travel Archives - Opossum Creek Retreat

The Personal Touch – Meetings at Opossum Creek Retreat

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.

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.
One of Your Personal Chefs

According to the 350 Project:

*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?

Why I Hate Soccer (Hint: It Kills Vacations)

Soccer sucks.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the games and the cheering and visiting with the other parents. Plus the kids need the exercise and really seem to get a big kick out of it. As a sport, I think it’s kind of awesome.

But soccer sucks up the time. It eats away at valuable family vacation time that you could be spending in our cabin rentals in West Virginia. Which is, of course, where you should be spending time (I’m a little biased).

There. I said it. You could be relaxing in a rental cabin in West Virginia. Instead, you’re driving kids from practice to game to camp and back, eating up every weekend from March to mid June and Labor Day to Thanksgiving.

Let’s just say you have a little family vacation planned for a weekend of rafting and hiking in the New River Gorge National Park, and then your kids’ team wins two games in a row for the first time in years and bang you’re in the championship game on the weekend you booked your family cabin. It’s great, but at the same time, ARRRRGGGHHH!

I know I am being selfish. I want you and your families to come and stay with us. The Big Game is very important (I know: I have had the good fortune to have both my kids play in the finials several times). It’s a great experience for them.

Or is it?

Most of the rest of the world teaches soccer to their children in a very different way. There are no teams. You just sign up and show up. Dads and Mom still volunteer to do the coaching there just aren’t any games no winners no LOSERS! No referees to yell at. Just skill building fun having no pressure drills of all kinds. Individual drills, group drills, ball handing, foot work, set plays, drills to learn the rules all are studied and practiced.

When they do go into a game situation or live scrimmage the coaches pick the teams and ref the action. This allows them to stop and start the game to point out key strategy and opportunities. The next practice may have more or less in the way of live scrimmage but they never have set teams or keep score until well into their teens.

Not to change the subject, but since it’s my blog, I can do whatever I want. WVU had a football coach named Don Nehlen. I didn’t really like his style, but he got us lot of W’s and a shot at the National Championship.

One day I heard him on the radio. He said something to this effect: “We should not be keeping score until college. Everyone should be practicing skills and drilling, and there’s too much emphasis placed on winning and losing. There’s not enough emphasis on skills sportsmanship and teamwork.

Pizza and ice cream help wash away the taste of Defeat

WOW! A coach of his caliber saying something so unAmerican?! No losers, no kids crying, no parents embarrassing themselves and their kids, yelling at the referees and coaches. No kids quitting because they never get on a “winning team”. We could eliminate those agonizing car rides home after a loss, and you would not have to miss the weekend getaway in the mountains of West Virginia. It’s win-win.

If we followed Coach Neilen’s advice, and the rest of the world’s example for youth sports, we’d be better off. Until then, we’ll see you after the championship.

5 Simple Steps To Get Into Bird Watching In The New River Gorge

When I signed on here at Opossum Creek Retreat I had no idea what I was in store for. Sure, I knew what the job was. I learned Geoff’s techniques. But there was so much more. You know, stuff that would only be revealed as time went on. Jedi stuff.

One of the things that were new to me was the New River Nature and Birding Festival. I had heard of the festival from when I worked with Dave Pollard at the County Courthouse, but I never really got more than an overview.

Since Opossum Creek hosted this festival I found myself smack dab in the middle of it. So the romance began. Aw yeah.

I was amazed at how the birding guides were able to identify birds by their calls. This seemed an almost supernatural ability to me. Lynn Pollard was one of the first to introduce me to the art of birding by ear. She’s able to ID over ninety species by ear- incomprehensible to me!

I was introduced to many top birders from all over the states who showed me birds that I would have never imagined in this area. But the New River Gorge area is a main thoroughfare for Neo Tropical migrant birds looking for work (Ha! I joke.) So this might be the place to see all kinds of North American birds. Birds that come here to nest. Birds that inhabit the area for the summer. Birds that just pass through on their way to their nesting grounds farther north.

Here are the five things that helped me get familiar with birding. But a word of caution: I spend stupid amounts of time outside looking for birds I can’t see, or can’t hear, or both. Now that I know these tips, I can never go back to my pre-birding life. You’ve been warned.

1- Get to know a birding enthusiast. Geoff and most of the people you will meet at the NRB&N festival are very excited to turn new people on to the “sport”. I say sport in parenthesis because, while many of the birds you will encounter will definitely give you a run for your money while trying to get a good look at them, a lot of times you’re not moving much at all. Some of the wood warblers are especially secretive; their thick habitat can be a challenge.

2- Get yourself a decent pair of optics. Some of the birds you will be trying to find are small and elusive or they won’t let you get too close. A good pair of binos are essential.

3- A good field guide is also important. Look for something that’s not too big and that’s well illustrated. You’ll want to carry it with you while out hiking or even in your back yard. Peterson’s and Sibley’s are my favorites. A word of caution; don’t get so into the book that you stop looking at the bird. I’ve learned to watch the bird for as long as it will let me or until I feel I have all the visual information I need to make a proper ID. The book will always be there to look at. The bird will not.

4- Get out there! Birding is a great hobby because you can do it anywhere from your office to the wilds of your area. Whether you’re in the city or way out in the country, birds are there.

5- Get a friend into it. Having someone to bird with is even more fun. Share your newfound activity with a friend or family member that you want to spend inordinate amounts of time with.

Birding also raises awareness of our environment and why we should protect it. It is also another excuse to get outside if you need one. If you haven’t already, give it a try. Checkout Birdwatcher’s Digest. Also, take a look at the Beginning Birdwatchers Book. Perfect for kids, this one’s got 19 pages stickers, too!

Okay, Geoff and I play with the stickers. But it’s a good book, I promise!

Do You Know The New River Gorge? A Nature Nugget From Keith

I’m an avid outdoorsman.

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.

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.

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.

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…)