We did quite a bit of exploring today. We left our campground at Blackwater Falls State Park and headed on down towards our campground at Spruce Knob Lake. It didn’t seem very far from Blackwater Falls, and it wasn’t really. But what surprised us was that the road to the actual campground was a dirt road that we had to travel for about 20 miles, running alongside a stream almost the entire drive, off of the main road. The road went through the very, very tiny town of Whitmer, WV and then turned into gravel and dirt as it climbed up towards to top of Spruce Knob.
Once we finally made it to the campground, we were able to chat with the campground host, Mike, who was quite helpful. We had originally only booked one night at this site, with the idea that we would head out the next day and make it about halfway back towards the Blue Ridge Parkway to camp at another state park. Unfortunately, that state park where we were hoping to stay didn’t allow for reservations for only one night so we were hoping that there would just be a site available. At the time we didn’t realize that this night would be the Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend and that of course all the sites would be booked by the time we got there. So thankfully, Mike helped us go ahead and get a new site reserved for not only tonight but tomorrow night as well.
With peace of mind, we made our way out to explore Spruce Knob, the highest point in WV, and the nearby Seneca Rocks. The top of Spruce Knob was actually quite chilly but it was also very beautiful. We took a short hike from the parking lot to the observation tower and then out to a bit of an overlook. Again, the terrain here is a bit different than what we’re used to in the mountains of NC, making it all the more enjoyable. However, the dogs were not impressed.
Our next stop was Seneca Rocks at the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. Seneca Rocks is a very popular spot for rock climbers, but as we weren’t doing that and we wouldn’t have been able to hike all the way to the top (we’re blaming that on the dogs, haha), we chose instead to explore the Sites Homestead. The Sites home was originally built in 1839 and now the home remains open and directed in period style with the gardens also maintained as they would have been.
After visiting Seneca Rocks we made our way back to the campsite and incidentally found ourselves at Still Hollow Spirits, a distillery way out in the middle of nowhere in Job, WV. There’s a small handpainted sign on the road that leads to our campground that reads distillery with an arrow pointing to the left. On a whim, we decided to follow the signs and found ourselves driving up to beautiful meadows, rows of corn, chickens, cows, a great old farmhouse, and a newly built barn that housed the distillery. Still Hollow Spirits hasn’t been open for too long, but the owner was super nice and showed us around the entire place. They use corn from their own farm and spring water from a natural spring of their property to make corn and rye whiskey and gin. The owner let us sample all of them and we left with a bottle of gin. If you ever happen to find yourself close by, stop in and try it for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.
Our next plan was to stop alongside the stream on the way back to the campground and play in the water with the dogs for a while. Unfortunately, we hit another bump in the road, this time quite literally. We were driving along with the windows down and heard the familiar swoosh of a flat tire. Darn it.
But no worries. I’m thinking, “We’ve got a spare. We just need to get it out of the back of the truck, change the tire and we’ll be on our way.” Will came in for the win on this one though. He got out of the truck, pulled out his ARB tire repair kit, plugged the tire and blew it back up with the ARB air compressor. I didn’t really have to do anything really. And we were on our way again in no time at all.
We explored the Spruce Knob area a bit more since the tire seemed perfectly fine, walked around Spruce Knob Lake and then made our way back to our campsite. We’re still playing gin rummy in the evenings. Will is really starting to win. Like a lot. Maybe I’ll convince him that we should switch back to chess. Don’t tell him that it’s because I don’t want to lose at gin rummy.
We’re all looking forward to a zero-day tomorrow. We’ve got a great campsite with a large area of grass for the dogs and great trees for the hammocks.
Life in the right lane,
Rachel
P.S. Happy Birthday, Dad! We hope you had a great day!
DMG Exploration 