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Wild, wonderful West Virginia
By Jeffrey Levine
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Rafters about to cross under the New River Gorge Bridge;
photo courtesy of Class VI-Mountain River.
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“Wild and Wonderful.” While it doesn’t exactly have the same ring as New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die,” or even the dignified solemnity of New York’s “Excelsior,” West Virginia could not have selected a better motto for itself. Tucked snugly in-between Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, the Mountain State in all of its bucolic splendor is one of the best-kept secrets in the quasi south, far north, mid-Atlantic-ish region known as Appalachia.
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Students at Storer College, outside of John Brown’s Fort in Harpers Ferry, circa 1915; photo courtesy of Historic Photo Collection, Harpers Ferry NHP.
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Caperton Trail in Morgantown; photo courtesy
of Steve Shaluta and the West Virginia
Department of Commerce.
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Mountaineer Field;
photo courtesy of WVU Athletic Dept.
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Grandview Overlook; photo courtesy of Steve Shaluta and the West Virginia Department of Commerce.
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Spruce Knob Lake; photo courtesy of Steve Shaluta and the West Virginia Department of Commerce.
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Although it only takes a shade over four hours to reach the West Virginia border, you will do yourself a favor by staying on I-79 for another fifty miles or so until you reach Morgantown. Located on the edge of town along the Monongahela River Valley, West Virginia University’s original campus has called Morgantown home since the land was publicly granted in 1867. Although the University boasts three campuses, six libraries, and countless academic buildings, visiting WVU and not going to Mountaineer Field would be like visiting Philadelphia and not running up the steps to the art museum and raising your arms at the top. While football tickets may be hard to come by, they’re not nearly as hard to score as Winter Classic seats. Just make sure that you get them well in advance of your trip. As an added bonus, Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) will get you out to the field quickly and in great style. The only system like it in the country, the PRT is a network of small eight-passenger cars that travel directly from station to station, bypassing all of the other stops during peak hours.
While Morgantown may be a good introduction to what West Virginia is all about, Fayette County is figuratively and almost literally at the heart of the state. Replete with vast hilltop views, snaking tributaries, and crisp mountain air, the short two-and-a-half-hour drive from Morgantown leaves plenty of time to go hiking among the thousands of approved climbs, fish along the river, go horseback riding, take an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) tour of the landscape, rent bikes to go trailing, or set up camp for the night. Fayetteville is home to what was the tallest steel-arch bridge in the world until 2004, and the third Sunday of every October is designated Bridge Day. If you happen to be feeling particularly adventurous, you can join the locals as they go BASE (Building Antenna Span Earth) jumping off the 876 New River Gorge Bridge.
Even though there is no limit to the outdoor activities along the New River Gorge and Gulley River National Park, by far the most popular is whitewater rafting. Classified on a scale from I to VI where Class I is small waves and Class VI is essentially impassable (in some countries considered suicidal), the New River boasts several class V-plus rapids among its miles of whitewater. Many factors, including the time of year, affect the difficulty of the sections and easier courses are available to accommodate beginning and intermediate rafters.
Traveling to Harpers Ferry might tack another two days onto your trip, but it is certainly worth it. Positioned right between the Confederate and Union forces during the Civil War, Harpers Ferry may not be able to compete with Washington D.C. in terms of importance, but then again, almost everyone has toured the National Mall and walked by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue while contemplating what it would be like to be president. Still one of West Virginia’s most historic places, Harpers Ferry was where abolitionist John Brown led his infamous raid against an armory in 1859; six years later it became the site of Storer College, one of the country’s first integrated schools. Although Storer College officially closed its doors in 1955, and an unfortunate John Brown Wax Museum was added to the otherwise endearing town, the firehouse where Brown stayed while he was under siege, now known as John Brown’s Fort, is open to the public, as are the three remaining Storer buildings. While they are certainly not worth making the trip for in and of themselves, Harpers Ferry also has a large variety of pottery stores, clothing and jewelry boutiques, historic restaurants, and evening activities like ghost tours.
All in all, not a bad haul for five or six days and just a hundred or two miles more than a round-trip to NYC.
Jeffrey Levine braved the New River and then celebrated at a good old-fashioned nighttime jamboree.
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