White Grass, WV

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Cyndi and I headed over to Canaan Valley, WV for some XC skiing with our friends Greg and Lisa. It was my second trip to this part of the state, the first being 13 years ago, on a whim. Going back to that trip, I had a long weekend off in December '94 and was itching to get myself lost somewhere. I headed West and at a rest stop on I-66 put my finger on the map where roads were squiggly and the towns sparse. Tucker County, WV was the destination, or somewhere thereabouts. I spent a night in Franklin where I stumbled upon a honky tonk joint on the outskirts of town with a pool table, DJ and a bartender from Jersey. The DJ's setup consisted of a Technics turntable and 2 giant Pioneer speakers straight from his living room. Requests were made of the Skynyrd, Zeppelin, AC/DC type, he'd flip through his album collection and drop the needle (usually after a few tzeeet, zweeert failed attempts) on the appropriate line. That's when the pool sticks were quickly converted to guitars and the 3 hucks shooting pool became Angus Young, Jimmy Page and Stevie Gaines. That crew pointed me toward the Dolly Sods and Canaan, and the next day I spent pedaling all over the place, soaking in the natural beauty
Now I'm back here and everything is covered in snow. We definitely enjoyed the atmosphere and skiing at White Grass and even managed to buy some homemade cheese from Rick of Helvetia. One Provolone type and one cheddar type. I say type because the cheese maker doesn't really know what the cheese will taste like until it's made. It all depends on what the cow has been eating, at least that's what Rick the Cheese maker said. Nice. I think we will be back to this slice of Euro-Alpine Heaven again.