Meeting K at the beginning of August has been awesome for racking up miles and seeing new sights between horse ears. It's so fun to have met a new person in this area who enjoys riding in the same fashion that I do. We've got a few weeks left before I suspect the snow will fly, and we have at least two solid adventures planned. I'm so excited!
For our Green Bank to Cass adventure, I met K back in Pocahontas County at the East Fork Campground. K was camping there for 7+ days and fitting in lots of miles when she wasn't logged into her computer putting in work hours. (Talk about work-life balance! What a queen.) Our plan was to shuttle to Green Bank and ride from there to the Allegheny Trail where we'd then traverse over the mountains to Cass Railroad. This adventure was made possible by friends who facilitated shuttling of our trailer.
Once I arrived at East Fork, we put K's mare Josie on the trailer and headed about 15 minutes away to our drop off point near the Green Bank Observatory and National Radio Astronomy Observatory. This facility is home to the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope (in photos below) and is located within a massive, radio-quiet zone where everyday electronics like wifi and microwaves are restricted. Additionally, technology at this facility helped discover a highly compact, incredibly bright radio source at the very center of our galaxy in 1974; the lead scientists named it Sagittarius A (Sgr A). Decades later, researchers would conclusively prove it was a supermassive black hole, an achievement that led to the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics.
I had friends who lived near Green Bank (and their parents worked at GRO) when I was in HS. They'd tell stories about the "radio police" who would show up at your house if they detected you using a forbidden electronic device. To this day, most of Pocahontas County and the surrounding areas don't have cell service due to the radio-quiet zone.
Once we arrived at the drop off point, we unloaded Josie and Griffin. I made quick work of tacking Grif up and then we headed off on our adventure, leaving my truck and trailer to be picked up and taken to our end point at Cass Railroad.
The first couple miles wound through GRO. It was so cool to ride my horse through this area! K is like me and loves documenting everything on horseback and helped encourage me to get some epic photos in front of the telescope.
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| SPACE! And ponies. |
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| Grif seeing giant technology for the first time. Moments later, he spooked at a squirrel. Giant space telescope? Fine. Squirrel? Terrifying. |
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| Fun fact I remember from a past tour of GBO, this thing is on a 14-year painting schedule. Each year a bit is repainted. By the time they reach the end of the cycle, it's time to start anew. |
Eventually, the roads we were following turned to gravel and then to trail. We made a left onto the Allegheny trail and headed up the mountain. This trail would take us up a mountain, along some ridge lines, and eventually down into a stream gully with dense rhododendron before angling us along another mountainside above the Greenbrier River.
As with the August ride in this part of West Virginia, we wound through a mix of mature xeric and mesic forests. The miles before the gully of rhododendron reminded me a lot of the Tuscarora Trail along the WV-VA state line that No Frills travels. In the northern Monongahela Nat'l Forest, mesic forest is more dominant, so enjoying time riding through xeric forests is always a treat for me.
The gully section with dense rhododendron was surprisingly passable even atop a horse. This section of the Allegheny Trail is far better maintained than other sections I've hiked and ridden. All the same, this piece of the ride was the most technical of the day. If there had been a single tree down through this area, we'd have had a heck of a time getting around it. Dense rhododendron does not make bypassing downed trees an easy endeavor. Fortunately though, we didn't come across any such thing.
Following the gully section, the trail leveled out and traversed at a steady elevation along the slope of the mountain. The Greenbrier River flowed below us and Cass Railroad's active rail system paralleled the river on the far side. The trail eventually turned into a gravel road, and we followed this road all the way to Rt. 66 where it passes by Cass Railroad.
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| This thing is so huge. Wild to see up close and from a distance |
The historical town of Cass remains relatively unchanged from what it was in the early 1900s. It was built as a company town for loggers who worked in the area, and the railroad was used to haul lumber. It now exists as a State Park and where tourists can visit the town, its buildings, and ride the train driven by steam-driven locomotives. This train is operated purely for tourism these days and is totally worth a trip if you're ever in the area. It's a classic WV tourism staple.
Once we arrived at Cass, we crossed the bridge (with 9 motorcycles passing us as we did - to which the horses didn't even flick an ear) and took some time to get photos in front of the company store/restaurant area where the train picks up and drops off passengers. Then at K's insistence, we meandered through the parking lot to look at all the wares offered by that day's market (like a farmers market but not really food-based). Parking lot loop complete, we decided to walk back across the bridge to the trailer and call it a day. Except when we were beginning to untack, the train returned! We'd heard the horn for awhile and had hoped it'd come, but couldn't be certain. Despite the horses inevitably thinking we were lunatics for getting back on, we said YOLO and tightened our girths back up and headed back across the bridge to get some photos with the train.
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We truly called it a day after getting photos with the train, much to our mounts' delight. We untacked them and stepped inside the local store we were parked at so we could get some ice cream before our drive home. it was a fabulous end to our ride.
The trailer ride back to East Fork Campground was uneventful. We gave both horses baths, snacks, and let them relax for a time while we enjoyed beverages and conversation. I loaded Grif up and headed home before the sun set. It was such a great day.
