Writer To Go

(originally posted at Daily.Mykl.org)

They take pretty good care of the main roads here in West Virginia, and I like driving in the snow, so I’ve yet to get trapped at Hearth Hill. It’s a lot snowier in the eastern mountains of the state (a quick day-trip from where I grew up in Maryland). The last time the east coast had a crazy deep blizzard, a couple dozen casual caver friends chose to get snowed-in at Thompson’s Motel in Franklin, in those eastern mountains, where we bought every sled in stock at the local hardware store. That turned into a 5-day weekend, because we couldn’t cross the mountain roads. Of that crew, four of use took shovels and snacks and an SUV, and drove (plowed) roads (like 3 foot canyons) through windswept midnight, to “park” in a snowbank and climb a 12 foot snow drift, so we could go caving and wade through an underground river (fed by snow melt). That was before I lived here. But here in central West Virginia, the eastern mountains often shield us from the storm.