Highland Outdoors | Fall 2023 by highland-outdoors

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FALL 2023

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HIGHLAND OUTDOORS FALL 2023

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FROM THE EDITOR

Years later, that motto continues to echo through my psyche on a daily basis. Having spent the majority of my life in West Virginia, I’ve enjoyed the great fortune of developing deep and meaningful friendships with myriad folks from all walks of life. And, to this day, many of them continue to serve as my heroes. Our society tends to reserve the hero label for acts of valor in war or displays of bravery under extraordinary circum-

stances. While those examples are certainly honorable and deserving, in my eyes, anyone who makes the intentional effort to live a good life with a positive purpose can also be considered a hero. So, to all my friends working in environmental conservation, community development, healthcare, the arts and crafts, or any other avenue that looks to advance our quality of life here in the Mountain State, thank you. To everyone who finds the time to volunteer to build a trail, sit on the board of a nonprofit or a town council, help an event go off without a hitch, or any other altruistic endeavor, thank you. To all the great humans raising, loving, and educating the next generation of West Virginians, thank you. To everyone who comes to visit here, leaves with a positive impression of this magical landscape, and feels the urge to return, thank you. And finally, to all our readers, subscribers, and advertisers, thank you! You are my heroes for helping us keep this magazine alive and well. Please know that wherever you fall on this spectrum, you are appreciated—not only by me, but likely by countless others as well. Life in West Virginia isn’t always easy, but the wonderful heroes that call this place home make the juice worth the squeeze. Indeed, West Virginia’s bizarrely shaped borders cradle some of the finest people I’ve met in my 38 years on this crazy planet. Regardless of where you live or what you do, I’d make a safe bet that many of your friends are your heroes, too. If you do, in fact, get to socialize with those whom you idolize, perhaps consider taking a moment to let them know. Because when we make the effort to offer positive recognition of all the good there is in these hills and hollers, we all win. w Dylan Jones

STAFF

Editor-in-Chief, Co-Publisher Dylan Jones Co-Publisher, Designer Nikki Forrester Copy Editor Amanda Larch Just A Few Other Things Dylan Jones, Nikki Forrester

CONTRIBUTORS

Steve Arena, Nate Arndt, Kim Ayers, Nikki Forrester, Ryan Hagerty, Dylan Jones, Chad Landress, Owne Mullens, David Neely, Joel Sartore/Photo Ark, Kurt Schachner, Brice Shirbach, Stuart Welsh, Zealon Wight-Maier, Carol Woody, Jay Young, Nico Zegre

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COVER

HIGHLAND OUTDOORS FALL 2023

Owne Mullens

Many moons ago, I embarked on my inaugural overnight river trip on Shavers Fork. Our flotilla included two good friends, one of whom had a water-proof bucket adorned with stickers. One of them caught my eye. In big, bold letters, it proudly stated, “My friends are my heroes.” My friends, who lent me a watercraft and schooled me in the ways of overnight boating, were indeed my heroes on that magical and formative trip.

Jay Young

CONTENTS

A trip down the Gauley River is a total snooze-fest, pg. 10.

BIG WHOOP...

NET POSITIVE

GOLD IN THE HILLS

LOST IN TRANSLATION

By Jay Young

By Dylan Jones

By Brice Shirbach

By Dylan Jones

EVERY ISSUE

ONE OF OURS

WHERE THE HOSE GOES

By Nikki Forrester

By Dylan Jones

8 BRIEFS 44 PROFILE 47 GALLERY highland-outdoors.com

BRIEFS

NEW STATE RECORD FOR MOST BIRD SPECIES SPOTTED IN A DAY By Nikki Forrester Birders, rejoice! On May 16, 2023, Zealon Wight-Maier and Orion Methany broke the state record for most bird species observed in a single day. The duo identified 157 bird species, surpassing the previous record by just one species. “We were aiming for the record,” Wight-Maier says. “We didn’t really think we’d get it the first try.” Wight-Maier and Methany began their big day by waking up at 12:15 a.m. at the Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area near Southside in Mason County. Around 3 a.m., they heard four or five yellow-breasted chats singing into the night, marking the first species for the day. Bird species can be counted by their vocalizations or by sight, Wight-Maier says, noting that dead, caught, and caged birds do not count. Around sunrise, they drove south along the Ohio River toward Huntington, then turned around and traveled up the river

to Point Pleasant. From there, they went through Charleston, Fayetteville, and Lewisburg, stopping along the way to search for various birds. “One place in Lewisburg had five loggerhead shrikes, which is one of the rarest breeding birds in the state,” says Wight-Maier. The team continued their route to the Falls of Hills Creek and Hillsboro. After stopping at a few low-elevation locations, they drove along the Highland Scenic Highway and decided to stop along the Williams River around 10 p.m. to camp for the night. Over the course of nearly 22 hours, Wight-Maier and Methany identified 157 bird species across eight counties: Cabell, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Mason, Pocahontas, Putnam, Summers, and Wayne. “We could have gotten more, but the weather at the end of the day was just downpouring,” says Wight-Maier. While the two were setting up their

tents, they heard an American woodcock, making it the last and record-breaking bird species of the day. But Wight-Maier says the most memorable bird they observed was a least bittern, a small and secretive heron, at Green Bottom Wildlife Management Area in Glenwood. “We were walking along the boardwalk and a least bittern flew right in front of us. These are very hard to see birds and this is the only breeding location in the entire state known for that bird,” Wight-Maier describes. Wight-Maier and Methany are already planning their big day for next year by refining their map, identifying new locations to visit, and syncing up their timing with migration patterns. Until then, the two will continue their birding adventure throughout the Mountain State. Wight-Maier, who’s 14 and lives in Morgantown, became interested in birds at a young age, when his mother read him My Side of the Mountain, a story about a boy who lives in the wilderness and adopts a peregrine falcon. Since then, his interest in birding waxed and waned until the pandemic hit in 2020. “I’ve been making it part of my life more,” he says. “I’ve been going out pretty much every day.” His life list—a list of all the bird species that a person has seen during their lifetime—currently sits at 333 species, and his state list for West Virginia features 236 species. On the big birding day, Wight-Maier added four new species to his life list and eight to his state list. “West Virginia is a very diverse state, but it is very under-birded,” he says. “It’s really cool to learn about the different species and when they come back and where they live.” w

Left: A loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus), photo by Zealon Wight-Maier. Right: A male least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), photo by Steve Arena/USFWS.

HIGHLAND OUTDOORS FALL 2023

To see the full species list and a trip report, check out ebird.org/tripreport/130561

SUMMERSVILLE LAKE DESIGNATED AS STATE PARK By HO Staff On August 11, 177 acres on the northern side of Summersville Lake were designated as West Virginia’s 36th and newest state park. At 2,760 acres in size and up to 300 feet in depth, Summersville Lake is West Virginia’s largest and deepest lake. It’s been over 30 years since a new state park was established (Moncove Lake State Park in Monroe County was designated in 1991). While the state park designation is new, Summersville Lake has long been considered a world-class rock climbing and stand-up paddleboarding destination. Nicholas County is also home to the world-famous class V rapids of the Upper Gauley River and the western flanks of the beloved Monongahela National Forest. The park is already open to the public and currently offers expanded parking, two hiking trails, and a picnic area. The park also provides public access to the famed Pirate’s Cove, which features a cirque of tall cliffline and a picturesque waterfall that drops some 30 feet into the lake’s clear, deep waters. Future plans for the grounds include the addition of a campground and cabins, an aerial activities facility, and a specific focus on rock climbing activities, including the development of a beginner-focused climbing instruction area.

Jay Young / Adventures on the Gorge

The lake’s location, just 20 miles north of the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, will build on the momentum of tourism development in the New River Gorge region. “This area is just continuing to blossom and grow. It’s a very exciting time for Nicholas County,” said Summersville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau executive director Tracy McCoy. “By turning this plot into a state park, it’s going to preserve and enhance the outdoor recreation opportunity that is already there.” w

THE WATER COLUMN By Nico Zegre One of my favorite parts about living in West Virginia is the changing of the seasons. The transformation in colors from summer’s electric greens to autumn’s vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds is a not-so-subtle reminder of how we live among the trees. In fact, trees in the Mountain State outnumber people by about 1 million to one. The diversity of leaf colors also evokes my appreciation for how important forests are to the health and resilience of ecosystems and communities. Forests provide stunning biodiversity along with a host of benefits, including food, shelter, and clean water that directly support and enhance our lives. Forests also regulate runoff through the process of transpiration—the uptake and release of water back to the atmosphere by plants. Half to three-quarters of precipitation that falls annually in West Virginia is returned to the atmosphere before it becomes runoff. This remarkable process is controlled by stomata—microscopic pores that line tree leaves and needles. When stomata open, the water taken up by roots is returned to the atmosphere as vapor while carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas responsible for climate change, is absorbed by the tree. The tree splits carbon dioxide into its elemental components: carbon is stored in wood while oxygen is returned to the atmosphere. The relationship between transpiration and carbon sequestration places forests at the forefront for mitigating the disastrous effects of climate change. But when forests are permanently lost to residential and industrial development, the water uptake and carbon sequestration services they provide disappear along with them. Deforestation increases runoff, which, in turn, increases soil erosion, sedimentation, water pollution, and flooding. But the detrimental impacts don’t stop there. With fewer trees, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase, further warming the atmosphere and allowing it to hold more water. For every 1°F increase in air temperature, the amount of water stored in the atmosphere increases by 4%. As a result, rains are heavier and more frequent, a trend that will continue in the future without substantially decreasing carbon emissions. The good news is that the energy revolution is underway. Regional projects, like the Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative, are restoring forests, while organizations are protecting forests and watersheds throughout the state. As the fall colors settle upon us, I offer gratitude to both the forests and the organizations working to support them. w Nico Zegre loves paddling on, swimming in, and telling stories about West Virginia water.

BIG WHOOP... Words and photos by Jay Young

W e’ve all heard it before: West Virginia has some of the best whitewater in the country. In fact, it’s difficult to find a list of the top whitewater destinations in the world that doesn’t feature the Gauley River in the top five. I must confess that I’m a little perplexed by this because, I gotta say, the Gauley River sucks. If you’ve ever considered running 10 HIGHLAND OUTDOORS FALL 2023

the so-called Beast of the East, either in a raft or some other type of boat, don’t bother. Seriously. The Gauley River is pure crapola. Oh, you don’t believe me? Perhaps you’re taken aback, or even a little bit offended? Fine, I’ll explain. Let’s take a trip downstream.

DAM A typical ho-hum Gauley River whitewater day begins at Summersville Dam. Supposedly, this is the largest earthen dam east of the Mississippi. Big whoop. My grandfather had the largest bunion in America for decades, but nobody ever drove 10 hours to see it. When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished this horrid monstrosity in 1966, they flooded out a town called Gad. Right up until then, every time the Corps flooded a town to build a dam, they named it after that town. For some reason, they opted not to call this one the Gad Dam. It seems like a missed opportunity to me, and yet one more feather in the Gauley’s sucky cap. Once upon a time, Gauley Season whitewater releases involved thundering jets of water gushing from those massive tubes in 100-meter torrents. But ever since they built a power station at the base of the dam in the 1990s, the water just seeps out from the bottom in an unceremonious and boring fashion.

PILLOW ROCK The Upper Gauley is supposedly home to five class V rapids, but to be perfectly honest, none of them are better than class III. (One is even appropriately named Insignificant.) The Pillow Rock rapid got its name from being such a snoozefest that several people have actually fallen asleep in the middle of it. Ask most returning Gauley guides which rapid they’re looking forward to the least, and most will say, “Oh, Pillow Rock for sure. Yawn.” That’s because it’s the worst 10 seconds in West Virginia whitewater. It remains a mystery why every autumn weekend, droves of people brave the dangerously steep hike into the gorge just to watch other people run this rapid. Those who make it back out of the gorge leave exhausted and disappointed. highland-outdoors.com 11

SHIPWRECK Despite its reputation as a challenging stretch of water, the Gauley River offers very little in the way of adventure, as you can clearly tell by the unfocused, blank stare on Sam Grake’s face in Shipwreck rapid. Oh, if only ennui could grow arms and don a life jacket.

MELTDOWN A rapid known as Sweet’s Falls is yet another letdown on this flop of a run. Clearly, Shane Groves did not heed the warnings in my scathing-yet-honest Yelp review from last year. Just one look at him hopelessly stuck on Meltdown Rock in the middle of Sweet’s Falls tells you everything you need to know about the Gauley River. Sweet’s Falls is actually one of several manmade rapids that exist because, almost a century ago, logging companies blew the riverbed apart with dynamite to create flumes for log jams. That’s right folks, the Gauley River sucks—on purpose.

« LOWER MASH

They say the only reason the Lower Gauley isn’t known as the most exciting whitewater run in West Virginia is because of its big sister, the Upper Gauley. But let me be clear, both sections are practically devoid of action. Imagine getting spritzed with Febreze, yet still reeking of raft rubber and pee-infused neoprene—that’s Gauley carnage. Do yourself a favor: stay home and watch some sportsball. Touchdowns and holes-in-five are more entertaining, anyway. highland-outdoors.com 13

« JUNKYARD

The aptly named Junkyard rapid is literally a junkyard. In 26 miles of trashy river, this trash-strewn excuse for a rapid is actually my favorite spot.

SUNSET The absence of engaging rapids on the Gauley River is overshadowed only by its utter lack of scenic beauty (other than at Junkyard, of course). The steep, forested walls virtually snort, “I think I’m so much better than all the other gorges,” but the whimpering, anemic rapids provide for a sterile “whitewater” run punctuated by moments of inane boredom. If you’re still thinking of trying out the Gauley River, just don’t. You’d be better off heading to the outlet mall with a pumpkin spice latte. Or better yet, go run the Ocoee. Honestly, the best part of the Gauley is actually after sunset, when it’s dark and you can no longer see how ugly it is. The worst part, of course, is when the sun rises the following morning, starting the horrid cycle once again. This leaves us with the question: is the Gauley River actually the tenth circle of pure screaming hell? w Jay Young is a photographer and videographer based in Fayetteville. He’s been shooting ugly photos of the New and Gauley rivers at Adventures on the Gorge for 12 agonizingly boring years.

14 HIGHLAND OUTDOORS FALL 2023

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NET POSITIVE By Dylan Jones

ate Arndt grew up in Inwood, a small town in the Eastern Panhandle, in an entrepreneurial family that prizes craftsmanship and self-sufficiency. His father, Dan Ardnt, is a carpenter who made fishing a central theme of family time and encouraged Arndt and his brother Danny to create in the woodshop. Like most children, they were tough on their fishing gear. “As a kid I was pretty rough, breaking all kinds of stuff around the house. I had broken cheap nets way too many times,” Arndt says. When Arndt was 13 and his brother was 16, they ventured into the woodshop with their father and “whipped up” their first landing net—a specialized net used for scooping fish out of the water. “My brother still uses that net today,” Arndt says. After seeing Arndt’s inaugural creation in action, friends came knocking for their own custom nets. At first glance, a landing net is a utilitarian piece of fishing gear with simple anatomy, featuring nothing more than a handle, a hoop, and netting. But quality matters. Like other outdoor gear, the gulf between a mass-produced net and a handcrafted masterpiece is quite wide. Before Arndt explains the artistic attention to detail in his manufacturing process, he’ll tell you the foremost feature of his landing nets is the use of rubber netting, which significantly reduces harm to fish. All fish are covered by a protective layer of mucus called a slime coat that reduces drag in the water and prevents infection and parasitization. Unlike nylon netting, which features tight cordage and knots that can scrape away slime and rip off scales, rubber netting slips along a fish’s body and doesn’t cause any damage to the slime coat. “Many trout anglers, especially fly fishers, are very conservation-oriented and want to take care to land the fish gently,” says Arndt. Arndt currently offers three different styles that are each geared toward a specific purpose, such as gently lifting a native brook trout out of a small mountain stream or scooping up a largemouth bass from the deck of a boat in a big river. Every landing net is a custom affair and features various options for ergonomically shaped handles, custom engrav-

16 HIGHLAND OUTDOORS FALL 2023

ing, and the crafty component that imparts artistic flair: wood selection. He specializes in using traditional Appalachian hardwoods like maple, hickory, and Osage orange. “I like to get wood that is sustainable and as close to the customer as possible,” he says. “Perhaps someone has a tree that fell on their property or an old tree that they grew up with that they’d like to cut down and mill.” Arndt uses a proprietary six-step process to layer the various pieces of wood together to create the handle and hoop. Strips that need to be curved for the hoop go into a steam cabinet, where they become pliable, before they’re clamped in forms for 12 hours to dry. Then the bands are bound with epoxy and sanded into aesthetic shapes. “The sanding is a big part of the labor process and utilizes the artist’s eye for symmetry, looking for qualities and textures we want to bring out of the wood,” Arndt says. Finally, marine-grade lacquer is applied to seal the wood and a bolt is added to the bottom to attach a leather hand strap.

AN ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT Over the next few years, Arndt worked alongside his father to build half a dozen nets—at first, as gifts, but then for cash. As the orders came in, he realized he’d stumbled into something special. Fortunately, Arndt’s youthful business aspirations—he’d enjoyed early success buying and selling hot-ticket sneakers and custom LEGO blocks along with mowing lawns and doing odd jobs around his neighborhood—helped set him up for success. “That entrepreneurial spirit was something that grew within me from a young age,” he says. By the time he entered college at West Virginia University (WVU) as an engineering student, he was regularly crafting and selling nets alongside his demanding courseload—until the COVID pandemic upended everything. Yet, he somehow found a silver lining during a tragic time. “One of the best things to come from COVID was that a lot of my friends found their stride doing something to change up the pace,” he says. “With my classes being all online, I was a bit disinterested and at a crossroads. I started putting that energy into creating a real business behind the nets.”

highland-outdoors.com 17

By or courtesy Nate Arndt

Arndt says it all came together in November of 2020 in a “pivotal moment.” He started an Instagram account to gain some exposure and garnered enough sales to keep him busy in the workshop. He also discovered the WVU LaunchLab, a program that helps entrepreneurial students bring their ideas to fruition. Arndt dove right in, winning first place—and $1,750—in the 2020 Manufacturing Day Pitch Competition. Using a portion of the funds, he worked with expert coaches at the Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center (MAMC) to streamline the manufacturing process. “I spent a lot of late nights putting love into this business plan; it really kept me going,” he says. Just a few weeks later, he took home another $1,000 by winning the MAMC Appalachian Manufacturing Award and snagged an additional $1,500 technical assistance grant for use at the MAMC. “At that time, that amount of money was like a million bucks to me,” he says.

In 2021, Arndt began partnering with local groups like Project Healing Waters, an organization that takes mentally or physically disabled veterans on guided fly-fishing trips as a form of therapy. The momentum kept building. Next up was a win at the 2021 WVU Outdoor Adventure Recreation Pitch competition. “It was right up my alley with promoting outdoor economic development,” he says. 18 HIGHLAND OUTDOORS FALL 2023

Nate Arndt

At the MAMC, he was able to use computer-aided design programs to scan his nets and create laser-cut forms and custom jigs to speed up manufacturing and increase consistency across his designs. Arndt says those two advancements produced a whopping 700 percent increase in efficiency in a batch of five nets. “It was an absolute game changer,” he says.

By the end of 2021, Arndt had secured over $5,000 in winnings from various competitions and grants. “We were staged to take off; things were working on all fronts,” he says.

A TOUGH CALL January 26, 2022, started out as a normal day for Arndt. He went to class then headed down to the Monongahela River to snap photos of recently completed nets in the evening sunshine to post on his website. After the photo session, he was making dinner in his apartment in Morgantown when his phone rang. “It was a call from a concerned friend asking if I was OK,” he says. “I was like yeah, I’m fine. What’s going on?” His friend then had to relay the impossibly tough news that Arndt’s family home in Inwood—including the attached garage that housed both his net business as well as his father’s carpentry business—was on fire. “He had to tell me a couple times for it to really sink in,” he says. His father, who was just across the street quoting some new jobs, was able to rush in and get the family’s dogs and cats to safety. His father rallied some neighbors and tried to put the fire out with extinguishers, but it was too late. “My girlfriend went over, and I pretty much watched our house burn down on FaceTime,” he says. “Thank God everyone was out of the house; we only lost a fish tank with some beloved fish and turtles. It hurt for sure.” The Arndt family lost everything in the blaze. Fire forensics eventually discovered the cause: a wood stove in the basement had suffered a critical failure in the firebox. The stove sat directly under the woodshop, which served “as a tinderbox to fuel the fire. The house totally collapsed save for a small amount of framing,” Arndt says. “The next couple weeks, months even, were tough.”

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THE PHOENIX RISES The next day, Arndt and his father returned to the burned-out shell of their home and immediately got to work demolishing the charred remains. “I got my boots on and got right into rebuilding. Dad didn’t waste a day,” he says. In the summer of 2022, the Arndts started rebuilding an exact replica of their home atop the foundation and brick porch, the only structural elements to survive the fire. Arndt was spending three hours a day commuting to a full-time internship and working on the house in the evenings, barely finding time to rest. Some nights he found himself sleeping on plywood in the roofless construction site. “We were moving 100 miles an hour, foot all the way on the gas pedal,” he says. “I was up every night for months and started thinking This is just running me into the ground. This is not sustainable.”

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But once again, in typical Arndt fashion, he searched for that silver lining. “It was important to look at the positives and make the best out of it,” he says. “I had the opportunity to build a house and learn with my dad. It brought us a lot closer and brought out a lot of resolve and determination.”

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That summer, Arndt partnered up with his friend Travis Bishop, who owns Mountaineer Meat Smokers in Martinsburg, to host the inaugural Nate’s Nets Summer Bash as a fundraiser. He put together a robust raffle that included five custom nets and was able, once again, to get seed money to keep the business—and the rebuilding efforts—humming along. “It was a really powerful

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tal investment. As the judges mulled over the nets and his business plan, Arndt and Hamner delivered their well-rehearsed presentation. Although the judges clearly knew he created artistic fishing nets, they had yet to learn of the trials and tribulations he had faced along the road to the BPC. But Arndt, forever the hardworking optimist, wasn’t there in search of pity. He focused primarily on his nets by laying out the specificities of his design and manufacturing process and discussed his financials before briefly mentioning the fire and loss of his workshop. The judges were also unaware that Arndt, who had planned to craft new nets specifically for the BPC final but was unable to do so because the new workshop wasn’t completed in time, had to borrow nets from five customers to have something to show the judges. That night, in front of a room filled with several hundred people, Nate’s Handcrafted Nets was awarded $15,000 with no strings attached— three times the sum of Arndt’s previous combined winnings. “It was a truly awesome moment when our name came up and I saw the number on the screen. I looked at Caleb and we started laughing and hollering,” Arndt says. “It was a win in the competition, but it was also a win for the business. It guaranteed that we’d have lifeblood to keep moving forward.”

HONORING TRADITION

In September 2022, Arndt kicked off his final semester of college and officially incorporated Nate’s Handcrafted Nets as a limited liability company. He worked with friends to do some creative marketing and get merch out on the streets to build brand recognition. He kept moving forward full-throttle with a renewed sense of drive. By early 2023, he’d graduated and secured a full-time job right out of school—all while continuing to build both his business and the family home. “Life had settled into a less chaotic routine, but was still very challenging,” he says. “Working on the build during the winter was especially brutal.” They wrapped up their herculean rebuilding effort and moved into the second iteration of their home in early April of 2023, just as Arndt was making his way through successive rounds of the West Virginia Business Plan Competition (BPC), an annual event that provides capital for entrepreneurial high school and college students as well as start-ups and existing businesses. On April 19, 2023, Arndt and Caleb Hamner, who helps Arndt with research and development, confidently walked into a conference room at Oglebay Resort in Wheeling. They handed fishing nets to a panel of five judges for the final round of the BPC, where contestants deliver a Shark Tankstyle five-minute pitch for the chance to win significant capi20 HIGHLAND OUTDOORS FALL 2023

With a nod to the ancient arts of the past, Arndt is fully focused on casting Nate’s Handcrafted Nets into the future. For Arndt, his business is more than a brand—it’s an opportunity to make an impact across lives and streams in Appalachia. “The nets are a platform to connect with people and spread the message of the blessings of the outdoors. It’s a conduit to the dream that we’re promoting: the dream of conserving and enjoying nature.” He’s tightening his bond with Project Healing Waters to connect with more veterans and has aspirations to partner with regional river and fisheries conservation organizations. He’s moving nets out of his upgraded workshop and into local West Virginia outdoor stores and fly-fishing outfitters, like the Elk River Touring Center in Slatyfork. If his past is any indication, Arndt will surely seize any opportunity that presents itself, while keeping an eye out for that silver lining. “It feels like I’ve lived 100 lives in these last few years, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he says. “This whole experience has been the catalyst to change my life. I’ve made the best out of it and I’m grateful for how everything went, the good and the bad. You gotta have the rain to have the sunshine.” w Dylan Jones is publisher of Highland Outdoors and was honored to share the winners’ stage at the BPC with a standup West Virginian like Nate Arndt.

Courtesy Nate Arndt

experience that changed how I understood the business. I realized the business wasn’t lost with the fire; the business is me and my father and what we’ve created.”

Beyond the elegant craftsmanship and focus on conservation-oriented fishing techniques, Arndt says his nets “embody the traditional spirit of fishing.” Indeed, angling is not only one of the original human pastimes, it’s one of the original human hunting methods. Besides the advent of specialized gear replete with high-tech materials, the physical act of fishing—wading into a mountain stream and casting a line into a pristine pool—has largely remained the same for tens of thousands of years. “I think any experience in the outdoors, whether it’s fishing or hiking, serves as a cathartic way to connect and realign ourselves with nature,” says Arndt.

#GETTUCKERED Take in the fresh air this fall. With sparkling trout streams and quaint mountain towns, Tucker County, West Virginia, is the perfect autumn escape.

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Gold in the Hills Words and photos by Brice Shirbach

’ll never forget the first time I caught a sunset from atop Snowshoe Mountain Resort in the heart of West Virginia’s highlands. My friends and I rented out a three-bedroom condominium situated just below the main road that runs along the ridge of the 4,848-foot-tall portion of Cheat Mountain. Our headcount exceeded the bed count by one, and with a clear forecast and cool evening temps on tap for the weekend, I volunteered to take the air mattress. I promptly placed it on the covered deck with plans to fall asleep under a vibrant Milky Way. Our first evening brought with it a staggeringly beautiful golden hour—the time leading up to sunset when the sun sits close to the horizon line, illuminating the sky with an almost artificially saturated lightshow of orange and pink hues. I was completely ensnared by its beauty and lost track of how much time I stood motionless and staring.

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Growing up in the foothills of the Appalachians in western Maryland, I always looked to West Virginia as the pinnacle of beauty throughout the East Coast, a place where the mountains seemed to pile up on each other like sardines in a can, as if they’re all clamoring for the front row of some ancient concert that only they can hear. It’s an affinity I’ve carried with me since childhood, matched by an equally strong sense of concern over the well-being of the forests and landscapes within the nation’s 10th smallest state. You don’t have to look hard for signs of industries that have left their scars on both the landscape and the people who call it home. Extractive industries reigned supreme for much of the 160 years since West Virginia was admitted to the Union, and for years those raw materials, among others, were as good as gold here. But standing there for God knows how long during my first

Cheat Mountain golden hour, a new kind of gold was staring right back at me, and the hills of West Virginia were awash with it. “Golden hour” is a bit of a misnomer. It’s typically something that lasts for two to three hours depending on a number of conditions, including time of year, location, weather, and morning versus evening. I suppose it rolls off the tongue a bit easier than “golden hour-and-a-half to three hours” does. There is certainly something about the radiance of a morning sunrise or the all-consuming wash of warm light accompanying a sunset that stirs our souls as human beings. New research suggests that sunrises and sunsets evoke the hard-to-reach emotion of awe in decidedly profound ways, and that awe itself can improve mood and increase positive emotions. I would say that I’m especially attuned to this particular phenomenon given my career choice as a professional mountain biker and photographer. As one might imagine, golden hour in a place like West Virginia, with its bevy of world-class trails and stunning landscapes, has a particularly strong pull on folks like me. Riding during golden hour can bring a host of added sensory stimulations to the experience. While my job grants me the unimaginably fortunate opportunity to explore trails around the world, some of my very favorite trails are right here in West Virginia. Very few locales

can compete with this place when it comes to the depth and beauty of these forests. There’s an ethereal glow throughout the forest during golden hour, and the deep and dense forests act as a force multiplier for becoming awe-struck. Every inch of the Mountain State lies within the Appalachian Mountain range, the only such state to make that claim of the 18 that make up the U.S. portion of the range. There’s a ruggedness here, both in terms of the landscape as well as the lifestyle, with stacks of high ridges separated by narrow valleys and deep gorges that have historically led to much of West Virginia’s sense of isolation from the rest of the nation, despite other regions being highly dependent upon the state’s resources. But the sun is setting on extractive practices in West Virginia and around the globe, and the need for a new source of commerce is becoming more evident by the day. As things grow dark for one industry, new light is beginning to shine on another. Counties and communities throughout the state have been embracing the mountain biking boom via construction of purposebuilt trail systems and the amenities that help support them. From privately owned land and volunteer-built trails like the Meeks Mountain trails in Hurricane and county-supported trail systems like the Wolf Creek trails

Capturing selfportraits of my riding in action has been a key component throughout my career, and these images were made possible via a shutter release camera system that shoots thirty photos per second. Although the files are massive, the results are well worth the effort— especially when coupled with that perfect golden hour light.

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in Fayette County to collaborative regional efforts like Heart of the Highlands and the Snowshoe Highlands Ride Center, the transition to a bike-fueled economy is well underway. Because West Virginia is fully enveloped by the hills and hollows of the Appalachians, it is poised to support these burgeoning trail-town economies more so than any other state in the region. With seemingly endless terrain perfectly suited for exploration aboard two wheels, West Virginia’s economic future as a global mountain bike destination is as bright as gold in the sunlight. The gnarled and knobby mountains of West Virginia are among the oldest on the planet, and while their heights are just a fraction of what they once were, the depth to the valleys seem to grow ever deeper with time. It’s a place where even the midday sun, try as it might, struggles to mask the beauty and expanse of the ancient and rolling landscape. Golden hour here simply hits different. It’s a colorful uprising that takes over the mountains and valleys alike—a radiant, full spectrum splendor casting a beguiling and golden glow over everything within its sphere. It hasn’t been lost on me just how precious this place is, and how precipitous the relationship is between the land and those who call it home. I know just how lucky I am to make a living riding bikes and telling stories, and frequent stops in West Virginia only serve to cement that gratitude. The opportunities I’ve had to experience this place and these trails are often due in part to a growing realization throughout the state that as dusk closes in on the old way of life here, a new day is dawning on another. w Brice Shirbach is a husband and proud father of three rad kids, all of whom adore West Virginia. He’s a professional mountain biker and storyteller who is ever thankful for the opportunity to share his adventures aboard two wheels.

As a professional photographer, shooting on the trail during midday hours can be a painful proposition. While our naked eyes rapidly assess and relay information to our brains that allow us to navigate highlights, bright spots, and shadows without much trouble, camera sensors are far less sophisticated. Taking photos that accurately capture light midday requires a whole suite of setting adjustments and even filters to reduce how harsh the light in an image appears when the sun is high in the sky. Whether you’re underneath a forest canopy or in a wide-open space, rarely do midday photos feel worth the effort. The colors are bleached, the highlights are harsh, and the scene is generally less than awe-inspiring. For most of us, those early morning or late afternoon hours tend to yield the best harvest.

Base Camp of the Monongahela National Forest

Feel the cool mountain breeze in the lush Mon Forest, discover the many museums and historic sites, or embrace the culture of a small Swiss village. Board a vintage excursion train, access miles of trout streams, and rivers, or pitch a tent under the clear night sky.

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LOST IN TRANSLATION Words and photos by Dylan Jones

he English language is comprised of a vast lexicon. A standard unabridged dictionary contains anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 entries, but some linguists estimate a total of one million words when counting prefixes, suffixes, slang, and words borrowed from other languages that enjoy regular English usage. A wealth of books written in other languages have been translated to English throughout the centuries, meaning that scholars were able to find the right words to convey the complex ideas and emotions those authors originally crafted in their native tongues. But even with a seven-figure index from which to draw, some foreign words simply don’t have a direct English counterpart. These words are often striking in their beauty, whether it be the sheer phonesthetics of the word or the concept being defined. Oftentimes, visual elements are used to accompany a definition. They say a photo is worth a thousand words, but I’d like to think that an image can transcend words via the ability to convey those core concepts that are lost in translation.

FEUILLEMORTE FRENCH HAVING THE COLOR OF A FADED, DYING LEAF Leaf it to the French to turn the morbid concept of a dead leaf into something of beauty. The quality of color in a dying leaf is certainly unique to a deciduous forest, and there’s something undeniably beautiful—albeit in a melancholy way—in the vivid display of faded leaves on the forest floor in late October. Perhaps the emotion is tied to the bittersweet angst I experience during the fleeting beauty of the Appalachian autumn. It’s as if I want to strain my eyes to make sure I’m really taking in the full beauty of autumn’s splendor. But when the last leaves drift to the forest floor and began fading into oblivion, I’m glad to finally have a poetic word to describe this component of Mother Nature’s ever-changing color palette.

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WALDEINSAMKEIT GERMAN A SUBLIME FEELING OF SOLITUDE AND CONNECTEDNESS TO NATURE WHILE BEING ALONE IN THE WOODS Those of us who love to play outside have undoubtedly experienced the joy of solitude and oneness with nature at some point while spending time in the woods or along the banks of a mountain stream. And yet there is no direct English word to convey the quintessential human experience of finding commune with nature when alone in a forest. I’ve enjoyed an abundance of solo adventure outings over the years and can recall with clarity specific times I’ve felt a particularly powerful sense of waldeinsamkeit. These experiences, which developed in places like Northern California, South East Asia, Patagonia, and right here in West Viginia, feel as if they are permanently seared into my neurons. But one does not need to go on an epic solo outing to experience waldeinsamkeit—a simple walk through the woods can evoke the experience under the right conditions.

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ABENDROT GERMAN THE COLOR OF THE SKY WHILE THE SUN IS SETTING Technically, abendrot, which means afterglow, does enjoy a more direct English translation than the other words presented here, but, like many words, its colloquial usage implies more complexity than the simple one-word dictionary definition. Sunsets come in a wide variety of flavors. From crystal-clear evenings when the sky appears as a flat gradient (which, while inherently beautiful in its purity, is often boring from a photographic standpoint) to polychromatic light shows where the sun illuminates clouds with a blazing array of hues (the jackpot for landscape photography), sunsets provide that daily dose of awe that has kept me out past the dinner bell more times than I can count. My search to uncover the essence of abendrot settled specifically on the final light of the sunset that ignites the undersides of clouds with red, pink, and orange tones. Given the dynamic nature of our weather systems in the high ridges of the Allegheny Mountains, abendrot is a common theme in my sunset photography. Herrlich, indeed.

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OOGLY CORNISH REFERRING TO THE SKY WHEN IT FORETELLS OF WILD WEATHER Cornish is a Brittonic language of Celtic origin that was revived in the early 1900s after being considered extinct at the end of 18th century. Which is a good thing, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to call a spooky looking sky oogly. Whether it’s the harrowing darkness of thunderheads before a summer storm or the supernatural appearance of mammatus clouds as a harbinger of extreme weather, an oogly sky is one that makes the hairs of my neck stand at attention.

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FRILUFTSLIV SWEDISH A WORD MEANING “OPEN-AIR LIVING” THAT ALSO EPITOMIZES THE SCANDINAVIAN PHILOSOPHY OF OUTDOOR LIFE Friluftsliv has its roots in various aspects of Swedish and Nordic life, but modern use dates back to the romanticized back-to-the-land movement of 18th century. Like any ancient philosophy, friluftsliv can mean many things to many people. While it may be difficult to define in a single sentence, the core tenets of friluftsliv seem to include a spiritual connection to nature, a feeling of familiarity or a sense of home when outdoors, and a way of living close with the natural cycles of the land—common themes of my experiences living in Appalachia. Given the striking beauty of Nordic landscapes and the minimalist elements of Scandinavian design, it’s not surprising that friluftsliv developed there as a philosophical way of being. Although the excesses and inefficiencies of American society are often discussed as the polar opposite of Scandinavian society, I’d like to think that we in Appalachia have more in common with the Nords than we think. We live among the oldest mountains and rivers on the North American continent, and the ancient sense of wisdom imparted by our majestic forests provides the perfect tableau in which to practice friluftsliv.

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KOMOREBI JAPANESE SUNLIGHT FILTERING THROUGH THE LEAVES OF TREES There’s nothing quite like the way morning or evening sunlight hits the thin, flat needles of a hemlock tree. I’ve long been enamored with the specific quality of sunlight in a hemlock grove but never had a specific word to describe it. I was overjoyed to learn of the word komorebi recently on a podcast, and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. Keeping an eye out for and noticing light in the leaves brings a renewed level of awareness during all hours of the day whether I’m on a hike, a bike, or just looking out the window. We West Virginians are fortunate to live in the third-most forested state in the country, meaning we’re virtually surrounded by komorebi anytime the sun is shining.

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CHANDAMAMA TELUGU LITERALLY MEANS “MOON UNCLE,” BUT ALSO REFERS TO THE MOON SPECIFICALLY WHILE ADMIRING IT Telugu is a Dravidian language and is the official tongue of the southern Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where it is spoken by an estimated 90 million people. In Telugu, the moon is the brother of Lakshmi, the “mother of the world,” and is therefore considered “everybody’s uncle.” But chandamama is also the colloquial Telugu term for the full moon specifically while one is admiring it. Which, I feel, is fitting because we’ve all got that crazy uncle we love and admire. I’ve always been fond of the moon regardless of what phase it’s in. I regularly remind myself that the sheer fact that our home planet has a natural satellite, and that we can clearly see it on a near-daily basis with the naked eye, is indeed something to cherish and never take for granted. I’ve spent countless hours engaged in chandamama, whether with a telescope, a telephoto lens, or just my bare eyes, and still feel the same great love and reverence for our uncle moon that I do for my Uncle Tommy.

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CELÍSTIA CATALAN BRIGHTNESS FROM THE STARS Catalan is a language spoken in northeastern Spain, the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia, Andorra, and the Balearic Islands in the south of France. I love the ethereal juxtaposition in the concept of celístia—stars are so mind-numbingly far away that they don’t actually provide enough light to visibly brighten anything here on Earth, yet they provide a quality of brightness that illuminates our night sky and our cosmic sense of mystery (as well as our photographs). Just like my love for chandamama, I’ve long been intrigued by the display of stars in the sky. I enjoy the sense of sublime insignificance I feel when I ponder the unfathomable scales of the universe. I count myself fortunate to have regular access to a visible Milky Way right from my backyard. Because access to the night sky is increasingly disappearing due to the ever-encroaching phenomenon of light pollution, it’s more important than ever that we advocate for dark skies. Fortunately, astrophotography is a beautiful human invention and serves as a means to enjoy—and share—celístia when we’re unable to look up and see the ever-burning furnaces of the cosmos. w

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By Nikki Forrester

walk through the woods in Appalachia reveals an immense diversity of plants and animals. We can see different shades and shapes among the wildflowers, observe flying beetles and wriggling worms, and hear the layered harmonies in bird songs. Woven between these hills and hollers are a seemingly infinite number of streams and rivers, which carry within them an equally astonishing array of life. At times, it can feel far more difficult to appreciate all the forms of life beneath the water, yet there are aquatic treasures just below the surface that subtly remind us of how special the Mountain State truly is. West Virginia is home to approximately 160 native fish species, including about 30 species of darters. Darters are small, freshwater fish that typically live along the bottoms of streams. “They’re little critters that don’t move a lot so they tend to evolve in every different drainage,” says Chad Landress, a forest fisheries biologist for the Monongahela National Forest. As a result, many darters are highly adapted to their specific environment, some can only be found in a single watershed. Male darters are frequently far more vibrant than females, their colors and patterns rivaling even the most impressive tropical fish. But perhaps none are as stunningly beautiful as the candy darter (Etheostoma osburni). With vibrant turquoise bodies interrupted by tangerine stripes, male candy darters resemble a summer sunset. Their fins fade from teal bands into elegant arrays of neon orange dots and marigold dashes.

Candy darters can live for up to five years and reach a maximum length of about 120 millimeters, or 4.7 inches. They don’t have swim bladders, which are internal, gas-filled organs that help fish control their buoyancy in the water. Instead, they spend most of their time occupying the rocky bottoms of clean, fast-flowing streams, where they eat small macroinvertebrates, like mayflies and caddisflies, and deposit their eggs. “It’s all I can do to hold on to the rocks and these dudes can swim through there like it’s nothing,” says Landress, who frequently goes snorkeling to search for candy darters and other aquatic wonders in West Virginia. “Some of that is their strength, but a lot of it is how they’re adapted to that ecosystem.” Candy darters have downturned pectoral fins, so swift water pushes them down toward the bottom of the stream. Like the wings of an airplane, a slight adjustment in the angle of their fins allows the fish to efficiently move upwards and through the riffles. And as their name suggests, they often dart about the rocks and pebbles lining the streambed.

On the brink As a rare and endemic fish species, the candy darter can only be found in the New, Gauley, and Greenbrier river watersheds in West Virginia and Virginia. Since 1932, when the species was first described, roughly half of the 35 known candy darter populations have disappeared due to sedimentation from industrial activities, development, and agricultural practices. Clean, clear streams filled with silt, smothering their food sources and preferred habitats for laying eggs. “Then the second whammy hit, which was the introduction of a closely related species, the variegate darter,” says Landress. Until the early 1980s, the candy darter was separated from the variegate darter (Etheostoma variatum) by Kanawha Falls, which served as a natural barrier to fish dispersal. Although it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when and where the introduction occurred, scientists think that anglers collected some variegate darters as bait fish and released them above the falls. These variegate darters established populations and began rapidly spreading upstream.

The variegate darter is a less colorful freshwater fish that is native to West Virginia in watersheds below Kanawha Falls, including the Cheat and Elk. Unlike candy darters, which are highly adapted to clean, cool, quick streams, variegate darters can withstand a variety of habitat conditions, including high temperature and salinity.

of years, the two species are able to mate and produce hybrid offspring. As a result, candy darters are not only being pushed out of their habitats, but their unique genetics and vibrant coloration are also being lost. Some of the 18 candy darter populations in West Virginia that survived the impacts of industrialization have now been extirpated, or gone locally extinct, due to hybridization with the variegate darter. A study led by the late Isaac Gibson, who was a graduate student at West Virginia University (WVU), found that only four of 16 populations sampled in 2014 had pure candy darters. The others had some degree of hybridization, and the zone of hybridization was expanding throughout the New, Gauley, and Greenbrier watersheds. These results ultimately led Gibson and his colleagues to conclude that hybridization with the variegate darter “could lead to the extirpation or extinction of the Candy Darter.” Concerns about the precarious future of the few remaining candy darter populations compelled scientists to come together to protect the species. In 2017, Gibson, Landress, Phipps, and seven other biologists from WVU, the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) established the Candy Darter Conservation Team. In December 2018, the candy darter was officially listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. With the status came increased awareness about the candy darter’s existence. “Lots of folks were like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that lived in my backyard. This is amazing. This is beautiful,’” says Landress. It also paved the way for federal and state agencies to expand their efforts to protect and conserve the species.

A new old home According to the genetics research conducted by Gibson and his colleagues, candy darters in the Greenbrier River were at risk of being extirpated, leading the Candy Darter Conservation Team to devise a strategy to save them. “We decided we needed to move a portion of that Greenbrier population somewhere safe so that they didn’t continue to hybridize,” says Phipps.

“Think Ferrari versus Ford Escort,” says Andrew Phipps, a fish biologist at White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery. “One animal is highly specialized; it can take a curve at 130 miles an hour no problem. Then downstream, you have an animal that you could pretty much pour vegetable oil into its engine and it would run.”

Before moving any fish to a new habitat, Phipps and his team needed to ensure they were only moving pure candy darters. To do this, they collected candy darters from the Greenbrier watershed and took a small snippet from a fin of each fish. The snippets were then sent to Amy Welsh, a professor of wildlife and fisheries resources at WVU, to assess their genetic composition and determine whether each fish was a pure candy darter or a hybrid. All of the fish were kept in captivity at the White Sulphur Springs fish hatchery while the genetic analyses were being conducted. Then, the researchers removed all the hybrid fish and released the pure candy darters back into the wild.

Over the past 20 years, the variegate darter has outcompeted the candy darter due to its larger size and ability to tolerate harsher water conditions, expanding its range by an estimated three to nine stream miles per year. Despite being separated for millions

The first translocation occurred in 2018 in a river separated from variegate darters and where candy darters had historically occurred. Over the next few years, the scientists translocated more candy darters and monitored their survival and health.

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Top: A male candy darter (Etheostoma osburni). Middle: A male variegate darter (Etheostoma variatum). Bottom: A potential hybrid offspring from a candy darter and a variegate darter. Hybridization between the two species is driving loss of coloration and population declines in the candy darter, leading them to be listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act in 2018. Photos by Stuart Welsh.

In 2021, Nathaniel Owens, a fish biologist at the DNR, observed the first natural reproduction in the new population, which was determined based on the small sizes of the candy darters (30–40 millimeters) and their lack of fin clips. In total, the team moved 500 candy darters to a new home. “We’ve basically established the Greenbrier genetics somewhere else far away and safe. We bought ourselves time and space to work,” Phipps says. Now, they’re dialing back their translocation efforts. “We don’t want to artificially collapse the population in the Greenbrier that’s left,” says Phipps, noting that the team continues to closely monitor the candy darters. “If that population can maintain on its own, we will at least give them a chance to do that…we still have some hope.”

Little swimmers Along with moving candy darters in the wild, the Candy Darter Conservation Team is propagating the fish species in captivity. Candy darters begin breeding when they reach two years of age and spawn from late April to mid-June. But replicating spawning conditions in a hatchery is no easy feat. There are 30 to 40 candy darters kept at the White Sulfur Springs Fish Hatchery that require the right water conditions, food sources, and environment to survive and breed. Over the past several years, the team has tweaked each of these ingredients in the hopes of finding the perfect recipe for producing juvenile candy darters that can be released into the wild. “You only get one shot every year. It’s really tedious work. It’s time intensive, and there’s the added stress of the thing being endangered,” Phipps describes. “I’m not going to have any hair left by the time I’m fifty.” Phipps didn’t expect to rear juvenile candy darters for five years, so was quite shocked when they were able to achieve that feat in just two. The larval fish are just six millimeters long when they first hatch from the eggs. “They’re fine as frog’s hair,” Phipps says, describing how he can see barely visible blue lines swimming around in the tank. He and his team provide the larval fish with premium food, which they start eating immediately because they can starve to death within just a few hours. In about six months, the juvenile fish grow up to 70 millimeters long, a size they often don’t reach for nearly two years in the wild. And more than 70% of the fish that hatch survive to this stage. In 2022, Phipps and his team produced the first juvenile candy darters for stocking, which were released and are now being monitored to check their survival and health.

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Save the streams While moving and propagating candy darters are key to saving the species, their long-term survival ultimately depends on protecting the watersheds in which they live. Other members of the Candy Darter Conservation Team, including Landress, are tackling largescale restoration projects in critical candy darter habitat. “We focus on the whole watershed. That could be 20,000 acres at a time, it could be 100,000 acres at a time,” says Landress. The Greenbrier area has been a particular hotspot for the Forest Service’s restoration efforts, partly due to the size of the candy darter population there as well as its risk of extirpation. Landress and his team restore candy darter habitat by adding large pieces of highland-outdoors.com 39

wood to streams and reconnecting floodplains. They also plant riparian species to stabilize stream banks, reduce erosion and sedimentation, and shade the water to keep it cold. “We really need to hold that cold water not only for the sake of organisms that depend on cold water directly like brook trout, but also indirectly like candy darters, which are more of a cool-water transitional species,” he says.

Top: A scientific illustration of a candy darter by David Neely. Middle: Candy darters grow to about four inches in size, perfect for nestling into the palm of one’s hand. Photo by Chad Landress. Bottom: Candy darters live along the rocky bottoms of cool, clear streams in West Virginia and Virginia. Photo by Ryan Hagerty/USFWS.

These restoration efforts also involve the obliteration of unused roads that can accelerate the flow of water down the mountain and into the watershed and the construction of aquatic passages that allow fish and other organisms to move up and downstream of roads. According to Landress, they can already see the impacts of their restoration efforts on one of the streams they treated. “In spite of climate change and the trajectory that we’ve been on over the last 10 years, that stream actually decreased in water temperature over the same time period,” he says. “Our forests individually can’t stop climate change, but we can take steps to build resiliency and hopefully give these critters the best chance they’ve got to get through the next several decades.” Other environmental organizations in West Virginia, including the West Virginia Rivers Coalition (WV Rivers), are taking a different approach to protecting candy darter habitat. “We’ve been very active in trying to minimize the threats to their habitat due to the pipeline construction,” says Autumn Crowe, program director for WV Rivers. For instance, through the organization’s volunteer water quality monitoring program, individuals document sediment pollution coming off construction sites and notify the DEP if they observe failing

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erosion controls that can be fixed to reduce the impacts of sedimentation on candy darter habitat. Crowe likens the candy darter to the canary in the coal mine. “This tiny little creature is so dependent on clean water,” she says. “If we can’t preserve the habitat of that fish and we lose that species, then it calls into question whether the habitat can support other species.” In 2022, the Candy Darter Conservation Team was named a 2022 Recovery Champion for the Northeast region by the USFWS. The award recognizes USFWS staff and their partners whose efforts have advanced the recovery of endangered and threatened plant and animal species. Since 2017, the team has translocated 500 candy darters, propagated juveniles and released them into wild streams, and protected more than 4,000 acres of their habitat. And they show no signs of slowing down. While these achievements bring hope for ensuring the candy darter will survive and thrive into the future, some members of the conservation team find the greatest hope in the people that call the Mountain State home. “All I gotta do with the candy darter is walk somebody in the room and you watch their jaw slack a little bit and you see their mind go we should save that,” says Phipps. “People bought into this fish as a symbol—it’s one of ours. It’s something that we can hold up and we can be proud of.” w Nikki Forrester is co-publisher of Highland Outdoors. She appreciates all the scientists who put in an immense amount of time and effort to save a charismatic, little fish.

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WHERE THE HOSE GOES SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY MYSTERIOUS FORCE AFFECTING HYDRATION HOSES By Dylan Jones

The ability of a seemingly benign material like a plastic mouthpiece to be drawn to dirt as if it was light crossing the event horizon of a black hole has remained a mystery for eons until recently, when a team of theoretical physicists from the Hydration Observation Systems & Education (HOSE) Lab finally identified the elusive quantum particle causing the bizarre phenomenon. There haven’t been many notable breakthroughs in quantum physics since the lauded discovery of the Higgs boson parti-

Baby, don’t dirt me...no more.

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cle at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland in 2012. The Higgs boson is the elementary particle that gives everything in the universe—including you, me, and our hydration bladders—the property of mass. While the discovery of the Higgs boson helped physicists finally understand why and how a hydration hose has mass, they remained perplexed by the inexplicable force that causes the hose’s bite valve to be attracted strictly to undesirable surfaces. More than a decade later, technicians at the HOSE Lab conducted intense and rigorous tests with a diverse array of hydration bladders made from a variety of materials. They quickly discovered something extraordinary. When a robotic arm released a hydration hose above a one-square-foot piece of sheet metal that contained a three-square-inch pile of deer poop, the bite valve made instant contact with the poop 97 percent of the time (the anomalous three percent error came from the robotic arm not completely letting go of the hose). But when the hydration hose was released above a totally sterile piece of sheet metal, the bite valve stopped and hovered, indefinitely, approximately 3.14159 inches above the metal. Because a bite valve is typically made of pla stic, which has no magnetic field, the electromagnetic force—one of the four fundamental forces— couldn’t be the root cause. Scientists knew some sort of untheorized quantum p a r t ic le mu s t be at play. Much like researchers

at CERN, who identified the Higgs boson by smashing protons together at nearly the speed of light, the genius minds at the HOSE Lab discovered their target particle by having two backpackers hike the Appalachian Trail back and forth until their hydration hose bite valves had completely deteriorated, revealing the subatomic building blocks of the bite valves themselves. After the quarks, neutrinos, and bosons were meticulously removed, one infinitesimally small subatomic particle remained. In a nod to the groundbreaking discovery at CERN over a decade ago, physicists at the HOSE Lab named the new particle the Big hose-on. Although more research is needed to identify just how the Big hose-on particle interacts with the material world around it, the best and brightest minds at HOSE are hard at work designing a Big hose-on-free bite valve that effectively avoids contact with undesirable surfaces. “This will be the most significant hydration system development since the advent of the bladder itself,” said an anonymous materials scientist at HOSE. “Imagine living in a world where your bite valve doesn’t touch anything nasty, ever. Will that solve any of the world’s real problems? Absolutely not. But will it make your outdoor adventures, like, way less gross? Absolutely. And that’s the world that we here at HOSE want to live in.” Now that the Big hose-on particle has been identified, physicists have shifted their focus to the next great quagmire: the mysterious force that immediately sucks any small and round fruit, like a grape, blueberry, or cherry tomato, immediately under the stove when dropped on a kitchen floor. w Dylan Jones spent countless hours poring over quantum physics textbooks to research and write this completely factual and beerreviewed article.

Dylan Jones

e’ve all been there. You’re in the middle of an outdoor adventure and in need of a snack break. As you take your backpack off and carefully place it on the ground, the bite valve on the hose of your hydration bladder immediately—with a force akin to two powerful rare-earth magnets lining up their poles—springs into contact with whatever nasty surface or substance you very much wanted it to avoid touching. You pause, frown, and move the backpack, only for the valve to defy gravity and flop right against the sweaty arm of your adventure buddy.

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How did you discover West Virginia? I’m from Knoxville, Tennessee. My passion for skiing was sparked at a tiny resort in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In my early adult life, I went skiing at Snowshoe several times. In 1996, my husband and I were looking to move to a mountain town out west. We thought Snowshoe would be a good introduction to that lifestyle, so we moved there to be ski bums for a season. I taught skiing and he waited tables and we really enjoyed it. At the end of the winter, we got offered jobs for the summer, so we decided to stick around. We fell in love with the beauty of the mountains in the summer. It’s been 27 years now and we’re still here.

CAROL WOODY By Nikki Forrester In the U.S., there are 42.5 million people with physical or cognitive disabilities. Outdoor recreation has the potential to help these individuals improve their quality of life, physical health, social relationships, and self-confidence. However, the logistics, gear, skills, and money required to participate in outdoor recreation can prevent people with disabilities from engaging in these activities.

How did you get involved with CAWV? I started out as a ski instructor at Snowshoe, which was my first introduction to the winter sports adaptive sports program through CAWV. CAWV is a non-profit that was founded in 1996 to enhance or improve the lives of people with disabilities, whether it be physical, cognitive, or a combination of both, through outdoor sports and recreation. In the late 1990s, the director of CAWV often asked if volunteers from the ski school could help with special events, like the Wounded Warriors camps. I’ve

worked in a lot of different roles around Snowshoe over the years, but I would always volunteer with CAWV anytime I had an opportunity to do so.

When did you become executive director? When my daughter was born, I was working in human resources, which required a lot of travel. I decided to take some time off to focus on her. David Begg, the executive director of CAWV, called me up to ask if I wanted to work there as an instructor a couple of days during the week, so I did that for a few years. In 2018, Dave passed away. I was at a point in my life where my daughter was older and a couple of people approached me about coming on as director. I couldn’t imagine anything else I’d rather be doing, so I jumped on board.

Where is CAWV based? Around 2004 or 2005, Dave and his team raised enough money to build a beautiful center at the Silver Creek area of Snowshoe right next to the slopes. One of the great things about our location is that people can park right next to the building, get outfitted inside, and then go out the back door and get right on the snow. We’re fortunate to have such a wonderful environment where athletes and families can make themselves at home.

Carol Woody, executive director of the Challenged Athletes of West Virginia (CAWV), is working to overcome these hurdles and ensure that everyone who wishes to play outside can do so. Instructors and volunteers at CAWV, a non-profit organization based at Snowshoe Mountain Resort in Pocahontas County, provide adaptive ski gear and teach more than 300 ski lessons to children and adults every winter. Now, the organization is embracing the state’s explosion in mountain biking. I chatted with Woody about what drew her to West Virginia and how CAWV is making waves in adaptive recreation. This interview was edited for length and clarity. A skier slashes through powder. Photo by Kurt Schachner / Snowshoe Mountain.

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Carol Woody

PROFILE

Who do you serve? A lot of people around the mid-Atlantic and southeast regions of the United States, which is a very big part of the country’s population. Some people seek us out because we have a fully dedicated program that operates seven days a week during the winter. We serve people of all ages from four to 94 and older. For example, we have a family from the Pittsburgh area who started coming to Snowshoe specifically for our program for their daughter who has autism. Since then, they fell in love with Snowshoe, bought a home, built a hotel and restaurant, and became valuable community members.

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What programs do you offer? Our biggest focus over the past 25 years has been winter sports. We have a great team and lots of different types of equipment. People who come visit can book a half-day or full-day lesson directly with us. We also go through a phone interview with every person before they come, so that we can be prepared. At minimum, we have one instructor per person, but we often have more. We also have a variety of equipment, including sit-down mono-skis and bi-skis, that people can use. More recently, Pocahontas County, and West Virginia as a whole, has become known throughout the world for our exceptional mountain biking. In 2019, Snowshoe hosted the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, and I thought, Wow, mountain biking is something we need to be doing.

How’d you kickstart your mountain biking program? In 2019, we started thinking about how we were going to run a program and what equipment we would need. 2020 was going to be our big push, but, of course, we had a few setbacks. We did a lot of fundraising that year and were able to raise enough funds to get our first two adaptive mountain bikes. We got the first one in 2021 and the second one last summer. Our program had been

Tessier’s adaptive bike, the Cimgo, helps all mountain bikers hit the trails. Photo by Kurt Schachner / Snowshoe Mountain.

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Adaptive athlete Kinzie Dickman rips down a trail at the Snowshoe Bike Park. Photo by Kurt Schachner / Snowshoe Mountain.

a little more geared toward people that have a specific physical disability but are still able to ride the adaptive bikes, but this year we added a new bike called the Cimgo that allows us to get more people out riding.

How did you discover the Cimgo? The Cimgo is made by a company called Tessier from France, which is world-renowned for building adaptive ski equipment. A lot of Paralympians use their mono-ski, but they make a wide range of adaptive equipment. I discovered the Cimgo while looking at their skis. It’s a full-gravity mountain bike that has a seat up front and is operated by a pilot in back. I immediately saw the potential since we have so many people that come to use our bi-ski, which is a sit-down ski guided by an instructor. With the bi-ski, we can take anyone down the ski slopes, no matter their ability, and see the joy it brings them to get outside and experience something they don’t get to do every day. The Cigmo is very similar to the bi-ski, so I knew it was perfect for opening the door to our mountain biking program.

practiced drifting. Then our instructor took us down one supersteep trail that I never would have gone down on my regular bike, and I’m a pretty avid mountain biker. The Cimgos were just amazing. They’re pretty slow-moving, but they love steep, technical terrain and can brake anywhere. We also had a chance to tour the manufacturing facility and meet the owner of Tessier while we were there, which was a real privilege.

Have you taken people down Snowshoe’s bike trails in the Cimgos? We have four Cimgos now and four certified instructors, including my daughter and me. Several riders have come out to enjoy the trails on the Cimgos this summer. We have also spent a lot of time piloting each other down the mountain and being guinea pigs because it’s really important for us to find the right trails for the Cimgos. We want options for every rider, from those who want some adrenaline pumping action to those who want gentler options and everything in between.

What makes the Cimgo unique?

What are your goals for the future?

When I started looking into the Cimgos, I realized there wasn’t a single one in North America yet because you have to be certified to operate it and the only certification program is in Europe. I was hoping to get a grant for the actual bike, but in the meantime, I made plans to go to France with three other instructors to get certified.

What are your hopes for the future?

What was the training process like? We went to France in May 2022 for the training. They shuttled us along these super winding roads to the top of some mountain bike trails in the Alps. We piloted the Cimgos down trails that could take you half a day to get to the bottom. We did a few drills and 46 HIGHLAND OUTDOORS FALL 2023

We are the first program in North America to have the Cimgos. The goal is to work in a partnership with Tessier to become a training location in North America so that other adaptive programs can have them and serve individuals they’re not currently able to.

Hopefully people will come to think of Snowshoe as a great place for adaptive riders to come and experience the world-class mountain biking trails in our beautiful state. I want to continue growing our summer and winter programs so we can serve more people. It’s so inspiring to offer outdoor experiences that can improve people’s quality of life. w

GALLERY

On a warm summer day in July, I paid a visit to the resident Osprey of the Gauley River. After maneuvering to multiple locations for the best view, I began setting up in the bed of my pickup truck. Without warning, the adult male Osprey arrived at the nest with fresh fish recently procured from the Gauley. The adult female Osprey—identified by her dark band of chest feathers referred to as a necklace—began to prepare the meal for their two juvenile chicks. Using her strong beak, she ripped the fish into small pieces and turned her head to present the meal to her young. They heartily accepted and continued to dine for several minutes. After their nutritious meal, the juveniles began practicing for their first-ever flight. They faced the wind and feverishly flapped their wings, extending their span with each try until they achieved lift-off. Momma Osprey watched over as her young took their last flaps before independence. I returned two weeks later to see the juvenile birds flying strong above the Gauley. I was elated to witness and capture such a momentous occasion in the lives of these majestic young birds. Photos and caption by Kim Ayers .

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