The Greenbrier River Trail in Marlinton

The Greenbrier River Trail is a 78-mile-long rail trail following the Greenbrier River and the path of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway’s Greenbrier Division from Cass to Caldwell, West Virginia. Sections north of Cass are still in stages of operation as part of the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad. The trail crosses 35 bridges and travels through two tunnels as it meanders through some of the most remote (and peaceful and breathtaking) places in West Virginia.

Bridge over Knapp Creek, heading south out of Marlinton.

The West Virginia Encyclopedia recognizes that the Greenbrier Division differed from most other railroads in West Virginia because rather than hauling the state’s most famous export, coal, the Greenbrier Division was built and operated to support the burgeoning timber business in this remote section of West Virginia. Through the early 1920s, business thrived along the line, but the resource was almost entirely gone by the 1920s and demand from timbering interests dropped off. Traffic slowly dropped off until when in 1975 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad requested permission to abandon the line.

Water Tower Park, heading north on the Greenbrier River Trail from downtown Marlinton.

Marlinton retains much of the character introduced by the railroad, with bridges and a watering hole for the trains, seemingly suspended in time until the next freight rolls through. Indeed, when things threaten their railway heritage, the folks in Marlinton fight for it. When destroyed by fire in 2008 the Chesapeake and Ohio Depot was replaced with a nearly perfect replica. Tourists would never know that the bright yellow depot building is not the original, but an expression of love for the community and civic pride.

The Marlinton Depot, from the Pocahontas County Chamber of Commerce

What will you discover on the other 74 miles of the Greenbrier River Trail?

 

Parade of Steam 2021

Cass Scenic Railroad State Park in remote Pocahontas County, West Virginia has some secrets. At least five of those secrets are powerful, geared, steam locomotives that worked hard time on logging railroads all over North America. In fact, several of the steam engines at Cass spent much of their service life in my home province of British Columbia, Canada! As odd as it sounds, I feel closer to home when visiting Cass and being near machines that helped tame the West.

The Parade of Steam is a relatively new tradition at Cass Scenic Railroad, launching after the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad assumed operations of the rolling stock. There were initial concerns about turning over these operations to a for-profit business enterprise, especially with rates for rail excursions increasing substantially, but their care and attention to these historical machines and dedication to their operation has proven their honest intentions.

My husband and I arrived to Cass early on June 19, 2021, not knowing exactly what the turnout would look like for the Parade. Initially it seemed like the turnout would be modest, but within 30 minutes of the beginning of the event the parking lot was packed with cars and folks sitting in lawn chairs with their cameras and cell phones fixed on the track between the old mill and the station. The Parade of Steam featured five of the engines at Cass, the Climax #9 and Shay’s #2, #4, #5, and #11 in an array of configurations that lasted the better part of an hour!

While happy to share some stills from the event, others took some magnificent video, such as this one shared on the KensTrains YouTube channel.

My favorite, Shay #2, “Pacific Coast”

A pair of Shay’s taking off in formation

The icing on the cake was a nice excursion to Bald Knob after the Parade. The excursion was sold out and filled with guests from all around the mid-Atlantic, including a busload of elderly tourists from New Jersey who had a lot of questions about West Virginia. To them, and everyone from out of state, we welcome you and your tourism dollars. There is a lot of great stuff to see and do in West Virginia!

 

Where in the World is Watoga?

In the ultra-rural hills of Pocahontas County, West Virginia are many unexpected gems, including the Green Bank Observatory, Buckeye Bend Books, the Highland Scenic Highway, and the Edray State Trout Hatchery. Among these hills, one may also find Watoga State Park. Originally conceived as a state forest, it was developed into a full-fledged state park by the Civilian Conservation Corps, with many of those amenities maintained and celebrated to this day. The park is an all-inclusive rustic wonderland, featuring a swimming pool, small lake (with kayak, canoe, and SUP rentals!), and miles of meandering trails.

The lake is stocked with fish and perfect for folks wanting to try their hand and some type of paddling without committing to making an intense day of it. Following the lakeshore is a rustic trail with a smattering of benches, so those who prefer to stay on land can still get much of the benefit of the lake while staying dry.

The amenities at the park include a lodge with a well-stocked gift shop (all the non-alcoholic cold drinks you will ever need) and a moving tribute to the CCC workers that left this gem in these hills. Come, get away from it all.

 

The Green Bank Observatory

When folks think about West Virginia, science is not usually one of the first things that comes to mind. However, there is a breathtaking shrine to science and technology hidden in the mountains of Pocahontas County, West Virginia: the Green Bank Observatory. The best part? This facility is open to the public to explore in many ways: online, in person on guided tours, and on your own by foot or bicycle.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic bus tours were offered to guests on diesel-powered buses, but now three-mile walking tours are offered twice daily to guests to get acquainted with the different radio astronomy telescopes at the observatory, including the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope.

The Green Bank Observatory (previously known as the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank) was established in 1956 in the National Radio Quiet Zone in Green Bank, West Virginia. As you might guess by a name like “National Radio Quiet Zone”, there are zero bars of cellular phone service in this area. In fact, the telescopes and equipment in operation can tell when local residents have broken microwaves or set up wi-fi networks in their homes. While the wi-fi networks are often forgiven, local residents have been gifted new appliances to replace those on the fritz to limit interference with observations. The Quiet Zone is most restrictive within 10 miles of the facility and even small devices, like fitness trackers with Bluetooth capabilities and digital cameras, are prohibited from coming near the telescopes.

These restrictions have made the area a haven for those who believe they have electromagnetic hypersensitivity (like Chuck McGill in Better Call Saul). The condition is controversial, even among those living in the National Radio Quiet Zone, but I am strongly in favor of doing what makes you happy and comfortable (as long as it does not hurt anyone else).

The grounds of the observatory feature a wide array of radio telescopes, both historical and currently in operation, including a replica of Karl Jansky’s antenna that first identified radio waves coming from space and established the field of radio astronomy. On the walking tour, it is almost a sequential trip through the history of radio astronomy from the parking area for the visitor’s center to the GBT itself, a one-and-a-half mile walk down a service road.

The walking tour provides a unique opportunity to spend time with and carefully look at each of the telescopes. It is clear that over time, the telescopes look progressively more like what one expects a telescope to look like and they get bigger! The opportunity to spend more time looking at the telescopes also increases the opportunity to observe the thrill of seeing them move. Some of the telescopes are controlled on site, from a control room in the Jansky Laboratory, and some are controlled remotely by individuals granted time to use the telescopes to pursue research and curiosity.

The grounds of the Green Bank Observatory are open to the public, no tour guide necessary (though the tour guides are lovely and boundless resources on the history and development of the observatory) as long as folks respect the policies limiting use of electronic devices. They take this seriously. All of the vehicles on-site are diesel because even spark plugs can interrupt the sensitive instrumentation at the site. This means that walkers and bicyclists are welcome to observe and enjoy these scientific resources to their heart’s content.

Nearby is the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, excursions to the top of Bald Knob provide a unique view of the GBT. At Bald Knob, guests look down onto the surface of the scallop-shaped behemoth. The observatory and an excursion at Cass would makes for a tremendous weekend trip!

The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope from the viewing platform next to the Jansky Laboratory

The Highland Scenic Highway

The Highland Scenic Highway travels from U.S. Route 219 just north of Marlinton, West Virginia to Richwood, West Virginia in the southern part of the Monongahela National Forest. Along the 43-mile route are an array of scenic overlooks, trails, and natural wonders. The route represents one of the highest in West Virginia, ranging in altitude from 2,325 feet to over 4,500 feet. The altitude changes the entire climate and environment, yielding views and experiences unique from anything else in West Virginia and the entire region. In fact, if I did not know better, I would think I was back home in the Pacific Northwest.

It is widely believed that during the most recent ice age, while much of the continent was covered with ice, this part of the Appalachian Mountains was not. Consequently, it is also believed that the area the Highland Scenic Highway curves through reseeded North America as the ice receded. While I am not an expert in geology, it seems plausible given the diversity of flora in the area. Something simply feels special about being in this forest. Three of my favorite places along the Highland Scenic Highway are Honeycomb Rocks, Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, and Falls of Hills Creek.

Honeycomb Rocks

Honeycomb Rocks Trail is a short out-and-back trail that leads walkers past rocks with an incredible boxwork, or honeycomb, pattern caused by rock bending and folding. This folding and bending caused rocks to fracture, then water rich in iron made its way into the fractured rock, causing the rock along the fractures to harden into another type of stone, hematite.

Just one of many examples of the “honeycomb rocks”

Cranberry Glades Botanical Area

The Cranberry Glades Botanical Area protects the largest area of bogs in West Virginia. Bogs are more commonly found further north, not so much this far south. The spongy ground of a bog is largely made up of decaying plant matter and this foundation inspires a unique array of plants to grow, only starting with cranberries but also including carnivorous plants, like the pitcher plant. Navigation of this area is on a wooden boardwalk with interpretive signs to help guests identify the most unique parts of the bog. The wooden boardwalk can be uneven in areas and is quite slippery when wet, which was confirmed when a member of our group fell while taking in the sights.

The larger of the two primary bogs at the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area.

Falls of Hills Creek

The Falls of Hills Creek proves that the only thing better than one waterfall is, not one, but two more waterfalls! This trail requires hikers to navigate over 400 steps in about three-quarters of a mile. I was initially skeptical but by the time I made it to the lower falls, I was sold. The falls are progressively higher the further one hikes. The first falls is a modest 25 feet, the second is 45 feet, and the third is the second-highest in West Virginia at 63 feet high, with a stunning amphitheater behind it, covered in lichen in all shades from white to dark green. As Hills Creek continues down Droop Mountain it eventually travels underground into Sharps Cave where it has additional falls, one over 100 feet in height, making it higher than the official highest waterfall in West Virginia, which is Blackwater Falls, at 65 feet—only two feet higher than the Lower Falls at Falls of Hills Creek.

The Lower Falls of Hills Creek, West Virginia’s second highest waterfall at 63’.

I hope you have the opportunity to explore some of these amazing places in the Mountain State. The Highland Scenic Highway has plenty more to offer depending on your interests, but these three locations are fairly approachable for even fairly inexperienced Mountaineers. Plus, due to the higher elevations, it can be quite cold in the winter but the elevation makes these special places perfect to visit during the summer to escape the sweltering heat and humidity in the lower cities and towns in the region.

Pocahontas County Mad Gab Geocaching Challenge

For the past three years Pocahontas County, WV has used geocaching challenges as a tourism tool. We think this basic idea is awesome and believe it is a useful tool. After all, we came to complete the challenge. Each year the challenge has been a little bit different in an attempt to not only attract new participants but previous participants as well.

This year’s challenge combines geocaching with Mad Gab. Truthfully, I didn’t really know what Mad Gab was before this challenge and that aspect didn’t really do much for me. The first 50 Geocachers who find all four of the geocaches in the series and solve the Mad Gab phrases that correspond to each cache are eligible to receive a coin. We (eightwednesday) plus bitmapped sought the caches on Saturday, June 7^th and there were still many remaining coins.

We started after lunch with the Mad Gab cache at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The coordinates took us to an observation deck with a stunning view of the largest and most impressive telescope at the complex. Once we arrived at ground zero, we had a difficult time locating the cache. The description for the cache indicated it was a small sized container when, in reality, it was a micro container in an area that could’ve supported a larger container. This threw us off enough we went back into the visitor’s center at the NRAO to ask about the cache. No one knew more than there was one out there.

The Robert C. Byrd Telescope, the world's largest fully steerable, as seen from near the cache site

We had to call the main CVB office in Marlinton to discover that no one working today knew anything about the cache locations. The staff member who was working had to call someone else who could give us a little nudge. To obtain the Mad Gab phrase we had to use binoculars in a way directed on a slip in the cache. It’s a nice idea, but I think it would have been just as fun to use the binoculars to copy down a regular code word.

Our next stop was the Cass Scenic Railroad. Before we even found the cache, we could clearly read the Mad Gab phrase, no need for binoculars. So even if we couldn’t find the container, we had the Mad Gab phrase. Like with the previous cache, the container size was not listed correctly.

The ruins of the lumber mill at Cass, from the general geocache location

The third stop we made was at the lake at Watoga State Forest. This cache had a very high terrain rating, 3.5, and having had surgery five days earlier I warned the guys that I would probably have to sit this one out. The cache page also indicated a hike in excess of a kilometer to get to the cache, which was not the case at all. After the 300 foot walk from the parking lot to the cache, we found it no more strenuous to find than the prior two caches in the series. Indeed, the higher terrain rating had me gently scaling a hillside when my husband shouted out that he’d found it on level ground.

The final cache we had to find was on the grounds of the Marlinton Museum. I would argue this cache had the most strenuous terrain of all four caches, yet had a substantially lower terrain rating than the cache at Watoga. To find the cache had to walk down a slight incline in a grassy field. Each of the caches used the same type of container and with how this one was hidden there were many options. However, we made quick work of it. Once we signed the log we headed into downtown Marlinton to turn in our passports and collect our coin.

The staff at the Pocahontas CVB is sweet as can be. It was great that they were open on a Saturday for us to be able to collect the coin in person. The coins were minted by an employee of the NRAO and commemorate West Virginia’s sesquicentennial. There was no mention of the geocache challenge at all. Still, it’s a neat little token.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad way to spend the afternoon. It took us less than four hours from arriving at the first geocache location to collecting the coin (including travel between all caches). But I was hoping to see some new sites as opposed to four sites that have been featured in each of the Pocahontas County geocache challenges to date. It was also frustrating for the information on the geocache pages to not accurately reflect reality, particularly for the geocache at Watoga.

I recognize they were attempting to do something different by incorporating the Mad Gab, but it felt unnecessary. Furthermore, you only really needed the suggested special equipment for one of the caches (NRAO). We felt that diversifying the cache locations may have been a better way to mix things up. Pocahontas County is one of the most stunning and scenic counties in West Virginia (neighboring Greenbrier is the only one that could even rivals it) yet some scenic areas, like the entirety of the Highland Scenic Highway, have been neglected.

Where this geocache challenge excels is that it can easily be completed in one day, the geocache containers were consistent, the names of the geocaches are consistent, the Pocahontas County CVB staff is very helpful (even if they’ve got to call around for the answers you need!), and you couldn’t ask for a more beautiful place to spend your time. We really hope that geocaching has been an effective tool for attracting additional tourism to Pocahontas County and, for better or worse, we look forward to see what type of geocache challenge they have in 2015.

Hills and Heritage

Pausing from studying for my candidacy exam on Saturday, I had the opportunity to play tour guide in Randolph and Pocahontas counties in West Virginia. Without even consciously thinking about it, transportation was a central theme to our activities.

We kicked off the trip with some geocaching, taking us out Kingwood Pike from Morgantown to West Virginia Route 92 in Reedsville, then down Route 92 into Durbin.

Our first stop beyond Morgantown was along the Decker’s Creek Rail Trail in Reedsville. Reedsville is the end of the trail and seemingly a world away from the trail’s other end on the waterfront in Morgantown. The trail is quieter and rather than hemmed into narrow valleys with roads and the creek, it is between a farm and a sprawling industrial operation. The trail is, almost uncharacteristically, in a broad open valley.

After Reedsville, the next community is Arthurdale. Arthurdale was one of the planned communities of the New Deal intended to move impoverished miners and farmers and place them into a contemporary rural community where they could be self-sufficient. The idea lost support by World War II and less than a decade after its beginning the project officially ended. The entire town is now a National Historic District.

We continued on through the towns of Newburg and Belington, with a stop in the graveyard of the oldest church in Barbour County. We met up with Corridor H, which is possibly the greatest political quagmire in highway history, and followed it to Crystal Springs Road to follow Route 92 through central Elkins and even witnessed part of a Civil War reenactment in Beverly. After following some slow moving tree removal equipment over Cheat Mountain we arrived in Durbin.

West Virginia is home to a number of excellent scenic tourist trains, the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad’s Durbin Rocket is no exception! The two-hour trip follows the Greenbrier River south toward Cass. After about 45 minutes the train takes a stop along the river where passengers can get out and, in my case, wade in the river. On such a hot day the cool water felt great, I could have stood in that river all day. On the trip back to Durbin the train stopped at a creek to take on water. Here they demonstrated how the steam engine is able to pump water up from the creek. The train took on about 1000 gallons and took about 10 minutes. The minutes seemed to drag on, but a rate of 100 gallons per minute actually seemed pretty impressive.

The Greenbrier River from the Durbin Rocket

Just before returning to Durbin a rain began to set in. We grabbed two quick geocaches on Cheat Mountain, one at an overlook and one at the summit, and hurried on to find a place for dinner. We lucked out and found some excellent homecooking at the Dailey Grille, seemingly the only place to grab a bite in Dailey. That country fried steak will not soon be forgotten.

The finishing touch of the day was visiting the American Mountain Theater in Elkins. The Branson-style show was non-stop entertainment, whether it was the contemporary country songs, comedic dialogue, or deeply moving gospel selections. Most impressive, the incredible talents performing also perform the less glamorous tasks of operating a theater, from scooping popcorn to ticket sales. Of course, the highlight of the show was a crack at Corridor H, the road that’ll be completed in the lifetime of the host’s grandchildren!