Fall Color in West Virginia

Fall is slow in showing itself even in the higher elevations of southeastern West Virginia where we visited last week.

Here's the Greenbriar River near Lewisburg.

There's an 80 mile rail trail along the river. We were near the southern end.

Lots of leaves underfoot but coming off the trees before coloring up.

When it started to rain we returned to the car and went for a drive.  GPS took us the shortest way which was a one lane paved road that became crush and run gravel then just gravel and dirt.  Then the GPS decided it didn't know where we were.  The two track lane with weeds growing in the middle was disappearing in front of us.  With a careful turn around we retrace our steps. 

This church, unnamed, was along that road.

Return to Three Otters Eco Retreat

My extended family returned to Three Otters for a family reunion in mid-August.

We were there for the first time last year.  Visit here to read about that.

You never know what the weather will be like in August but we lucked out with mid 80º days and cool nights.  (The week after we got back the temps climbed much higher.)

The owner of Three Otters said of all their visitors, my family enjoys the water most and it makes her heart sing to see how much fun we have on the Potomac River.

The kayaks were constantly in use.

The canoes too.

Even the dogs loved the water and we had three come this year, one all the way from San Francisco.

Here a scene of the water's edge from the perspective of a canoe.

Dan and I took a canoe upriver.  The current was strong and the water was higher this year but oh, so lovely.

Here is the one yurt, two more will be in place for next year.

Three tent cottages were new this year.  They had front porches.

Dan and I stayed in this vintage trailer, the yellow one, and my brother and sister in law from Arizona stayed in the other one.

Just sitting with feet in the water and talking was a delight.

Tubes were enjoyed too.

Dan didn't quite fit into the kayak, legs too long.

Have you ever seen bubbles bounce on the water?  These did.

Thirty members made it this year.  Next year we hope to have more come because this was less than half of the total.

If you want to find out more visit their website: Three Otters Eco Retreat.  Just don't book the place when we plan to return there.

By the way my blogging time is being limited these days by other commitments and responsibilities, one of which is helping the new parents of our third granddaughter.  I'll get here as often as I can.

Paw Paw Tunnel

Paw Paw is the name of a West Virginia town on the banks of the Potomac River.  It gives its name to the tunnel that takes the C & O Canal through a mountain on the Maryland side of the river.

The C & O Canal was an attempt to transport good and resources from the west (Ohio) to the eastern seaboard.  It never made it to Ohio despite its name and it never made a profit because the B & O Railroad offered a faster option.

Now the C & O Canal is known as a National Park and the tow path is used by hikers and bikers to travel from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC.

We walked to the Paw Paw Tunnel on a wet Friday afternoon.  It was the day we were to arrive at our reunion site, Three Otters Eco Retreat, which is downriver from Paw Paw.

We checked out this old looking pump which didn't produce any water.

The tunnel took way too long to build and was over budget considerably, another factor in the failure of the canal business model.  Read more here.

There was no water in this portion of the canal.

A view of the Potomac.

You need flashlights to walk through the tunnel.  Fortunately the sign said that in the parking lot.

It's built of brick.  The tow path through it is definitely a modern version.

At the opposite end the tunnel was closed off for repairs so we turned around and retraced our steps.

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Tuesday Treasures

Wordless Wednesday Catches Tuesday Treasures - Shots of Harper's Ferry.

Tuesday Treasures