"There are no straight roads in West Virginia."
The words someone I know once used to describe a road trip through one of Maryland's neighboring states are quite accurate. This weekend was spent at a small section within expansive Monongahela National Forest. From our house it's 160 miles as the crow flies, but the twisty turning roads make it a four-and-a-half hour journey. Our location was a good 90 minutes from the nearest corner grocery and solidly devoid of all cellular service. If you're looking to escape from city/suburban life, it doesn't get easier than this! We headed out on Friday.
En-route was a parking area for the very short but satisfying trail around Spruce Knob, West Virginia's highest point (4,863 feet). We stretched our legs for a little bit before driving the final 20 minutes to Spruce Knob Lake Campground, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Nearby are miles of recreation trails within deep valleys and wooded ridgelines that don't see as many visitors as (relatively) nearby Shenandoah National Park.
Views to the northwest of Spruce Knob.
Opposite mountain ridges are at about 4,000 feet.
Making the perfect marshmallow/sausage roasting sticks
After setting up our simple campsite and collecting firewood from the friendly campground host we began preparations for dinner. Our trusty 20-year-old backcountry stove gave up the ghost! Hans spent nearly two hours troubleshooting but there was something fatally wrong with the flow of fuel to the burner head. With a great deal of trepidation I lit a small fire and managed to cook a meal in one of our camping pots over the flame. It turned out pretty great!
"One Pot" Pasta Marinara:
Melt 1 tbsp. coconut oil (travels well in the cooler) and sauté 1/2 cup chopped onion. Add 1/2 lb ground beef and brown. Add a small can of tomato sauce, 1 cup of water, 1 beef bouillon cube, half of a finely-shredded zucchini (gotta eat those vegetables) and 1 tbsp. pre-mixed spices (I used salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, extra dried basil, garlic powder, red chili pepper flakes, and a little white sugar). Toss in enough dried small pasta until it looks kind of like soup (1/3-1/2 lbs, I eyeballed this part). Simmer and stir until the pasta is done (about 10 minutes). Add a little water if it looks too dry but you should end up with a pretty thick concoction (think Hamburger Helper). Serve with shredded cheese. 10/10 would recommend.
At night we drove a little way down the park road to Spruce Knob Lake, an old reservoir built in 1952 for trout fishing. This area is known for being one of the best dark-skies locations within a reasonable distance of the Mid-Atlantic coast, so we were very fortunate to have a night of perfectly clear skies and a waning crescent moon that did not rise until 1:30 am on Saturday. The stars were incredible.
Jupiter was the brightest celestial body tonight
Early on Saturday we parked a couple of miles away from the campground at the Allegheny Mountain Trail trailhead. I discovered that I brought the wrong map for our area and we'd be quickly hiking off-map and reliant on a basic PDF map on my phone and our wits (of course we also forgot the compass, which was tucked in a tote back at our campsite). Our hike began on a fire road but there were several unidentified path crossings that we did not turn onto. We decided that if there were indeed zero trail markers we'd just follow the 13-mile Allegheny Mountain Trail until we felt like turning around and hiking back to the car.
Thankfully we encountered a "real" intersection of trails, marked by a prominent Forest Service signpost. Yay! More confident in our pathfinding skills, we walked about 8-miles along a ridge trail and then into a couple of stream valleys. Trail marking blazes were few and far in between until we got closer to the parking lot. These trails are so seldom traveled there are a few very old wooden bridges that are completely covered in moss and understory plants. It's safer to cross the creek by rock-hopping rather than risk stepping through rotted wood. We finished our hike along an old logging rail trace and encountered a lone apple tree.
We saw exactly three other people: One guy at the very beginning of our hike and two mountain bikers near the end.
These forests used to be full of red spruce, but they were decimated by insects over 50 years ago.
Now the hills are peppered with maple trees.
The trails were often pretty overgrown
Approximate hike route
Back at the campsite we enjoyed a hearty lunch and a sunny afternoon of relaxation-time. Hans read a book and I attempted to listen to a podcast before falling asleep in the hammock.
In the early evening we walked the lake path. We encountered a couple of birds but otherwise we just took in the scenery. Dinner was a slightly different version of the fire-simmered pasta dish that we'd had the night before.
On Sunday it was time to pack up and drive the long way home. We took a different route out of the park and went through some pretty darn pastoral scenes:
This was our one and only camping trip for the year, and it felt good! Here are a couple of large-format images for download, courtesy of Mr. National Geographic (Hans):
