Collecting Rocks in the Appalachian Mountains (Part 3)

Most of the time when I travel, I am with friends or family, or people I get along with really well. Traveling for work is a different story as there is a goal to complete and it must be done on time and budget. I noticed that tensions were mounting while we hiked to sampling sites near Wolf Notch in the George Washington National Forest after camping out during a torrential rain storm. They got even worse at Lost River State Park in West Virginia (a beautiful park!). The peak of this heightened tension happened climax at one of the most beautiful sites we visited: Seneca Rocks, West Virginia.

Seneca Rocks is right in the middle of the Monongahela National Forest and is a giant slab of hard quartz sandstone jutting up from the otherwise rounded hillside. It is a climbers mecca, though it has its own storied history of disastrous climbing attempts. We got to Seneca Rocks in the late afternoon and decided to collect a few samples from the top of the sandstone ridge.

At the base of the trail going up to Seneca Rocks, WV

At the top of the ridge, collecting samples.

I try not to be a snob when I'm outdoors enjoying the natural world, but sometimes I see other people on the trail who just ruin the experience for me, and I wish they had just stayed at home. On the way up the trail, we passed a family of four, who I could not for the life of me figure out what their motivation for being there was at all! The mother was chain smoking and cussing up a storm, telling her severely overweight husband to keep their two kids under control. He was sweating up a storm and to refresh himself, he stopped and cracked open a cold Mountain Dew, which quickly got his kids' attention and they got their own cans, guzzled them down, and bounced around the trail, screaming more loudly than before, thus making the mother mutter even more profanities under her breath. Needless to say, we passed this family quickly in order to enjoy even just a few minutes of silence at the top to enjoy the view of the surrounding valleys. I feel conflicted when thinking about these types of encounters. When I see people smoking on a hiking trail, "hydrating" with Mountain Dew, and kids playing WWE while stomping on delicate vegetation I can never decide whether I should be glad that they are taking a break from their otherwise sedentary lifestyle or angry that they are not really appreciating their surroundings. I usually give them the benefit of the doubt and am glad, but these people had no sense of how to behave on the trail and I was just absolutely angry with them, especially when I picked up a few pieces of candy bar wrappers on my way back down the trail...

The town of Seneca Rocks from the top of Seneca Rocks

North Branch of the Potomac River meandering past Seneca Rocks

Charles and I found a nice wide open campsite just south of Seneca Rocks for the night and the next morning we collected a few samples for him and continued north just a little bit to collect some more rocks from the opposite end of the mountain ridge from Seneca Rocks. Chimney Rocks became one of my favorite sampling sites we visited. The large square pillars of stone rose up from the landscape above the treeline providing spectacular views. It really was the perfect day for hiking. It was not hot, but we were comfortable in shorts and tees. It was on this hike that Charles and I had it out about what was bothering us about the trip thus far. I felt bad because I remember thinking that I had never been in a more picturesque location with more perfect weather for what we were doing and all he could think about was the budget. I knew there was nothing I could do except let him vent his frustrations, and while he hiked back to the car in what I thought at the time to be a record descent-time from the mountain, I took my time, enjoying the warm breeze, chirping birds, and kept my eyes out for other signs of wildlife.

Chimney Rocks, West Virginia

 

Sampling rocks hundreds of feet above the valley at Chimney Rocks

Definitely some of my more scenic sampling sites!

The budget pretenses my classmate, Charles, and I thought we were under created a scenario for a few days in the middle of our field season where we did not really talk to each other. For me, I didn't see our budget as being an issue. So we carried on to the western pan handle of Maryland.

Maryland is a state of extremes and the pan handle could not be any more different than the peaceful woodlands south of DC. The small towns along the Potomac River were industry towns based around mining and logging. What was even more different was crossing back over into West Virginia for a few of Charles samples. Though the Maryland towns seemed to be run down and sooty, at least they were inhabited. The minute you cross back into West Virginia, the towns were empty, windows were boarded up, and plants of all sorts were growing out of empty windows and door frames. Nowhere was this more evident than the towns of Westernport, MD and Keyser, WV. It seemed like most of the industry jobs were in West Virginia but the employees were mostly living in Maryland. So while Westernport had fast food restaurants and stores, Keyser had been abandoned. Though left behind to decay through years of uselessness, I imagine an artistic photographer, antique collector, or an urban explorer would have a field day. There was a sort of spell cast on some of these architecturally stunning buildings with ornate wood trim, stone foundations, and brickwork that made me want to stay - or at least wish that a group of affluent city folk would see what I saw and fix up the storefronts, creating a little Appalachian tourist town. It definitely has the potential; all it needs is the care and will.

Soon, we were done collecting samples from the Potomac River Basin. Charles had gotten all that he needed and I could not find any more suitable rock outcrops to chip bits off from. We camped out one more night in Maryland before heading up to Pennsylvania where I had a handful more sites from which I wanted to collect samples.