In spring and summer, the landscape is dense with foliage.

But this isn't Dogpatch. The folks are not hillbillies and the homes aren't hopelessly ramshackle. Rumor has it you can find stills in the woods, but the civic association is known to host wine-tasting parties.

Welcome to Bull Run Mountain Estates, a 400-home enclave bordering the Fauquier County line. The area has long had a reputation for mountain dwellers who were either fiercely independent about how they lived or whose means were so limited that they had little room for aesthetics, or, perhaps, both. At any rate, early inhabitants of Bull Run Mountain were vacationers and weekenders; over the years, they were joined by seniors and blue-collar families.

In recent years, that's changed. Well-off professionals are moving in. Bull Run Mountain may be slowly going upscale, but residents are no less independent than their predecessors. Today, property owners are buying surrounding lots for privacy, for drain fields, or for both.

"I'm not a person who likes crowds," said Steve Shivers, a cartographer with the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston.

So Shivers, his wife, Linda, and their three children, moved from Oregon via Alaska to Bull Run, settling eight years ago in a custom log house that was built in 1989 on a little less than an acre. The house, on a long, narrow lot that is about 100 feet by 300 feet, straddles the ridge. On a clear day, Shivers can see the Washington Monument. He can also see bobcats, bald eagles and deer.

"It's quiet," he said. "There are no neighbors in front or behind me and there's no traffic." In the summer, it is about 10 degrees cooler at the top of the mountain, and the shade and breeze make the season pleasant.

But the mountain life comes with a price. "The road to the top is steep, even by my standards," said Shivers, noting that his house is about a mile from pavement and the road is so narrow that vehicles heading in opposite directions can't pass each other. In winter, you get down the mountain via four-wheel drive -- a pick-up truck in his case -- or a heavy-duty car with chains. Vehicles that cannot make it up the road are left at the bottom and residents are either shuttled or they hoof it.

The top of the ridge, about 1,230 feet above sea level, is a vulnerable location, he said. The family's house loses power several times a year, once for 36 hours, and there are ice storms, so they rely on a generator, kerosene lamps and a propane stove.

But the living conditions foster a real sense of community, he said. If you need something moved up or down the mountain, or you need a generator, you know you can rely on a neighbor. The people at the top of the mountain are close-knit, he said.

"I have no plans to leave," he said.

Nearly six years ago, retired federal government workers Edward and Juanita Rishko bought a house on two acres about three-quarters of the way up the mountain. Rishko is from the hills of Pennsylvania and his wife is from Kentucky, so Bull Run Mountain is reminiscent of home, he said. When their property is not obscured by foliage, they have got a 180-degree view that includes Leesburg, Tysons Corner and Warrenton. In the time they have lived there, the Rishkos have seen red fox, redheaded woodpeckers and flying squirrels, and their neighbors have seen bear. They have also seen new schools, new houses and lots more traffic.

He likes the community in part because there is an active civic group and there is a mix of people, but the mix can give rise to vehement clashes of opinion. Road maintenance is one of those sensitive issues. He calls the anti-road folks "rabid environmentalists."

Tena Thompson has to deal with everyone. For nearly five years she has been the president of the 35-year-old Bull Run Mountain Civic Association.

"I enjoy the group," she said. "Some are reclusive and others enjoy a sense of community. The challenge is serving an eclectic group of people with very specific ideas on how they want their community to be." There is even an issue of belonging to an association that perennially threatens the future of her group.

"Roads, too, are a sensitive issue because many don't meet [Virginia Department of Transportation] requirements. We don't have the funds to improve them so they can be considered for the VDOT maintenance system," she said.

Thompson, a mortgage loan consultant with SunTrust Banks, and her husband, Ronnie, built a house at the top of the mountain. For her, living here presents other challenges. Like Shivers, Thompson said mastering the roads can be difficult, and her three vehicles are either four-wheel or front-wheel drive. Like others, she is a distance even from a bank of mailboxes. But for Thompson, the pluses outweigh the minuses.

"We don't have to worry about overbuilding, but we do have potential for more houses because new septic systems are making that possible," she said.

Bull Run Mountain's renewed attraction, she said, is a backlash against restrictive homeowner associations. "More and more people want the freedom to control their own lives. Here, people can retain their privacy. You just have to have the right attitude to live on the mountain."