West Virginia Backpacking Adventure!

this week we're in the beautiful state of West Virginia we're going to be climbing way on top of things way down below things and we're going to meet some really cool people in between I'm Mike thinkink and I am stuck in a crack kind of got a lavender taste to it it tastes like it looks this is a copperhead I'm going to get a big stick what is there to say this is breathtaking I can see why that's called the birth canal woo on un [Music] believable hey there good morning how's it going going good how you doing very good so tell me a bit about where we're at Lewis Farm where we're standing is a 100 Acre Farm site we grow over 75 varieties of vegetables and flowers all organic um most of which goes to our restaurant in town Max Bingo kitchen and to the wardensville Garden Market a sister business as well so we started off the day by going to Lewis Farm where I got to meet Hannah who oversees a lot of the farm operations she taught me a lot about the kinds of vegetables that are being grown there and I even got to taste test some too which was really fun you're never really e can gar look like this before normally when I see it it's just in the little can that I buy she even showed me which flowers are edible and I was very surprised because some of those flowers were really good kind of got a lavender taste to it it tastes like it looks we walked around the farm she took me through the green houses she showed me what they had been growing that year and she showed me some chickens as well it's got roller Windows did you kill it cut that please don't cut that I swear I never stole it's not my first day Farm TR wonders is such a cool project this project started with 10 youth in 2016 started a little farm youth were working on the farm there for that summer and an idea came up of what if we add a baked good to this got some other products and so the idea of the market was born we introduced a glass blowing studio in 2021 and just uh last August we opened up Max Bingo kitchen as our full service restaurant we believe that youth have inherent interests which we call Sparks and if we combine that spark with opportunities and relationships they have the best chance to Thrive and and find their unique contribution to the world hey hey how's it going I'm Mike Byron Gaylor nice to meet you so after going to Lewis Farm we went to Dakota glassw Works Byron took me through the process of how to blow glass and ask me if I wanted to try and make something myself which of course I did so I'm opening this furnace sticking a hot pipe in there turning one two three back and down and I'm coming out so I'm always turning the glass right here once I stop turning it falls right off that's why we always want to turn that's why we're always turning we're going as fast as we possibly can Heating and reheating this glass so that I'm able to shape it into the desired shape which I kind of wanted to make a flower but I don't think it looks like one you know what it was my first time I'll give myself a little bit of slack it doesn't look great but it is mine [Music] so we are here and we're going to hike up to this Lookout Point and then scramble our way up to the North Point here is this the trail or is this just a picnic spot we've arrived this is it the peak I think we got to go this way The senar Rock hike was really beautiful the woods were extremely dense you get some extremely dense extremely Lush vegetation out here in West Virginia there's tons of life there's tons of water the entire Place feels so alive it was a pretty Misty hike on the way up a little bit of rain not much nothing bad and then we got up to the top and we were greeted with some of the most beautiful views standing out there on the the ridge line on top of cynica rocks what is there to say this is breathtaking it's funny how you stand on Solid Ground and you're not falling anywhere you're not worried about it in the slightest but the second you get somewhere where you don't want to fall all of a sudden standing up straight becomes a little bit more difficult it's just beautiful up here you can see the clouds breaking feel like we're kind of above everything and this is beautiful cynica [Music] rocks we're in downtown Lewisburg lots of Southern Charm cafes restaurants art shops everything you'd imagine in a picturesque little southern [Music] town so right now we're on one of West Virginia's manyi rail Trails what they've done is they've taken these old railroads that weren't in use anymore stripped them out and then replac them with these nice easy to walk Trails they're all over the place kind of a big thing in the South I know we had them in Tennessee and North Carolina as well anytime you see a long straight kind of green belt it's about as wide as you'd imagine that an old train track might have been chances are it's a rail trail we're on our way to a waterfall we have the GPS coordinates and we might be heading in the wrong direction but it's a beautiful day outside so you know not too worried about [Music] [Music] that beautiful that'll wake you up a little bit Lost World Caverns is a large underground Cavern system that attracts thousands of tourists every year there's a large chamber with ceilings over 100 ft High massive stalagtites and stalagmites and you can learn a lot about the underground ecosystem of the caves in this region can you finally clear it up what is a stag Tite versus what is a stag Mite um the way we like to remember it around here um stag tights hold on tight to the ceiling so it's hanging down and sagmit you might trip over it so they're growing up if you so choose you can go on a guided wild cave tour where you hop the fence and actually proceed into the depths of the cavern you've got to go with a guide but it provides a much more adventurous caving experience if that's what you're looking for lost R Caverns was founded in 1942 um it was founded when a farmer found this hole and he started using it as a garbage hole through everything from household trash to cattle um until eventually there were some Virginia Tech college students in the area um they repelled down in and found one of the most beautiful formation dense caves around ever since it's been an attraction for people of all over so here behind me is the funnel this is our first like real squeeze um it's not too bad we'll fit through right pretty easy but with that you just want to kind of crab walk down on your butt make sure to watch your head watch your step um I'll let you know when it's safe to come through but you really just want to come down one at a time um if you don't you have a tendency to kick the person in the head and if they get revenge later I didn't see a thing it's amazing how quiet it gets you don't really hear quiet all that often in the above ground we got a cave cricket here they're so numerous down here that the rule of thumb the guides like to use is that there's one within every like 5T of you pretty much harmless just don't look him in the eyes they might charge they my charge if you've ever seen the movie Alien it's similar to that okay yeah just latch onto my face yeah cool that's fine I'm cool with that so what do we have here this is what we call a pit there's nothing really crazy about it but for a couple weeks out of the year in the early spring we get a lot of rainfall and snow melt and this thing will actually fill up to the brim um if you're on a wild tour while that is filled up will actually let you jump in um almost like a a coal plunge so this being groundwater filtered through the Earth would you say it's drinkable no so we're actually where we're not very far down actually um we're about 150 ft down right now um not far enough down for anything to filter out and we are directly underneath Farmland um if you want to do the math there probably has a little bit of cow dung in it but don't drink [Music] it all right Mike so we're getting ready to go through the birth canal um just to preface this this is one of the tighter squeezes we do have down here um also there's going to be about six inches of water towards the end so you are going to get a little wet cool but what you want to do is you just want to put your head and torso up on this side swing your legs around and then head on down all right see you on the other side see you on the other side oh boy so the birth canal is a very tight squeeze deep inside the cavern it's not something that I could do with both arms at my side I had to really like adjust myself and coming at an angle to be able to fit through this thing and the entire time you're in about 6 in of standing cold cave water I've done a lot in caves but being stuck in a tiny little space like that and soaking wet that's new for me and was really I can see why that's called the birth canalo and that's lost World Caverns super fun all right glad you guys thanks man thank you man a lot of cool history in there yeah and now we know the difference between stalagtites and stalagmites if you take nothing else from this take that with you and don't forget it again cuz I know you will right on hey thanks man thanks for coming [Music] today we are on the North Fork Trail heading into the cranberry Wilderness this is about a 13 14 mile Loop should make for good camping we're in another really interesting location you can see everything's really Lush it gets a lot of rain here so uh gortex is a good thing I'm not wearing gortex lot lots of life around here lots of flowers this is just another example of the many ecosystems you can see out here in West Virginia so hiking through the cranberry Wilderness there was so much Lush vegetation everything was dense everything was dark everything was alive the ground was soggy from where it just retained so much moisture we hiked alongside Creeks for a good bit of the hike so there was just tons of life animals deer all living in this little area that we were passing through we found a great spot but unfortunately somebody else found it first so now we're looking for a new place to make Camp preferably by this nice little creek here so we've picked our spot here now we're going to set up camp we're going to hang out by the river we're going to take it easy and most importantly we're going to eat might even have our s a nice little fire here and just kick back for the rest of the [Music] evening we're on a quest we're going to find some firewood and then we're going to do something fun we're going to make a fire with this fun little thing that I bought at REI the other day if I don't use my little fire kit and get a fire going it's going to be real embarrassing I had with me uh this really cool little fire in a can kit that used magnesium and a flint Striker so you could try to make fire the oldfashioned way and I did my absolute best but I couldn't do it um the odds were not in my favor I wound up resorting to uh cheating a little bit we're going to do it the oldfashioned way but you know what that's okay I'll get it next time [Music] good morning I don't know about you but I slept like a baby we're going to get a little breakfast this morning using my fun little pocket rocket stove there we go any new hikers out there you can be a coffee addict and still do this Starbucks never heard of it this is Mike bucks just like Mom used to [Music] make I've been able to keep my shoes mostly dry today let's see if I can keep it up might have to do a little Hopscotch here no biggie no big that was a little wobbly look at that it's almost like we went from regular Old West Virginia to the rainforest beautiful [Music] the trail on the way out was just as good as it was on the way in we were started off in this lowland marshy kind of area with really sloppy trails and eventually we got into some dry stuff and it was an easy and beautiful hike out [Music] [Music] Williams nice to meet you nice to meet you Brian tell me a bit about this place what do you do here so I'm the operations manager here at nro's Outdoor Adventures in Circleville West Virginia and um our primary activity is the VFR that we'll be checking out today via farada is an Italian phrase that essentially means the iron path it's a unique style of rock climbing that allows beginners much like yourself to experience this really extreme activity that's that's often inaccessible to inexperienced climbers and uh what kind of what kind of heights are we expecting once we get up there on the top so today the very highest point will be about 300 ft off the ground with views closer to about 600 ft right on let's get started awesome approaching inrocks you drive up into this long gravel driveway and you see cresting from up above the tree line these huge Rock bases just jutting over the tops of the mountains and I'm not not going to lie uh it gave me the heebie jeebies I've been on Plenty of High stuff before but the thought of scaling something so sheer is just a little bit intimidating so the VF route consists of the rock formation itself a lot of times today we'll have stainless steel steps and then most importantly we have this steel cable that's bolted into the Rock every few feet what do you think the most important rule is today I'd say the most important rule is to always be clipped in on at least one of these exactly I couldn't word that better myself most of the time we'll have two but whenever we have to transition as I'll show in a moment we temporarily have one that's fine one is plenty strong to catch us if we fall if I take them both off what is there to catch me if I fall the ground sure nothing essentially cool we find it's very important choose one hand one Carabiner then make sure to come back with that same hand for the second Carabiner that makes it very difficult to accidentally uncp the beginning of the climb is the most nerve-wracking part because you start at the bottom and you go straight up that was kind of unusual for me I don't know if it was Brian's excellent explanation or me just being exceptionally brave but I wasn't really that worried I hit the bottom of the Viera and went up have you looked down yet now I'm going to good and avoiding that for the most [Music] part so we're climbing up the Viera here and I'm starting to get used to it it's not as dicey as it looks I'm having a very good time out here so this bridge is about uh the halfway mark of our tour today the bridge is approximately 200 ft long and 150 ft above the ground and you can see it's composed of wooden wooden 2x4s with about a foot and a half between each one awesome how are you feeling about the bridge I'm loving it man good the bridge never never worried [Music] me so here we are on the Via fera Bridge it's uh it's a little wobbler than it looks I'm not sure if the camera is picking that up 100% yeah a it's cool it kind of feels like you're standing still and the bridge is moving underneath you it's a kind of a really weird feeling sort of sucks the wind out of you at first this is fun but I'm ready to be back on Solid [Music] Ground nice job Welcome To The Top thanks for coming out thanks buddy what' you think amazing unbelievable woo that's quite the drop got to love it West Virginia is a warm inviting State full of wonderful people and the variety that you get in the ecosystems out here is unlike a lot of other states Alpine forests there's dense lowland marshes there's big Rolling Hills and there's sharp Jagged Cliff edges all right there for you to explore there's a ton to do in West Virginia and it's all right here at your fingertips this has been an extremely varied week and it's one that I would happily have again and that's West Virginia we ate some stuff we made some stuff we went way beneath the surface of the Earth and we climbed way over top of it and we met some really cool people in between until next time I'm Mike f with epic trails and uh I'll catch you around [Music]