August the 22d we reached Cheat River in West Virginia, a large, clear
mountain trout-brook. It crossed our path many times that day. Every
mountain we crossed showed us Cheat River on the other side of it. It
was flowing by a very devious course northwest toward the Ohio. We were
working south and east.
We made our camp that night on the grounds of the Cheat Mountain Club,
on the banks of the river--an ideal spot. The people at the big
clubhouse gave us a hospitable welcome and added much to our comfort. I
found the forests and streams of this part of West Virginia much like
those of the Catskills, only on a larger scale, and the climate even
colder. That night the mercury dropped to thirty. On June the 24th they
had a frost that killed all their garden truck. The paper outlines of
big trout which covered the walls in the main room of the clubhouse told
the story of the rare sport the club-members have there. Evidently Cheat
River deserves a better name.
The mountains and valleys of the Virginias all present a marked
contrast to those of New York and Pennsylvania. They were not rubbed
down and scooped out by the great ice-sheet that played such a part in
shaping our northern landscapes. The valleys are markedly V-shaped,
while ours are markedly U-shaped. The valley sides are so steep that
they are rarely cultivated; the farm land for the most part lies on the
tops of the broad, rounded hills, though we passed through some broad,
open river valleys that held miles upon miles of beautiful farms in
which hay and oats were still being harvested. Everywhere were large
fields of buckwheat, white with bloom, and, I presume, humming with
bees.
Here and there, by the rocks and the boulders strewn over the landscape,
I saw evidences of large local glaciers that had hatched in these
mountains during the great Ice Age.
We made camp at Bolar Springs on August the 23d--a famous spring, and a
beautiful spot. We pitched our tents among the sugar maples, and some of
the party availed themselves of the public bathhouse that spanned the
overflow of the great spring. The next night our camp was at Wolf Creek,
not far from the Narrows--a beautiful spot, marred only by its proximity
to the dusty highway. It was on the narrow, grassy margin of a broad,
limpid creek in which the fish were jumping. Some grazing horses
disturbed my sleep early in the morning, but on the whole I have only
pleasant memories of our camp at Wolf Creek.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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