Watoga SP and the Greenbrier River Trail

We are camped at Watoga State Park near Marlinton, WV. We arrived Sunday night just after dark. This is a place you just can't get to from central MD and I-81, particularly driving a 33,000 lb motorhome. We apparently didn't make the wisest choices picking our route. We drove across four mountains and entered the park at the north entrance, which is at the other end from where we were meeting our friends. We then drove about ten miles on a single lane road through the park, running only one on-coming vehicle off the road. When we arrived at the Riverside Campground on the banks of the Greenbrier River our friends were there and had saved us a nice pull-though site. We fired up the convection microwave oven and cooked pizza for the crew.

On Monday everyone piddled around camp until "Chuck" a state park service employee showed up at our campsites. Chuck had some issues about our respective campsite registrations. One of our party had claimed a WV senior's discount, but had used a NC address. Another had signed up for five nights but only paid for one. The third party had not yet paid at all. Chuck pegged Wayne as a trouble maker right away. Actually Chuck was very agreeable. He cut us some slack and gave us all the senior's rate ($10.00/night, a great deal). As he was leaving I asked if he had any Greenbrier Trail brochures in his truck. He said no, but there were some in the office. About 10 minutes later he brought a variety of brochures for local points of interest to our campsites. Service above and beyond the call of duty. Attaboy Chuck! After lollygagging the whole day, about 3:00 we rode our bikes north up the Greenbrier River Trail towards Marlinton. There was almost no one on the trail, even though the weather was perfect and the fall colors were approaching their peak. The joys of being retired and able to play on weekdays! It is likely that on the day before there were hundreds of people on the trail. About 3 miles outside Marlinton we came upon a paved section of trail and did see some folks taking their after-work strolls. We stopped in at the visitor center at Marlinton, which is a restored railroad depot. Next door to the depot was an old timey hardware store where we found a glass dome for our coffee percolator. We had been trying to find that part for weeks. C.J. Richardson's Hardware is second oldest on-going business in Pocahontas County. I don't know what the oldest business is.

We had hoped to do some paddling on the Greenbrier while we were here. Everyone brought a canoe. However, the water level was impossibly low. Even the trout had a hard time getting down the river. So, on Tuesday we biked south on the trail instead. There are no services that way, so we had no hope of finding an ice cream cone along the trail. Dang. Our destination was the Droop Mountain tunnel, one of two tunnels on the Greenbrier River trail. We arrived at the tunnel, drove through in the dank and dark and turned around to return. We had a nice picnic lunch at one of the bike-in campsites along the trail. This day we saw only two other bikers during our 35 mile ride.

On Wednesday Wayne and Lynda had to return home for a family commitment. At breakfast we all congregated at their site to watch them pack and break camp. Today we plan to explore some of the towns and attractions in the area.