Riding to the Playground

Our Saturday goal: the Pocahontas County Mad Gab geocache challenge. Secondary goals included some cooler weather and breathing in a lot of fresh air, helping bitmapped place two geocaches, and picking up a few other caches.

We set out from Morgantown just before 8:00am. We took I-79 for speed and for breakfast, Tudor’s Biscuit World in Bridgeport is a favorite because of the irresistible biscuits and all the benefits of a full service gas station. This route also enabled us to pick up the WV Civil War Trail cache in Clarksburg, commemorating the birthplace of Stonewall Jackson. In the process of getting that cache we got off to a rough start when Chris closed the car door on my fingers, but we recovered! This was the right time of day to snap this one up as it is located in a historic cemetery next to a popular local park.

To mix it up, we took WV Route 20 down to Buckhannon (the fewer daylight hours on the Interstate the better, in my opinion—though sometimes you just really need to get there!) and hopped on Corridor H into Elkins where we picked up U.S. Route 219. In Huttonsville we all kind of agreed that it felt like the last vestige of North Central West Virginia.

Near Cheat Bridge we took Forest Road 209 along Shaver’s Fork to help bitmapped place a geocache. This gravel forest road was in excellent shape and seemed to attract a lot of campers. Very few of the campsites along the approximately 3-mile long road were vacant. But the cooler weather at the higher elevation plus the stunning scenery of Shavers Fork makes it a wonderful summer camping spot.

Scenic Shavers Fork and railroad tracks for the Cheat Mountain Salamander across the riverAfter driving all the way down the road, we returned to the one area we all agreed would be geocache suitable. The criteria we considered in this placement:

• Access to scenic views
• Likelihood of being washed away during periods of high water
• Likelihood of being discovered by accident, which could make it go missing
• Ability of the site to support the container size selected

Once we were satisfied with the location, bitmapped took coordinates and has submitted that cache for approval on Geocaching.com. We then headed over to Cheat Summit Fort to find the WV Civil War Trail cache there. While Cheat Summit Fort is a wonderfully curated civil war site (plus the really neat Confederate cemetery), prior series of WV state geocaching challenges had brought us up here so it lacked the awe from the first visit. As individuals who enjoy doing curated geotrails or geocache challenges, it does get rote to constantly be returning to the same sites to log repetitive caches (sometimes they’re even the same container as before but with a new geocaching ID code).

We continued on to Gaudineer Knob. There had previously been a geocache in this area but it was known to have sloppy coordinates so I had always overlooked it in lieu of scenic areas with a view (or sometimes you just want to get to where you’re going). The old cache was recently archived and bitmapped was eager to get a new, hopefully better, cache placed. At the top, there is a half-mile loop hike to the overlook. It is breathtaking. If you’ve ever in the area and have 30-45 minutes to spare, take the access road and walk to the overlook. I had surgery 5 days prior to this trip and had no trouble with the walk. Besides, the parking area had a clean pit toilet so there’s always that.

The breathtaking view from Gaudineer Knob

Once crossing Gaudineer Knob off the list (and placing the geocache!), we headed toward Camp Allegheny to pick up one of the oldest geocaches in West Virginia as well as the WV Civil War geocache. The drive out to Camp Allegheny can be challenging in a passenger car, either WVDOT or the Forest Service need to get out there with some gravel. It is nothing short of a shame how tricky it is to make the drive. Camp Allegheny is a wonderful Civil War site to visit because the view-shed is unchanged from the past 150 years (Cheat Summit Fort isn’t bad, but there’s a big power line that runs through it). And where the road is now is where the road was then.

The view from Camp Allegheny

From Camp Allegheny, we sought to venture to Green Bank to begin the Pocahontas County geo trail. We made it after a harrowing trip on County Road 5 (Buffalo Mountain Road). I spent virtually the whole drive into Green Bank hugging a pillow against my abdomen, where my well-healing surgical incisions are. The next entry here will describe and evaluate the Pocahontas County geocaching program this year.