EASY DAY TRIPS from the gorge | THE AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE | FOLLOW YOUR FEAR: expert TIPS
The Magic of the New River Gorge
ADVENTURES on the Gorge THE NEW RIVER
The second oldest river in the world
FIVE PERFECT PANORAMAS See for miles from these overlooks
FAYETTEVILLE America’s coolest small town is at the heart of the gorge
THE PRESIDENT
O
n behalf of our many outdoorloving staff members, welcome to Adventures on the Gorge! We are thrilled to be able to introduce you to the breathtaking activities and majestic splendor that together help describe this wonderful outdoor haven. Our vision is simply to, “Lead the world outdoors.” Adventures on the Gorge holds a treasured place among America’s nature-loving faithful. There are terrific outfitters and great resorts, but there is only one adventure destination like this. Our company was formed through the merger of four landmark outfitting companies: Mountain River Tours, Class VI, Rivermen, and Songer—the first founded in 1973. So what is there to do here? How about white water rafting and zip-lining? Add to that choice rock climbing, kayaking, swimming, challenge courses, duckie trips, ATVs, hiking, horseback riding, pontoon boating, camping, fishing, stand-up paddleboarding, aerial canopy
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tours, mountain biking, eating, drinking, and sleeping. Or get married here in our unforgettable romantic natural setting overlooking the gorge. We have restaurants, bars, and retail stores; the latter so you can acquire some swag and the future bragging rights with friends and family. The views from our dining and bar venues are second to none, allowing you to gaze into the thousandfoot depths of the New River Gorge. Think adventures in gorging! If you want to learn some valuable outdoor skills, our world-class guides can teach you about whatever activity piques your interest. Our founders have been doing this so long and so well they are veritable icons in the outfitting industry. Not only are they good at what they do, but collectively they have two centuries of experience. That’s a long time. The New River has been around a long time, too, and is one of the oldest river systems in the world. Three units of the National Park Service exist here, namely the New River Gorge National River, Gauley River National Recreation Area, and Bluestone National Scenic River for you to discover and enjoy. Give us the chance to help you plan the best vacation you may ever have. Our team will ensure you savor one of America’s best destinations. There is no other place like this. Come try us out and learn firsthand what we mean when we say, “Leading the world outdoors.” That’s what we do. Let’s go explore together. angela sundstrom
MESSAGE FROM
Sincerely,
Dave Hartvigsen President & CEO
Branch Out Explore all there is to do at Adventures on the Gorge.
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LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
I
do not live in the New River Gorge area, but I’ve visited often. It is one of my favorite places in West Virginia. As a child my family made a bi-annual pilgrimage to watch the building of the New River Gorge Bridge. In fact, I attended the opening ceremonies of the bridge in 1977. I was 6 years old. Since then, thanks to Adventures on the Gorge, I’ve overcome a fear of dying in water by navigating the river beneath me on one of the resort’s white water rafting tours. I’ve zipped from tree to tree, walked across the gorge at 850 feet, hiked many of the surrounding scenic trails, relaxed in the incomparable Paddle House, and recovered from my adventures by enjoying a glass of wine (or two . . . or three . . .) at Smokey’s on the Gorge.
If I were asked to choose two words to describe Adventures on the Gorge, I would say: authentic experiences. And I’m not alone. Throughout the pages of this magazine, you’ll see those words repeated—and for good reason. The New River Gorge area isn’t polished or plastic—it’s one of Mother Nature’s masterpieces. There are no long lines. It’s just you and a plethora of unrivaled opportunities to experience outdoor adventures that will change your life. When you visit, the sounds you hear aren’t coming from cleverly disguised speakers, they’re the sounds of water rushing through steep canyons as old as time and the gentle symphony of the wind as it strums the trees. Costumed guides and animated creatures don’t transport you to an imaginary world. And although at Adventures on the Gorge your surroundings may seem otherworldly, the experiences and memories you make are genuine. Real. Life-affirming. You aren’t mingling with characters from your favorite childhood book; you become a character in your own story. Some of the best memories I’ve made have come from the authentic experiences I’ve enjoyed here. At Adventures on the Gorge, when you breathe in the mountain air, the stress of modern life slips away. It is a place where families and friends come together. It is a place where new beginnings start. This magazine will introduce you to the area, the abundance of outdoor adventures, easy day trips, and special hidden gems. It will also introduce you to the people who help make your vacation, corporate retreat, or special getaway memorable. Whether you are soaring from tree to tree over cascading waterfalls as the crispness of pine and the heavy sweetness of rhododendrons waft through the air, or experiencing the combination of adrenaline rush and visual clarity as you navigate white water for the first time or the 50th, Adventures on the Gorge will guarantee a multi-sensory experience that is nothing short of magical. So after you visit, share your stories with us—and in our next issue, it may be your story we tell. This summer make some gorge-ous memories!
rebecca kiger fotograFia
nikki bowman Publisher and Editor New South Media, Inc.
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Explore Table of Contents
24 The Authentic Experience
Use nature as your theme park at Adventures on the Gorge—where you can soar high in the sky, whip through white water, and more. You’ll never forget it.
68 Small Town Cool
Take a quick trip to explore whimsical shops and one-of-akind eateries a short drive away in Fayetteville, one of America’s coolest small towns.
76 Secret Side Trips
You can easily access even more wild, weird, and wonderful sites less than an hour from the New River Gorge.
80 A River Runs Under It
The New River has quite a history as one of the world’s oldest rivers, and an even brighter future lies ahead.
90 Easy Day Trips
Journey to nearby cities and towns like Beckley, Charleston, and Lewisburg to find even more culture, history, and fun.
1 06 Follow Your Fear
Never fear! Experts at Adventures on the Gorge have the answers to all of your questions and more.
NIKKI BOWMAN
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Explore Table of Contents
20 Adventures on Summersville Lake
Kick back on the open water in a kayak, on a boat tour, or even rock climbing.
Faces 98 My Name is Janet and I’m a Zipoholic
One Ohio woman can’t get enough of Gravity Zip Lines.
1 02 Sounds of the Gorge Groove to the music of the area’s best bands.
1 04 Queen of the New River
Kerren Hall traveled the country before landing at the New River Gorge, where she fell in love with white water rafing.
1 09 Life-Changing Adventure 2 President’s Letter
President and CEO Dave Hartvigsen introduces Adventures on the Gorge.
4 Editor’s Letter
Editor Nikki Bowman shares why she loves the New River Gorge area.
Discover 10 Five Things to Take Home
Remember your trip to the New River Gorge for years to come with these unique treasures.
11 Reading on the River
Curl up with a good book about the river by the river. 6 explore • 2014
12 Five Perfect Panoramas
See the gorge like you’ve never seen it before with these gorgeous vistas.
Mike Cassidy used to travel from North Carolina to West Virginia multiple times a year to go rafting at Adventures on the Gorge. Now he lives there.
14 Local Spirits Cheers! There’s plenty to go ’round with these West Virginia spirits.
16 The Secret Season Explore the gorge in winter with
scenic zip-lining and special events.
18
Summit
Reserve
Bechtel
Tens of thousands of Scouts visit here, and you can, too.
On the Cover
This gorgeous photo by Randall Sanger Photography was captured at Beauty Mountain in the New River Gorge. Views like this are around every corner when you visit Adventures on the Gorge.
Adventures on the Gorge published by
New South Media, Inc.
709 Beechurst Avenue, Suite 14A Morgantown, WV 26505 1116 Smith Street, Suite 211 Charleston, WV 25301 304.413.0104 • wvliving.com
publisher & Editor
Nikki Bowman, nikki@newsouthmediainc.com ART DIRECTOR
Kelley Galbreath, kelley@newsouthmediainc.com Designer
Erica Fitchett Lindsay Managing Editor
Laura Wilcox Rote, laura@newsouthmediainc.com ASSISTANT EDITOR
Pam Kasey, pam@newsouthmediainc.com STAFF WRITERS
Katie Griffith, katie@newsouthmediainc.com Shay Maunz, shay@newsouthmediainc.com OFFICE & CIRCULATION MANAGER
Sarah Shaffer, sarah@newsouthmediainc.com Advertising
Season Martin, season@newsouthmediainc.com Christa Hamra, christa@newsouthmediainc.com Advertising ASSISTANT
Bekah Call, bekah@newsouthmediainc.com CONTRIBUTORS
Brandy L. Acord, Logan Bockrath, Nikki Bowman, Rachel Coon, Carla Witt Ford, Charlie Garvin, Katie Griffith, Caleb D. Harper, Cassia King, Dale Leatherman, Rick Lee, Shay Maunz. Hugh McCoy, Brent McGuirt, Melissa Perella Photography, John Mueller, John Petretich, Randall Sanger Photography, Rebecca Devono Photography, Rebecca Kiger Fotografia, Laura Wilcox Rote, Elizabeth Roth, Matt Sloan, Chris Smith, Angela Sundstrom, Karen Underwood, Jonathan Vickers, Jay Young, Kenny Young INTERNS
Courtney DePottey, Bethany Dzielski, Alexis Kessel, Shawnee Moran ADVENTURES ON THE GORGE
Dave Hartvigsen, President and CEO Brian Campbell, Chief Marketing Officer PJ Stevenson, Marketing Director Angela Sundstrom, Graphic Design Manager EDITORIAL INQUIRIES
Please contact info@newsouthmediainc.com EXPLORE is published by New South Media, Inc. Copyright: New South Media, Inc. Reproduction in part or whole is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher. © new sou th medi a, inc. A ll r ights r eserv ed
DISCOVER
john Petretich
Whether you’re a relaxed traveler or an adventure-seeker, there’s something for you to discover in the gorge.
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THINGS TO TAKE HOME
Pepperoni Roll
5
Things to Take Home
The pepperoni roll was invented in Fairmont in 1927, but this West Virginia specialty never gets old. Grab one—or a few—at Wild Flour Bakery. Wild Flour Bakery, 105 West Maple Avenue, Fayetteville, WV 25840, 304.574.0001 facebook.com/wildflourbakerywv
Art from Studio B
Snag a piece of local art from the wide selection at Studio B Gallery in Fayetteville, which features work from more than 75 West Virginia artists. Studio B Art Boutique Wine and Beer Gallery, 309 Keller Avenue, Fayetteville, WV 25840; 304.574.9100
adventures on the gorge
elizabeth roth
rebecca devono photography
Remember your trip to New River Gorge for years to come with these one-of-a-kind souvenirs.
Blue Smoke Salsa Add some mountain spice to your kitchen with a jar of Blue Smoke Salsa, made from fresh, local ingredients. Blue Smoke Salsa, Ansted, WV 25812, 888.725.7298, bluesmokesalsa.com
AOTG T-Shirt Make your
friends wish they had come along on your trip with a cool Adventures on the Gorge T-shirt. Adventures on the Gorge, 219 Chestnutburg Road, Lansing, WV 25862, 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com
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Gorge Guidebook Pick up a guidebook
from the Canyon Rim Visitor Center so you can start planning your next adventure to the New River Gorge. Canyon Rim Visitor Center, 162 Visitor Center Road, Lansing, WV 25862 304.574.2115, nps.gov/neri
Reading on the River The New River has long inspired writers and photographers to tell the stories of the river—its history, scenic beauty, and the people connected to it. Thurmond and Ghost Towns of the New River Gorge by Melody Bragg
Once a thriving coal town and gambling center, Thurmond is now little more than a put-in site for white water rafting expeditions on the Upper New River (at the 2010 census, Thurmond’s reported population was five people). The book chronicles the town’s rise around the turn of the century, and then its sharp decline.
West Virginia Waterfalls: New River Gorge by Ed Rehbein and Randall Sanger
A photo collection of the more than 100 waterfalls that are part of the series of cliffs and canyons that are the New River Gorge, from a pair of photographers, nature lovers, and avid hikers. The photographs are accompanied by lyrical descriptions of the scenery and anecdotes about the photographers as they experienced the gorge.
Far Appalachia by Noah Adams
Far Appalachia ends in West Virginia, at the mouth of the New River, and begins at the river’s source in North Carolina. In between, the book—like the river—winds through Appalachia and carries author Noah Adams along with it. Adams, a Kentucky native and longtime NPR host, resolved to travel the length of the
river—by foot, Jeep, bicycle, and white water raft—in search of a deeper understanding of his Appalachian heritage. In a series of essays, he tells us about his personal journey along the New, the rich landscape that abuts the river, and the men and women who traveled it before him.
Follow the River by James
Alexander Thom
Follow the River is based on the true story of Mary Draper Ingles, a pioneer woman who was captured when Native Americans invaded her settlement in Virginia during the French and Indian War. After being held captive for months, Mary escaped and found her way home through 500 miles of wilderness, using the New River and its tributaries as her guide. In this fictionalized account of her story, the New River acts as Mary’s northern star, a pinprick of hope in the midst of the vast wilderness.
Thunder in the Mountains by Lon Savage
The only booklength account of the West Virginia mine war of 1920, Thunder in the Mountains is a historical rendering of the clash between coal companies and the Appalachian workers who mined for them. The story ends with thousands of mine workers on strike, an open rebellion in three counties, and the assassination of a southern West Virginia town’s mayor on the courthouse steps. visitaotg.com 11
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PERFECT PANORAMAS
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Five Perfect Panoramas When the New River cut through the rugged Appalachian Mountains to form the New River Gorge, it made way for some magnificent views of the landscape. Here are a few of the area’s best overlooks.
1 Long Point This view is a classic: the New River Gorge framed with nothing but vegetation, sky, and the New River Gorge Bridge. It’s at the end of a trail that meanders through a field lined with houses and forest before it descends through another field of rhododendron and mountain laurel. 2 Endless Wall The Endless Wall is wellknown among rock climbers: a solid stretch of sandstone that lines the gorge, it proves endlessly challenging and thrilling. Less known is the spectacular view the wall affords of the river, almost 1,000 feet below. 3 Sandstone Falls The largest waterfall on the New River, Sandstone Falls drop 20 feet and span the river where it’s 1,500 feet wide. The falls mark the river’s transition from a broad waterway to a narrow mountain river as it rushes into the gorge. 4 Grandview After decades as one of West Virginia’s more popular state parks, Grandview (pictured) became part of the New River Gorge National Park in 1990. The area is well known for its views of the New River and beautiful rhododendron. At the main overlook—1,400 feet above the river—you see an active railway where the first coal was shipped out of the gorge in 1873.
Brent McGuirt
5
Grandview is a popular overlook because of its fantastic view 1,400 feet above the New River.
Overlook at Adventures on the Gorge
The resort offers a view of the gorge in its most stunning state: the lush vegetation, a bird’s eye view of the river, and, off in the distance, the New River Gorge Bridge framing it all. For trailheads or more information, contact the National Park Service. 304.465.0508, nps.gov/neri visitaotg.com 13
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LOCAL SPIRITS
Local Spirits Quench your thirst with something wild and wonderful. WE’VE COME A LONG WAY from moonshine. Imbibe a local spirit for a real taste of West Virginia. Refreshing, unexpected, and made nearby, these selections are the perfect way to cap off a day on the gorge.
Ü SMOOTH AMBLER Could Smooth Ambler Whitewater Vodka be liquid
courage? We’ll let you decide. While we don’t allow imbibing before taking on the rapids, we can assure you that this vodka is good enough to kick back with while you relive the day’s adventures. Triple-distilled, triple-filtered, and premium cut, Whitewater Vodka has a clean and crisp taste that can’t be matched by larger distilleries. Its smooth, sweet taste is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of owners Tag Galyean and John Little, who started handcrafting small-batch spirits in 2010. Smooth Ambler does more than vodka, though, and you’d be missing out if you didn’t try their other libations, too. Call the distillery to arrange a tour and tasting of its artisan vodka, gin, and whiskey. Its prime location in the Greenbrier Valley makes it an easy drive from white water headquarters, but if you can’t make the trip, you can find Smooth Ambler products at Comac in Fayetteville or right on-site at Adventures on the Gorge's casual eatery, Chetty’s Pub. 754 Industrial Park Road, Maxwelton, WV, 304.497.3123, smoothambler.com
Carla Witt Ford
Fayetteville produces more than 10 varieties of craft beer. From seasonal brews like the Baltic Porter, Oktoberfest, and Kölsch-style beer to year-round favorites like Long Point Lager and the namesake Bridge Brew Ale, these fill a niche in West Virginia and offer enthusiasts an everchanging repertoire of quality beers as well as easy-todrink brews for newcomers. That’s exactly what Bridge Brew founders Nathan Herrold and Ken Linch were hoping for when they started brewing together in 2010. Since then they’ve continued doing everything from brewing to bottling to distributing all by themselves. The only thing they don’t do is give tours of the brewery, and that’s because of something you can taste in every glass of Bridge Brew beer: they’re focused on the product itself. Bridge Brew beers are available on draft or in bottles in more than 70 West Virginia establishments, including Rendezvous Lodge in the Mill Creek Village of Adventures on the Gorge. 304.574.1998, bridgebrewworks.com
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Ali George
Û BRIDGE BREW WORKS It might be a two-man operation, but this brewery in
Þ VU JA DE Tangled grapevines top rolling hills on the organic farm that
katie hanlon
produces this high-end wine that’s bottled on-site. This is the home of Vu ja de Vineyards, a West Virginia winery located about 10 miles off the beaten path near the small town of Spencer. Since 2009 head winemaker Bryan George has been creating red and white blends made from grapes grown without the use of herbicides or pesticides. Vu ja de is truly a winemaker’s winery, and all of the equipment is of the highest quality—from the artisan French oak barrels to the Italian stainless steel tanks used to ferment and age the wine. The two-hour drive to Vu ja de to taste wine in the intimate tasting room and get a firsthand look at how it’s made is well worth the trip. Bryan and his wife, Ali, live on the farm and are always on-hand to talk about their products. If you can’t make the trek to Vu ja de, pick up a bottle or two at Studio B in Fayetteville. 706 Reedyville Road, Spencer, WV, 304.377.1404, vujadevineyards.com
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DISCOVER
THE SECRET SEASON
Avalanche of Fun Cabin fever takes on a whole new meaning at Adventures on the Gorge. WHITE WATER RAFTING on a hot summer’s day. Zip-lining through lush green foliage. Mountain biking up narrow, twisting pathways lined with ferns. These are some of the experiences that leap to mind when thinking about a getaway at Adventures on the Gorge. But the popular resort also offers plenty of activities to do year-round. Whether cold days have you looking to cozy up with a glass of wine or get out of the house for a murder mystery dinner, a weekend in Fayette County may be just what you need.
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ers can also rent a deluxe cabin to enjoy the beauty and peace of the winter white around them. “It’s a lot quieter in the wintertime,” says PJ. “It’s a good alternative for people.”
WARMING UP
More of an indoor person? Don’t worry. The resort organizes delicious buffets, dinner and wine pairings, murder mystery dinners, and even a Mardi Gras-inspired Monte Carlo Night for anyone who doesn’t want to venture too far outside during those chilly months. “There are a lot of winter events at Adventures on the Gorge,” says Letitia Roberts, Chetty’s Pub manager. “The events we have organized are all high-energy, and there is a little bit of something for everyone.” Even regular dinner events are an adventure—themed buffets are scheduled around New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, and dinner and wine pairings take
guests on culinary expeditions through Italy, Greece, Africa, Thailand, Napa Valley, and, of course, Appalachia. Some of the more colorful dishes include West African peanut stew, mint and garlic-rubbed lamb loin, and root beer braised short ribs. But one of the most anticipated events is the Mardi Carlo Night. The evening includes great food, a DJ, and, of course, gambling. “The Mardi Carlo Night is my all-time favorite winter event,” Letitia says. “Everyone spends the evening talking and dancing, and it’s just a good time.” Guests can play everything from bingo to blackjack to craps to roulette and enjoy food from around the world at the Mardi Gras-inspired event. It all takes place at Smokey’s on the Gorge, a gorgeous restaurant with a 180-degree view of the wilderness around it. 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com written by COURTNEY DEPOTTEY
RICK LEE
You might not expect it, but one must-do winter activity for outdoors enthusiasts is the TreeTops Canopy Tour, which combines zip lines and sky bridges for a fun wintertime experience. “The forest is pretty thick with rhododendron and hemlock, so there’s some very pretty greenery in the wintertime,” says PJ Stevenson, marketing director at Adventures on the Gorge. “You’re totally immersed in a winter wonderland. It’s pretty amazing. And even when it’s not snowy, the canopy tour is still spectacular because you can see so far into the forest—into birds’ nests and animal homes.” The tour includes 10 zip lines and five sky bridges, stretching the course to more than one mile in length. While you’re in town, take advantage of the snowfall and purchase a day pass to nearby Winterplace Ski Resort, where you can tackle the black diamonds or start slow with skiing or snowboard lessons or a day of snow tubing. Outdoor adventurers can lodge at Wild Rock, where they can choose from the fourbedroom Tree House at Falls Creek, the luxurious 2,470-square-foot Martha’s Place, the four-bedroom Paddle House complete with hot tub and perched just above the New River Gorge, or Falcon Ridge, where the architecture is half home, half art. Adventur-
jay Young
’TIS THE SEASON
2014–15 WINTER EVENTS ❄
*
December 31, 2014 New Year’s Eve dinner with live music January 24, 2015 Murder at the Juice Joint. Costumes strongly encouraged for this Roaring 20s-themed murder mystery event with dinner. February 14, 2015 Mardi Carlo Night. Enjoy games like craps and blackjack and win prizes. Dinner included.
rick lee
February 21, 2015 Murder Under the Big Top. Put on your best costume for this circus-themed murder mystery night with dinner. TBD Wine pairing dinners to be announced at a later date. *All events will be held at Smokey’s on the Gorge.
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THE SUMMIT
Summit Bechtel Reserve
After its first time hosting the Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree, the Summit looks forward to an even brighter future. EVERY FOUR YEARS about 50,000 Scouts, leaders, and staff from all over the country gather for a 10-day celebration of all things Scouting. They camp, reunite with old friends and make new ones, learn new skills, and test themselves in high-adrenaline sports. In 2013 the nation came to the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Fayette County for the first time for its National Jamboree. In 2019 the world is coming, as North America hosts the World Jamboree. Virginia’s Fort A.P. Hill has hosted the National Jamboree since 1981, but in 2007 Boy Scouts of America (BSA) leadership began looking for a permanent base—one suitable as a High Adventure Camp on par with the Florida Sea Base, the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, and the Northern Tier in Minnesota. “The BSA received 80 site proposals from 28 states—representing every time zone,” says Gary Hartley, director of community and government relations for the Summit Group. “The site needed to be accessible to Scouts from all over the country, have everything necessary to host a large gathering, and lend itself to Scout activities such as camping, hiking, biking, climbing, and boating.” When the proposals were narrowed to three, West Virginia was still in the running, along with sites in Arkansas and Virginia. In November 2009, the BSA announced its choice—a 10,600-acre parcel of rugged woodland near Mount Hope, West Virginia, in Fayette County. Several things tipped the scale in favor of the West Virginia location, according to Dave Arnold, senior vice president of public relations and strategic partnerships at Adventures on the Gorge and a member of the governor’s committee chosen to prepare the proposal. “One of the deciding points was the site’s location next to the New River Gorge National River, property managed by the National Park Service,” Dave says. “This gives Scouts access to an additional 70,000 acres of wilderness with some of the best mountain biking, rock climbing, and white water rafting in the country. “It was also a large tract of land for a reasonable price,” Dave says. “We thought the topography might be our biggest challenge, but it turned out to be an asset. Reclaiming a former strip mine is in keeping with the Scout’s environmental principles, and the hills provide natural separations for activity areas such as sporting clays and archery.” 18 explore • 2014
Accessibility was another plus. The New River Gorge region is within a day’s drive of more than half the U.S. population via three interstate highways (I-77, I-79, and I-64), and U.S. Route 19 runs by the property, too. There are daily commercial flights into West Virginia’s Beckley and Charleston airports, and Amtrak trains run through the area, stopping at two stations. When the BSA announced that the 2013 Jamboree would be held in July of that year, there was no time to waste. To get the project rolling, the Bechtel Foundation, headed by former Eagle Scout Stephen Bechtel, donated $50 million so the BSA could purchase the land and begin development. Other donations followed. After the October 2010 groundbreaking, work proceeded at a rapid pace, with contractors running two 10-hour shifts a day, seven days a week. In a region where unemployment has sometimes reached 10 percent, hundreds of locals were employed, real estate was sold, and local businesses experienced an economic boost. Over the last four years, building the Jamboree site has pumped $170 million into West Virginia and $16 million in state and local tax revenue. During the Jamboree, more than $3.8 million was spent on local vendors and businesses, and the local labor payroll was more than $3.3 million, for a total local expenditure of more than $7 million—just for hosting the Jamboree. But the community service aspect was a key part of the success, too. As part of the Jamboree, each Scout is asked to do a day of community service. Over a five-day period, Scouts from nine counties participated in 270 projects, for a grand total of 180,000 service hours.
boy scouts of america / todd punch
In 2019 the World Jamboree will be held at the Summit. Traditionally one country hosts the event, but it will be jointly hosted for the first time by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. “It’s been over 50 years since the World Jamboree has been in the U.S., so it’s been around the world for a long time. It’s pretty significant to get it back here,” Gary says. “You think of all the great places in Canada, all the great places in Mexico, all the great places in the U.S.—and it’s going to be right here in West Virginia.” The Summit has a bright future on the horizon. The Scott Visitor Center just opened on-site, and in June 2014, programs at the Paul R. Christen National High Adventure Base will begin, revolving around four tracks: River (rafting and kayaking), Helmets and Harnesses (climbing, zip lines, and ropes courses), Marksman (shooting sports), and Wheels (mountain biking, skateboarding, and BMX). In 2015 the National Scout camp will open, and in 2016, the Summit will hold the National Camp School & Training Center. With these new programs come more opportunities to get acquainted with the Summit. “For the summer programs at the Paul R. Christen High Adventure Base, we’re going to have both weeklong visitors and we’re also opening it up to our local councils that have weekend visitors, so Scouts don’t have to come for the whole week,” Gary says. “We’ll also have day visitors, so there’s many ways to visit the Summit.” summitblog.org written by DALE LEATHERMAN AND ALEXIS KESSEL visitaotg.com 19
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SUMMERSVILLE LAKE
Adventures on Summersville Lake This wide expanse of still water offers a perfect spot for some scenic relaxation.
NEED AN ADRENALINE BREAK? Maybe you’d prefer your water with a bit less pep, or maybe you just want to relax on still water for a few hours. Consider Summersville Lake, where the Gauley River’s white water goes to take it easy. Just over 20 miles away from the New River Gorge Bridge, the lake is a more relaxing body of water, but still has plenty of recreational activities to keep you active and engaged. 20 explore • 2014
The Gauley River gets its wild white water from the Summersville Dam, which was built in the 1960s for flood control and, each spring, soothes the flow of the Gauley by retaining some of its water in Summersville Lake. With a surface area of nearly 3,000 acres and 60 miles of shoreline, it’s the largest lake in West Virginia and has ample room to become an outdoor playground each spring, summer, and fall. “It’s really a great lake,” says Tony Benton, who manages the lake’s marina for the Summersville Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s just so scenic and beautiful.”
The water is pristine, clear, and deep, which has made it a popular spot for scuba diving—sometimes divers even glimpse remnants of the old town of Gad, which was emptied in the 1960s to make way for the lake. The lake shows some shades of seashore, too, with a small stretch of manmade beach and the unique and unexpected Summersville Lighthouse. Created in 2012 from a castaway section of a wind turbine, the lighthouse provides excellent views of the lake and is a quirky addition to the landscape. The lake has a lot to offer—a vast expanse of water, tall rock cliffs at the edges, and coves created by the nooks and crannies between the rocks—and there are a lot of different ways to experience it—by boat, by foot, or by
board. And Adventures on the Gorge has one Summersville Lake package designed to let you do all of those in one rollicking trip. It all starts with a pontoon boat, but the pontoon is practically beside the point. Groups use the pontoons as home base through-out half- or full-day tours, but spend a lot of time off the boat, too, climbing, kayaking, and stand-up paddleboarding. “Ultimately everybody gets to do a little bit of everything,” says Brian Campbell, chief marketing officer at Adventures on the Gorge. “The pontoon boat is incidental to everything else we do there. We really just use it to facilitate everything else.” The boat will take you right up to the edge of the river, to a rock cliff ascending from the water, so a few people can climb the rock.
Meanwhile, some members of the group might take to kayaks, while others try paddleboarding. Some might even elect to stay on the boat to relax and watch everyone else at play. Because all of this action is emanating from the boat, it can all happen at the same time, eliminating the most frustrating thing about most group activities—waiting your turn. “Realistically, only one or two can climb at the same time, but this way the others, instead of just sitting there, can do something themselves,” Brian says. “And we actually allow the group to pick and choose what they want to do. Some of them may choose not to climb at all or might not be comfortable paddleboarding and opt for a kayak instead— it’s up to them.” visitaotg.com 21
DISCOVER
SUMMERSVILLE LAKE
With a surface area of nearly 3,000 acres and 60 miles of shoreline, Summersville Lake is the largest lake in West Virginia. Kayaking and paddleboarding are offered on their own, too—guides will equip you with the appropriate gear you need and teach you how to use it, then let you explore the lake. Stand-up paddleboarding is relatively new to the lake but growing increasingly popular—paddleboards are a particularly good way to explore the lake’s rocky shore. “You can really use them to get into the nooks and crannies in the rock,” Brian says. The pastime evolved from surfing, as people got more creative with the boards and started taking them on still water. It’s a simple concept—you stand on the board and use a paddle to propel yourself—and surprisingly relaxing. People often come into it worried about having to keep their balance, but it’s not as hard as it looks—guides are able to quickly teach them what they need to know to paddle around the lake with ease. Plus, the worst-case scenario is actually pretty pleasant: if you fall off the board, you take a quick swim before climbing back on. Did you know? The lake is calm—filled with “dead zones” where motor The flood-control vehicles have to abide by very low speed limits, so there’s Summersville Dam, limited wake to interrupt people on kayaks, paddleboards, the second largest rock-fill dam in the U.S., or other small, movable flotation devices. “In a way, it’s a much lower intensity activity and it’s a little more relaxing,” was dedicated in 1966 by President Lyndon Brian says. “Once you’re out on the lake you’ll spend a lot Johnson. Dams are traditionally named of time doing those activities, but also a lot of time is spent after the closest town, hanging out in the little coves and just on the water.” And but in this case that with the lake as a backdrop, even just riding in the pontoon town was Gad, which was leveled to make boat is a great way to spend part of the day. “It’s so scenic and beautiful,” Brian says. “And since we take you all around room for the lake. Locals were opposed to the on the boat, you really do get to take a tour of the lake.” name Gad Dam, so Summersville won out. 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com written by SHAY MAUNZ 22 explore • 2014
| photographed by JONATHAN VICKERS
ADVENTURES ON THE GORGE PACKAGES Lake Pontoon Multi-Sport Half-day, $109 per person Full-day, $149 per person Must be at least 8 years old and have a group of at least four Sit-On-Top Kayaks Two hours, $59 per person Must be at least 10 years old Stand-Up Paddleboarding Half-day, $79 per person Must be at least 10 years old and be able to swim 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com
SUN AND FUN ON THE LAKE SPEND A DAY AT THE BEACH The 300-yard beach at Battle Run campground is a prime spot to lounge in the sun all day. Or you can wade into the water from there—it has a roped-off swimming area to keep boat traffic away.
GO SCUBA DIVING* Divers sometimes call Summersville Lake the little Bahamas. Locals say it’s the cleanest and deepest lake east of the Mississippi River. Divers can catch a peek of a wide range of aquatic life, and maybe even some remnants from the town of Gad, which was leveled in the 1960s to make way for the lake.
TRY OUT A MOTOR CAT* The motor cats at Summersville Lake were the first to be registered with West Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles. These unique watercraft are like two overgrown surfboards equipped with bucket seats and a motor. They work as platforms for snorkeling or rock climbing or as a fun alternative to jet skiing.
RENT A PONTOON BOAT, KAYAK, OR CANOE* Self-propelled boats like kayaks and canoes let you enjoy the lake’s natural wonders without the disruption of a motor. The lake rents out solo and tandem versions. If you want to take to the water with a larger group, try a pontoon—they can hold as many as 10 people.
GO FISHING Summersville Lake is clear, deep, and clean, making it an excellent habitat for fish. It’s full of bass, crappie, channel catfish, bluegill, and walleye. In the fall it’s stocked with trout every other week.
DO SOME CLIMBING The lake is a first-rate destination for deep-water rock climbing. Water laps against cliffs that jut into the air to reach heights of up to 100 feet. The water level on the lake changes drastically throughout the year, making for different conditions every time you climb. *These activities can be reserved by contacting Sarge’s Dive Shop.
visitaotg.com 23
RAFT
STAY
PLAY
The
FLY
RELAX
EAT
AUTHENTIC Experience
Adventures on the Gorge is where you go to make real lifelong memories. Use nature as your theme park.
L
aughter rockets along the trees as a young family swoops through towering mountain hemlocks, hardwoods, and pines. A bird-watcher takes notes on the calls and colors of great blue herons fishing along the New River. Nearby, anglers of the human variety pull up a flapping smallmouth bass—6 pounds—before releasing it to swim lazily home. Further downstream, two 70-year-olds shake off their paddles after a day spent challenging the rapids of the New River and head back to their luxury cabin at Adventures on the Gorge to get ready for dinner at a world-renowned restaurant. Adventures on the Gorge, a premier adventure resort in the heart of West Virginia’s mountain region, was born with the merger of four classic white water outfitters that had been doing business along the New River for 30 years. In the early 2000s, the founders of Mountain River Tours, Class VI, the Rivermen, and Songer Whitewater saw a need for a new kind of attraction, one that retained the successes of southern West Virginia’s great rafting history and added a contemporary twist. Adventures on the Gorge opened its first zip line in 2009 and has been growing ever since. The resort combines the adventurous spirit embodied by the founding outfitters with the nostalgia of America’s traditional family resorts and modern luxury. “You can expect resort amenities, multiple restaurants, multiple levels of lodging, and a pool, but it’s also a resort that focuses on adventure activities,” says Dave Arnold, senior vice president of public relations and strategic partnerships at Adventures on the Gorge. “We’re not a passive vacation; we’re an active resort. If you like getting outdoors, breathing fresh air, and trying new things, that’s what we do.” The resort is located in Lansing, West Virginia, and though it’s central to the state’s southern cultural centers of Fayetteville, Beckley, and Lewisburg, you may never want to leave. West Virginia’s famous New River winds along the grounds, which abut the New River national park area, while a little north the Gauley River rocks the kayaks of expert rafters. Unadulterated vistas, wild flora and fauna, and one of the world’s oldest rivers make the resort a premier location for a natural vacation getaway—whether you’re a family of four, a group of single ladies, or a corporate office looking for a teambuilding retreat. “Someone can go lay by the pool and be a lounge lizard, someone can go run the Gauley River—one of the most aggressive river runs in the world— while someone else can take it easy on the Upper New River,” Dave says. “As a guest of ours, you can seek your own level of recreation.” The list of outdoor activities offered at Adventures on the Gorge is exhaustive. White water rafting, zip-lining, obstacle courses, horseback riding, fishing, biking, hiking, camping, and rock climbing are just a few of guests’ favorites. “You’re not on a ride. There are no tracks,” Dave says. “It’s a true wilderness, nature-based activity. When you zip through a forest, it’s a little bit different from a theme park. Our activities are real and authentic. It’s adventuresome. Whatever you love about nature, it’s there.” Early birds sip coffee as the sun rises over a glistening, dewy tree canopy. Night owls spend the evening relaxing with a drink by a bonfire surrounded by friends and loved ones. Children splash along the river and take in seasonal nature at its finest. The young and young-at-heart are challenged by physical activities suited to their levels and supervised by professional guides with years of experience. All guests leave with lasting memories of accomplishment, relaxation, and a taste of fresh air. written by KATIE GRIFFITH 26 explore • 2014
With spectacular views and a plethora of activities, the New River Gorge is a perfect vacation destination.
GETAWAY No matter who you’re with, you’ll love spending time at New River Gorge.
hugh mccoy
GROUPS ENJOY THE GORGE When it comes to memorable bonding experiences, not much will bring people together faster than battling white water rapids as a team all day or jointly facing a fear of heights with a stroll across BridgeWalk, the massive catwalk beneath the New River Gorge Bridge. But it can be difficult to plan activities for a group getaway in advance when you’re not sure what everyone wants to do. The beauty of all-inclusive vacations at Adventures on the Gorge is that you only need to sort out the basics of your trip first, like the length and location of your stay, giving you plenty of time to digest the range of activities later. The New River Gorge is the outdoor adventure capital of the eastern U.S. thanks in large part to Adventures on the Gorge. The resort includes a plethora of lodging and no shortage of things to do. With packages that range from $169 to $1,245, you can customize your adventure. Combine a canopy tour with another recreational activity, add lodging and meals, and you’ll have a carefree getaway with all you need and more. visitaotg.com 27
marshall university
The longstanding reputation of Adventures on the Gorge is clear from the resort’s relationships with groups nationwide. “They’re just a very professional organization—they go above and beyond customer service for us when we need them,” says Jeffrey Hilvers of Rainbow Rafters, a men’s rafting organization based in Dayton, Ohio. “They’ve been taking care of us the 30 years that we’ve been going there.” Groups from Marshall University and West Virginia University have long taken advantage of the getaway opportunities offered by Adventures on the Gorge. Matt Turner of INTO Marshall worked in the tourism industry himself for more than eight years and emphasizes the importance of showing his international students the treasures in West Virginia’s backyard. “The entire New River Gorge area is one of the most remarkable places on the East Coast and for them it’s a real ‘wow’ factor,” he says of taking his students to Fayette County. “Adventures on the Gorge is wonderful to work with even outside the traditional seasons and have welcomed international visitors from hundreds of countries over the years. They’re real professionals.” Greg Corio of Adventure WV, an outdoor education program at WVU, also uses Adventures on the Gorge to show the outdoor wonders of the Mountain State to his students. “We stay there because one, it’s a beautiful location and campus, and two, all the outdoor activities they have are great for our students,“ he says. “Being able, especially with our freshmen, to sit around a campfire in the evening talking about college— it’s just really quiet and peaceful. After a day of white water rafting, it just brings the group together.” written by ALEXIS KESSEL
ALL-INCLUSIVE PACKAGES
Rates are per person per day and do not include taxes, fees, gratuities, or alcohol. Youth 11 and under save $20 per day.
Adventures on the Gorge offers all-inclusive vacations that include lodging, meals and your pick from more than two dozen adventure activities. You can set your pace and intensity for each day by choosing one full-day activity, two half-day activities, three to four sampler activities, or one half-day and two sampler activities.
Sportsman Cabin 4+ travelers
2 days: $189 3-4 days: $169 5+ days: $149
2 days: $229 3-4 days: $209 5+ days: $189
Pine Cabin 4+ travelers
Outback Cabin 1 bedroom 2+ travelers
2 days: $209 3-4 days: $189 5+ days: $169
Country Cabin 2+ travelers 2 days: $219 3-4 days: $199 5+ days: $179 855.990.0179 visitaotg.com
28 explore • 2014
2 days: $299 3-4 days: $279 5+ days: $259
Outback Cabin 2 bedrooms 4+ travelers 2 days: $269 3-4 days: $249 5+ days: $229
Sunnyside Cabin Suites 2+ travelers 2 days: $279 3-4 days: $259 5+ days: $239
Deluxe 2 & 3 Bedroom Cabin 4+ travelers 2 days: $279 3-4 days: $259 5+ days: $239
Deluxe 4 Bedroom Cabin 4+ travelers 2 days: $289 3-4 days: $269 5+ days: $249
Rick Lee
Camping 2+ travelers
People come from all over the world to mark special milestones.
CELEBRATE Many travel to the New River Gorge for the adrenaline-pumping outdoor sports. But that’s not the only draw—the picturesque scenery has set the stage for countless romantic and relaxing dream weddings and other celebrations, too. Adventures on the Gorge offers customizable weddings with multiple venues so couples can find the perfect fit for their fairytale nuptials. Imagine saying “I do” on a timber-frame pavilion surrounded by wilderness and overlooking the gorge, followed by a reception beside cascading waterfalls and forest. If that sounds like a dream come true, a ceremony at Smokey’s on the Gorge and a reception at Canyon Falls Swimming Hole is for you. For a more intimate affair, you can also rent a secluded vacation home in the sustainable mountain community of Wild Rock, with a small ceremony and up to 25 guests at a scenic overlook. Adventures on the Gorge hosts an average 30 to 40 weddings a year and has become a prime spot for couples from all over the world to tie the knot. The New River Gorge area is within a six-hour drive of almost 70 percent of the country’s population, making it an ideal location for couples who live locally and those looking for a convenient meeting place for far-reaching family and friends. The majority of weddings at the vacation resort are destination weddings, with couples traveling from as far away as China, Japan, and New Zealand to introduce their wedding guests to the wilderness of West Virginia. Jessica Campbell, wedding planner at Adventures on the Gorge, says people come to the area because of its beauty, location, and laid-back atmosphere. “One group we had from New Orleans summed it up best. They were here for about five days and said it was just great because you could talk with every single guest and actually have full conversations with them, instead of a wedding that lasts four hours where you barely say hello to everybody.” The wide range of active and leisure activities at Adventures on the Gorge also makes it a perfect setting for the festivities that surround the wedding: bachelor and bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners, and honeymoons included. Restaurants, lodging, and outdoor sporting opportunities are centrally located so groups can celebrate without having to drive from place to place. PJ Stevenson, marketing director at Adventures on the Gorge, recently got to experience the array of activities from a guest perspective when she went to a bachelorette party at the resort. “We were able to just park it—if people wanted to go on a hiking trip in the morning they could go hiking on their own, while some folks went out to the overlooks and just took in the beauty of the sunrise. We had a restaurant that was already right here, we were able to go see live music for a little bit in the evening, and then we all came back to the cabin to have a nice little campfire at night. We never had to get back in the car. It was pretty low-key, which was good because we were able to celebrate the real reason for the party, which was the bride.” 855.990.0179
MAKE IT A DATE You’ve booked a romantic getaway at Adventures on the Gorge, and now you’re looking for unique dates to fill your stay. Don’t fret—we have tons of ways to make your sweetheart smile.
CLASSIC DATE NIGHT Enjoy fine
DINNER
GREAT VIEW
dining at Smokey’s on the Gorge. After you’ve eaten, walk hand-in-hand on a short stroll to the overlook for a view of the gorge you won’t soon forget.
ROMANCE BY THE RIVER What is more
SUNSET POINT OVERLOOK
WINE
romantic than watching the sun set over the West Virginia hills? Grab a seat early by Sunset Point Overlook near Smokey’s on the Gorge so you don’t miss the orange and pink sky over the gorge.
ONE HOT NIGHT
HOT TUB
CAMPFIRE
Sometimes the simplest things are the most fun. Spend the day relaxing with your sweetie in the hot tub at your cabin. Get the fire going by dusk and make s’mores.
BLUEGRASS BABY
LIVE MUSIC
DRINKS
Spend a Saturday night at Rendezvous Lodge and catch a show by local favorites like Wild Rumpus, Half Bad Bluegrass Band, or Rust Kings.
FUN IN FAYETTEVILLE
PIES & PINTS
SHOPPING
Drive into town for a musthave lunch of gourmet pizza and craft beer. Visit Studio B to shop local art, handcrafted jewelry, and more. You can even pick up a bottle of wine to take back to the resort.
CAREFREE COURTING Hike two
HIKE
SWIM
miles to the Mill Creek Swimming Hole, also known as Emerald Pool for its deep green color, and take a refreshing dip while being surrounded by the wilderness.
written by ALEXIS KESSEL visitaotg.com 29
A New Orleans couple embarks on a new adventure with their New River Gorge wedding.
WEDDING ADVENTURES Eden Heilman and Jan (pronounced “yawn”) Soeten are Florida natives and proud New Orleans, Louisiana, residents, who could have tied the knot anywhere, but chose a scenic wedding at Adventures on the Gorge in southern West Virginia. “I love the rolling hills and dense tree coverage. I love the peace and quiet and the sweeping view of the New River. The whole landscape is like a breath of fresh air,” Eden says. She and her fiancé knew they wanted a national park wedding, and the facilities offered at Adventures on the Gorge, combined with her childhood memories of West Virginia, made the resort a perfect setting for her big day. Eden’s mother grew up in Pineville, just over an hour from the New River Gorge, and Eden spent weeks in West Virginia every year as a little girl. About five years ago, Eden’s cousin planned a white water rafting trip for them at Adventures on the Gorge. Jan, Eden’s future husband, joined her and her family for the trip, which quickly became a yearly tradition. “We always loved it. It’s an absolutely beautiful place,” Eden says. Jan agrees. “The view is gorgeous, and the times I spent with Eden there mean a lot to me,” he says.
A Spark of Adventure
When it came time to plan their nuptials, the couple dreamed of an outdoor destination wedding at a sprawling park, but as they looked around, they couldn’t find anything as special to both of them as the New River Gorge. When they checked out the many facilities at Adventures on the Gorge, all of the details fell into place. Everything from the lodging to the activities at the vacation resort appealed to the couple. “Even though it felt like you were in nature, you had the combination of great restaurants, lodging, and beautiful environments,” Eden says. “You had the best of both worlds.” The most important thing for both Eden and Jan was finding a laid-back location that would allow them to spend an entire weekend with their family and friends. “We wanted people to be able to interact and enjoy everyone’s company, and we wanted the event to span longer than one night,” Eden says. As her wedding would be surrounded by natural beauty, Eden wanted the wedding theme to be natural and rustic, but organizing a destination wedding from New Orleans required a bit of help. “Coordinating everything off-site was challenging for me, but the on-site coordinator there was great with sending me pictures and working through the logistics of when food would be served and recommendations of the schedule,” Eden says. “If they couldn’t work something out they would give me an alternate suggestion. They were very easy to work with and very friendly.” Eden’s dress, an A-line, strapless, sweetheart gown with embroidered lace and silk chiffon, was bought on a whim in Florida, but in keeping with her theme, her bridesmaids wore long gowns in different styles and shades of brown. The groomsmen wore gray suits with brown ties. Flowers were displayed in tin pails, wedding candles glowed in Mason jars, and the programs were tied with twine. The couple even served cocktails in large tin buckets. “I’m not a formal person and my husband is a fireman, so we wanted something that was very elegant and pretty but also comfortable,” Eden says. “I thought the venue was suited perfectly. We did the reception 30 explore • 2014
visitaotg.com 31
in a tent and I got a company to come in and put flooring down so people weren’t in grass or gravel. It was a perfect combination of having an elegant evening event, but people still felt they could take off their high heels and have fun.”
The Adventure Begins
On June 29, 2013, friends and family gathered on the lower deck near Smokey’s on the Gorge, a gourmet restaurant and bar overlooking the New River, to celebrate Eden and Jan’s special day. “Many of our guests had never been to West Virginia before, so they didn’t know what to expect,” Eden says. “They all thought it was absolutely breathtaking. In fact, many of our guests said they would like to come back to Adventures on the Gorge for future family vacations.” As she walked down the aisle, Eden carried a bouquet of ivory roses, green hydrangeas, ivory ranunculus, and Queen Anne’s lace. Her bridesmaids carried Leonidas roses, green hydrangeas, and Queen Anne’s lace tied with burlap ribbon. Two large flower arrangements sat on wine barrels on each side of the altar. Larry Wilkie, a friend of the couple, officiated, and the couple wrote their own vows. During the ceremony, three sets of married couples—the bride’s sister and brother-in-law, her parents, and the groom’s sister and brother-in-law—read letters they wrote to the couple with advice for marriage. “It was very personal,” Eden says. The Montani Music Ensemble, a string quartet from Charleston, performed the ceremony music. The couple gambled with the weather all weekend, as dark clouds sometimes threatened the events, but they always managed to avoid rain. The sun paid particular favor to their ceremony, creating a perfect scene and some of Eden’s favorite wedding photos. “The weather was perfect,” she says. “It was breezy, the lighting was gorgeous, the sun peeked through the tree leaves, and everything just glistened.” After Jan kissed his bride, the guests enjoyed cocktail hour at Sunset Point Overlook, complete with bluegrass music by The Boatmen, a band out of Beckley. Everyone then moved to the reception tent in the grassy knoll area behind Smokey’s on the Gorge for the buffet-style reception. The reception was decorated with burlap, candles in Mason jars, and floral arrangements in metal pails. The flowers for the event were designed by Bessie’s Floral Designs Inc. of nearby Oak Hill. “They did an absolutely gorgeous job,” Eden says. “I wish I could do it all over again.”
The Adventure Continues
The wedding weekend’s outdoor adventures included hiking and zip-lining, and the day after the wedding the couple and more than half of their guests had a blast white water rafting. “It was so much fun to have all our friends and family in every raft out there,” Eden says. “I could look one direction and see my group of friends from college, and look another direction to see my group of friends from law school.” One of Eden’s favorite memories from the weekend was a bonfire the resort staff set up for the wedding party. The couple decided to host a welcome and rehearsal dinner by the pool, a very casual affair with folks in shorts and flip-flops, but toward the end of dinner everyone was gathered around the bonfire joking and telling stories. Though nearly everything Eden and Jan could have wanted was available on-site, the couple and their guests also loved exploring the towns around Adventures on the Gorge, making multiple trips to Fayetteville and Beckley to enjoy favorite restaurants like Pies & Pints and The Char. Afterward the couple made a pre-honeymoon road trip out of their long drive back to New Orleans, stopping to sightsee along the way and later honeymooning in Turkey. Looking back on their wedding, the couple says they wouldn’t change a thing. “It was a perfect day all the way around. I’m glad we had our wedding at Adventures on the Gorge,” Jan says. Eden agrees. “The whole thing was incredible. It’s a great combination of being off-the-grid but on the grid—incredible sky, the gorge, the river, and the accommodations are all really nice.” 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com written by BETHANY DZIELSKI AND KATIE GRIFFITH photographed by MELISSA PERELLA PHOTOGRAPHY 32 explore • 2014
RAFT
BEFORE YOU GO, BE IN THE KNOW Nervous about an upcoming rafting trip? These tidbits can help put your mind at ease. 34 explore • 2014
MORE THAN
50,000
people take to the New and Gauley rivers for white water rafting each year with Adventures on the Gorge.
➼ In September and October,
the Summersville Dam releases 2,800 cubic feet of water per second to cascade through the river canyon.
DID YOU KNOW? Paddling helps you stay in the boat while navigating the white water rapids.
RIVER GUIDES AGE
18-71
Adventures on the Gorge employs more than 225 raft guides throughout the year, ranging in age from 18 to 71, and with an average of 9 years experience.
Choose your adventure level on the New and Gauley rivers.
WHITE WATER RAFTING
The sounds of surging water fill your ears while a cool spray splashes your face. Your guide orders a hard left paddle as your boat skims off the side of a rock. As your raft floats out of rapids and into calmer waters, a feeling of exhilaration and accomplishment fills you and—judging by the grins on their faces—your fellow adventurers. You don’t have much time to linger in the glow of your first successful trip through a white water rapid before you again hear rushing water around the bend. As your guide warns of the coming trek, you and your cohorts double-check the security of your life jackets and helmets. Your hands tense around your paddle, but this time the feeling is more of excited determination than of anxiety. The first rapid wasn’t so bad, and you’re ready for the next. Ike Mootz and Sib Weatherford, river operations managers for Adventures on the Gorge, have a combined 38 years of leading similar trips in West Virginia’s white water rivers. They and their staff see around 50,000 guests each year, but with 225 trained guides, there is plenty of adventure opportunity to go around. The location is key to the resort’s success, Ike says. “We’re close to the Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh areas, as well as North Carolina and Virginia,” Ike says. “This is a river that’s been run professionally for more than 40 years and the word has gotten out. The location and facilities bring people back.” It’s not just proximity to major population centers in the U.S. that attracts visitors; Adventures on the Gorge is central to what is widely considered the premier rafting location east of the Mississippi. The New River, sometimes just called the New, has a more laid-back blend of mild and medium rapids, while the Gauley River can be described as nothing short of thrilling. The two rivers merge to form the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio, but as two independent rivers stretching across southern West Virginia, they have the most challenging waters and most striking scenery of any rivers in the eastern U.S.
matt sloan
The Gauley River
C
IF YOU'RE A NEWBIE,
DON’T WORRY Trip leaders give thorough instructions before hitting the water.
The Gauley River is the New’s far more extreme sister. The 27-mile stretch of river making up the Upper Gauley and Lower Gauley rafting locations drops hundreds of feet in elevation, creating dozens of rapids and waves that try even the most experienced rafters. The names of these rapids—things like Insignificant, Pillow Rock, Iron Ring, Lost Paddle, and Sweet’s Falls—hint at the river’s long history with adventurers. There’s one particular place on the Lower Gauley River, an advanced section of the river, that’s a favorite among many rafters. It’s called Canyon Doors. “It’s one of the most beautiful spots I’ve seen in my life,” Ike says. “Iron-stained cliff walls rise up in a rust, red-orange color.” He says he prefers the early morning runs to catch the rising sun and fresh air. Autumn on the Gauley River is world-renowned, with thousands of seasoned rafters pouring in from all over the country. The reason is the famed release dates in September and October when the Summersville Dam releases 2,800 cubic feet visitaotg.com 35
of water per second to cascade through the river canyon. At least 22 release days are required by law, and the pre-scheduled nature of these dates means adventurers have plenty of time to plan. All Adventures on the Gorge Gauley trips are in the advanced and upper advanced levels, with minimum ages starting at 14. Many of these runs, particularly the fall release days, are not recommended for the faint of heart. “For many of our guests this feels almost like the frontier,” Ike says. “They see trees, wildlife, it’s a roller coaster on steroids, and you’re released from the confines of society.”
The New River
The exploratory adventure of white water rafting has made the story of a young rafter turned professional guide somewhat common around these parts. If you’re not careful—or maybe if you’re just smart—what begins as a short vacation can become a lifestyle. Sib got his professional start on the New River in 1986 as a guide for New River Adventures. Two years later he moved to Class VI, a business that later became one of the Adventures on the Gorge founding outfitters. “It was the unknown, the excitement,” Sib says of his draw to the sport. “Every day is a new adventure. You never know what is going to happen whenever you get on the river. No two days are ever the same.” After nearly 30 years, the natural beauty of the New River—a full sensory experience—entices him back into the rapids at any season. “It’s so different at different times of the year,” Sib says. “It’s an incredibly beautiful place when there is snow on the ground. In the spring the different colors are starting to bloom. In the summer all the wildlife is out, and everything is green. In the fall you get the vibrant colors.” The smells of the forest and mountains, the dirt and mud, and an ancient river are indescribable, Sib says, but unmistakably fresh. “It’s something you can get all your senses involved in, if you allow that to happen,” he says.
Rafting is a sport that mixes physical endurance with utter relaxation, and the latest in equipment with a primordial activity. While battling the river’s rapids or drifting slowly along its banks, rafters come to realize that everything about rafting—that it’s even a sport—is different from when our ancestors migrated along rivers. And yet the water runs just as deep, the views are just as sweeping, wildlife still comes 2014 GAULEY to drink from the water, and birds still fish. Pockets of fog in the RELEASE DATES mountains during early morning rafting runs give the river an The most extreme white otherworldly feel. Eyes glow from the underbrush of fallen trees water happens when along the banks, while little feet scamper back into hiding, causing Summersville Lake is branches and leaves to rustle. Though you’re drinking water from released into the Gauley. a Nalgene bottle with Chaco sandals strapped to your feet, if you close your eyes you can imagine existing 300 years ago when the September 5-8, 12-15 new growth forest was still covered by old growth hardwoods and 19-22, 26-29 pines. “You want to experience what it’s like to spend 20 days on All dates are Friday this river,” Sib says of early explorers and adventurers. “You look up through Monday to these people, and what they’ve done and hear amazing stories that just seem crazy. There’s a draw to bringing yourself up to the October 3-5 Friday-Sunday level they reached in terms of rafting ability.” 11-12 Saturday-Sunday 18-19 Saturday-Sunday First-Timers The draw of the river may be nothing new for West Virginians, Bridge Day! but nature as a retreat rather than something to be feared is new to many guests of Adventures on the Gorge. “A lot of our guests have never experienced southern West Virginia—not just rafting, but hiking, biking, and all the activities this area has to offer,” Sib says. Through the resort’s activities and rafting in particular, guests get to know each other and work as a team. “They learn to trust each other and to help each other,” Sib says. 36 explore • 2014
jay young-
Looking to History
logan bockrath
john mueller
adventures on the gorge
The New and Gauley rivers offer different rafting experiences, so visitors can choose family-friendly routes or more extreme trips. Adventures on the Gorge also offers river
overnight options where rafters spend two or three days on the rivers and their banks. Everything is provided except sleeping gear and personal items.
The first time you go rafting and hit a good rapid is exhilarating. To begin with, that include camping along the river. No matter which there is the adrenaline rush. “After the excitement of hitting a big wave and getting package you choose, you’ll be accompanied by a trained that splash of water in the face, a lot guests are wanting more—bigger rapids,” Sib guide who will lead you through difficult sections and says. “It’s doing something physical and actually challenging your body, challenging see to all precautions. “Whether you’re going on one yourself to be brave enough.” But the New River, the Gauley, and Adventures on the of the milder trips or one of the wilder trips, it’s a new Gorge aren’t just for the ripped, muscular bodies of the Olympians and professional experience,” Sib says. “People don’t know what to expect. athletes who do train there. Kids as young as 6 years old, octogenarians, families, the This may be the most exciting experience they’ll ever handicapped, marathon runners, and couch potatoes alike can find a part of the river have in their lives.” 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com to enjoy. “We have had many people who have overcome their fear of water, and we written by KATIE GRIFFITH still do take people who can’t swim,” Sib says. “We offer trips everywhere from the Upper New River, a milder section of water, all the way up to the Upper Gauley, our most challenging section of water. There’s a full gamut of different trips you can do.” Kids are especially fond of the rafting experiences, Sib 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com CHOOSE YOUR RAPIDS says. Boundless energy and curiosity make white water rafting both a physical and learning activity. One of Sib’s Most of the New River runs are at beginner and intermediate levels. These highest priorities is getting his own kids out on the river. are great for kids and families, or anyone looking for a more relaxing trip “My 11-year-old is very analytical, so she wants to know with easier rapids. The New River trips have gorgeous views of the gorge what creates an eddy or why one wave is bigger than and allow plenty of opportunity to jump out of your raft for some fun in the another. My youngest loves being outside in the beauty sun. Children as young as 6 can grab a paddle for the resort’s Upper New of nature, seeing the animals, the trees, everything out River trip, while the Lower New River trips have a minimum age of 12 and a there to be seen,” he says. Among his guests, Sib says few rapids that reach Class V. The intensity of rivers always varies with the seasons and water levels. Higher water levels usually mean a wilder ride. kids are some of the most adventurous passengers he has. Rapids classes range from Class I to Class VI, indicating easy through Unlike some adults, they don’t feel intimidated at the intermediate and advanced levels. Class VI is an extreme and exploratory first site of rapids. “They are OK with going to bigger classification that should only be attempted by real experts and professionrapids and trying different things, even by themselves,” als. Adventures on the Gorge takes a more simplified approach for all of its he says. “They love the opportunity to get out of the raft activities with a rating system similar to the circles, squares, and diamonds and float or swim or jump off rocks. So many of these of ski resorts. Circles represent low intensity, beginner activities while kids are happy to be in an outdoor environment. They squares and diamonds correspond to intermediate and advanced levels.* love being able to play and get a little bit of freedom.” Playtime and freedom is really the point, after all, Ages 6+ | 4-6 hours Ages 14+ | 5-6 hours Ages 15+ | 3.5-5 hours for both children and adults. It’s not every day a person UPPER NEW RIVER DOUBLE RAPID RUN FALL UPPER can grab a bathing suit, kick off their shoes, and jump Fun for all ages, calm pools, Twice the exciting white GAULEY RIVER easy rapids and beautiful water fun. Lunch included. Second best white into a river. “It’s an experience of getting back to scenery. Includes lunch. $159-179 water one-day trip in the nature,” Sib says. “You don’t have the crowds; you can Adults $119-139 country. Big water fun and go out there and enjoy some peacefulness.” Youth $89 excitement. Delicious hot Ages 6+ | 2-3 days lunch included. $159-179 White water packages at Adventures on the Gorge Ages 12+ | 2-3 days Ages 9+ | 4-6 hours run on half-day to full-day trips, or multi-day packages NEW RIVER Ages 16+ | 6-7 hours FAMILY OVERNIGHTS LOWER NEW FALL GAULEY Premier two- or three-day Introductory trip on bigger river trips. Everything MARATHON white water in oar boats. Includes lunch. Minimum height is 48 inches. Adults $119-139 Youth $119-129
Ages 12+ | 4-6 hours
LOWER NEW RIVER Exciting white water, fantastic scenery and the most popular trip. Includes lunch. $119-139
jonathan vickers
Ages 12+ | 3-4 hours
38 explore • 2014
NEW RIVER RAPID RUN
Thrilling half-day white water trip shows you the best of the Gorge. $99-119
provided except sleeping bag and personal items. Adults $299-$399 Youth $249-$399
Incredible 26-mile rafting trip with more than 70 rapids offers all-day excitement. Delicious hot lunch included. $209-229
Ages 15+ | 4-6 hours
SPRING OR SUMMER GAULEY
Challenging trips on everchanging Gauley River. Different water levels require different boats. $119-139
Ages 16+ | 6-7 hours
FALL DOUBLE UPPER GAULEY
Intense trip on America's Best White Water includes ten Class V rapids. Delicious hot lunch included. $219-239
Ages 14+ | 5-6 hours
FALL LOWER GAULEY RIVER
Thrilling white water, beautiful scenery, secret gem of West Virginia. Delicious hot lunch included. $159-179
*Youth 11 and under; rates are per person; taxes and fees not included
Ages 15+ | 2 days
GAULEY OVERNIGHTS
Best two-day white water trip in the country. Big water by day, refined wilderness by night. $299-359
FLY
40 explore • 2014
âžź TreeTops Canopy
Tour, which includes a walk across this rope bridge, is the perfect introduction to aerial activities, while the Gravity Zip Lines are great for adrenaline junkies.
TreeTops Canopy Tour, Gravity Zip Lines, TimberTrek Aerial Park
AERIAL ADVENTURES SO YOU’VE SEEN A LOT OF THE GORGE. You’ve driven over the New River Gorge Bridge. You’ve taken to a raft to see the gorge from the river. Maybe you’ve hopped on a mountain bike, gotten up close and personal with the terrain. What’s left? “Come to us, you can see it from a bird’s perspective,” says Tiny Elliott, director of aerial operations for Adventures on the Gorge. And Tiny’s not talking about a plane or a helicopter—his method brings you even closer to nature. Come to the Aerial Adventure Center and Tiny’s crew will hook you to a zip line, lead you into the trees, and set you soaring through the forest. “Sometimes you can reach out and touch the branches,” he says.
The Mechanics
Let’s start with the basics: Zip-lining happens with what’s called a zip line. That’s a simple device made of a pulley and a cable and mounted on an incline. Put a human on that line, attached with a harness, and the laws of physics will take over from there: they’ll glide—zip, really—from the top of the incline to the bottom of it, with nothing but gravity propelling them along. “Anybody can do it,” Tiny says. Once they reach the bottom of the zip line, either the ground or a platform in the trees, a guide unhooks them from the line they just used and clips them onto the next one; they’re never left unclipped and don’t work the equipment themselves. From there they either rappel out of the tree or walk to the next platform. Along the way, the guides are talking—about the gorge, the scenery, the plants and animals. “It’s an interpretive experience,” Tiny says. “It’s like a raft rafttrip, where you learn about the river between rapids.”
“If I were coming for ing or something, I would absolutely come and do both the zip-lining and the aerial park—they’re such different experiences. It’s really fun for the whole family—I know that sounds hokey, but it really is.”
REBECCA KIGER FOTOGRAFIA
TINY ELLIOTT, director of aerial operations for Adventures on the Gorge
The Rush
At Adventures on the Gorge there are two different zip-lining courses: TreeTops Canopy Tour is immersed in nature. Gravity Zip Lines are great for adrenaline junkies. The speed—and adrenaline rush—of a zip line ride depends on the length and slope of its incline. On TreeTops, you zip from tree to tree at about 30 miles per hour in addition to crossing five sky bridges, taking a short hike and rappelling. On Gravity, TreeTops’ younger but more daring sibling, you zip from mountain to mountain—one of the lines is the longest zip line in the east, at 3,100 feet long. It can get you going up to 60 miles per hour. “But you’re going to get a rush on any tour,” Tiny says. No zip-lining tour is adrenaline-free. They all involve whizzing through the forest—practically flying—after all. “For a lot of people zip-lining is a bucket list kind of thing,” Tiny says. “This is one way to get a couple of bucket list items checked off.” In his time as an aerial guide, Tiny’s taken out plenty of kids who met the minimum requirements and plenty of people who were a lot older. Once he put an 87-year-old woman on a zip line. “I’ll never forget her—her name was Dorcas,” he says. “She came with her two visitaotg.com 41
middle-aged daughters on her 87th birthday in the late fall. She always wanted to do this and they had just the best time.” That’s the beauty of zip-lining—anybody can do it. Tiny recommends it for anyone who isn’t outlandishly afraid of heights (and even for them, if they think they can hack it). “It’s just this incredible experience,” he says. “You’re flying through the air like Superman, and at the same time you’re seeing the world from a whole different perspective.”
The Scenery
Both zip line courses at the New River Gorge are scenic, but they offer different kinds of views: On Gravity you can see the mountains meet the sky. TreeTops lets you see what it’s like inside the forest canopy, to see the forest floor in a way you couldn’t if you were actually walking on it. “It’s such a unique activity,” Tiny says. “You’re zipping back and forth over Mill Creek—something that very few people even know is there. It’s just a little creek, but it’s so beautiful.” A few years ago Tiny, an avid birdwatcher, gave a zip-lining tour to a group of top-notch bird watchers—it was later featured in Audubon Magazine. “They saw a Swainson’s warbler, a breed that birdwatchers rarely get to look at it. They usually can only listen for it. We stood and watched it for 15 minutes,” Tiny says. “In the springtime you can be in the trees and birds will literally land right around you because they don’t expect you to be there, 80 feet off the ground with them.” Every season has its charms, and because TreeTops is open year-round you can experience each of them from a zip-line. “It’s even great in the winter,” Tiny says. “It’s really something special when you can see all the trees covered in snow.”
THE PRICE
TreeTops Canopy Tour $89-$109 per person Must be at least 10 years old and weigh between 90 and 260 lbs. Length: Half-day
Gravity Zip Lines $89-$109 per person Must be at least 12 years old and weigh between 100 and 260 lbs. Length: Half-day
TimberTrek Aerial Park Half-day, $69-$79 per person Two hours, $59 per person Must be at least 7 years old and weigh less than 260 lbs.
The Obstacle Course
The last aerial thrill at Adventures on the Gorge is called an aerial adventure park—this one, specifically, is called the TimberTrek Aerial Park. Aerial parks are less conventional than zip-lining, and Tiny struggles to explain the concept. “It’s like an aerial obstacle course in the trees,” he says. Then, realizing that doesn’t quite capture the breadth of the experience, he continues. “It’s like that television show Wipeout, except we’re not trying to knock you off the course.” But that’s not quite it either. He tries again. “Think of anything you can do to get between one post and another,” Tiny says. “But you can’t build a bridge.” At the aerial park you’re strapped into a harness, tethered to a cord, and then plopped onto a course. It’s like a jungle gym, but everything is bigger and more real. Or it’s like a playground for grown-ups, only you don’t have to be all that grown up—kids can get on the course as soon as they turn 7. One of the obstacles is a bridge made of logs, where the logs are free to spin underneath your feet. Another is a trapeze. “It sounds kind of intimidating, but it’s not,” Tiny says. “Once we get people on it they love it.” Aerial adventure parks are relatively new to the United States—there were fewer than a dozen in the country when this one was built, though there are more now—but they’re wildly popular in Europe. Tiny likens the format of a zip-lining tour to a white water rafting trip—you’re on a tour with a guide traveling from Point A to Point B. The aerial adventure park is more like kayaking alone—in a lake. You’re on your own and work your way through the park in your own way, at your own pace. There are five courses, each color coded for difficulty level, similar to ski slopes—yellow is the easiest, black is the hardest. All guests must prove themselves on the beginner courses before graduating to the more advanced sections, but once you do there is a lot of flexibility. If you finish the challenging blue course and realize that wasn’t for you, level down to green. If you initially complete the Zip through the trees green and found it too tame, move on up to the blue. It’s self-paced, on TreeTops or Gravity and the staff are trained to help. “We’re there to encourage you and or take to an obstacle course like no other at make sure you make it through having a good time,” Tiny says. TimberTrek. You can 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com experience all of these written by SHAY MAUNZ 42 explore • 2014
855.990.0179 visitaotg.com
thrills and more at Adventures on the Gorge.
visitaotg.com 43
karen underwood
REBECCA KIGER FOTOGRAFIA
marshall university
jay young
adventures on the gorge
For views of a lifetime, experience the New River Gorge with a BridgeWalk tour.
BRIDGEWALK When the New River Gorge Bridge first opened in 1977, it was the longest steel singlespan arch bridge and the highest vehicular bridge in the world, rising 876 feet above the New River—the planet’s second oldest river. Since then, the thousands of drivers making their way across the bridge each day have enjoyed the breathtaking scenery lying below from that dizzying height. The bridge, which is now emblazoned on the West Virginia state quarter, is a monument to man’s ingenuity—an amazing architectural and structural marvel. Before it was built, it took travelers 45 minutes to cross the New River Gorge. The bridge, which took three years to build, cut that time to 45 seconds. Nearly 17,000 cars cross it daily, and it has become a tourism destination in its own right. Hundreds of BASE jumpers have leaped from it. And thousands more stop at the visitor center each year to view it from the observation deck. But to truly experience the bridge, you must walk across it—or rather, under it. 44 explore • 2014
BridgeWalk, in cooperation with the National Park Service and West Virginia Division of Highways, offers guided tours underneath the roadway along a two-foot catwalk that spans the length of the bridge. “Riding across the bridge doesn’t do it justice. You can’t truly experience the incredible views,” says Benjy Simpson, one of the founding partners and a tour guide. “Since we began giving tours in 2010, we’ve had folks from 45 countries and all 50 states and the District of Columbia with an age range from 8 to 95 years old. We can even accommodate wheelchairs.” Benjy says people take the tour for three reasons: to see the engineering achievement that the bridge represents, to enjoy the spectacular views in all four seasons, and to overcome or learn to appreciate their fear of heights. “We’ve had more than 13,800 people and only 41 people did not complete the tour,” he says. “Our guides are understanding and patient. We want everyone to have a good experience.” At more than 850 feet above the boulderladen canyon, this tour isn’t for the faint of BENJY SIMPSON, founding partner and tour guide heart. Benjy swears many people take the tour to conquer their fear of heights, and Wheeling-based photographer Rebecca Kiger, who walked across the bridge in 2011, put that to the test. Rebecca recalls, “As I approached the catwalk, I faced what I thought was insurmountable fear. Benjy helped me put one foot in front of the other. Each step was one of terror. As we approached the halfway point, Benjy found words that reached me. He said, ‘Someday, your daughter is going to want to do things that scare you. You’re either going to move through this fear so you can share those moments with her or you’re going to miss them.’ My fear turned to determination, then to confidence, and finally to elation. As I reached the end of the catwalk, I was simply amazed at the feat I had accomplished with the help of a patient and surefooted friend.” The tour begins at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. Participants wear a harness and are secured to the bridge by a safety cable. “It is impossible to fall,” says Benjy. “Our safety system is the longest continuous safety system in the world. The cable has breaking strength of 14,400 pounds. Not only are you clipped in, but there are also catwalk rails so you have something to hang on to.” On the two- to three-hour tour, guides leisurely lead you across the 1.5-mile span, calmly coaxing leaden feet while giving you an overview of the bridge’s history and architectural features and pointing out the peregrine falcon nests and the history of coal mining in the area. The view is breathtaking and photo opportunities abound as the cliffs give way to the rugged canyon. White water rafters look like pin dots on the thin ribbon of the New River below, further illustrating just how high you really are. “This offers a perspective you don’t get to see very often,” says Brian Campbell, senior vice president of marketing at Adventures on the Gorge. “Plus you’re immersed in a lot of history, interpretation, and fun facts about the bridge.” The bridge itself is a feat of modern engineering, but most people don’t know it’s also very flexible. “It moves,” Brian says. “Every time a truck or big car comes by it’s bouncing and swinging, so it’s exhilarating when you’re underneath.” Short of rappelling from the bridge, BridgeWalk allows you to truly experience this important monument— an adventure that will follow you for a lifetime. Most likely, you’ll never drive across it the same way again. You’ll always slow down and wonder if someone is clinging to the catwalk below. 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com
rebecca kiger fotografia
“Riding across the bridge doesn’t do it justice. You can’t truly experience the incredible views.”
The BridgeWalk tour takes two to three hours and leads guests across the 1.5-mile span. You must be at least 10 years old and 48 inches tall. The cost is $69 per person.
written by NIKKI BOWMAN AND ALEXIS KESSEL visitaotg.com 45
Just like the earth and water beneath it, the sky above the New River Gorge is filled with adventure.
You’ve come to enjoy the New River Gorge in all its dimensions. You’ve taken to the water, to the ground, to the trees. But there is one more place to look for adventure at the New River Gorge: the sky. Pilot Christian Kappler likens a ride in a big commercial aircraft to an evening sitting in the living room—pretty boring. He doesn’t think a small modern airplane is all that thrilling either. “You’re usually sitting in a really cramped seat looking through a foggy window and you don’t really feel like you’re part of anything,” he says. “It’s almost like watching something go by in a picture frame.” That’s not the case in Christian’s biplane—a World War II-era model that was built in 1940. In his plane, the passengers are sitting in the open air with the wind rushing past them. “It’s like riding a motorcycle as opposed to being in a car,” he says. Christian is the owner and pilot at Wild Blue Adventures, a company that gives solo tours of the New River Gorge in two vintage airplanes—an enveloping aerial experience if ever there was one. That makes it a good fit for the New River Gorge, the place people come when they want to interact with the world around them. “People aren’t coming here because they’re into spectator sports. They’re coming because they want to immerse themselves in nature,” Christian says. “They want to go down the river, they want to hike down the trails, they want to get in the trees. It’s not a place to go look at art. You’re a participant—and this is another way to do that.” Christian’s tours of the gorge aren’t just any air tours because Christian’s planes aren’t just any planes. He has two functioning museum quality airplanes. Both are more than 70 years old and have been painstakingly restored to their original specifications. The most prized plane is that Stearman Biplane, which was built in 1940 for the U.S. Army Air Corps and spent several years in rotation at army airfields, being used to train young pilots about to be sent off to World War II. It was sold in 1949 and converted into a crop duster, then sold again in the 1990s to a buyer who completely disassembled the plane and restored it. Riding in the vintage plane, Christian says, is nothing like riding in a modern plane. It’s a different flying experience altogether. “It’s not as noisy. It’s just a low rumble,” he says. “And it just feels really strong. It feels really safe. Plus it has all this history that makes you feel really cool when you’re in it.” On tours Christian sits in the back with his passenger in the front where they can see everything. They get to decide whether they want Christian to do aerobatics, taking the plane through a series of loops and spins, and to some extent where they want it to go. “I think we really do make flying a more visceral experience,” he says. There’s another plane, too—what’s called a Piper Cub. That plane is also vintage, but a trip in it is a little less intense than a trip in the biplane. If the biplane is like a motorcycle, then riding in the Piper Cub is like riding in a jeep with the windows down. Tours in the Piper Cub are a bit cheaper, too, making it a good option for families with a lot of people who want to take the trip. Christian grew up in southern California, where he says a lot of people are interested in vintage aircraft (he guesses it has something to do with the influence of Hollywood). As a kid he was obsessed with planes—his family jokes that he would only play with airplane toys, not a single car, train, or GI Joe. When he was still a teenager Christian started taking flying lessons, and he made his first solo flight when he was 16. He lusted after vintage 46 explore • 2014
aircraft for years and bought the biplane from a friend in California as soon as he could pull together the money. When he moved to West Virginia in 2005—with his wife, a West Virginia native, and their six kids—the plane came with him. Christian didn’t consider creating a biplane business until around five years ago, when he realized how many people in West Virginia were interested. “We used to have it just for fun, and using it was a blast,” he says. “But every time we would pull it out people would pull over to ask us how much it cost for a ride.” Christian opened Wild Blue Adventures in 2005. Since then, he’s given more than 1,000 rides. 304.574.1150 written by SHAY MAUNZ
wild blue adventures
SKY HIGH ADVENTURE
THE PRICE New River Gorge 20 minutes Stearman Biplane - $175 Piper Cub - $89 Summersville Lake 40 minutes Stearman Biplane - $295 Piper Cub - $150
wild blue adventures
Kanawha Falls 40 minutes Stearman Biplane - $295 Piper Cub - $150 All Inclusive Flight One hour Stearman Biplane - $425 Piper Cub - $180
visitaotg.com 47
Deluxe cabins offer a great escape near the New River Gorge any time of year.
SLEEPING IN LUXURY Whether you want to sip hot chocolate by a roaring fire in winter, spend an autumn morning in the hot tub, or just relax after a long day of rafting in summer, you don’t have to pay an extravagant amount of money to enjoy the New River Gorge. Guests can feel a world away by staying at one of the deluxe cabins at Adventures on the Gorge. From romantic weekend getaways to family reunions, people travel to Adventures on the Gorge for all kinds of reasons. But after a day full of zip-lining, hiking, biking, swimming, or a myriad of other activities, you may be looking for a way to unwind, and what better way to do that than to kick off your shoes at a cabin in the woods? Cabins are open year-round, according to Krista Shumaker, resort operations director at Adventures on the Gorge. She says many people take advantage of discounted prices for the deluxe cabins during the resort’s “secret season,” which runs from November until March. Most cabins are within walking distance to scenic views of the New River Gorge and offer amenities like air conditioning, heating, cable, and, in some cases, even luxuries like heated towel racks. “I’ve been here a long time and it seems to me that over the years camping has become less popular—people want more amenities when they stay,” Krista says. “You still have people who camp, but we’ve expanded the resort and added more lodging options. People want that. What makes us so special is that we have an assortment of options for everyone.” Cabins on the Gorge are deluxe cabins that combine luxury and simplicity for parties of all sizes, offering two-, three-, and four-bedroom options. “Cabins are very comfortable and have all the amenities you need just like at home. They are fully stocked with everything you would think of,” Krista says. “It’s
âžź
Accommodations offered by Adventures on the Gorge range from tent sites to deluxe cabins like this 4-bedroom option.
STAY
This Outback Cabin has two bedrooms plus a bonus loft space.
very convenient because our guests can stay here and walk right across the street and participate in all the different activities.” Two-bedroom cabins accommodate up to eight guests and include a king-size bed and sleeper sofa. The full bathroom is complete with heated towel rack, heated tile flooring, and a double-headed shower. The three- and four-bedroom cabins accommodate up to 10 guests and include a queen-size bed, sleeper sofa, and shared bathrooms. Guests also love Breezy Hill Cottage at the Mountain State Campground, where you can find everything you’ll need with a full bathroom, fully equipped kitchen, TV, linens, and a charcoal grill. This cottage can accommodate up to 10 people with four bedrooms. Outback Cabins, located on the Mill Creek campus, are also great for family outings. These cabins are within walking distance of all Adventures on the Gorge restaurants and come with fully equipped kitchens, bathrooms, TVs, linens, a fire ring and charcoal grill, picnic tables, and private hot tubs. Nearby, Mountaineer Cabins are just 10 minutes away from Adventures on the Gorge, the New River Gorge Bridge, and the National Park Service’s Canyon Rim Visitor Center. These cabins accommodate up to six people and include one bathroom, a fully equipped kitchen, a wood burning fireplace, air conditioning and heating, TV, a charcoal grill, and outdoor hot tub. As more than a million people visit the area each year, more lodging continues to be added at Adventures on the Gorge. “We made a commitment since we merged in 2008 to expand our lodging offering each year, and we have plans to build more cabins this upcoming fall,” Krista says. “We’re also building some new units that we’re really excited about—they are called our Sunnyside Cabin Suites.” Krista says the suites will have king-size beds plus balconies and decks. “A lot of our guests are couples,” she says. “A lot of people want nice amenities, but don’t want to pay the price of a cabin—that’s why we decided to go this route, too,” she says. The new lodging will open Memorial Day weekend. “I think they’ll become very popular,” Krista says. written by SHAWNEE MORAN | photographed by RICK LEE
DELUXE LODGING
855.990.0179 visitaotg.com
Deluxe cabins are a great option for travelers who want to enjoy the outdoors, but prefer the extra amenities. They are stocked with kitchenware and linens, most have hot tubs, and some even include a washer and dryer. SPORTSMAN CABINS The Sportsman rental cabins were designed for comfort. These one-bedroom, one-bathroom rentals are equipped with the basics for someone who wants all of the comforts of home, but in a no-frills manner. These 24-by-16foot cabins have beds, refrigerators, microwaves, and coffee pots—everything you need after a day of playing outside. Bring your own towels. 4-8 people, $229 per night* SUNNYSIDE CABIN SUITES Perfect for just the two of you, our Cabin Suites offer hotel-style amenities without all of the frills you might not need. The deluxe bathrooms will make your stay ultra comfortable with heated floors and heated towel racks. Mini fridge, coffee pot, microwave, linens and TV included. Choose from two queen beds or one king bed based on your preference. 2-4 people, $209 per night OUTBACK CABINS are a smaller version of our Deluxe Cabins. Located on the rim of beautiful Mill Creek Canyon, these cabins back-up to the woods and offer considerable privacy. Two-bedroom cabins are great for families, while the one-bedroom is the perfect honeymoon option. You’ll be surrounded by nature and will occasionally see wildlife. 1-BR: 2-4 people, $279 per night 2-BR: 4-6 people, $389 per night DELUXE CABINS Nestled among the trees, our Deluxe Cabins feel isolated but are just a short walk to our restaurants, shops, and trip meeting areas. These cabins are fully furnished and have all the comforts of home, with a few unexpected extras like heated bathroom floors and towel racks. These are available with two, three or fourbedrooms. Four-bedroom deluxe cabins even have their own washer/dryer. 2-BR: 4-6 people, $439 per night 3-BR: 4-8 people, $469 per night 4-BR: 4-10 people, $499 per night *Rates are per night for minimum capacity. There is a $30 per person per night charge for additional people.
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Spending the night around a campfire in Fayette County never sounded so good.
COMMUNAL CAMPING
Sitting around a campfire, eating s’mores, and telling ghost stories—many treasured memories begin with camping with loved ones. Adventures on the Gorge offers the same nostalgic experience for all ages. After a day of thrill-seeking activities, guests can unwind at campsites and watch the magnificent sun disappear into the hills, talk about their adventures and strum a little guitar, or play cards until the glow of embers in the fire is all that remains. “We provide an experience for what the guest wants,” says Dave Arnold, senior vice president of public relations and strategic partnerships. “Some guests want to camp—they want that outdoor experience where they are sitting around the fire, cooking hot dogs and s’mores. Some people also want heated towel racks in a cabin, so we give them what they want. Everything we do is guest-centric.” While renting a million-dollar home for an evening may be out of budget for most guests, bringing a tent and roughing it in the great outdoors is an affordable option, costing guests as little as $15 a night. Dave says there are two campsite options guests can choose from depending on how they define having fun—a family or a social campsite. From bachelor parties and Boy Scout gatherings to bikers and Christian conferences, Adventures on the Gorge caters to guests of every background and expectation. “When you put different types of groups in the campground then you are better off with multiple campgrounds and cabins. So obviously, if you’re at a bachelorette party, you don’t want to be next to a Christian conference or a Boy Scout group,” he says. “There are people who have different expectations of fun, and we try to manage that. We want people to have fun—that’s what we’re all about.” Dave says camping at Adventures on the Gorge is as much a convenience as it is an experience. “Some people like that feel of going to a state park, but other people like the convenience of getting up and walking to the restaurant and walking to the activity,” he says. “Imagine a ski resort—there’s value being on the mountain and there’s value being 25 minutes away.” Family campsites offer a kid-friendly environment and an enforced quiet time starting at 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday. Located outside of the Mill Creek campus of the resort, these 38 campsites are only a brief walk from restaurant and bars, retail stores, and many family-friendly activities like volleyball and a disc golf course. The sites provide a quiet, tranquil evening for those wanting to rest up for the next day’s adventures. Dave says early risers love the convenience of waking up, taking a short walk to the restaurant, and grabbing a cup of coffee or breakfast without disturbing the sleeping members of their visitaotg.com 53
group. Social campsites are located at the Mountain State Campground, only a halfmile from the resort’s main campus. Guests who want to stay up and take advantage of a 1:30 a.m. curfew can choose from 80 campsites in the woods or fields. “For us, camping is more social,” Dave says. “You aren’t camping at Yellow Stone National Park where you are by yourself. This is a highly concentrated group of tents,” he says. “Camping is a great thing if you have 20 people together, and you are sitting around the campfire drinking a beer or making s’mores.” The resort offers a convenient alternative for guests who want to enjoy the great outdoors without the hassle of setting up camp. Platform tents in both family and social campsites are canvas tents with wooden floors and a tin roof. Bunk beds are provided inside platform tents and sleep up to eight individuals per unit. Ten of these tents are available on the property, and they ensure campers stay dry and warm during their stay. Dave says people camping at Adventures on the Gorge should remember why they are there—to spend their days taking in the area’s beauty. Many guests want the experience of river camping. Though the resort campgrounds don’t offer this, rafting overnight trips do. “No matter what campsite you choose, you don’t want to be in your tent a bunch. You want to be doing a bunch of activities,” he says. “You need to be on the river, you need to be in the canopies, you need to be riding a horse—because that’s who we are.” written by SHAWNEE MORAN | photographed by RICK LEE
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CLOCKWISE Camp along the river on an overnight rafting trip or spend the night in Country Cabin, Hemlock Bunkhouse, or Pine Cabin.
S'MORE CAMPING OPTIONS
Alternative lodging options for the non-traditional camper. Want to experience the great outdoors without having to deal with creepy crawlies, sleep on the hard ground, or give up air conditioning? Adventures on the Gorge offers numerous lodging options for those who wish to experience the beauty of the New River Gorge without giving up the comforts of home. PLATFORM TENTS If you hate setting up camp, this may be the option for you. Platform tents save guests the hassle of pitching their own tents while still allowing them to feel like they are roughing it. Canvas sides, wooden floors, and a tin roof ensure campers will stay safe and dry during their stay in a platform tent. Each has four bunk beds, a picnic table, and a fire ring. Bedding is not provided. $69 per unit COUNTRY CABINS These cozy, rustic cabins combine simplicity with modern needs. The cabins are 12-by-12-foot with a six-foot covered porch and are equipped with picnic tables and fire rings. Each cabin offers air conditioning and heat as well as electricity. Country Cabins also have grills. Each cabin includes one double bed and one bunk bed and is nearby a bathhouse. Bedding is not provided. $99 per unit HEMLOCK BUNKHOUSES Hemlock bunkhouses provide guests with the convenience of electricity. They are centrally located to activities and the bathhouse and are also equipped with picnic tables and fire rings. The 20-by-16-foot cabin has American Hemlock siding, a metal roof, and a fourfoot covered porch that’s perfect for enjoying a cup of coffee in the mornings. Half of the bunkhouses have four twin bunk beds, and half have two double beds and two twin bunk beds. Bedding is not provided. $109 per unit PINE CABINS These rustic cabins offer petfriendly accommodations in most areas and bring bits of the modern world to the great outdoors. These cabins are 13-by-13 feet with two twin bunk beds and one twin-on-full bunk bed. Pine cabins offer an escape from the heat with air conditioning and electricity and are equipped with a fire ring and a picnic table. No plumbing. Bedding not provided. $119 per unit 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com
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Enjoy the indoor/outdoor environment of Smokey's on the Gorge, one of several options for dining while at Adventures on the Gorge.
THE SPOTS Choose from a variety of dining environments and prices.
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SUNSET CAFE Coffee and Snacks 7 a.m.–7 p.m.* $1.75–$5.50
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CANYON FALLS BAR AND GRILLE Lunch, 10 a.m.–6:30 p.m. $2–$10
*Hours listed are in-season hours (May 17–Sept. 5) and are subject to change without notice.
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You won’t go hungry with these restaurant options just steps from adventure.
EATS ON THE GORGE At Adventures on the Gorge, the food is just as good as the view, with six great restaurants in close proximity. Food is locally sourced—from the beef, pork, and chicken to the locally grown produce. “We offer a customized approach to dining that gives us the ability to serve top quality food. We know who’s growing it and we know who’s cooking it,” says Larry Poli, the resort’s food and beverage director.
Smokey’s on the Gorge
Built in 1998, this timber frame, open air restaurant sits on the canyon rim of the New River Gorge at approximately 1,000 feet above the river. Along with its breathtaking view, Smokey’s on the Gorge offers elaborate breakfast and dinner buffets and many offseason events—including wine dinners and murder mystery nights. Breakfast includes quiche, eggs, Danishes, fresh fruit, and the crowd favorite—sweet peppered bacon. Chef Rezan Nese has worked all over the world and brings local and international flavors to a themed meal each night. The dinner buffet consists of four entrées—beef (usually roasted tenderloin, prime rib, or roasted strip sirloin), pork, chicken, and seafood with the occasional wild game entrée. Smokey’s also has an award-winning salad bar with more than 20 garnishes.
Chetty’s Pub
rebecca kiger fotografia
Chetty’s is the quintessential sports bar with 20 varieties of bottled beers and great brews on draft, but you can’t visit Chetty’s without trying the mouthwatering burgers. Made of a custom grind of short ribs, brisket, and beef chuck, each burger is a half-pound of juicy goodness served on a corn-dusted Kaiser bun. Chetty’s is also famous for its Monday wing nights. Folks come from all over to socialize, listen to live music, and eat wings enhanced by eight flavors of pub-made sauces. Last season Chetty’s pub sold 175,000 wings on Monday nights.
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RENDEZVOUS LODGE Full Bar Sunday–Friday, 1–9 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m.; $2–$8
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BUFFLER’S BBQ & PIZZA 7 a.m.–10 p.m. Breakfast $5–$12, Lunch $8–$14 Dinner buffet $18.95, $9 for children 10–12, under 10 eat free
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CHETTY’S PUB Lunch and Dinner 11–9 p.m., $10–$20
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SMOKEY’S ON THE GORGE Breakfast, 7–10 a.m., $13 $7.95 for children 10–12, under 10 eat free Dinner, 5–9 p.m., $27.95 $14.50 for children 10–12, under 10 eat free
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Buffler’s BBQ & Pizza
Buffler’s offers à la carte items for breakfast and lunch and a backyard barbeque-themed buffet for dinner. Breakfast at Buffler’s would not be complete without the breakfast calzone, made of pizza dough filled with eggs, bacon, cheese, and white gravy. And for dinner, try Buffler’s baby back ribs—massaged with award-winning spice rub, marinated overnight, and smoked over sweet apple, peach, or cherry woods. You can pair the ribs with mac and cheese, a twice baked potato, or baked beans. Another special Buffler’s item is the “Gorgeantic” 28-inch pizza with ingredients made in-house plus fresh herbs grown on-site.
Rendezvous Lodge
This eatery is an open air bar with volleyball court and fire pit. The sliders and the bratwurst are in high demand on weekends. Live bands play on Saturdays, and a night here is always a good time. Enjoy a full bar with 12 draft beers and 38 bottles. “It’s the place where people go to kick off their shoes and hang out around the fire,” Larry says.
Canyon Falls Bar and Grille
Splashing in the pool all day? Whet your appetite at the Canyon Falls Bar and Grille. Specializing in Panini sandwiches and great summertime drinks, this option allows you to keep catching rays outside while you sip and snack near the pool.
Sunset Café
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matt sloan
Sunset Café is the newest addition at Adventures on the Gorge, set to open early summer 2014. The quaint coffee shop offers a selection of lattes, espressos, and juices as well as muffins and light breakfast foods. It’s perfect for a relaxed morning of sipping coffee and reading a novel or for a fast grab-and-go if you’re on the run.
rick lee
rick lee rick lee
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Chetty's Pub, a barbecue platter from Buffler's BBQ & Pizza, Rendezvous Lodge, Smokey's on the Gorge entree at the overlook.
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➼ Canyon Falls
Swimming Hole includes a zero-entry section for the kids and a view of New River Gorge Bridge.
Get away from it all amidst top-notch amenities at this New River Gorge vacation resort.
RELAX, REJUVENATE, RECHARGE Adventures on the Gorge knows you—or at least someone in your group—want an exciting outdoor adventure, but there’s at least part of you that also wants to relax and unwind on vacation. Sometimes a day by the pool is just what the doctor ordered. While Adventures on the Gorge offers everything from white water rafting and zip-lining to horseback riding, there are also great on-site amenities to give you a chance to kick off your shoes and have some low-key fun.
rick lee
Splash
Perched on the rim of the spectacular New River Gorge, the Canyon Falls Swimming Hole—a 30,000-gallon, 3,000-square-foot, split-level pool—will be one of the most talked about aspects of the resort from the moment you arrive on the scene. The upper-level pool is three to five feet deep. Water flows into the lower level from a waterfall made of natural rock from the area. Children of all ages squeal, splash, and race each other to the slide in the lower level pool with its zero-entry section and fountains. “It’s a marvelous place for having birthday parties and weddings. It’s beautifully laid out and lit at night,” says Hilarie Jones, assistant pool manager and kids camp manager at the resort. The pool is surrounded by a big, beautiful deck with pool furniture inviting guests to sit and savor snacks and drinks from the Canyon Falls Bar and Grille on-site. The pool deck itself is an attraction worth seeing. “It’s concrete stained to look like natural rock, and it gets really warm. After a rafting trip guests will lay out on the deck to warm up,” Hilarie says. With a tremendous view of the New River Gorge Bridge, it’s easy to see why the pool and deck are popular hangout spots in summer. Season or day passes are available for non-guests, and on Wednesday evenings from June 1 to August 15, Canyon Falls Swimming Hole hosts $5 pool parties. On Fridays families enjoy free outdoor movies in the courtyard near the pool.
Walk It Off
adventures on the gorge
Need to stretch your legs? The resort offers a series of nature trails, including the Mill Creek hiking trail and the Wild Rock biking trail. Every Tuesday the resort organizes nature walks, but the trails are open to guests and the general public for walks anytime. With more than five miles of trails, you can choose if you want a short walk or a longer hike. “The trails weave their way ADVENTURES ON THE through the wildlife. They’re open to mountain GORGE KIDS' CAMP bikers and hikers. Be sure to grab a map at the front desk,” Hilarie says. In addition to the trails, Anytime during the regular summer season several overlooks offer amazing views of the New parents can go off to explore and leave their River Gorge and surrounding nature. children in the care of Hilarie Jones, Kids Camp manager. The outdoor camp is for children ages 5 to 12, and parents can choose to On Par have their children participate for the mornA little friendly competition on the Raven ing, the afternoon, or all day. During the camp Ridge disc golf course can also make for a fun children take nature walks, learn their cardinal afternoon. In 2011 the resort added the current directions, discover environmentally friendly disc golf course in the forest between Chestnutcamping practices, play at the playground or pool, and do crafts like making friendship bracelets or building birdhouses. “I try to gear it to the age range that I have for the day. I really want it to be fun for all the kids,” Hilarie says. Camp may even include playing wiffle ball or foam sword fights.
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burg Road and the New River Gorge. The course was designed and built by Adventures on the Gorge river guides and is perhaps the area’s best kept secret—and it’s free and open around the clock. Raven Ridge is tight, technical, and filled with dips and doglegs leading to regulation baskets. Bring your own discs or shop a huge selection of regulation equipment at Canyon Rim Outfitters in the Canyon Rim Village.
More Fun and Games
Laughter comes from the sand volleyball court on a summer’s day. Strangers become friends on the court as bump, set, spikes earn points for both teams, and players exchange high fives and slaps. On a rainy day, a game room full of pinball machines and other games offers another way to kick back. While teens and adults engage in friendly competition, a playground across the street offers the little ones a place to just be kids. The resort also offers cornhole sets. “During special events we’ll move a couple sets of cornhole to the pool area for everyone to enjoy,” Hilarie says.
Treat Yourself
rick lee
You’ve spent a long day on the rapids or climbing a rock face. You’re tired and so are your muscles. You can unwind and treat yourself to highquality massages in a comfortable atmosphere. Adventures on the Gorge offers Swedish, deep tissue, neuromuscular, integrative, and aromatherapy massage options for 30 to 120 minutes. Walk-ins are accepted, but reservations are recommended as the masseuse is popular. “Sometimes they offer massages for guests right off the TimberTrek, so after they’re sore and tired they can relax with a massage,” Hilarie says. At the end of a long day, a circle forms around the new fire pit near the sand volleyball court. Eat, drink, and talk around the fire or, on a Saturday night, enjoy live music. “We have some great local bands that come and play,” Hilarie says. Whether you’re swimming at Canyon Falls Swimming Hole, playing a grueling game of volleyball, or sipping drinks around the fire, you’ll have no problem having a good time in these woods. “There’s always something going on. There’s definitely something for everyone,” Hilarie says. 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com written by BETHANY DZIELSKI visitaotg.com 63
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Do it all amidst top-notch amenities at this Fayette County vacation resort.
OTHER FUN THINGS TO DO If rafting or zip-lining aren’t for you, there are plenty of other things to keep you busy at Adventures on the Gorge. The resort’s offerings run the gamut of outdoor activities—mountain biking, horseback riding, ATV tours, paintball, kayaking, sporting clays, fishing tours, rock climbing and rappelling, hiking, paddleboarding, and Summersville Lake tours. “Adventures on the Gorge has been adding new programs every year and will continue to do so,” says Jim Taylor, adventure activities manager. “All are challenging yet fun.” Jim, an avid rock climber for more than 30 years on multiple continents, says there’s something special about Adventures on the Gorge that can’t be found anywhere else in the world—a quality he loves sharing with guests he takes climbing. “Adventures on the Gorge is set apart by its spectacular location on the rim of the New River Gorge,” he says. “The absolute best part of Adventures on the Gorge is the highly trained and dedicated group of instructors and guides who take guests into the outdoors.”
adventures on the gorge
Fishing
Fishing manager Sean Wishart of Mountain State Anglers, a brand of Adventures on the Gorge, has a total of 19 years experience in the water. Eight of those years have been at Adventures on the Gorge, where he says the experiences keep getting better. “You can’t get bored of it,” Sean says. “You see something different every day. It’s a new challenge every day.” Sean guides clients to the area’s rivers and streams for an aqua experience a little calmer than white water rafting. “The New River is a very remote, inaccessible river with an incredible smallmouth bass fishery, one of the best in the East,” Sean says. Mountain State Anglers targets smallmouth bass, a freshwater fish popular all over North America and known to be an indicator of clean water. Though rare, sometimes walleyes and muskies have also been known to appear at the end of a fisherman’s hook while out on the New River. After snapping some photos of the day’s catch, all fish are released back into the river. There’s no fishing for dinner at Adventures on the Gorge, but with incredible restaurants nearby, guests don’t need to. “There’s no guarantee you’ll catch a fish, ever, on any fishing trip, whether you’re off by yourself or with a guide here, but we will guarantee you’ll have a good time,” Sean says. Guests can kick back and relax all day long on a white water-style raft. The fishing excursions don’t have the same adrenaline-intense rush of the white water trips, but the adventure is interactive. Guides take guests to parts of the river only accessible from a raft, areas that can’t be reached by land or wading in water. “You float through a pool and then run a rapid and then float in another a pool, and we make hundreds of casts each trip,” Sean says. Like the white water rafting trips, there are multiple options available for people of all ages to enjoy, from half-day to overnight trips. If you can get in and out of a boat, there are no restrictions. People from all walks of life come to fish, from longtime fishing buddies to families who have never fished to corporate executives. Sean has even taken wheelchairs on the boat down the river. “I’ve had a client come fish with visitaotg.com 65
ADVENTURE ACTIVITY PRICES Get out there and explore the wilderness. Go fishing, take a hike, go on horseback—there’s no reason you can’t do it all. SMALLMOUTH FISHING $315 per boat for half-day trips $415 per boat for full-day trips All tackle is included, with other trip options available. Rates are for two anglers per boat. Must be at least 8 years old. West Virginia fishing licenses are required. Kayak Instruction $109 per person for half-day trips $149 per person for full-day trips Learn to kayak or improve your rolling technique with personal instructors. Instruction for all levels is available. Groups require two people to book. Must be at least 12 years old. Cliffside Climbing $59 per person for two-hour trips $79 per person for half-day trips $109 per person for full-day trips Rappelling and climbing instruction is available for all levels. Must be at least 8 years old. Loose clothing is recommended. Ambush Paintball $59 per person for two-hour trips $79 per person for half-day trips Experience live gaming with two courses pitting you against your friends. Must be at least 10 years old. Bring a change of clothes.
855.990.0179, visitaotg.com
Tracks Mountain Biking $59 per person for two-hour trips $79 per person for half-day trips $109 per person for full-day trips Explore the New River Gorge along bike trails and challenging tracks. Must be at least 10 years old. Loose clothing is recommended. Horseback Tours $89 per person Don’t worry about tripping over roots while you explore the trails along the New River Gorge. Horses have that covered. Must be at least 8 years old. People weighing more than 200 pounds will need special attention. Length: half-day Sporting clays $99 per person Learn to shoot in a safe, controlled environment. Shotgun, clays, shells, and eye and ear protection included. Shooting is only offered on weekends and has limited availability. Must be at least 18 years old. Length: half-day ATV Tours $219-$380 depending on options Beginners, intermediate riders, and advanced riders will have fun exploring on all-terrain vehicles. Must be at least 16 years old and a licensed driver for ATVs. Call for more pricing information. Length: half-day or full-day Family Challenge $79 per person Spend a day learning more about your family and interacting as a team. Best for families of four to eight people. Must be at least 10 years old. Loose clothing recommended. Length: half-day
me on his birthday every year for the last 15 years, and he’ll be 77 this year,” Sean says. “He comes with his son and two other fishing buddies from Atlanta, Georgia, to fish for a day and a half.” Smallmouth bass season starts in spring and lasts through mid-November, giving plenty of opportunity to enjoy the area’s most vibrant colors. If a little spring shower dampens the day, the fun goes on. “We will fish in any weather condition barring floods,” Sean says. “If it’s raining the fish are still wet. They don’t really care.”
riders. “We offer awesome, thrilling, and safe adventures for the whole family,” she says. Anyone enjoy an ATV, though guests must be at least 48 inches tall. “I love seeing families get out there, experience something totally different,” Katie says. “They walk away with at least one story they’ll be telling years from now.”
ATVs
For guests who want to spend a day riding through nature, but who aren’t keen on the speed of an ATV, there is another kind of jaunt—this one on man’s second best friend. Montgomery Outdoor Adventures is a partner of Adventures on the Gorge and guides guests on horseback through nearby Babcock State Park, which provides great views close to nature. The horseback riding outfit focuses on families and beginners with safe and comfortable training, says Katie Montgomery, part owner and operator. Guests have come as young as 8 and as old as 78. The gentle nature of the horse combined with serene trails makes for an easy getaway. “We don’t run so the
There are few pastimes dearer to a West Virginian than driving an all-terrain vehicle. Adventures on the Gorge guests can enjoy the muddy, bumpy, off-roading ride of an ATV at Burning Rock Outdoor Adventure Park. “A Burning Rock adventure is unlike any other,” says Katie Sweeney, director of external relations. “There is no shortage of beautiful mountain views and rhododendron tunnels. And mud—did I mention mud? If you want to get dirty, you can get covered head to toe.” The rides take you through varied topography and past another important aspect of West Virginia’s identity—coal mining. “History is alive here and we’re proud of it,” Katie says. “Our main trail is named for a mining operator who pioneered better conditions for miners.” Many of Katie’s guests are thrill-seekers looking for a family-friendly adventure, and she offers plenty of experiences from beginners’ classes to fun trails for advanced 66 explore • 2014
Horseback Riding
their skill level or desire to learn. Guides take care of all rigging and technical aspects to offer peace of mind. “While they get tested both physically and emotionally, they return exhilarated from the experience ready to take on the next adventure.”
logan bockrath
Mountain Biking
The New River Gorge makes one astounding backdrop. That’s why mountain biking has become the area’s fastest growing pastime. The biking program at Adventures on the Gorge offers a range of experiences for all skill levels. "The New River Gorge has some of the best mountain biking trails in the country,” Brian says. “My favorite parts about biking in the gorge are the incredible views and the rolling hills. It’s a blast.” With the addition of the Arrowhead Trails just outside of Fayetteville in 2011, biking took on a whole new meaning. More than 1,000 members of the Order of the Arrow (OA), Boy Scouts of America’s national honor society, created this stacked loop trail system in one of the National Park Service’s largest youth service projects to date. Four trails designed specifically with biking in mind vary from moderate to difficults. Bikes are also available for rent on the resort campus for those wishing to explore the on-site trails on their own.
Paintball
Sporting Clays Shooting
matt sloan
adventures on the gorge
There’s nothing quite like splattering yellow paint all over your opponent. That is the objective after all. No room for the timid here; this is paintball. The four-acre course at Adventures on the Gorge offers two battlefields where guests will take part in classic games like Manhunt and Capture the Flag. This activity is ideal for groups looking to work on teambuilding. Things won’t get too out of control, though. Every game is officiated by referees to ensure fair play.
impact of horseback riding is minimal,” Katie says. “We take pride in offering not only horseback rides but an atmosphere that families can feel safe while making memories together.”
Rock Climbing
Vast, ancient sandstone cliffs have lured many a climber to the New River Gorge over the last few decades. The area is known for its rock climbing and has become one of the most popular climbing destinations in the U.S., in part because of the abundance of routes. According to the National Park Service, more than 1,400 established rock climbs exist within the 63,000 acres of the New River Gorge National River. Adventures on the Gorge’s certified guides are some of the most experienced in the region. “Rock climbing has become one of our guest’s favorite adventure activities at Adventures on the Gorge because it’s completely different than they expected,” says Brian Campbell, chief marketing officer at Adventures on the Gorge. With two-hour, half-day, and full-day trips available, guests choose the option best suited for
This sport harkens to the days of English countryside hunts, says John Link, sporting clays shooting instructor and safety officer. It uses clay discs to mimic pigeons—whereas hunters shot real pigeons in the early 20th century. “It’s the closest thing to actual field shooting of all shotgun sports. Sporting clays courses are designed to simulate hunting ducks, pheasants, and even rabbits,” John says, adding that the activity mimics live hunting conditions with various angles, target sizes, speeds, elevations, and distances. It’s a popular sport for families wanting to experience safe gun handling in a controlled environment. John is enthusiastic, and his students come in all ages and skill levels. New shooters begin at Level 1, where participants learn the basics. John covers topics like gun handling and safety, eye dominance, and how the game is played. The entry level is great for people who have shot casually a few times but have no formal training or for people wanting a little practice. Even experienced hunters who haven’t shot sporting clays might start at Level 1. Intermediate shooters who know the basics or who have been shooting for a few years are ready for Level 2. Guests can shoot anytime of the year, weather permitting. But there are many more activities to discover, too. If your interests lie more in taking in the views and less in adventure, spend the day bird watching or practicing your golf swing. “Zip-lining, camping, rafting, horseback riding, ATVs, getting out on a boat, fishing, you can do it all,” says Dave Arnold, resort senior vice president. “Inside each category there are multiple options; you can take it easy or hard.” Guests can prepackage activities or pick and choose throughout their stay. The key, Dave says, is to have fun. It’s up to you to choose how to do it. 855.990.0179 written by KATIE GRIFFITH AND ANGELA SUNDSTROM visitaotg.com 67
Small town cool Downtown Fayetteville is a pit stop for outdoor enthusiasts and a haven for anyone looking for small town charm.
charlie garvin
written by SHAY MAUNZ
ayetteville is one of those small towns that feels so warm and charming it’s hard to believe it’s real. It looks like the set of a movie, you think, as you park your car in the center of town, beside the historic courthouse with its red brick exterior and slate roof. Who knew people could actually be this friendly and trusting, you say to yourself, when you walk into an antique shop to find a sign that reads: “The shopkeeper is currently working across the street. Please pay for anything you would like to purchase over there.” Downtown Fayetteville is only a few miles away from the New River; it’s a threeminute drive from the center of town to the New River Gorge Bridge. And it’s only a few miles off bustling Route 19, with its lines of traffic and plazas filled with chain restaurants and stores. But Fayetteville seems to sit an entire world apart from all of these things. “A lot of people don’t realize we’re here,” says Sally Kiner at the Fayetteville Visitors Center. “They think we’re all about the rafting, but we also have all these restaurants, all these cool little shops.” There is white water rafting nearby, of course, plus everything from zip-lining to mountain biking, and Fayetteville overflows with that outdoorsy, mountaineering culture. But downtown is also a destination in its own right. “You can come here for the great outdoor adventure, but you definitely don’t want to miss Fayetteville when you’re so close,” Sally says. “If you wvliving.com 69
do you’re going to miss the opportunity to experience a true American small town— one that is very vibrant and alive with art and shops and architecture and history.” “Fayetteville is such a dreamy destination, whether you’re into sports or just want some rest and relaxation,” says Maura Kistler, co-owner of Water Stone Outdoors. Maura isn’t from West Virginia, but she came to Fayetteville more than two decades ago in search of an outdoor playground. She found that, but also a town and community she adored; she’s been in Fayetteville since. She and the other owners of Water Stone—her husband and another business partner—have similar stories, as do a lot of the business owners in town. That common thread means they’re all especially enamored with the area and want to make everyone else see it their way, too. “We’re the biggest cheerleaders for the New River Gorge,” Maura says. “We’re just trying to get everybody doing what they want to do and equipped properly to do it.” If the soul of Fayetteville is its local community, the tourism industry is what feeds it. Last year more than 4,000 people signed into the visitors’ center—that’s a lot for a city with less than 3,000 residents. “And that’s just the people who signed the book,” Sally says. In the months between the start of April and Bridge Day in October, the city pulses with visitors, and it thrives because of them. “I think the businesses all feed off one another, and we all feed off the tourists,” says Steve Slockett, manager of New River Antiques Mall. “We’re here to help everybody have a great vacation or a great day here,” says Andrew Forron, owner of New River Bikes. “Whatever it takes.” In 2006 Budget Travel ranked Fayetteville one of the “Top 10 Coolest Small Towns in America.” 70 explore • 2014
ELIZABETH ROTH
Cathedral Cafe is a great place to stop for breakfast or lunch. Explore a wealth of history inside the Canyon Rim Visitors Center. Downtown Fayetteville is brimming with historic buildings.
NIKKI BOWMAN
CLOCKWISE A statue of Marquis de Lafayette, George Washington’s famed French advisor during the Revolutionary War, looks over downtown from the courthouse lawn. Pies & Pints stays busy with locals and visitors alike.
ELIZABETH ROTH
Eat
Pies & Pints Now there are a handful of Pies & Pints restaurants scattered through the state and region, but Pies & Pints was born in Fayetteville. It’s the place for unique, hand-tossed pizza pies topped with everything from grapes and gorgonzola to black beans and salsa. There’s also the beer; the restaurant’s committed to stocking the best brews available in the region, and several dozen are available at any given time. Let the kids play in the restaurant’s outdoor play place while the adults kick back with a brew in the restaurant’s bright, hip, comfortable environs. 304.574.2200, piesandpints.net
Charlie GaRvin
Cathedral Cafe In the center of Fayetteville’s National Historic District, this turn-of-thecentury church still has its cathedral ceiling and stained glass windows, but it’s now a popular eatery for breakfast and lunch as well as a place to access wifi and enjoy one of the freshly ground specialty coffees. 304.574.0202
NIKKI BOWMAN
Dirty Ernie’s Rib Pit
Dirty Ernie’s bills itself as the best pit stop for outdoor adventurers. The outdoor warriors like to take a break from rafting, climbing, and biking to refuel with a hefty meal at Dirty Ernie’s, like the restaurant’s namesake ribs— add a half rack to any meal for $8 or get them on their own. The charmingly down-to-earth restaurant is wallpapered in dollar bills that have been tacked to the walls by patrons. It can seat more than 200 people, including a few dozen seats on the outdoor patio, so you don’t have to worry about a wait. 304.574.4822, dirtyernies.com
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Secret Sandwich Society is much more than
a sandwich shop. All of the sandwiches are named after U.S. Presidents, with offerings like the Ulysses (roasted pork loin, peach jam, Swiss cheese, and greens) and the Hoover (fried chicken, honey butter, pickles, and greens). A homemade soup of the moment or a salad—named after First Ladies, of course—is a perfect complement to any sandwich. Enjoy a large selection of local and national craft beers. The restaurant is closed on Tuesdays. 304.574.4777, secretsandwichsociety.com
Wild Flour Bakery
Like any bakery, Wild Flour has cases full of cake balls and scones, muffins, and pies— but it might be best known for something unexpected. “We’re famous for our hot dogs,” says owner Jennifer Salvatore. “We have people who come from far and wide for our southern West Virginia hot dogs.” Those dogs, served up with a hefty helping of sweet coleslaw and spicy chili, were featured on the Travel Channel in 2012 and draw in a hungry lunch crowd every day. But save room for dessert— Wild Flour also has droolworthy cakes and cupcakes. 304.574.0001
and a state staple. The menu tells it all, with a handful of items named after local sports teams, like the Thundering Herd biscuit for Marshall University (sausage, potato, egg, and cheese on a biscuit), and the Mountaineer for West Virginia University (country ham, potato, egg, and cheese on a biscuit). Also try a platter, featuring the namesake biscuits smothered in sausage gravy. 304.574.3820, tudorsbiscuitworld.com
Gumbo’s
Gumbo’s Cajun Restaurant gives diners a taste of the low country with more than 20 appetizers, 45 entrees, and eight steam pots. Dishes like the fried shrimp or oysters are favorites among the locals, while tourists spring for sampler plates or steam pots full of vegetables and seafood. To complement the fresh local produce, Gumbo’s uses its own blend of spices and seafood straight from the Gulf. 304.574.4704
Diogi’s
Opened in 2008, Barb Aguilar continues to serve delicious meals at Diogi’s, a must-try in Fayetteville. The restaurant was named in honor of the owner’s dogs— Liberty, Lucy, and Lola. Local favorites are carnitas and fish tacos, but the extensive menu ranges from ribs to ahi tuna tacos to jumbo shrimp or crab quesadillas. 304.574.3647, diogismesxicangrill.com
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ELIZABETH ROTH
Tudor’s is the place to go for biscuits. The chain has locations across the region, but it’s native to southern West Virginia
NIKKI BOWMAN
Tudor’s Biscuit World
Shop Hobbit Hole The Hobbit
ELIZABETH ROTH
ELIZABETH ROTH
Hole isn’t so much in downtown Fayetteville as it is under it. This hidden gem sits under an attorney’s office—you have to step down eight stone steps to get to the store’s front door. Once you do, though, you’ll find a shabby-chic-meets-retro heaven. Kitsch and class merge in this tiny find with dishes, glassware, cookbooks, jewelry, handbags, hats, and a fun collection of vintage clothing. 304.673.9133
Marathon Bikes The people at Marathon Bikes love bicycles—and they want you to love them, too. “We’re really dedicated to promoting a lifestyle of bicycling,” says owner Adam Stephens. “We sell them, fix them, rent them, anything you might need.” Adam makes sure to interact a lot with clients before he works on their bikes so they get exactly the repairs and maintenance they want and need. He’ll walk you through the area’s trails and roads, too— anything you need to get ready for your next ride. 304.574.2337, bikes@marathonbikes.com, marathonbikes.com Wisteria’s Gifts This is the place to indulge in West Virginia wines and gourmet foods or pick up the latest Vera Bradley bag. A Fayetteville favorite, it’s a smorgasbord of treasures, everything from an extensive collection of Yankee Candles to West Virginia-made salsa and apple butter. 304.574.3678
CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE Diogi's serves fish tacos and more. The Hobbit Hole sells a little bit of everything. Pick up West Virginia
wine and other treasures at Wisteria's Gifts. Gumbo's has a vast menu with favorites like steam pots full of veggies and seafood.
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Its miniature rock wall betrays the store’s specialty: shoes, apparel, and equipment for rock climbing. That’s not all, though. Water Stone has gear and apparel for all types of outdoor activities, and Maura Kistler, the store’s buyer and co-owner, says she makes it a point to stock some skirts and dresses, too, just for fun. After operating in Fayetteville for nearly two decades, the staff at Water Stone is well versed in the Gorge and tries to use that experience to help newcomers and tourists. “Our tagline is ‘Providing quality gear and friendly advice.’ That’s kind of cheesy. We’ve thought about changing it,” Maura says. “But the truth is there isn’t anything else that sums us up better than that.” 304.574.2425, waterstoneoutdoors.com
of the oldest outdoor stores in town, the bike shop has all the gear you need for your next trip on the gorge. For fun, ask owner Andrew Forron to show you one of the wacky custom bikes he builds in his spare time—one’s a reproduction of an 1800s-era bicycle; for another he stacked a few busted bike frames on top of each other to make something new. “I have a hard time calling this work,” he says. 304.574.2453, newriverbikes.com
molly wolff photography
Water Stone Outdoors
ELIZABETH ROTH
32 booths stocked by 25 antique vendors. Each specializes in oldworld items of a different variety, providing fodder for collectors and casual browsers alike. “We try to be user-friendly—we don’t want to scare anybody away,” says manager Steve Slockett. “We give people room to shop, yet we’re here for them if they need anything.” 304.574.4680
NIKKI BOWMAN
New River Antique Mall This sprawling facility holds
Studio B Gallery and Gifts Just outside of
town, Studio B features local and import artwork ranging from pottery, photography, and paintings to jewelry and stained glass. The store stocks the work of local artists, with pieces in a wide variety of price ranges. Studio B also has a wine shop with local, import, and organic wines. Head next door for a few drinks at Fayetteville’s newest watering hole, Maggie’s Pub. 304.574.9100
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NIKKI BOWMAN
River Bikes you can buy a new bike or get the one you already own repaired as you watch from a bar stool in the retail space. One
EELIZABETH ROTH
New River Bikes At New
Stay The Morris Harvey House Now a bed-and-
breakfast, this is the home in which Morris Harvey lived most of his life. In the mid-1800s, Harvey made a fortune by buying up cheap land along the New River, then convincing the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad to build a line through the New River Gorge, making the land extremely valuable. Harvey used his fortune to become a philanthropist, found the University of Charleston, and build this home in 1902. The three-story, 14-room Queen Anne-style house has five guest areas, seven fireplaces, and two antique bathrooms. It’s been tastefully restored and filled with antiques. 201 West Maple Avenue, 304.250.7090, morrisharveyhouse.com
Lafayette Flats A new addition to Fayetteville, the historic building that houses Lafayette Flats has been lovingly restored and converted into four vacation rental units in the heart of downtown. Owners Shawn Means and Amy McLaughlin live in nearby Charleston but have been taking weekend trips to Fayetteville for years. They wanted an apartment-style rental option, so they decided to open one themselves. The couple bought a historic downtown building—it was built in 1904 to house a bank—and spent months renovating and decorating the space. The result is a rental experience unlike anything else in Fayetteville. “One of the real hallmarks of the place is the style, the decor,” Shawn says. “We’ve searched for words to describe it, and the ones we always return to are things like chic, urban, and cool.” Rentals are available for stays anywhere between two nights and a month long. 171 North Court Street, 304.900.3301, lafayetteflats.blogspot.com visitaotg.com 75
rachel coon
Babcock State Park is a West Virginia icon.
SECRET
SIDE TRIPS The New River Gorge is a perfect launch pad for all kinds of wild, weird, and wonderful attractions.
A QUIRKY ROADSIDE ATTRACTION, a hike at a state park, a view of the New River Gorge Bridge from a jet boat—do it all at a heap of cultural, historical, and just plain cool places that sit off the beaten path outside Fayetteville. Here’s a guide to some of our favorite treasures, all within an hour’s drive from the gorge. Babcock State Park At the turn of the 19th century, West Virginia had more than 500 mills. The Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park is an ode to those mills of days gone by. It was constructed in 1976 from remnants of three of the mills that once dotted West Virginia—one dating back to 1890. The mill is fully functional—visitors can even buy cornmeal made by its churning. The park also has cabins for rent, campgrounds, space for outdoor games like volleyball, and a trout stream. It’s open from midApril through the end of October. 486 Babcock Road, Clifftop, WV 25831,304.438.3004, babcocksp.com Carnifex Ferry Battlefield State Park In September 1861, at the height of the Civil War, Union and Confederate troops clashed at the Henry Patterson Farm that overlooked Carnifex Ferry. Confederate troops retreated and were never able to regain control of the Kanawha Valley—clearing the way for West Virginia’s bid for statehood. These days you can tour the Patterson Museum on the site steeped in Civil War history. Or use the park for recreation—you’ll find hiking trails, picnic facilities, softball and volleyball facilities, and three overlooks of the Gauley River. The museum is open seasonally on Saturday, Sunday, and holidays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1194 Carnifax Ferry Road, Summersville, WV 26651, 304.872.0825 carnifexferrybattlefieldstatepark.com
Hawks Nest State Park Hawks Nest State Park is about a 30-minute drive from the New River Gorge—but there’s an even quicker way to travel between the two: the park’s Aerial Tram travels between the Hawks Nest Lodge and the marina at the bottom of the New River Gorge in just two minutes. The trams are like enclosed ski lifts with large windows that offer a unique view of the gorge. “The whole ride— it’s a gorgeous view,” says Renee Harper, group coordinator for the state park in Ansted on the Midland Trail Scenic Highway (Route 60). When you get off the tram at the marina, you’ll find the Hawks Nest Nature Center, filled with educational nature displays geared toward young children. “It’s really a self-guided nature experience,” Renee says. You can ride the tram as a standalone activity or as part of an excursion on the New River Jetboats at Hawks Nest (304.469.2525, newriverjetboats.com). After taking a ride down the tram from Hawks Nest to the marina, you can board a 21-foot covered jet boat. The boat travels at full speed for about six miles to give you a look at the New River Gorge Bridge towering more than 800 feet above your head. “It’s a really easy way to get the family out on the river,” says Sue Larson, who helps run the trips. “We’ve had everyone from babies in arms to a lady who was 99.” Hawks Nest is also known for its hikes and the scenic views, like at Lover’s Leap overlook, where legend has it an Indian brave and a maiden who fell in love but were forbidden to marry jumped to their deaths in a romantic fit of despair. The view of the New River valley from Lover’s Leap is well worth the climb up 100 stone steps to an outcropping at the cliff ’s edge. The park also has a two-mile trail developed from an old railroad right-of-way—the crushed gravel surface is great for hiking or biking. visitaotg.com 77
TOP The view from “Hawks Nest is really a Nest State great place to come to see Hawks Park BOTTOM these awesome views and Mystery Hole immerse yourself in the tranquility of nature,” Renee says. 9 Hawks Nest Park Road, Ansted, WV 25812, 304.658.5212, hawksnestsp.com
laura wilcox rote
Kaymoor Miners Trail and the Kaymoor Steps The trail now called Kaymoor Miners Trail was worn a century ago by coal miners on the way to work. Now it’s one of the most strenuous hiking trails you’ll ever come across. The trail winds down 800 vertical feet, from the rim of the gorge to the former mining community of Kaymoor near the New River. The trail’s hallmark is a staircase of 821 steps. It takes you through the remnants of Kaymoor and offers stunning views of the gorge. You can get there from U.S. 19, following WV 16 South through Fayetteville. Turn left onto Gatewood Road, follow it for two miles, then turn left at the sign for Kaymoor.
Nuttallburg Nuttallburg was one of almost 50 coal towns that sprang up around the New River Gorge in the late 1800s. “There’s nothing that really set it apart from the other mines with the exception of the fact that in the 1920s it was owned by Henry Ford,” says Billy Strauser, a park ranger at the National Park Service’s Canyon Rim Visitor Center. It does stand out among those towns today, though—it’s the only one left relatively intact. In 2011 the National Park Service completed a project that involved clearing vegetation and stabilizing structures so people can get a look at a mining town of yesteryear. “It hasn’t been restored— when you use the word “restore” it tends to mean it’s been fixed to working order,” Billy says. “Stabilized means that it’s intact. It’s not going to get in worse condition, but it’s not in working order either.” Visitors can see the structures that remain of Nuttallburg’s heyday as a mining town—but it’s obvious they’ve spent several decades aging. “I like to send people down there because I feel like when you’re there you get a sense for what an old coal mining town really felt like,” Billy says. “When you go down to Nuttallburg you’re really immersed in it.” nps.gov/neri/historyculture/nuttallburg.htm 78 explore • 2014
nikki bowman
Mystery Hole Simply pulling up to this building is an experience—a giant gorilla roosts on the roof and an old Volkswagen beetle is crashed into the side. Owners claim that, underneath the structure, they have found a cavity in the ground where the laws of gravity don’t apply. Take a tour and find out for yourself. 16724 Midland Trail, Ansted, WV 25812, 304.658.9101, mysteryhole.com
Summersville Lake Lighthouse A new addition to the region, the Summersville Lake Lighthouse is the only lighthouse in West Virginia—not surprising, perhaps, since the state is landlocked, but the community’s proud of the distinction anyway. The charming tourist attraction is made from a damaged wind turbine column, 10 stories high and 72,000 pounds. The local community came together to convert the reclaimed column into a working lighthouse in 2013. Visitors who climb the 122 steps inside the column find a panoramic view of Summersville Lake at the top. 278 Summersville Lake Road, Mount Nebo, WV 26679, 304.872.5975, summersvillelakeretreat.com written by SHAY MAUNZ
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A RIVER RUNS UNDER IT The history of the New River Gorge is as lush and diverse as the gorge itself. written by SHAY MAUNZ
randall sanger photography
THE STORY of the New River
Gorge—its industry and economy, people and wildlife—winds through many twists and turns just like the river does. Now a scenic place for recreation, the New River Gorge has been home to roaming Native Americans, hardscrabble settlers, and titans of the coal industry and railroad companies. But through centuries of change, the river’s current has endured. The New River isn’t new at all—it’s actually one of the oldest rivers in the world. It sculpts the longest and deepest gorge in Appalachia, cutting through the mountains as it flows south to north. That’s rare among rivers; only 5 percent flow that direction. “The first explorers, it really threw them off,” says Richard Alter, who works with the National Park Service at New River Gorge National River. “They were coming in from Virginia, and then they’d follow the New River downstream, but it wasn’t taking them home like they thought it would. They couldn’t figure it out.” For as long as there have been people in Appalachia, the New River has been there, guiding them through the rough terrain. “You can’t go up and down every mountain,” Richard says. “The
Native Americans would follow it through, and then the Europeans who came here did that, too.” In 1812 George Washington sent John Marshall, who would later become one of the first justices of the Supreme Court, to survey the area surrounding the New River Gorge. Washington dreamt of a canal system that could connect Virginia to the Ohio River, and thought the New River might hold the key to that. So Marshall started down the river with a team carried by big bateaux—shallow, wide, flat-bottomed boats steered with poles. “They were not made for rough water,” Richard says. The trip went well until the team reached the New River Gorge—when they reached the gorge and saw the rapids in their path, the team turned back. It was too rough. It would be another 150 years before anyone succeeded in traveling that section of the river by boat. When Richard goes into classrooms to talk to schoolchildren about the history of the New River Gorge, he always does
of workers died while building the C&O Railroad. To drive home just how dangerous and difficult this work was, Richard tells legend of John Henry, the railroad worker who raced a steam-powered drill to prove men could work better and faster than machines. “Legend has it they raced for an hour,” he says. “He won. But he worked so hard that he died with a hammer in his hand.” It’s just a legend, of course—a tale told so often it has become part of the lore of these mountains—but there may be some truth in it. Some scholars argue a man named John Henry did, in fact, work on the C&O railroad in the 1870s. Some contend the storied race happened near Talcott during the boring of the Big Bend Tunnel. At any rate, the fate of Henry symbolizes the fates of so many railroad workers. “I cannot tell you there was a race and that John Henry fell down dead,” Richard says. “But he might have died in that tunnel like so many did. Those workers, their blood and sweat and tears made this railroad.” “We really owe them a lot,” he says. “Once that railroad came through we were far from a backwater, far from being yesterday’s people. We were supplying coal that fueled everything, the wood that fueled this country.” When the C&O railroad was finally completed, in 1873,
the same thing. He talks a little about the Native Americans and the early settlers, and then he turns to the blackboard and writes a year: 1872. “That’s the year everyRICHARD ALTER, National Park Service thing changed,” he says. at New River Gorge National River “People have this classic idea of West Virginia as a remote area with the mountaineers up there shooting, fighting, and making moonshine,” he says. “Before 1872 that was pretty much true. We were living on subsistence farms because the land wouldn’t let us grow enough to sell, and the people could only support small market villages.” When, in 1872, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad came into the region, all of that changed. The railroad company wanted to build a line that could transport the coal and timber coming out of the mountains, and they looked to the New River as a guide. “It was just like the settlers and the Native Americans—you can’t go up and down each mountain,” Richard says. “The railroad had to do the same thing they did: Follow the river.” The railroad was built completely by hand by an army of workers that was a medley of poor Appalachians, African-Americans, and new immigrants—the railroad sent managers to Ellis Island to nab workers as soon as they arrived in America, with promises of prosperity and a job on the railroad. When they got there, though, they found hard work that involved drilling by hand through the rough Appalachian terrain. Workers hammered steel into the rock to make holes for dynamite, blew through the rock, then removed the boulders by hand. Hundreds
it reached from Richmond, Virginia, to the Ohio River and opened up West Virginia to the rest of the country. In the 1950s local community leaders began a grassroots effort to create a national park surrounding the New River Gorge, to protect its resources and make it even more appealing to tourists looking for an authentic outdoor experience. The campaign dragged on for 20 years until, in 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation establishing the New River Gorge National River. The designation is necessary, the legislation says, “for the purpose of conserving and interpreting outstanding natural, scenic, and historic values and objects in and around the New River Gorge and preserving as a free-flowing stream an important segment of the New River in West Virginia for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.” Now the river is maintained by the National Park Service.
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Building the Bridge
By the 1970s West Virginia was trying to make it easier to travel the state, cutting through the rugged mountains to pave roads and build bridges. “The highway system started to get really developed,” Richard says. “Instead of driving all up and down the mountains on these two-lane roads, you could go straight through them.” That is, until you got to the New River Gorge, a roadblock of epic proportions. “It was this massive gorge, which had been helping with transportation for so long, but now it was blocking it,” Richard says. There was already a bridge crossing the New River—but it was at the bottom of the gorge, spanning only the river from shore to shore, doing nothing to help people traverse the gorge above. To get from one side of the gorge to the other meant driving winding roads to the bottom of one mountain to cross this
matt sloan
“I cannot tell you there was a race and that John Henry fell down dead. But he might have died in that tunnel like so many did. Those workers, their blood and sweat and tears made this railroad.”
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BRIDGE DAY 1980 The first Bridge Day. More than 5,500 people walked across the bridge.
1990 The first and only wedding was held on the bridge on Bridge Day. 1992 World record is set on the bridge for longest bungee jump from a fixed structure. 1997 Twelve BASE jumpers break the world record for number of people performing a simultaneous jump. 1998 Sixteen people jump together, breaking the previous year’s simultaneous jump record. 2001 Bridge Day was canceled for the first and only time because of the terrorist attacks on September 11. 2007 Robert Handley became Bridge Day’s oldest rappeler at 79 years old.
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On an ordinary day, foot traffic is illegal on the New River Gorge Bridge—but Bridge Day is no ordinary day. Since 1980 the bridge has been open to foot traffic and more for one day every year. On the first Bridge Day in 1980, two parachutists jumped from a plane onto the bridge, where they were joined by five parachutists who jumped into the gorge 876 feet below. Now Bridge Day isn’t only the one day a year when people are allowed to walk on the bridge, it’s the one day they’re allowed to parachute and rappel from it (bungee jumping was allowed for several years, but has since been removed from the events). PLAN YOUR TRIP! For the best seat in the house, Adventures on the Gorge runs Lower New River rafting trips on Bridge Day. Pass underneath the bridge and pull off to the side to watch the jumpers from below.
1885–1887 A 100-foot-wide channel is dug in the Gauley River, three miles above the mouth of Little Elk Creek. Project is sponsored by the federal government. 1893–1894 The Gauley Branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad is completed. This stretch of railroad runs along the Gauley for just over 14 miles.
rick lee
1905 Industries operating along the Gauley in Richwood begin draining industrial pollution into the river. The Gauley becomes known as the “river of ink.”
tiny bridge, then up the mountain on the other side—the trip could take as long as 45 minutes. When the New River Gorge Bridge was built, it brought the length of that trip down to just over one minute. It was the longest single-arch steel span in the world at 3,030 feet long. The arch itself, 1,700 feet long, remains the largest in the United States. Engineers considered three designs before finally settling on the single span and then opted for a type of steel that weathered to an attractive rusted finish to eliminate the need to repaint the bridge—they estimated then that this would save the state $1 million for each time the bridge would have needed to be painted. Constructing the bridge was a challenge. The scale of the project was massive, the location remote, and the Appalachian terrain exacting. When it was finally completed, in 1977 after three years of construction, the bridge opened the region up to the rest of the state and provided a crucial link in West Virginia’s developing highway system—an invaluable gift to the people of the area. The New River Gorge Bridge is still one of the state’s most prized treasures—it appears on West Virginia’s state quarter and was featured on a 2011 U.S. postage stamp.
WV TOURISM
The Gauley
Geographically, the rivers are close together, and because of the prominence of the modern rafting industry on both, they’re linked in our minds—but the early history of the Gauley River is drastically different from the history of the New River. “The Gauley is a much smaller river, so it wasn’t a main line of transportation like the New was,” Richard says. “They did do a lot of logging up there, and people cleared a bit of land for cultivation, but it was nowhere near booming like the industrial corridor along the New was.”
THE HISTORY OF THE GAULEY RIVER 1200–1700 Historians believe the area that is now West Virginia was largely unpopulated by Native Americans and provided a buffer zone between the Iroquois in the north and the Cherokee in the South. 1795 European settlers began settling along the tributaries of the Gauley River. 1885 The timber industry moves into the area, and timber cutting begins on a large scale in the region around the New River Gorge.
1927 The West Virginia State Wildlife League begins cleaning up the Gauley. 1959 Two mountain climbers from Pennsylvania, Sayre and Jean Rodman, make the first known attempt to raft the Gauley white water. High water forced the pair to quit and return later. 1961 The Rodmans make a successful trip down the Gauley in a raft. 1968 John Sweet becomes the first person to successfully kayak the infamous Devil’s Backbone rapid. It’s now nicknamed Sweet’s Falls in his honor. 1970s Commercial rafting comes to the Gauley River. 1988 The Gauley River National Recreation Area is established by the National Park Service. Nick Rahall was instrumental.
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White Water Rafting Arrives
In 1812 a group led by John Marshall traveled down the New River by boat. When they got to the lower section of the river, near the New River Gorge, they looked at the rapids and abandoned the trip. More than 150 years later, the river was just as enticing—and intimidating to the pioneers of the gorge’s fledgling rafting industry. Paul Breuer, who started one of the first rafting companies at the gorge, remembers his first trip down the New. It was the summer of 1967, and he had come from Ohio to take a canoe trip down the river; they didn’t go past Thurmond, now a put-in spot for rafting, because the rapids below were too much for their canoes. But in 1969 Paul and his friends were back, with an improvised raft they thought could make it down the lower section of the New: two inner tubes laid flat, lashed together with a wooden frame, with a rig for an oar in the center. “We found a turkey feather on the shore, so we called it the turkey raft,” Paul says. “We floated the river and had fun, but then we got to what we now know as ‘the Keeney’s’—that’s where the true gorge starts, and it drops about 80 feet in a quarter-mile, so it’s pretty rough. We hit a rock and flipped over—so that was probably the first flip.” No one was hurt, but it put the trip on hold—they had to disassemble the raft and carry the heavy rubber back to their camp miles away. “We vowed then to come back, and we did,” Paul says. Several times that summer, they did trips on the river using Army rafts, and they came back the next year, too. “We started taking family and friends down the river and we saw how much they enjoyed it,” Paul says. “People have so much fun and get so much enjoyment out of the day when they spend it outdoors, and we realized there’s no better way to do it than rafting.” Eventually, in 1973, Paul and his two college friends started Mountain River Tours, operating out of a trailer on the rim of the New River Gorge. In 2008 Mountain River Tours merged with several other rafting companies to create Adventures on the Gorge. “We were a bunch of cowboys; it was sort of like the wild, wild west back then,” Paul says. “There was this adventurous spirit. We went out there and did our thing and made our name, and there was a rush, there’s no doubt about it. It was like winning a basketball game or a football game. Rafting was always a great feeling, and it was a great feeling to see the people enjoying it so much.” Around this time, a handful of other rafting companies 86 explore • 2014
popped up around the gorge. White water rafting was just gaining popularity at the time—Bobby Kennedy made a much publicized rafting trip through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River in the 1960s; in 1972 kayaking debuted as an Olympic sport, and the 1972 film Deliverance romanticized rafting with dramatic footage of white water canoeing in the southeastern United States. But the sport was still relatively novel, and early rafters had to figure out the intricacies of it on their own. “We looked at it as a challenge—we knew there was a lot of risk, and we did some swimming, but we wore some really good life jackets and we wore helmets and we stayed safe,” Paul says. Together they advanced the technology of the sport themselves. For years the raft companies were using rafts with flat rubber bottoms, and using buckets to bail water out. Eric Palfrey, a raft guide and local rafting historian, says that began to change in the 1980s. “Now the floor is inflated and there are holes on the sides, so as water comes in it also drains out,” Eric says. “That revolutionized rafting.” And as rafting technology improved, it became safer. “We’ve got more control as the technology has evolved,” Eric says. “It used to be more risky, more physically demanding—the boats were bigger, heavier, harder to steer, and if you fell out of it it was harder to get back in. But not now; now we can confidently take 12-year-olds rafting.”
Relic of a River Boom Town
On the north shore of the New River, nestled between the community of Arbuckle and Dunloop Creek, lies Thurmond. Modern vacationers know it as little more than a put-in spot for rafting trips—if they know it at all—but Thurmond has a rich history that rose and fell along with the gorge’s mining industry. Once a thriving coal town, Thurmond had a population of nearly 500 at its heyday; at the time of the 2010 census there were just five people living there. “It was known as the Dodge City of the East—it was like a classic little booming town out West with all this activity shipping all of this coal,” Richard says. “But where you have a boom town, you have a bust.” The town was founded by Captain William Thurmond, who led his own company, Thurmond’s
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Europeans began settling along the Gauley in the late 1700s. By the late 1800s railroad and lumber companies were harvesting timber in the area and industrial pollution was draining into the Gauley—for a time it was known as the “river of ink.” In 1922 a group of environmentalists secured funding to clean the river and stricter regulations forced industrial plants along the Gauley’s tributaries to dispose of their waste properly. Within 50 years the river was being used recreationally, drawing in daredevil rafters enticed by its world-class white water.
RIGHT AND BOTTOM Thurmond had a reputation in the early 1900s and was known as the Wild West of the East.� Stores and saloons boomed, and hotels were packed with people playing pool and poker around the clock.
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brandy l. acord
BELOW The first white water rafting companies started popping up around the gorge in the early 1970s, and now more than 113,000 people raft the New and Gauley rivers each year.
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Rangers, in the Civil War. After the war he worked as a surveyor, and on one job agreed that his wages be paid in land—73 acres on the north side of the New River. This was just before the C&O railroad was completed in the New River Gorge, but the founder was ambitious and saw the writing on the wall: Coal was already being transported down local creeks and, when built, there would be a train junction on his property. The coal mining industry was about to explode in the New River Gorge, and Thurmond was well positioned to take part in the bounty. He planned to build his own small community as more people moved into the area. The railroad was completed in 1873 and by the 1880s a dozen mines were shipping coal through Thurmond’s land; by 1900 26 mines were transporting coal through there. Thurmond built houses on his property to rent to railroad workers: in 1875, 75 people were living in those 88 explore • 2014
houses, and the property also held two general stores and offices for two coal companies. “There wasn’t any actual mining in Thurmond, but there was all this activity because of the shipping of all of this coal,” Richard says. “It was a busy place.” In 1891 Thurmond built a hotel on his property, The Thurmond Hotel. Thurmond was a teetotaling Baptist and expected that the people who rented rooms in his hotel adhere to his strict morals. So another, less high-minded man moved across the street to build his own hotel—The Dunglen Hotel. The Dunglen had three stories and a double-decker porch, plus a grocery store, drugstore, shoe shop, furniture store, and bank. Plus it had liquor, gambling, and prostitutes. A night’s stay at The Dunglen cost more than a coal miner’s weekly wage—$2.50—but the rooms were frequented by coal and train operators. Miners came to the hotel just to drink and gamble. Eventually it was nicknamed Little
caleb d. harper
The water level in Summersville Lake is controlled by regular dam releases into the Gauley River. These releases are the most popular times for hardcore rafters to take to the Gauley.
The Army Corps of Engineers constructed the dam on the Gauley in Nicholas County between 1960 and 1966, mainly to reduce the threat of flooding in the area. The creation of the lake and the opportunities for recreation and wildlife management that came along with it were fringe benefits. Summersville Lake is now the largest lake in West Virginia. It has more than 60 miles of shoreline and 2,700 surface acres of water. The dam is more than 2,200 feet long and 390 feet tall—as high as a 40-story building. It’s a rock-fill dam—the second largest of its kind in the eastern United States—and it took 12 million cubic yards of dirt and rock to fill it. To build the dam and fill the reservoir that would become Summersville Lake with water, the Army Corps Monte Carlo. “It really galled of Engineers leveled two small communities—the towns Thurmond because he considof Gad and Sparks. Stanley Adkins, former mayor of ered himself a very upright man, Summersville and a local historian, says this created didn’t condone any drinking or surprisingly little resentment among locals—they were carousing or anything,” Richard paid well to relocate. Plus, the prosperity brought to the says. “But he pretty much had to area was appreciated. Stanley was a kid growing up in live with it.” the area at the time and remembers the influx of people The town’s decline began the dam project brought to town. “We called them dam in 1909 when the Virginian people,” he says. “When I was in high school we’d say, Railway started operating in oh he’s a dam kid—we meant that his dad worked on the the region. It was a cheap and dam.” efficient little railroad that The dam has flooded once—in 1966. “It’s supposed offered the first competition to to happen once in 200 years, and it happened in the first the C&O, making the railroad year,” Stanley says. “Everybody was thinking, ‘Oh no, is and its people less prosperous. this going to happen all the time now?’” It proved to be a “It was a slow decline,” Richard fluke, though, and the dam hasn’t flooded since. says. The passage of prohibiThe water level in the lake is controlled through tion in 1914 put a serious dent regular releases from the dam, with a burst of water in The Dunglen’s business, and coming from a huge pipe through the dam. In 2001 the the hotel was destroyed by arson city of Summersville completed work on a hydroelectric in 1930, just years after much plant to take advantage of those timed releases. Now of the town itself caught fire in every time water is released from the dam, the city 1922. The town’s decline conharnesses the power it creates. tinued through the Depression and, in 1940, the C&O railroad The Future of the River Since 1936 the New River has been diverted through the switched to diesel engines, so Hawks Nest Dam to create electricity, leaving a 5.5-mile there was no longer a reason for trains to stop in Thurmond for coal and water. Only in the last half-century has stretch of river nearly stagnant most of the year—locals call it “the dries.” But the dam is up for re-licensing in 2017, and Thurmond started to make a comeback. The town still a group of locals is lobbying to increase the amount of water marks the point on the New River just above the white let through the dam. “We want to make it a healthier river water that makes it famous, and rafting companies have adopted the town as an ideal location to put their rafts into and be able to add rafting trips there,” says Bobby Bower, a member of the Wet the Dries Coalition, the group lobbying the river before traveling downstream. Thurmond is also for the change. “There’s still plenty of river to divert to create home to an Amtrak flag stop station. Much of the town power. We just want to use some of it.” is owned by the National Park Service for the New River Those in the coalition believe that, if restored, this Gorge National River. The C&O Railway depot was renovated in 1995 and now functions as a Park Service visi- section of the New could make for world-class, familyfriendly rafting. “This section is absolutely gorgeous. It’s tor center. The town itself is a designated historic district one of the prettiest sections of river in the state,” Bobby on the National Register of Historic Places. says. “We know that a world class section of river will Summersville Lake and Dam bring people from all over the world to raft. We just want Summersville Lake in Nicholas County was created in to bring this river back to its natural glory so we can share 1966, with the completion of the Summersville Dam. it with them.” visitaotg.com 89
EASY DAY TRIPS
nikki bowman
Take a break from the outdoors and spend a day in a quaint West Virginia town or the state’s capital.
Beckley beckley sits in west virginia’s coalfields, just a short drive—30 minutes—from the New River Gorge Bridge. A trip to Beckley really gets at the heart of the West Virginia experience. “It’s not like you’re going to go to every little place and find these activities or these displays,” says Lisa Strader, at the Southern West Virginia Convention and Visitors Bureau. “The uniqueness of it is well worth the trip.”
EAT Berkshire’s Custard LLC (1344 North Eisenhower Drive, 304.253.8815) serves 92 explore • 2014
CLOCKWISE The Exhibition old-fashioned custard Coal Mine takes you 1,500 and great hot dogs in a feet underground. The fun setting —oldies tunes Clay Center has exhibits from the 1950s and ’60s dedicated to the arts and sciences. Taylor Books is play in the background an independent bookstore and the smell of waffle with a coffee shop. Families cones made in the love spending evenings at Appalachian Power Park. morning lingers all day. Tamarack is home to the Cones are hand-rolled state's best arts and crafts. and made fresh daily. For a sit-down dining experience, try Padrino’s Ristorante Italiano (135 Beckley Crossing, 304.256.2001). The menu of fresh Italian fare includes excellent seafood and a slate of hearty appetizers.
NIKKI BOWMAN
NIKKI BOWMAN
At Beckley’s Exhibition Coal Mine (513 Ewart Avenue, 304.256.1747, beckley.org/ exhibition_coal_mine) visitors can immerse themselves in this element of Appalachian culture in a way that isn’t possible anywhere else. The exhibition is on the site of a former family-owned mine—its heyday was in the early 20th century, but the mine is still open and running for guided tours. There’s also a re-creation of an old coal company town, complete with homes, church, and a schoolhouse. “It really lets you a step back into the history of our region,” Lisa says. The adjoining Youth Museum of Southern West Virginia (509 Ewart Avenue, 304.252.3730, beckley.org/youth_museum) has a planetarium, a reproduction of a homestead on the Appalachian frontier, and a gallery that hosts a series of rotating exhibits on everything from dinosaurs to children’s literature. Beckley is also home to Tamarack (One Tamarack Park, 304.256.6843, tamarackwv. com), the state’s best showcase for arts and crafts. The iconic building—it has a striking peaked roof—houses a beloved food court with meals prepared daily by chefs trained at The Greenbrier, a retail floor filled with goods made by West Virginia artisans, and a fine selection of gourmet food products. Studios for Tamarack’s rotating cast of resident artisans let visitors brush shoulders with the artists, and the art gallery hosts a new show every month. The Raleigh Playhouse & Theatre (403 Neville Street, 304.763.7059, theraleighwv. com) shows everything from theater productions to musical acts to art house films. None of the theater’s 188 seats are more than 61 feet from the stage, making for an intimate experience no matter the production.
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MUST SEE
Charleston in just over an hour’s drive from the New River Gorge Bridge, visitors can leave nature and find themselves in an environment that is uniquely urban for West Virginia. The state’s capital is on the Kanawha River at the intersection of the state’s three major interstates.
MUST SEE The West Virginia Capitol Building (1900 Kanawha Boulevard East, 304.558.4839) sits on the riverbanks, making a stately impression with its 293-foot dome covered in 23.5-karat gold. It was designed by the same architect who designed the federal capitol in Washington, D.C.— though West Virginia’s dome is five feet taller. Daily tours are free and open to the public, as are tours of the governor’s mansion. The Culture Center (304.558.0220) on the grounds of the Capitol Complex offsets the capitol’s historic architecture with contemporary curves. The building opened in 1976 to provide a home for the state’s cultural, artistic, and historical treasures. The West Virginia State Museum (304.558.0162) on the bottom floor is an unrivaled museum celebrating state history and is open daily for free tours. Visitors can also browse the state library archives or check out the art and history exhibits. The Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences (1 Clay Square, 304.561.3570, theclaycenter. org) is a 240,000-square-foot structure that houses visual and performing arts and sciences. It’s the home of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra (304.561.3500, wvsymphony.org) as well as the Avampato Discovery Museum, which has works of 18th, 19th, and 20th century art and two floors of hands-on science exhibits. For sports, check out Appalachian Power Park (601 Morris Street, 304.344.2287, wvpower.com), home to the West Virginia Power baseball team, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ single-A farm team.
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NIKKI BOWMAN nikki bowman
EAT Charleston’s downtown area is home to great restaurants. For a casual lunch or dinner specializing in seafood, enjoy Swiftwater Cafe (405 Capitol Street, 304.342.2443, swiftwatercafe.com). For Greek food in a sports bar atmosphere, try Adelphia Sports Bar & Grille (218 Capitol Street, 304.343.5551, adelphiasportsbar.com). Watch a minor league baseball game while enjoying lunch or dinner at Paterno’s at the Park (601 Morris Street, 304.205.5482, paternosatthepark.com). Close to the capitol, Bluegrass Kitchen (1600 visitaotg.com 93
Washington Street East, 304.346.2871, bluegrasswv.com) is a local favorite, and for a unique twist on burritos, head to the new Black Sheep Burrito & Brews (702 Quarrier Street, 304.343.2739, blacksheepwv.com). There are also plenty of spots to grab a quick treat without even having to sit down, like The Peanut Shoppe (126 Capitol Street, 304.329. 9493) and Ellen’s Homemade Ice Cream (225 Capitol Street, 304.343.6488, ellensicecream.com), too. On the edge of downtown, try Capitol Market (800 Smith Street, 304.344.1905, capitolmarket. net), an old train station converted into a year-round farmers’ market, complete with an independent grocery store, wine and cheese shop, butcher, and fishmonger. It’s also home to an Italian restaurant, Soho’s (304.720.7647, sohoswv.com). Across the river at the Bridge Road Shops are a handful of restaurants that offer a fine dining experience, like South Hills Market & Café (1010 Bridge Road, 304.345.2585, southhillsmarket.com), Lola’s (1038 Bridge Road, 304.343.5652, lolaspizzawvcom), and Bridge Road Bistro (915 Bridge Road, 304.720.3500, thebridgeroadbistro.com).
SHOP Charleston offers phenomenal shopping, from the department stores and chain stores at the Town Center Mall (3000 Charleston Town Center, 304.345.9525, charlestontowncenter.com) to the locally owned shops downtown and in the Bridge Road business district. Shop downtown indie favorite Taylor Books (226 Capitol Street, 304.342.1461, taylorbooks.com), where you can sit and browse while also grabbing a coffee. For all things vintage, visit Stray Dog Antiques (219 Hale Street, 304.346.2534, straydogantiques.com) and The Purple Moon (906 Quarrier Street, 304.345.0123, thepurplemoon.com). You’ll also find amazing arts and crafts at Art Emporium (823 Quarrier Street, 304.345.2787, artemporium. net). On Bridge Road, check out colorful stores like Cornucopia (912 Bridge Road, 304.342.7148), Eggplant (1011 Bridge Road, 304.346.3525, eggplantshop.com), Charlie (1006 Bridge Road, 304.342.8920, charlieboutique.com), Geraniums (1011 Bridge Road, 304.344.1350, geraniumsclothing.com), and Yarid’s (1005 Bridge Road, 304.342.7463, yarids.com). 94 explore • 2014
REBECCA DEVONO PHOTOGRAPHY
is ranked one of the best resorts in the country. Bluestone Lake in Hinton is the state’s third largest body of water.
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CLOCKWISE The Bridge Road Shops in Charleston offer fine dining and boutique shopping. The iconic Greenbrier Resort
Second Avenue, 304.466.4870, otterandoak. com) is a beautiful store offering everything from tents to clothing as well as an art gallery in an unparalled space. Next door, Vicky’s Boutique (304 Second Avenue) offers a diverse collection of clothing and accessories. Nearby, Grandma’s House (407 Second Avenue, 304.466.1011, grandmashouseantiqueswv.com) offers up the antiques you've been looking for.
Lewisburg
Hinton drive into hinton, an hour from the New River Gorge, to discover this city of less than 3,000 people and no shortage of small-town charm. Less than 30 minutes from Beckley, off of I-64 and West Virginia 20, roads narrow and wind through the mountains before bringing you into the center of town.
Cassia King
MUST SEE The Hinton City Railroad Museum (206 Temple Street, 304.466.1600), tells the story of the local railroad industry as well as John Henry. Visitors can also step back in time at The Ritz Theatre (211 Ballengee Street, 304.466.6700, ritzwv.com) with its 1929 lobby and original theater seats. The space was renovated in 2009 and still shows movies and hosts events. The area is also home to the CampbellFlannagan-Murrell House Museum (422 Summers Street, 304.466.1401, cfm-fmh.
org)—circa 1875 and the Veterans Memorial Museum of Southern West Virginia (419 Ballangee Street, 304.466.0407). Nature lovers thrive in Hinton, where Bluestone State Park (www.bluestonesp. com) has more than 2,000 acres next to Bluestone Lake, the state’s third largest body of water. Rent a boat or kayak at Bluestone Lake Marina.
EAT Relax near the New River at popular eateries like Kirk’s Restaurant (HC 76, Hinton Bypass, 304.466.4600) or grab a gourmet sandwich downtown at The Market on Courthouse Square (200 Ballangee Street, 304.466.6626, themarketwv.com). At Big Four Drug Store on the corner of Temple Street, parents fill prescriptions and children don’t mind waiting—they sit at the old-fashioned soda fountain.
SHOP Shopping here is also diverse, with antiques, outdoor gear, and art. Otter & Oak (302
it’s an easy drive, an hour and 15 minutes, from the New River Gorge Bridge to Lewisburg in the Allegheny Mountains in the eastern part of the state. The trip will take you to one of the region’s most charming small towns, not to mention one of the coolest small towns, as ranked by Budget Travel in 2011. “Compared to other small towns across the country we are very unique in that we’re really flourishing,” says Rachael Stebbins, director of marketing and communications for the Greenbrier County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Rachael grew up in Greenbrier County but moved away for the first phase of her adult life. When it came time to settle down, she returned. It was the only place she knew that combined the quaint charms of a small town with the luxuries of a metropolitan area. Downtown is packed with shops and restaurants, and the arts community thrives. “Our storefronts are full,” Rachael says. “You can literally spend a whole day shopping and eating here.”
MUST SEE Lewisburg’s Carnegie Hall (105 Church Street, 304.634.7917, carnegiehallwv.com), one of only four Carnegies in the world, is one of the town’s premier historic properties. The main stage has a schedule packed with music and drama performances, and the Carnegie also hosts evening concerts on its lawn, classes and workshops, fine arts exhibits, and an independent film series. There’s also the Greenbrier Valley Theatre (113 East Washington Street, 304.645.3838, gvtheatre. org), a year-round professional theater that often brings national productions to town. For outdoor adventure try Greenbrier River Trail (304.799.7416, greenbriertrailstatepark.com) a scenic, 79-mile trail formed from the conversion of the former C&O Railroad right-ofway. Just outside of town is Organ Cave visitaotg.com 95
EAT Lewisburg is a great town for foodies. The Stardust Café (102 East Washington Street, 304.647.3663, stardustcafewv.com) is a favorite with meals made fresh from local ingredients. And the Mediterraneaninspired fare tastes even better when you know the restaurant supports sustainable sources. Go to Food & Friends (213 West Washington Street, 304.645.4548, foodandfriendslewisburgwv.com) for steak and seafood—the restaurant was voted “Best Of” by the Food Network. The Livery Tavern (102 East Washington Street, 304.645.9836, liverytavern.com) is a handsome restaurant in a renovated stable with a menu built around local ingredients. The Livery bar boasts an extensive wine and port list. At Stella’s (111 South Lafayette Street, 304.520.4937, stellasteahouse.com), dine in the garden or inside the charmingly restored Victorian house from the 1890s.
SHOP Follow up your dining experience by stocking gourmet ingredients for your own pantry at Bella the Corner Gourmet (100 East Washington Street, 304.520.4921, bellathecornergourmet.com). The store is bursting with tools to fill any dream kitchen, as well as local wines, cheeses, and farm-raised beef. Take the kids to Honnahlee (117 East Washington Street, 304.645.6123), stocked with toys and educational items. Everything they stock is a tried-and-true childhood favorite. Lewisburg is also a well-preserved historic city and might inspire you to browse for antiques yourself. Try Brick House Antiques (123 East Washington Street, 304.645.4082), in an old red brick home in downtown Lewisburg. The shop specializes in regional items including furniture, linens, silver, and glassware. For art, visit Harmony Ridge Gallery (209 West Washington Street, 304.645.4333, harmonyridgegallery.com), featuring an eclectic mix of arts and a coffee and wine bar. For the latest in clothing and accessories for all ages, don't miss Wolf Creek Gallery (112 West Washington Street, 304.645.5270).
Greenbrier County is home to one of the coolest small towns, Lewisburg.
ELIZABETH ROTH
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(304.645.7600, organcave.com), the second largest commercial cave in the eastern U.S., rich in Civil War-era history and full of geologic wonders. Just nine miles from Lewisburg, in White Sulphur Springs, is The Greenbrier (300 West Main Street, 800.453.4858, greenbrier.com), an American icon regularly ranked as one of the best resorts in the U.S. and popularly known as “America’s Resort.” It is home to three championship golf courses. The Greenbrier Course was redesigned by Jack Nicklaus in 1977 for the 1979 Ryder Cup. The Meadows is a 6,795-yard Bob Cupp design with luxurious views of the surrounding mountains. The Old White TPC was the first 18-hole course at the resort and has been restored to its original, 1914 design—it serves as the venue for The Greenbrier Classic, an annual PGA Tour event. The resort is also home to 13 restaurants, cafes, and lounges, plus a casino.
FACES rebecca kiger fotografia
Meet the guides and longtime guests that give the gorge personality.
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FACES
JANET AMBROSE
Adventures on the Gorge offers a large selection of aerial adventures with TreeTops Canopy Tour, Gravity Zip Lines and TimberTrek Aerial Park, which hosts 27,000 guests each year.
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My name is Janet
AND I’M A ZIPOHOLIC Ohio native Janet Ambrose has zipped Gravity Zip Lines at Adventures on the Gorge more than 200 times.
JAY YOUNG
I
t’s 149 miles from Janet Ambrose’s front door in Pomeroy, Ohio, to the parking lot at Adventures on the Gorge in Lansing, where her morethan-frequent trips on Gravity Zip Lines have earned her honorary membership in the adventure guides family. She hops in her Chevy Sonic—a little car with great gas mileage that she bought specifically to make her trips to West Virginia more affordable—and follows her need for speed to the New River Gorge area’s top outdoor activity destination. But Janet hasn’t always been an adrenaline junkie, she admits. She did some skydiving back in the day, when a buddy of hers had a Cessna 182 she and her friends could throw themselves from, but having kids had her backing off. That was until she got a call from another dear friend of hers about three years ago—he’d been surfing the web and discovered a new zip line course in West Virginia that opened in 2011. “He asked me if I wanted to go zip-lining, and I said, ‘I’ve been hearing a lot about it—sure, let’s go,’” Janet remembers. She headed south and says, “The first time I went, I was terrified and almost chickened out. But I didn’t. I got on the first line and after about the first second-and-a-half of the ride, I was hooked.” When Janet zips, she arrives about 8 o’clock in the morning and stays all day, riding Gravity’s six-zip line course three or four times with a few extra runs on the sixth line, AdrenaLine, which spans 3,100 feet, a distance greater than the New River Gorge Bridge. “It’s the most fun thing you could ever do,” she says. “To step off into space—I get goose bumps just talking about it. The sound of the zip line as the trolley’s going down, the beautiful scenery, the thrill of your body going 60 miles an hour—it’s an unbelievable feeling.” Those new to ziplining start the day with ground school, where they gear up with helmets, gloves, and harnesses and get the crash course on braking, steering, and every need-toknow detail. The one-and-a-half mile course soars 200 feet above the ground from mountain ridge to ridge, takes about two-and-a-half hours, and begins with two “baby zips,” as Janet calls them, running 450 and 500 feet long. Riders visitaotg.com 99
FACES
JANET AMBROSE
Janet Ambrose is addicted to zip-lining. When the lines are open, she says she can barely go two weeks without traveling from her home in Ohio to Adventures on the Gorge to zip Gravity.
26 Years & Counting
ADVENTURES ON THE GORGE
Ed Bishop and the aerial team at Adventures on the Gorge gave his wife, Anita, the surprise of her life.
kick things up a notch on Trident, which starts from a platform you climb steps to and runs 1,800 feet over the bowl of the mountain. Zach’s Zip and Liberty Zip, running 1,600 and 1,400 feet respectively, get your body (and your heart) racing nearly 50 miles per hour. But that’s nothing compared to AdrenaLine, the grand finale on which zippers can reach 65 miles per hour. Gravity is the only course Janet’s ever zipped. “When you start out buying a Lamborghini, you are not going to be happy with a Geo Metro,” she explains. “I would never be happy, I would never be satisfied anywhere else.” Janet loves the course so much she named her dog Gravity and even got married there. “Janet is definitely a thrill seeker— we call her a zipoholic. We all love her, but she’s definitely got a problem,” laughs Tabitha Stover, Gravity manager. “She was the first to get married up on the course—she’s that much of an adventure seeker. It was definitely fitting for her.” Floyd, Janet’s husband, was on board and zipped the course with her on their wedding day. They were married on the ground at the beginning of AdrenaLine— where Floyd vowed to love, honor, cherish, and support her zip-lining—and then they rode down together on 100 explore • 2014
ANITA BISHOP doesn’t consider herself a thrill seeker. Sure, her husband, Ed, finally got her into riding motorcycles—something she’d always thought she was afraid of—and sure, the couple traveled for years with their kids seeking exhilarating roller coasters. But it wasn’t until they discovered zip-lining and gave it a try on a couple of small lines in Virginia and Beckley that they realized their taste for adrenaline. When they started planning their 26th anniversary celebration, a motorcycle trip to West Virginia and zip-lining at Adventures on the Gorge piqued their interest. Neither Ed nor Anita planned on renewing their vows that week, but when Anita heard about a regular customer at Adventures on the Gorge who’d been married on Gravity zip line, she mentioned to her husband how cool it would be to renew their vows there. “When I called to make our reservations, I asked the lady, ‘Would you have the resources to help me out on renewing our vows while we’re there?’” Ed remembers. When the woman told him they could and even had a past manager who was an ordained minister, Ed set the
the double zip line before celebrating at the course shed with her mom, sister, some of her favorite guides, and a zip-lining-themed cake Tabitha made and displayed on trolleys. “I was 53 years old and I had never been married. I knew I wanted it to be really special. I asked Floyd what could be more special than getting married at Gravity—to combine the person I love with something I love to do,” Janet says. Weather permitting, Gravity is open March through the end of November, and Janet says, when the season’s open she can barely go two weeks at a time without going zipping. “I can’t stand not being there—it’s like I go through withdrawal. My son and granddaughter came up and zipped with me once and then they went white water rafting, and I zipped, and they did some other stuff, and I zipped. We met at the end of the day because I do Gravity, I zip—that’s what I do. I’ll zip when I’m 90.”
JAY YOUNG
surprise in motion for their anniversary day, October 4, 2013. He called the minister and they exchanged ideas and laid out a plan. Anita had absolutely no idea. The day of their Gravity tour, the couple signed in, heard again about the couple who was married on the course (perfectly setting the day’s tone), geared up, and hit the first few zip lines. When Anita noticed a photographer taking photos, she asked him what they were for—of course, he didn’t tell her he was there to capture the vow renewal but that he was a travel blogger. The blushing bride remained clueless. Anita headed down the lines ahead of Ed, who stayed back with the guides chatting about the surprise. “They were all really excited,” Ed says. When the group started hiking to the last zip line—the double zip, AdrenaLine—Anita noticed a man wearing an old-fashioned minister’s outfit. “I didn’t think anything of it,” she laughs. “I still had no clue.” They arrived at the beginning of the zip line. While the other guests zipped ahead with one guide, Ed and Anita lagged behind with a second guide and the suited man. It was then that she noticed a table with flowers and a radio and assumed someone had left their things. Then “You are the Woman,” Ed’s favorite song for Anita, started playing, and she looked at him
and exclaimed, “They’re playing your song!” The minister handed her flowers, and Ed got down on one knee with a ring box holding her engagement and wedding rings and asked if she would marry him again. “I don’t wear my rings when I’m at work, so I didn’t notice he’d brought them with us,” Anita says. “I was so surprised, in shock, practically in tears. It was the most exciting, surprising, romantic thing my husband’s ever done. The couple zipped down the double line and celebrated at the bottom with their guides and champagne. “Everything was outstanding, magical,” Ed says. “Everyone contributed. It was unbelievable.” While the renewlyweds can’t wait to go back for more zip-lining, they don’t plan on renewing their vows again soon. “Maybe in another 25 years,” they laugh.
“It’s the most fun thing you could ever do. To step off into space—I get goose bumps just talking about it.” Janet Ambrose
Though zip-lining comes with its own set of myths, Janet and Tabitha both agree you do not have to be super athletic or in shape to zip. Janet’s had four back surgeries and that doesn’t stop her. “It’s the sport for everybody,” Tabitha says. What was once one of West Virginia’s working strip mines is now one of the Mountain State’s greatest outdoor adventure destinations. You ask anyone and they’ll echo everyone else—the history of the area, the scenic mountain views and foliage—all of it makes for one thrilling experience. “When you zip the first time, you’re nervous. I think everybody’s kind of nervous when they go up the mountain and see the little cables you’re going to hurl your body across. But for
me, like I said, the first couple seconds I was on that first baby zip, that was it,” Janet says. “Talking about it right now, if April doesn’t get here soon I’m probably going to die,” she laughed in March. “And when I get there for the first zip of the year, I’m going to be like, ‘Everybody get out of my way, I need to get hooked to the zip line and I need to get hooked to it right now.” written by RACHEL COON visitaotg.com 101
FACES
SOUNDS OF THE GORGE
Sounds of the Gorge
The New River Gorge is rich in sights and sounds. Here’s a look at some of the local music you’ll find playing in and around the gorge.
THE BOATMEN The members of The Boatmen like to
describe their sound as “harmony-based rock that makes you move.” It’s a new take on bluegrass music, shaded with tinges of rock, and it varies according to venue— growing to fill the space in a large, rowdy festival or shrinking to accommodate a relaxed crowd in a restaurant or bar. The Beckley-based band plays shows of all kinds in venues across Appalachia and beyond and has released two albums since forming in 2009. The band is currently working on a new studio album and plans to record a live show for another album soon. reverbnation.com/theboatmen
FLETCHER’S GROVE Fletcher’s Grove is known for its live shows,
full of energy and showmanship. “We like to do some improv and jamming when it feels right,” says vocalist and percussionist Matt Marion. “We naturally feed off of the crowd and jam accordingly.” The band is based in Morgantown but plays across the state and region—more than 150 shows a year. The five members have an eclectic mix of interests and backgrounds: the guitarist is getting his doctorate in jazz studies, the bassist likes funk music, and the lead vocalist prefers folk. “When you add all of us together you get a wide range of styles,” Mike says. “But they end up working very well together to where we have our own thing going.” fletchersgrove.com
HALF BAD BLUEGRASS BAND The Half Bad Bluegrass Band was formed nearly a decade ago out of a weekly jam session that Jon Lively, lead vocalist and banjo player, held in the loft of his barn in southern West Virginia. It started with a 102 explore • 2014
handful of local musicians gathered around an old coal stove to jam for fun until they realized they were good enough to be a real band. The band has been playing shows across West Virginia ever since. Half Bad is committed to oldfashioned bluegrass music and excellent vocals—Jon and his wife, Heather, lead the way there, harmonizing like maybe only a husband and wife duo can. halfbadbluegrass.com
MIKE SNODGRASS Mike’s career started in
southern West Virginia with a dense schedule of local gigs on top of his work as an engineer in Mount Hope. When he was laid off from his day job Mike decided not to pursue another one—he wanted to focus on his music instead. In 2011 he released his first album, Experience, a versatile record full of sentimental songs about love. Mike’s living in Knoxville, Tennessee now, working on his music career, but he has a packed schedule of gigs throughout the East Coast. He regularly circles back to West Virginia, and especially Fayetteville, to play the local venues where he got his start. mikesnodgrassmusic.com
THE WILD RUMPUS The Wild Rumpus bills itself as an
“Appalachian stomp-grass” band—a genre that front man Allan Sizemore invented. It was the only thing that could define the Fayetteville band’s unique sound. “We have a lot of mountain music in our makeup, but even when we’re doing bluegrass songs, we
TOP The Wild Rumpus is gaining popularity and booking shows across the country, but the band still returns home and frequently entertains guests at venues near the Gorge.
RIGHT Fletcher’s Grove is a Morgantown-based band that plays shows across the state. The group is known for its energy and jamming” when the mood is right.
do it with a punk rock attitude,” Allan says. “I just thought Appalachian stomp-grass was a good moniker for it, and it stuck.” The Wild Rumpus has seen a lot of success recently, booking shows across the country. “We’ll do everything from a theater concert to crazy concert-style to pubs and bars,” Allan says— but they haven’t forgotten their hometown. You can still regularly hear The Wild Rumpus at venues in and around Fayetteville. thewildrumpus.com
COURTESY OF FLETCHER'S GROVE
COURTESY OF WILD RUMPUS
NEW YEAR NEW RUSH
877.683.9240 BURNINGROCKWV.COM visitaotg.com 103
FACES
KERREN HALL
Queen of the New River Kerren Hall wandered the country before she came to the New River Gorge and stayed.
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erren Hall arrived in Fayetteville in February of 1994, in the middle of an ice storm, following a boyfriend she’d met in Colorado. She had never been to West Virginia, never been white water rafting, and never stayed in one place for very long. Now, 20 years later, she’s been a white water rafting guide on the New River Gorge for two decades and says she’ll live in West Virginia for the rest of her life. The boyfriend moved away years ago. Kerren signed up to train as a white water raft guide on a whim— that boyfriend made rafting sound so great, she couldn’t resist. She figured she’d like it, sure, but didn’t think it would stick. “I kind of was KERREN HALL a wanderer,” she says. “As a child I was moved a lot, and I loved it. I love adventure and exploring—I just was not grounded.” She stepped into a raft for the first time in the spring of 1994. The water was high that day, she remembers, but she didn’t know enough to be afraid. Kerren took to rafting like the “water person” she professes to be and has spent every summer since on the New and Gauley rivers, guiding rafts full of people through the rapids. She spends her winters in Fayetteville—“Fayetteville is the most awesome community I’ve ever lived in,” she says—but summers on the river define her. “I didn’t have my feet on the ground until I came to West Virginia and started river guiding,” she says. “Being on the water grounds me.” Kerren is one of a handful of women who work as guides on the rivers that surround the New River Gorge, guiding rafts down the river with a handful of passengers aboard. These women are still in the minority among guides, but they’re not entirely novel. It isn’t so rare to see them among the rapids, lugging along a boatful of men. “I’ve seen little 5-foot women guide a boat of eight 200-pound guys down the Upper Gauley,” Kerren says. “It’s not a matter of having a ton of strength, but having the understanding of how to get the boat downstream. Women have to watch the river and use the river more, instead of doing it by muscle alone. In a way they have to be smarter guides.” Kerren sees her job as one part rafting, understanding the river and the best way to navigate it, and one part host, interacting with the people she’s guiding. Rafting is just like any service industry, she says—it’s all about the guest experience. The majority embrace this
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new adventure wholeheartedly, but you will inevitably find a few who are less enthused. However, she believes having company on the river is an integral part of the white water experience and she wouldn’t part with them for anything. She could always go out on the river alone in a kayak, but it’s not the same. “Most of the time people get off the river and people are sparkling—they’re so alive, they’re so happy, they’re so excited to go home with that. And I bet that feeling lasts for a week,” she says. “And you bond with these people. That’s the awesome thing about doing this commercially.” Kerren has a day job, too—she’s a teacher at a Head Start center and she loves it. But if you met her at a dinner party and asked her what line of work she’s in, she wouldn’t tell you about her teaching gig; she’d tell you about being a raft guide. “Raft guiding is my heart and soul,” she says. When she leaves her classroom at the end of the day, her mind is still filled with thoughts about her day there, things she should have done differently or didn’t get to do at all, what she’ll try to improve tomorrow. “It’s cerebral,” she says. Her experience on
“I didn’t have my feet on the ground until I came to West Virginia and started river guiding.”
the river stands in stark contrast. “It’s the exhilaration of doing an activity that is mind, body, and soul,” she says. “Your mind has to be in the moment, you can’t be thinking about dinner with your boyfriend—you have to be thinking about what’s right in front of you. And then your body is working and your soul is in it, all to the same end.” Kerren’s in her 50s and her mother chides her sometimes, saying she’ll have to retire from rafting soon. Kerren doesn’t buy it. She knows men who have guided rafts into their 60s and she hopes to do that, too. She’s already a veteran on the river, outstaying just about everyone else who went through guide training with her back in 1994, but she can’t imagine how she’d endure the rest of the year if she couldn’t return to the river each summer. “I love the water and I love people,” she says. “I don’t know what else I would do.” 855.990.0179
WHITEWATER PHOTOGRAPHY
written by SHAY MAUNZ
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FOLLOW YOUR FEAR
Follow Your Fear A senior adventure specialist provides expert advice and tips for fearful first-time adventurers.
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aybe you’re a thrill seeker, or maybe you’re a mother getting ready for your family vacation—it doesn’t matter. You find yourself staring at a roaring river in front of you and are left wondering how you can possibly summon up the courage to try white water rafting for the first time. Or maybe you find yourself strapped into a harness, staring down at treetops, preparing to drop down hundreds of feet on a zip line. It’s OK to feel frightened. Actually, it’s encouraged. “It is healthy to test fear at least once in your life,” says Shauna King, senior reservationist for Adventures on the Gorge. “If we didn’t feel comfortable with the level of fear you have doing an activity here, we wouldn’t take you out. We wouldn’t intimidate you or make you feel like you are about to do something you absolutely cannot do.” Activities offered by Adventures on the Gorge allow people of all ages to try new, exciting adventures while testing their limits in a safe environment. From thrill seekers to nature lovers, there is something for everyone. People can enjoy the natural beauty of the New River Gorge while white water rafting, hiking, zip-lining, caving, climbing, horseback riding, or doing the famous Bridge Walk— where tourists take a walk on the wild side beneath the New River Gorge Bridge and 850 feet above the river. “It’s like a natural, Mother Nature-provided Disney World in your backyard. A lot of people from West Virginia don’t realize what we have here,” Shauna says. “I’d much rather come here than go to the beach. It’s not as populated, the people are relatable and kind, and it’s something we all need to
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experience more of. You get to test yourself and have a good time without having to travel seven, eight, nine hours to do it.” Shauna has been with Adventures on the Gorge for more than 10 years now and says one of the best ways to get over fear is to face it. “A lot of us have healthy fears, too. Just because we work here doesn’t mean we aren’t afraid of heights or the water, but at least I can say, ‘I did it, I survived, and I had a blast doing it,’” she says. Staff members are trained for specific activities and often speak about it from their own experiences. The only things guests should worry about are what to wear and what to bring. No matter what activity, Shauna advises visitors wear multiple layers of loose-fitting clothing. “When the weather is nice people generally think wearing a tank top for the zip-lining tours or a bathing suit for the rafting trip is the best thing to do, but it’s really not,” she says. “T-shirts cover you up from the sun and keep harnesses or life jackets from rubbing.” She also says comfortable tennis shoes are a must for all activities—under no circumstances should guests wear flip-flops to any activity. As a good rule of thumb, everyone should bring a change of clothes, including socks and
“A lot of us have healthy fears, too. Just because we work here doesn’t mean we aren’t afraid of heights or the water, but at least I can say, ‘I did it, I survived, and I had a blast doing it.’” SHAUNA KING, senior reservationist for Adventures on the Gorge
sneakers. Shauna says those who forget to bring a change of shoes after participating in water-related activities suffer from walking in sloshy shoes or end up walking barefoot. Bringing sunscreen and sunglasses isn’t a bad idea either. But the most important piece of advice Shauna can give to newcomers is also the simplest. “Just do it,” she says. 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com written by SHAWNEE MORAN
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WHITEWATER PHOTOGRAPHY
A LifeChanging Adventure Longtime Adventures on the Gorge guest Mike Cassidy reflects on his experiences white water rafting and more.
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he torrential currents, daring rapids, and intimidating waves of the wild and wonderful rivers in West Virginia may frighten some people, but not Mike Cassidy. In fact, he loves everything about the exhilarating sport—the natural beauty of the river, the rush of adrenaline, and the chance to push boundaries. He has been on more than 180 white water rafting trips with Adventures on the Gorge, 150 of them on various sections and water levels on the Gauley River. It all started in 2002 when Mike and his friends drove from North Carolina to go white water rafting. Like most newcomers, Mike didn’t have much experience with water-related activities before he strapped on his life vest, put on a helmet, and stepped onto the raft. “I had never been even so much as tubing before, but it was a great experience,” he says. “I was impressed with the magnificence of the river and the expertise and safety of the Adventures on the Gorge staff.” He continued to return with his friends year after year. During the group’s third year Mike took a trip that would change visitaotg.com 109
ANGELA SUNDSTROM
“I was impressed with the magnificence of the river and the expertise and safety of the Adventures on the Gorge staff.” MIKE CASSIDY
Eight years after Mike Cassidy's first white water rafting trip with Adventures on the Gorge, he has become a guide
Mike says the people are what make the company so great. They are what attracted him to become more involved in the first place. “The staff treats you like a member of their family, and safety is the top priority of the company,” he says. After becoming close with the guides and other employees, Mike made a decision to quit his job, pack his bags, and leave his home in North Carolina to be closer to the people and the company he loved. Much closer, really—within walking distance. After building a house at Wild Rock, a small housing development that sits on the edge of the New River Gorge, Mike can now walk outdoors and enjoy the natural beauty he loves. His 3,000-square-foot mountain home keeps him connected with Adventures on the Gorge by a hiking trail leading to the gorge’s edge. “It’s so wonderful being so close to the company, and it is very convenient,” he says. In 2013 Mike decided to invest in the company and become an official part of Adventures on the Gorge. “I believe so highly in the adventure they sell and the high quality they provide. I think it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made,” he says. “People should take advantage of it because it’s an awesome natural adventure. Adventures on the Gorge is the best outfitter because of its commitment to high quality and safety.” 855.990.0179, visitaotg.com ANGELA SUNDSTROM
the course of his life. “It was my first low-water trip on the Gauley River, and the first trip where the weather was warm. I got hooked,” he says. Mike started driving the three-and-a-half hours from North Carolina to Adventures on the Gorge more and more each year. In 2009 he decided to train to become a part-time guide for the company. “I was there the first time he tried white water rafting,” says Krista Shumaker, resort operations director and a close friend of Mike’s. “He has an unbelievable love for the river.” Krista says Mike is even a “requested guest” on people’s rafts because of his experience and passion for white water rafting. “He is the only guest I know of who has ever been requested,” she says. “We had another guest just the other day who said, ‘I’d like Mike Cassidy to come on my trip.’” 110 explore • 2014
with the company and moved from North Carolina into this home within walking distance of the Gorge.
written by SHAWNEE MORAN
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You Don’t Say!
In 2010 USA Today named TreeTops Canopy Tour one of the “TE
Discover 10 fun facts you might never guess about Adventures on the Gorge.
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ZIP
LINE
S AC RO S S
THE USA”
In 2012, Travel & Leisure magazine named Gravity Zip Lines one of the
S “ WORLD'S COOLE ST ZIP LINE
More than
”
1,000,000
In 2010 MSNBC aired an in-depth interview with the founders and owners of Adventures on the Gorge in a segment called “American Business: Rapid Growth.”
visitors come to New River Gorge National River each year.
Smokey’s on the Gorge, a fine dining restaurant named after bus driver Dana “Smokey” Morton, was featured on the Food Network’s The Best Of television show in the summer of 2004.
In 2009, National Geographic named it one of the
BEST ADVENTURE TRAVEL COMPANIES ON EARTH
What do a professional golfer, American football quarterback, movie star, vice president, former secretary of Homeland Security, and American folk singer have in common? Believe it or not, it’s not the beginning of a bad joke. Celebrities like Phil Mickelson, Tony Romo, Jennifer Garner, Dan Quayle, Janet Napolitano, and Arlo Guthrie have all visited Adventures on the Gorge.
L O N G E S T
In 2011 Andrew Zimmern, host of the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods: America, stopped by Adventures on the Gorge to film a short segment called “Bizarre Foods: West Virginia”
In the February/March 2012 issue of Garden & Gun, TimberTrek was the Editor’s Choice for
“Travel and Adventure for the Southern Soul.” Adventures on the Gorge is minutes away from the New River Gorge Bridge, the
S I N G L E
A R C H
B R I D G E
I N
T H E
W E S T E R N
H E M I S P H E R E.
On October 18, 2014, thousands will flock to the bridge to celebrate America’s largest single-day festival—Bridge Day.
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