Almost Heaven

 After leaving Blacksburg, VA we headed north following the New River thru WV towards Pittsburgh. I mentioned the New River's headwaters in an earlier post about Boone, NC. Well, we ended up following this majestic beast for hundreds of miles thru 3 states! Once it gets up here in WV this thing is wild and wonderful, Class 5 rapids and then some. The highway would meander along the river and there were countless bridge crossings with the 'Crossing New River' highway signage, it actually became kind of funny...hey Deb, here comes a bridge, what river will we be crossing? This childish discourse continued for days! But man o man, what a gorgeous countryside.

Now, here's the interesting part, the New River is not new at all. In fact it is one of the oldest rivers in the world. When most of the planet was covered with water the Appalachian Mountains (also one of the oldest mountain ranges on Earth) and it's New River were high and dry, you ain't finding any sea shell fossils around these parts. Also, the New River flows northward which is unusual for rivers in the northern hemisphere because it was not carved in a southward flow pattern from the Ice Age. 

Experts say the Appalachians were once like the Rockies and Sierras, full of vim and vigor with their tall peaks, sharp cliffs and rocky slopes. Some day the Rockies and Sierras will be like the gentle, rolling and mellow Appalachians, kind of like an old grandfather waiting for their boisterous grandkids to grow the hell up. The old Appies are patient, this might happen in 300 million years or so but like most good grandparents they have patience.

One spot we wanted to visit was the Coal Mine Exhibition in Beckley, WV...ah, Beckley, the gold buckle of the coal belt dear readers. I knew many a kid studying mining engineering at VT from Beckley, WV and by God, these guys roll wild as hell. About an hour or so outside of Blacksburg this area produced some of the finest coal in the world, very little processing was needed and volatile impurities were basically non existent, perfect for coke production used in steel milling.

Lunchtime in the coal mine

Seems the Exhibition is closed on Monday's and today was Monday so what to do? Well, lets cruise north a tad up to the New River National River (NRNR). Run by the National Park Service, it's not quite a National Park but pretty close to it. We google direction our way to the NRNR Visitor Center and...this has happened many times on this trip...don't trust google directions if you're driving a 28 foot long RV towing a Honda Fit! These directions are for passenger vehicles only. Well, an hour later we get about 6 miles in on the windiest, narrowest, gnarliest road we've seen since Alaska, maybe the toughest I've ever seen, and we get there to find NO Visitor Center. It's basically a large gravel lot and an information kiosk, well shit howdy. On the plus side we were smack dab in the middle of the most beautiful spot we could imagine with a heavy canopy of hardwood forest, blossoming wildflowers and a tranquil creek running next to us...hell Deb, let's stay here tonite and hit the Exhibition in the morning, done and done. Honestly I did not have it in me to drive back outta this place today, time for a long walk in the woods.

So we set up and it's daylight, I take a nice walk over across the railroad bridge spanning, you guessed it, the New River, to the abandoned town of Thurmond, WV. Back in the early 1900's this was the C&O Railroad's most profitable loading station. Some 15 coal hauling freight trains a day came thru here and by the 1920's it was all over. The depression hit and Thurmond was done. Pretty eerie to walk around and see these abandoned hotels, banks, coal tipping facilities and residences gone overnight.

Railroad Bridge over the New River leading to ghost town of Thurmond, WV.

Abandoned bank and hotel in Thurmond, WV

Head back to camp and it's getting dark and our boondock spot starts to reveal some concerns. We do a fair amount of boondocking so we kind of have our definition of sketchy boondock spots and this one was borderline at best. Here's our red flags: no cell service (that's a biggie); isolated (it took us an hour in daylight to drive out here from civilization); no one else around (the place was completely empty); fair amount of locals driving by checking you out (maybe a car every half hour or so) BUT we have the Fit and if the shit hit the fan we could fashion a quick exit in it. It's all a roll of the dice I suppose, it turned out to be one beauty of an overnite.

Here's our sketchy but beautiful campsite. The stairs led down to a tranquil creek and the roaring New River was about a hundred yards to the left.

The next morning we slowly crawl out of borderline boondock paradise and head back down to Beckley to visit the Coal Mine Exhibition. What a blast! They take you into an old coal mine on a mine locomotive on flat cars with our docent Gerald (who worked this mine for 40 freakin years!) who explains all of the workings and shared some awesome stories. Really great time, well worth a visit.

Gerald talkin' coal fetchin'.......

Lunch time down in the hole.

Heading north out of Beckley we stop and gander at the New River Gorge Bridge a true marvel in engineering and boasts the longest arch span of any bridge in the USA. In addition to being an engineering marvel, the designers did a magnificent job of making the bridge fit within the environment, not always an easy task but one that is appreciated for sure, a spectacular structure.

The New River Gorge Bridge, designed by the firm my father used to work for, Michael Baker Engineering.

Our next stop was at Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park about a 90 minute drive south of Pittsburgh. Pretty lake with a pastel sunset and mountains surrounding us. Went for a bike ride around the lake, shot the shit with the neighbors from Pittsburgh, had a few cocktails and called it a nite.

On to the Burg manana dear readers, stay tuned

Peace out

Deb and Howard