OCR history Archives - Opossum Creek Retreat

How I Fell in Love in September in West Virginia

I fell in love in West Virginia in September and you should too.

The year and the date are a little fuzzy, but I do remember the place. I traveled a lot back then. I had just rolled in from Montana, in the dark chased down a windy two-lane road by a coal truck. The next morning I hit some raft companies up for a job. Late in the day an owner of one of the companies was walking out the door when I pulled up. You a guide? Yes. Where from? Montana. Really, they have white water there? Catfish hired me on the spot, not for my river resume but “based on the collection of cassette tapes on your dashboard”. I was on the river the next day.

Yes, the Gauley River is everything it is made out to be!

over-hill-dusk — Falling in love in West Virginia

The river I was ready for. The tall drink of water from UVA I was not.

But that is another love story. This particular story is about West Virginia’s New River Gorge National River and Gauley River National Recreation Area in the fall.

Why You Should Visit WV in September

September anywhere is a great month. It is fantastic here.

I must admit I had some preconceived prejudices about WV. Some of them were well deserved. Some were unfounded. But all add to the character that makes this place so wonderful.

My first year here, I had only two or three days of work per week and got to spend the rest of the time exploring, fishing, hiking, golfing, and biking. I thought this was a wonderful place to visit; lots of very high caliber activities. As everyone knows, the Gauley River is world class and that has not changed, never will.

What has changed (and is not so well-known) is that everything else is just as good.

Really! Just as good. I am not bragging (okay I am), but my passport looks like someone used it to test stamps at the factory. I have spent time in 46 of our states. This place, our place, The New River Gorge Area, what I now call home, has something really good for everyone. Well almost (don’t show up looking for carnival rides, t-shirt shops, and rubber tomahawks).

We even have more really good restaurants than you could get sick of in a year, let alone a weekend.

I am having a hard time separating these two love stories. You see, Catfish did another favor for me a few weeks into that first September. He introduced me to that tall drink of water from UVA, my future wife. I am forever grateful for both favors.

This September will mark 20 some years for these two loves. There is something here that you will love too. Come test my theory.

Are You Prejudiced Against Trees?

The New River Gorge (our backyard) is filled with trees. So what’s one more?

What follows is the story of our Royal Paulownia Tree, AKA the Princess Tree, and its life at Opossum Creek Retreat…

It’s weird to think that, if you packed your china in some seed pods to protect them (the original packing peanuts) on the long journey to your new job, that hundreds of years later your packing peanuts’ offspring might attack someone’s building foundation!

Science fiction its not.

Immigrants from the Far East used the seed pods from the Royal Paulownia Tree or Empress Tree as packing peanuts for a long time. Trains rattling up and down the New River Gorge brought in goods from all over the world to the people who lived in the great river valley (mostly the mine managers and owners). When the recipients opened their boxes, the seeds fell out on the ground.

Those seeds love disturbed soil like along train tracks or all around new towns like the ones being built during the coal mining days. Or, you know, next to the foundation of The Meadows Cabin. We found the damage the tree had caused when we excavated and put in a new drain system in preparation for the timber frame great room addition.

Now, the tree in question was a favorite, and anyone who’s been to Opossum Creek Retreat knows that we go a long way to blend the cabins into the rest of the environment. I mean, some of the trees are ridiculously close to where we built, but what can I say? I’m a tree hugger.

The Paulonwia is “an invasive plant species”, and to some that means it should be eradicated. The likelihood of that happening is about as high as getting rid of Starlings (I like them too). While it is not native, it’s been here for a long, long time. I wonder how long something has to be in a place to be from there?

It is doing very well here, and lots of people (including me) like the tree. It’s beautiful. I’m sure that way back when, even before us humans, things got moved around and took up residence wherever that volcano or hurricane blew them. Did that make them invasive? Just sayin’.

If a plant or animal happens to have ended up someplace new, with or without human help, is it really invasive? Or is it just part of evolution, in the long run? I’m sure some people will always look at newcomers to an area as invasive. But I guess that’s a rant for another blog.

I’m not saying invasive species don’t exist. They do. But I sure did hate to cut down our Princess Tree.

How We Accidently Built The Best Cabins In The New River Gorge

Well, I never would have guessed I’d be living here in West Virginia.

Really. I was too cool (obviously!), and West Virginia is, well, ah, let’s see… how do I put this… it has some stigmas attached to it, and some of them are true.

Two decades ago, I wasn’t in the mountain cabin rental business. I was a guide. I was just stopping by West Virginia for Gauley Season, on my way to guide the Bio Bio in Chile. What happened was, see, I met this woman, and… well, that’s really another story.

But I’ll say this: after two years of showing her all the cool places someone might want to live like Chile, Costa Rica, Montana, Utah, and Arizona, she wanted to move back to the New River Gorge!

I was a carpenter/odd jobs guy to make ends meet in between raft guiding seasons. One day, there was an ad in the paper for a house and two acres for $12,000! It looked like we could fix it up and sell it, or rent it to raft guides. How can you go wrong for $12,000? Seriously!

My father-in-law, ever willing to see me work harder, gladly put up the money. Partway through the tear out (we took it down to the studs, pulled out the wiring, and gutted the plumbing too) we saw a brochure for Mill Creek Cabin rentals. I can remember thinking, if we furnish it and fix it up nice we could rent this old farm house to just about anyone!

After talking to the raft companies to see if there was any demand for those types of rentals, we decide to fix it up and rent it nightly to rafters visiting the New River. We knew right away we wanted to do more, and two years later, a house and 20 acres became available just around the corner. The land was laid out perfectly for my vision of providing a secluded little place for people to relax, surrounded by mother nature.

Now, I’m the first to admit that I was never a very good carpenter. But I was lucky to have some very good ones help me. The one who helped (?!) most was Whitey. Whitey is as close as I’ve ever seen to a “master” carpenter. He once said to another carpenter working on the job after seeing me up and down a ladder in the same spot for the better part of the day, “You know, I believe Geoff will keep %$#@ing it up until he gets it right”.

I was too much of a perfectionist, and nowhere near enough skill. Story of my life, right? Anyway, I was very happy to have Whitey, and Craig, and lots of lots of others make my ideas take shape. The first two cabins where designed on the proverbial bar napkin over a few beers, and went up with the help of great guys like them. They were ready to go at the beginning of our third year in the cabin rental biz.

That’s how things started. But I had no idea what was coming next.

(TO BE CONTINUED…)