Hey there, It’s me, Keith from Opossum Creek Retreat. The Historic Fayette Theatre has been a big part of our winter/spring for quite some time. I haven’t been IN a production for the last two years, but still have managed to lend a hand in building sets etc. for the spring show. However, Geoff is enjoying time in the limelight this year, sharing the stage with BOTH of his kids, Erin and Cameron.
Geoff and Keith in Action
The bottom line is it’s a huge commitment. We take giving back to our community (in this case our community theater) very seriously and love to be involved. This is nothing new, and I’ve written about it before.
Last year we offered our guests tickets to the show; they loved it. So once again, this spring we’re offering our guests who would like to see the show (and trust us, you do), free tickets to a performance during your stay here at Opossum Creek Retreat. Mention this offer when you make your reservation and we will include tickets for your group during your stay. The show is playing several dates the last two weeks in March. There are plenty of great places to eat right within walking distance of the theatre, so make an evening of it and enjoy dinner and show!
The Wild, Wild, Wildest West
Warning: Shows are often SOLD OUT! The Spring show, produced by Millie Petersen and her hand picked crew, almost always sells out. It has grown in popularity so much that people come from all over to see these shows.
Past productions include Cinderella, Jack and the Giant, Oz, Way out West in a Dress, Doo Wop Wed Widing Hood, The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree (after my roll in this play, I was recognized 3 states away). All shows are family friendly.
This year’s production is “Wild Wild Wildest West”, directed by Sharon Bibb, produced by Millie Peterson, and featuring a talented cast. Best of all? See our own Geoff Heeter as “Snydly Dastardly”!
Doug Arbogast is an adjunct faculty member of Bridgemont Community and Technical College and Principal of Travel Green Appalachia. He promotes authentic and sustainable travel experiences in Appalachia on his blog – www.travelgreenappalachia.com.
I was fortunate to be a participant in a working retreat at Opossum Creek Retreat last week. The retreat brought in faculty and staff from Bridgemont Community and Technical College in Montgomery, WV to refine and refocus their Sustainability Awareness Training curriculum.
Meet in Comfort
In order to practice what we preach, we looked for a locally owned and operated venue suitable for a group of 10-20 to do some brainstorming for a few days. Geoff and Keith graciously offered to host our retreat and provide food for the group at a price comparable to the chain hotel options we considered.
Here’s why you too should consider Opossum Creek Retreat for your next corporate retreat:
First Class Service
Warm cookies awaiting us on arrival, attention to every detail, logo mugs and stickers, and a guided tour of the property show that they truly care about and appreciate each guest.
Craftsmanship
Hand crafted cabins from locally milled timber where each piece of wood, from the trim to the tables, has a story.
Ownership
I doubt you’d find the owners of any chain hotel awake before you are making your breakfast.
Buy Local
Leakage occurs when the dollars you spend leak out of the community. OCR is locally owned and operated. At OCR the dollars you spend trickle down to other community businesses they support like West Virginia Fruit and Berry Sparkling Cider, Happy Trails Café, Red Roof Farm Jam, and Blue Smoke Salsa.
Farm to Table
Get to know the chickens that laid the eggs you ate for breakfast.
*When you spend $100 in a national chain only $43 stays in the community. The rest leaks out to the national headquarters or suppliers which are located elsewhere.
*When you spend the same $100 in a locally owned, independent business $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures.
We ventured into downtown Fayetteville, WV and put more of our money into the community by enjoying some handcrafted pizza and local brews at Pies and Pints.
If you consider the impact of your business (or leisure) trips and not only the ability to accomplish the goals of your retreat but also the quality of the experience then I encourage you to seek out venues like OCR for your next retreat.
Check out the OCR Facebook page for testimonials from some of the retreat participants.
Oh, and did I mention what its like to sit in a hot tub in the cool winter air, under a clear night sky, filled with stars and void of light pollution after a full day of meetings?
The beauty of this area is all it takes to understand why the Boy Scouts of America chose to locate their newest camp here in the New River Gorge. Access to so many awesome outdoor activities is what makes it even more special.
The Summit Bechtel Reserve is the 4th High Adventure Base Camp for the Boy Scouts in the United States. The enormity ($400,000,000) of the project is incredible. The 10,000 acre camp is going to thrust the scouts into the future in a magnificent way.
And the reasons that the Scouts chose the New River Gorge as their camp location are the very same reasons this area is great for anyone who enjoys outdoor activities.
The New River Gorge National Park offers truly world class activities in a big way:
Whitewater
Rock climbing
Mountain Biking
Small Mouth Bass Fishing
Darn close to world class (you know I am going to get in trouble for this distinction):PC Loves The Bechtel Summit
Hiking
Camping
Hunting
Bridge Walk
ATV Trails
Zip Lines
Driving tours
Coal History
Waterfalls
Why not at the same time?
The Boy Scouts report that 50,000 scouts will visit every year in all seasons in small groups. We hope these scouts families will stick around after they drop the kids at High Adventure Camp.
But the big scout event here is the 2013 National Jamboree, which will draw 250,000 people to our area July 15-24 2013. Trust us, it will be crazy. We are excited and a little afraid of the unknown. This area does not play host to that many people all summer let alone in a two week period.
So what we’re trying to say is if you are not coming specifically for the Jamboree then you will want to pick another time to visit.
The Boy Scouts trust us enough to spend four hundred million dollars here.
Holy. Moly. I know I’ve got rental cabins and everything, but it’s Gauley Season.
You know the river I’m talking about? On of the 10 best white water rafting rivers in the world? With more than 100 rapids on it? And 5 (some people say 6) Class V rapids in between all those other ones?
The infamous Pillow Rock rapid on the Gauley River.
How can I explain it? Gauley Season is just a special time around here. First of all, the weather changes. Summer is awesome, but the humidity can be, um, thick. When it’s time for the Gauley River, all that humidity disappears like mist below Sweet’s Falls (that’s one of the Class Vs).
Then, the leaves start changing. They begin maybe the weekend after Gauley Season starts, which is always the weekend after Labor Day, and tend to hit their peak on Bridge Day Weekend, which is always the last or right after last weekend of Gauley Season. And if you’ve never seen the leaves turn in the Mountain State, all I can say is please please please please please come to see them. They’re that good.
But if there’s one thing about Gauley Season that’s better than anything else, it’s the people. Better than the river itself, even.
No, not really. But close. I love the people of Gauley Season. Everyone’s in a better mood, excited, super-friendly… like we’re all sharing a great secret or something.
The entrance to some family fun at the Burning Rock Outdoor Adventure Park.Cool shirts. Plus, they put on a great soccer camp
As a rental cabin owner guy, you get certain perks. This is a post about one of them.
Burning Rock Outdoor Adventure Park had invited The Opossum Creek Retreat Adventure Team ™ (that’s us) to test drive their Brand New Dual racing Zip line.
Having been a stranger in a strange land, I know it can make you do strange things. So I asked the coaches from our kid’s soccer camp, Challenger Sports (all from England) if they would like to peg the adrenaline meter with us on a zip line and they said “Yep we’re in!” And then they immediately said, “What’s a zip line?”
Thanks to Burning Rock’s hospitality they said yea, bring on the Brits too!
The Burning Rock zipline is always safety first.
There is something really great about taking people outside their comfort zone; when you do, it’s easier for everybody to just laugh out loud at themselves and at each other. Just another great thing about living in the mountains
Burning Rock has the fastest, longest zipline east of the Rockies, and I’ll say this about it: it feels like you’re flying.
View from top of Burningrock zip line over looking camp ground ATV track ready for burning rocks 2500 foot zip line.
Personally, I think it could be longer and faster. Hey, Woody (Duba, Burning Rock GM): I know you have a spot picked out. Go bigger next time, huh? (People say my sarcasm is endearing).
What else can you say? If you like speed, and thrills, and doing things you’ve never done before, and West Virginia, then this is for you. If you don’t like that stuff, you should probably stay home. Or maybe watch it on youtube.
What’s also cool about Burning Rock is the 8000-or-so acres and 100+ miles of West Virginia ATV trails. I’m not a huge ATV guy, but I like to ride every now and then, and I think it’s going to be a blast to take my kids.
In the past, we had sent guests down to the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System, which is a pretty cool place in its own right. But it was a fairly long drive to get there, and the system down there is actually several different trail systems, all connected together. Burning Rock is more of a one stop shop. Rentals, guides, gear… everything you need.
I’m definitely looking forward to what Opossum Creek Retreat guests have to say about it. Almost as much as I’m looking forward to going back myself.
The New River Gorge is surrounded by small towns, and it’s perfect for the 4th of July. I came from a much bigger place, but a lot of the traditions are the same.
Back in the day I can remember weaving red, white and blue crape paper through the spokes of my bicycle.
Like this, but with more fireworks.
A couple baseball cards taped strategically to the rear forks created the sounds of the motor as they slapped the passing spokes. And a couple of American flags attached to the handle bars.
It meant we were ready for the parade.
All the neighborhood kids got together and rode along with the parade as it went through town, displaying our patriotism and cheering on the veterans and others who marched. Back then I knew the definition of the holiday and why we celebrate it. But it wasn’t until much later that I would understand the true meaning, sacrifice, and perseverance that it represented.
The day always ended with a fireworks display of some kind. Some years it was a magnificent display with a grand finale that left us in awe. Other years it was a neighbor with some illegally imported fireworks that they set off in their back yard (sometimes I was the neighbor).
My favorite memories of the 4th of July are when families got together and celebrated together. Kids running around the yard with sparklers (as a parent I would discourage this), marshmallows over a campfire, hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill. You know, the stereotypical 4th of July that you’d see advertised most everywhere. Watching my daughter Alex when she was six or seven years old holding a sparkler, imitating the Statue of Liberty while singing the Star Spangled Banner, still makes me smile.
If you’re in our neck of the woods around the 4th of July, these 5 tips will help you have the best ever.
Make sure you have family and friends around you that you like.
A hike in the Gorge is a great way to start the day.
Having a really cool, clean comfortable cabin to curl up with your clan is a must.
Okay, okay. This post is about the river, not the Cabins rentals. (Biased? Me biased?)
I have my PHD in rivertrip-ology. Really. I guided trips for a living/lifestyle for many years on many rivers in several countries. Rafting was very very good to me. I still occasionally take my family out for a New River Family rafting adventure (they’re still too young to drive or they would take themselves).
WE love taking first timers. This is how we like to go about a day on the river:
Best Family White Water Trip
First and foremost is safety. Gear is checked. The kids deliver the safety talk to newbies, and if there aren’t any new bees, they give it to each other and us. It’s a ritual that takes place before each trip. Commercial or private.
Then we’re off, or, y’know, on, depending on how you look at it. You shove off but are on the river, anyway.
I really believe that everyone should start out with a mellow float trip first. Relaxing into it, getting a feel for the way the raft moves on the current. Becoming comfortable with the vocabulary, the pace, the fun. Feel your paddle move the raft. The buck and the dip as you slip down a wave train into a rapid, the tug of an eddyline as you pull into shore for a break, eating in your lap while sitting on a rock, swimming (floating) in your lifejacket- that’s a PFD (personal floatation device) for you professionals out there, standing up in the raft and not worrying you’re going to fall out.
Family and freinds Rafting the New River
After a while you’ll feel comfortable enough to enjoy the views. All these things make it easier to enjoy the big stuff when you get there, if you ever get there. We rarely get there anymore. Not just because we have kids that are just getting to the point they are big enough to self rescue, but it’s less stressful and more fun on the easy stuff.
Quality time for Father and Son Swiming with Dad on the New River WV
Don’t get me wrong. You can still get in a whole lot of trouble on the easy stuff that’s why we do the safety talk every time.
The industry has taken its cue from the guests and shortened trips to maximize the thrill factor. For my money and yours, you should take the time to start slow and easy. Get warmed up with a day on the Upper New. Then, if the kids are excited and really ready, meaning you don’t have to talk them into it, go for the Lower New.
But take a day’s rest in between. Don’t over schedule your activities plan in some downtime.
Here is the itinerary I would book for my family knowing what I know now.
Pull into The Gorge area before dark and go to the bridge over look check out the NPS visitor center. Get a feel for the area our history and culture. It’s well worth it. Then, go check in at the cabin, cook something on the grill, and soak off the day in the hot tub.
Day 1: Book the earliest trip you can get on the Upper New. Enjoy the day with your family. Swim, laugh, and relax. Take in the views.
Day 2: Back on dry land. Take a hike go out to eat. Rest up with a book or movie in the cabin. If you’re feeling adventurous, go rappel with New River Mount Guides or canopy tour (there are several in the area).
Day 3: Dinner trip. It’s not much more money, so just do it. It’s not the food that makes it worthwhile; it’s the fact that you’re on the water after everyone else has taken off. You have the place to yourselves, mostly. Definitely the right time to be on the water.
Day 4: Head home. Sure, there’s a lot more great stuff to do that could keep you busy all week, but this is a blog about the raft trip. The best white water vacation ever. And know going in that that’s impossible to obtain even in a month. I had the best raft trip ever, and it took me years to accomplish it.
Have questions? Let me know in the comments. See you on the river!
The most important thing about a birding trip is not the birds. Really.
Here’s why: All kinds of things can influence the birds you see and hear. So let’s focus on stuff that really matters on a field trip: the people.
Some of my favorite folk- Birders!
It’s like soup; too much of one ingredient is boring. I love time alone in the outdoors, to be sure, but being with a group of fellow bird nerds/naturalists when everyone gets a good look at a fun bird? And it’s a lifer for someone in the bunch? And everyone is smiling and giddy? You can’t help but be excited too.
The fun of birding in a group comes mostly from these moments. They’re contagious. People are dancing smiling laughing when they see something that’s -how can I put it- exotic for them. It’s fun to share these moments. Who you’re with is way more important than what you might see.
I’ve been on dozens of field trips under every type of circumstances, from research and banding to formal surveys and counts to paid private guided field trips. And with the most bizarre groups you can imagine. By far the best groups have beginners in them; If you go out with a bunch of really good birders it can get boring real fast. I think it’s because they all know every peep and who made it and why. There’s no give and take about what is going on around you.
Also sometimes I think they are afraid to say anything because they might (heaven forbid) make a mistake. I promise you if you are on a trip with me I will miss ID a bird at some point during the day, every day. And it’s usually something really obvious and easy like last year when I called a chirping Cardinal a Chat (this is a major bird nerd no-no). Everyone looked at me like I had lost my mind, and by that point in the week, I had.
But I’m not a hired gun. No degree. No life list (that’s another story). So maybe it’s okay for me to make mistakes. Personally I like to see the pros make a mistake once in a while it shows they are human too. Perfection is way overrated.
When you have a good field guide, and some beginners, and you mix them in with other levels of interest and experience, it’s more fun. Makes me smile just writing about it.
That's a golfinch in those fingernails.
The most rewarding bird trips for me are when we’re giving back. You don’t have to be a great birder to be a ambassador for nature. You don’t have to be great at anything. “Showing is better than telling” a 4 year old told me, as I was talking too much to a school group I did a bird presentation for. She wanted more action.
I get really excited when out on a field trip and I see a new bird or bug or critter of some kind. Even plants. But when I see someone, young or old, really getting excited about what’s around them, maybe for the first time ever? That’s a wonderful feeling.
The New River Birding and Nature Festival sponsors hands-on learning experiences for local schools. These are the trips that give me the best feelings of all.
But I don’t limit it to just going outside. I love to read about the outdoors. When I was a kid I lived for outdoor magazines. Whenever I got a new one I usually consumed it cover to cover in one sitting.
Aha! There's one!
The white tailed deer was my all-time favorite mammal to read about and see in the wild. Dad had me in the woods as soon as I was old enough, and I shared his passion for the outdoors. Still do. Dad doesn’t get out hunting anymore, but there is not a time I go to the woods that doesn’t remind me of something we did together. As I write this, I realize that my daughter Alex will have that same joy.
Gotta say, that makes me tear up a little.
Anyway, not long after moving to West Virginia, I met a man named Max Elkins. Max is, like me, an avid outdoorsman. As a matter of fact, I often say that when I grow up I want to hunt like Max. If there is an open season Max is hunting. It wasn’t long after we met that he introduced me to grouse hunting.
Now, I’ve hunted grouse as a kid a few times but never like this. Max’s dogs were amazing. I was hooked. A year or so later I had a pup out of a litter from his two dogs, Autumn and Thorn. What great names, huh? My daughter Alex had a part in naming the pup, and since Disney’s Aladin was her favorite movie at the time, well, Jasmine it was.
Max operated a bird hunting preserve and there were plenty of birds to train her on in the off season. January and February is the time to be in the woods and after the native birds. There were plenty of birds around ten years ago but they have definitely been steadily declining. Contrary to what a lot of people think, hunters are avid conservationists. We do so much to save habitat and game populations, it’s hard to know where to start. That’s a post for another day, I guess. Thinking about it, I long for the days described by writers like Burton Spiller and George “Bird” Evans, the days when a hunter could have thirty plus flushes in a day.
All of the research done on the Ruffed Grouse says that the bird is cyclic. Meaning that the populations fluctuate over time. There has always been much debate among grouse hunters everywhere as to whether the numbers will ever be what they used to here in Appalachia. I sure hope so, but right now there seems to be fewer than ever.
Aha! Another one!
The West Virginia Division Of Natural Resources has had a research program in place for a while now in cooperation with several other states to try a find out where all the grouse have gone. According to the reports the main source of grouse mortality is due to avian predation. Mammal predation is second and hunting is responsible for only fifteen percent. Anyone who has ever hunted grouse knows that the odds are heavily in the favor of the fast flying, extremely agile bird.
Grouse hunting for me is not about the bag, but where it takes you. Suddenly you will find yourself high on a ridge overlooking an awe inspiring landscape. That, and spending time with friends and family. I think most people like me, who read outdoor magazines, who go outside just to be outside, who love it in their hearts, feel the same way.
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