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It’s still August. It’s still hot. It’s still time to cool off in a mountain swimmin’ hole. For families, I can’t think of a better place to spend the weekend than Monongahela National Forest’s Blue Bend Recreation Area a few miles north of White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia. It has a trail that is [...]

When I was a kid we spent a week every summer near Ocean City Maryland. Many summers, our maternal grandfather would be part of our vacation. I remember holding his hand at the edge of the ocean—giggling and screaming as the salty waves crashed at our feet. “White Water,” we would yell in unison trying [...]

It’s August. It’s hot. It’s time to go swimming. Yes, a swimming pool is ok if that’s all you can get to, but who wants to put up with all that chlorine and crowds of screaming kids? I say head to the hills and a good ol’ swimmin’ hole. Being from West Virginia, I’m going [...]

Take a video tour of the Via Ferrata located at West Virginia’s Nelson Rocks Preserve.

Watch Ride Stride owner Luke Hopkins offer stand up paddleboarding instruction.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Hiking West Virginia program in which you are awarded a walking stick merely for taking hikes in the state parks, forests, and wildlife management areas. I’ve found a few other states that offer similar programs. Georgia sponsors the Canyon Climbers Club. The membership fee is $10 and [...]

Are you goal-oriented? Do you like to mark progress as you work toward a goal, and then be given a something-you-can-actually-hold-in-your-hands reward once achieved? If so, enroll in two programs offered by West Virginia’s Division of Natural Resources. They involve something you already like doing—hiking—and as you work on one goal you can be accumulating [...]

For over a decade, Great Eastern Trail visionaries have been patching together an 1800-mile alternative path to the A.T., mostly using existing trail systems and building trails to fill gaps when necessary. Until recently, a 250-mile stretch between Kentucky and West Virginia was completely void of any viable footpath. So the Great Eastern Trail Association [...]

In early February the Nature Conservancy purchased 13,350 acres in Virginia’s Dragon Run Swamp. The purchase from the Hancock Timber Group resulted in the biggest conservation easement in Commonwealth history. Dragon Run is an ecologically diverse gem in the Chesapeake Bay area—a tidal cypress swamp with 90 species of birds and 55 species of fish. [...]

It has been quite a few years since I first set foot on the Appalachian Trail. As I stepped forth from Springer Mountain on that early spring day, I was ready to revel in the grand scenery of the mountains, the far-off vistas, the roaring waterfalls, the crimson-gold sunsets. Oh, I might occasionally stop to [...]

The race that started 24-hour mountain bike racing has been cancelled this year. West Virginia’s 24 Hours of Big Bear, which started as 24 Hours of Canaan in 1992, has been idled in 2010 by race founder and promoter Laird Knight. A sign of the tough economic times, Knight stated in a press release that [...]

West Virginia delegate John Doyle has introduced a bill (HB4192) that, if passed, would create a West Virginia Ski Resort Industry Commission designed to identify potential locations for new ski resorts, according to a recent article by the Charleston Gazette. The Mountain State currently has four downhill resorts that bring in 800,000 tourists and $250,000 [...]

We’ve had unprecedented amounts of early-season powder here in the Southeast. There’s been a constant base of snow in the high elevations near BRO’s NC office for almost a month. Canaan Valley, W.Va. has gotten 114 inches of snow already. Snowshoe Mountain Resort has gotten even more. The constant base on the mountain tops have [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about cross-country skiing between Herrington Manor and Swallow Falls State Parks in western Maryland. It’s a good, minimally crowded destination, but unless volunteers have found the time to do so, more than likely the route won’t be groomed, meaning you may have to break trail—not one of the [...]

Get to your local ski shop and get the gear ready—the Southern ski season is upon us. Temps are going to drop as the end of the week approaches with snow expected in the Virginias. Snowshoe Mountain already has the guns blazing and lifts will start running this Saturday, December 5. The same goes for [...]