is a story of exploration in West Virginia.
Well, just so all of you know that went to whitewater, We arrived home safe on thursday around 4:30 pm... It rained a bit more but for the most part was just pretty humid....it was a different feeling being there without the rest of the group which left early because of a torrential downpour...you knew that you weren't going to run into anyone you knew on the way to the bathhouse...it was really not fun to be at the campsite unless the whole group was around so we decided to drive around...
Anyways...since if wasn't raining and we had time...plenty of time...Tom and I drove to the visitors center across the bridge...that was pretty cool as it had a number of scenic lookouts and with the rain before, the clouds had formed in the valley under the bridge...so standing up there, we were actually looking out over the clouds. Also at the visitors center was a number of interesting facts about the towns and now ghost towns around there and also about the mining...we also saw a video there of how they built the bridge and how the river formed...there were also a lot of books to buy about the area...pretty interesting stories too..like about Thurmond, what used to be one of the most dangerous cities in the US averaging 6 murders a week...(Remember we put our rafts in at Thurmond) and often in the early 1900's, bodies would wash up along the shore and since these bodies had no money in their pockets, the local law attributed the death to suicide from jumping off that Railroad bridge because of depression for having lost their money gambling...(the local law was kind of crooked then) and then one day, a man was found washed a shore, but this man had money in his pocket and a gun in his hand....well the local law here promptly began an investigation, and found that the man possessed the hand gun illegally so they fined the dead man all the money he had in his pocket to pay for his crime and burial and then buried him as a pauper... Anyways, after the visitors center, we drove down to where we were climbing, if you looked across the gorge here, the bridge disappeared into the clouds, it was cool....and then upon further traveling down that road, we came to a path, I mean road that veered off the regular road....well, i drove down that. ..(I will say i am impressed with jeeps now as i didn't think they could cut over streams or big rocks like that) and over the night we took a number of these old mining roads that had looked more like paths but they were old roads....we found a few interesting things...we found some kind of artesian looking well that looked like it dated back to the early 1900's...we also found the remains of an old car, and there was an old railroad track that had no rails on it anymore but we did find the remains of a railroad or mining car...the railroad track was cool because it disappeared in the woods and was halfburied in dirt and it went along the edge, near it was an old C&O railroad marker, the railway that used to be there back in the early 1900's...we also found what looked like two old supports for a swing bridge that used to go across the river..... oh and we also found an old mine shaft....this one was open and we looked into it to see it curve away...we did not go in though for lack of jeans, strong flashlights, and the fact that there was alot of trash in the entrance, it was getting dark and there was not a third person.... perhaps the most interesting place we found was when the trail we drove on became impassable for even a jeep so we walked it down to the railroad tracks at the bottom...here we were walking along the tracks near the new river and I decided to look over the edge and lo and behold, along the banks of the new river, accessible only by boat of foot, was a genuine redneck cabin...how do i know because on the step foot path down to it, there was a GO SLOW sign and the cabin was atrocious as far as cleanliness goes...on the roof of the front porch were two deer skulls...one clean, the other with some flesh still on it, i guess the occupant threw them on the roof to let the birds and flies pick at them...oh and we called out "Anybody home!?" quite a few times to allow someone to answer so as not to accost us with a shotgun for trespassin'.....also, near the cabin was an outhouse, nice wooden shack, a bbq grill out of bricks, and a makeshift boat dock and rowboat....there was also an overflowing 55 gallon drum of garbage and Beer cans....all over the place....and near the garbage lying on a rock was the freshly skinned entrails and skin of a fairly large catfish....which leads me to the most interesting item on this property, a tree on which about 5 or 6 skulls of deer were nailed too.....and also one head about 5-6 inches across of a very large catfish with some of the guts still hanging out of the head....so you can imagine how we felt upon running into this, just a tree with skulls nailed on it is scary enough....we looked around a bit and got out of there before anyone came back...tom took a huge iron pin that was near the place, looked like a pit from a railroad car and it weighed about 15 pounds....we thought at any minute on the way back we would here a richochet of a shotgun blast behind us and some guy saying "Come back here so's i can get a good shot at 'cha". also, we drove down to the river a mile away where another company takes out their rafters and that was cool cause you drive in a what looks like a huge corrugated drain pipe underneath the tracks...here we met some climbers that were camping there and they liked my license plate and they were going to climb at Kaymoor the next day.....an old abandoned mining town that still had the buildings standing and the mines that you are not supposed to go into.... Anyways...that was basicly what we did....another interesting but useful piece of information is that the current railroad system, the CSX RR is no trespassing....back in the early 1900's, there were no roads and the way people got around was by walking along the tracks to work or to another town...and one year back like in 1915, 142 people died while walking along the tracks cause they either got hit by an oncoming train or fell asleep on the tracks and got hit...but the railroad said that all of them died because they were doing something illegal, walking on the railroad tracks, and if they had not been, they would be alive.....I just thought that was interesting cause that law is still in effect and we walked on the tracks yesterday....and from that cabin we found others still do.... on the way back we stopped at "Dirty" Ernie's RIB PIT...it's right across I -19 from Rivers.....and I know what you are thinking ( i didn't want to go there at first) but the owner is really nice, it looks great inside like a cabin...but it was just built....the food is great, they give you a lot and if you try to order two hamburgers, they tell you you won't be able to eat two so just order one right now and if you have room after they'll give you another one....also the beverages are free refills....they give you a basket of peanuts and they tell you to throw the shells on the floor.....and we talked with him about bringing the whole group there and he said no problem....they can seat 280 anyways...so next years, we might all go out to eat...and if we don't I encourage everyone to just walk over there and try it out....the food was so good and the fries were somethin' special...they were the best fries I ever had....I was thoroughly impressed with that place and the owner does have ties to Michigan, he was just here a few weeks ago visiting relatives and he says half of his business is from Michigan. next year, we (I think it would be cool and so does Tom) want to take everyone to the other side of the gorge to go exploring and to that center to see what we saw and all that....there is so much stuff on the other side of the rim....and there are even waterfalls there too like by the lagoon...and then wednesday night just take everyone out to Dirty Ernies for the food......anyways, let me know what you think ok....well we got back and because the group left, a group from clawson, MI had set up camp on our site...they were nice though and said that because it was free, Rivers put them there but they originally had another site.....we talked with them for a bit and then went to our respective very dry tents and went to sleep, woke up with the birds, ate rivers free continental breakfast, and left just before 8 am, and got back by 4:30 pm.... well, that was basicly my adventure and what you missed....I wish you all could have been there to share in that experience as I kept on thinking of different people who would have loved to see what we saw....I want to go back there again ....to see more ghost towns, do more climbing, and go exploring.... well...i hope everyone enjoyed reading about last night, just wanted to share with everyone what i experienced so that you may have too... ok, well have a good weekend....
Jeff SMILEY back home from the mountains
All this happened on the July, 1997 rafting trip.
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