October 6, 2009 – The Road to Blackwater or Three States in less than 100 Miles

Yesterday evening, I showed Carol on the map, several places that I would like to visit. These included Seneca Rocks, Spruce Knob and Blackwater Falls. Of secondary interest are the Canaan Valley and Dolly Sods. We discussed a couple of different routes we might take and Carol sampled Gigi (the GPS) so see what route she would take (Gigi, not Carol). I had also found four campgrounds which were near enough to everything as to make easy day trips: Spoke and Hub, so to speak.

Like a Saturn V rocket rising steadily from its launch pad, we rose at the crack of dawn. OK, we crawled out of bed at 7:45. Carol and Spice left for their morning jaunt. I brewed a pot of coffee, fixed Spice’s bowl and whipped up some blue berry pancakes (does Carol have it easy or what?). With the morning TV news on in the background, we ate, uploaded pictures and blogs, and Carol reviewed the available campgrounds. At 30 feet, we were too long for one. Another campground required all dogs to have a copy of their full shot record including kennel cough. The third was closed. That left the state park campground at Blackwater Falls. With all of our chores done it was time to hit the road.

At 11:44, we were out of the campground and headed west on the I-70. After 7 or 8 miles, we turned south through Perryopolis. I only mention this because we stopped here yesterday on our way home from WV to buy some ice cream at the Chocolate Factory. Not knowing when we might pass this way again, it made perfect sense to stop again. I should say here, that if you ever find yourself in beautiful downtown Perryopolis, do stop at the Chocolate Factory for a bit of candy or a scoop of ice cream.

We picked up U.S. 40 at Uniontown, PA and headed southeast. U.S. 40 is designated a scenic highway and it certainly was today. As we moved farther to the southeast, we also began a gradual climb to higher terrain. For my west coast friends, higher terrain doesn’t mean six or eight thousand feet. The mean elevation change was probably only a thousand feet, but that means colder nights and less water: two of the ingredients needed for fall colors. And the colors were beginning to show.

U.S. 40 intersects with U.S. 219 at Kayser’s Ridge. Here we took U.S. 219 south, through the very western part of Maryland. South of the towns of Accident and McHenry is the town of Deep Creek on the shores of Deep Creek lake. It is a resort town with boat dock on the east side of the lake and a ski resort on the west side. Numerous lakeside homes were for sale. I presume that because of easy access from the D.C. metro and Baltimore areas, these are second homes which the owners have elected to sell due to the current fiscal situation. But that is just a haphazard guess.

The farther south we came, the better the color became. The only downer we had was the sky going from cloudy to overcast. The lack of direct sunlight tends to mute the color in the photos. To the eye, it was spectacular. This is as close as we have come to seeing a truly full blown fall and Carol was ecstatic. As I write this, she is going through some 400 photos taken today to sort out the keepers. At one point today, we were at an overlook. The mountains to the west were ablaze in the various fall hues. But as you look, you see the one or two occasional trees that are just a degree brighter then the rest, as if to say, “Hey, look at me! Am I not the most spectacular tree in the forest?”

Blackwater Falls is a WV State Park located at the northern reaches of the Monongahela National Forest. It is about nine miles south of the very southwestern tip of Maryland, where the eastern panhandle of WV begins. The waters of the Blackwater River are renamed several times as they flow north to become the Monongahela and later merge with the Allegheny to form the Ohio. The last time I was here, I was a teenager with a teenager’s interest. Seeing it again is seeing it anew. Even better is seeing the glee and excitement in Carol’s face as she experiences this for the first time and hopefully, not the last.