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July 29, 2024 45 mins
Send us a textGet ready to explore one of the East Coast's premier climbing destinations! In this episode, James and Jerry dive into the world of Seneca Rocks, a stunning rock formation that draws climbers, hikers, and outdoor adventurers from far and wide. We will take a brief look into the history of this magnificent location, talk about rock climbing, hiking to the look-out platform, and so much more in this episode. So, whether you're a seasoned climber or just looking for a weekend getaway, this episode has something for everyone.  Now grab your hiking boots and let's hit the trail!Support the show
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 4 (01:27):
Hi, everyone, we're back. It's the latest episode of West
Virginia Talk with James and Jerry. I'm James and and
today we're gonna be talking about Seneca Rocks.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
Beautiful place.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
I've been there. I am not brave enough to try
to get up there, now you have.

Speaker 5 (01:46):
I have used a path, right, I cheated, right, I
took the old man way up.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Nothing wrong with that. No, no, se I don't want
to do it. I'm petrified to heights.

Speaker 5 (01:56):
Yeah, you definitely don't want to go to the top ten.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
It is not not from me. Now, I'll stand below
it and just admire it. It's arguably West Virginia's premier
site for rock climbers and hikers. So this giant mass
of jagged rock is in Pendleton County, Yes, located in
the southern part of the Eastern Panhandle, very very close
to Virginia. And it looks like a giant razor blade

(02:20):
rose up out of the mountaintop. This giant razorblade coming
up the mountain. None of the mountains around it look
anything like it. You figure something like that, that kind
of rock formation. The other mountains around it would have
something like that, but none of them do.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
They do.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
See, I've never seen that. I don't remember it.

Speaker 5 (02:36):
Yeah, I think they call it the Willis Mountains. I'm
not one hundred and ten percent sure on the actual
name of the mountain range, but I'm pretty sure that's
what it is. And there's actually a couple sites that
have that same rock style, not as prominent and not
as beautiful in my opinion right as Seneca's landmark feature.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
But now I know up the road they have champ
rocks which are kind of similar, but in size they're
not even remotely closed.

Speaker 5 (03:05):
Yeah, and the.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Height of this thing, now, from this is from the
bottom up to the top. You're talking nine hundred feet high.
This is Tuscarora Court site. And we cannot stress this enough.
It is straight up, yes, so it's like no incline
at all. It's just straight up. It's like ninety degrees
from the bottom.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
It's absolutely unbelievable, and it's why you see it on
so many postcards. I mean. Yeah, as far as West
Virginia's iconic things to see, I would say natural. You
know something that has happened naturally, that's probably the number one.
The New River Gorge. Yeah, it's it's way up there.

(03:48):
But I think a lot of that comes from the
fact that the bridge itself, which.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
Was man may brought a lot of attention to the
gorge itself.

Speaker 5 (03:56):
Yes, I agree, And this doesn't have that. This is
just nature at its finest, creating something that just absolutely
wows you.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
Right, So there's no incline to this. So it presents
a dangerous challenge, which makes it a hot spot for
mountain climbers. They come from all over the country for
this rock. So if you see the facade of this rock,
you would think that the rock actually goes way back,

(04:27):
but it doesn't. Once you get on top of this thing,
it is super thin to it's like barely wide enough
to walk on.

Speaker 5 (04:35):
I have stood on the very top and yes, I
mean it is.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
What is it like four feet?

Speaker 5 (04:41):
Why? No?

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Less?

Speaker 5 (04:43):
Yes, less much much less.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
See, I've never been up on top of that thing.
I was just gauging the with just looking at.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
It, but right looking back towards like from the point
that I was at, I would if I looked off
in front of me and put my back to the
tip of the of the ridge. I was looking down
at the welcome center and the parking and there's a

(05:11):
little bit of slope there, and there's a there is
some width underneath of you, you know, probably eight ten
ten feet turning my back to that section and facing
the opposite direction, I would say twelve inches, and then

(05:33):
it's just a literal the back side of it is
just a literal drop.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
Yeah. So if you actually take into account how wide
the base of that mountain is compared to the top,
it is actually like a razor plade.

Speaker 5 (05:47):
Yes, top, I mean the courts. You're talking two hundred
and fifty feet thick. That's that's you know, absolutely huge
in a width form for any kind of rock. Yeah,
But like you say, you get to the very top, yeah, yeah,
you're talking compared to the two hundred and fifty foot

(06:07):
that's a razor blade.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
And if you're looking at the length of this thing,
it's about a quarter mile. So there's plenty of places
for rock climbers to go. But you know, it's not
like Seneca rocks appeared today, right, So there's plenty of
history with this place. What do you got for history
on this, Jerry.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Well, it started with, of course, the old oceans that
used to exist over West Virginia and a lot of
the land masks that we have now that at one
point in time was underwater, and so as the mountains
on the east would crumble and fall. That sediment and

(06:47):
stuff and sand would collect on the ocean front, which
just happened to be that general area.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
And if you're not familiar with West Virginia at all,
it's a great place for fossil hunting.

Speaker 5 (07:00):
Yes, yeah, And of course over time, you know, the
sand became the harder and harder, turning into the courts.
The Seneca Rocks was formed from the geological strata that
up ended and rotated ninety degrees, which I don't understand

(07:20):
that why would any rock rotate ninety degrees, But that's way, yeah,
But that's what it did, and it formed these crags
and these other outcroppings. The erosion has exposed over time.
And that's the beautiful thing of this court site is
it's doesn't erode.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
I love that word crag, right, It's just it's like
the it's like the embellishment of like ruggedness or something.
You know. Crag does not say that it's smooth at all.
It is rugged and sharp and whatever, yep, jagged.

Speaker 5 (07:52):
Now, of course we can assume that the first people
that probably ever climbed on this beautiful rock were Indians.
It could be Aliens, it could have been for all
we know, it could have been Noah, but you never
you just never know. But it's we highly anticipate that

(08:13):
Indians were the first to utilize these rocks. Matter of fact,
the Great Indian War Path, I believe goes right at
the base of this scene, and that all the.

Speaker 4 (08:26):
Was it Shawnee, No, not the Shawnee Trail, the Seneca Trail.

Speaker 5 (08:31):
The Senate. Well, the Seneca Indians were some that use it,
but there's two other tribes as well, and of course
they'd use that trail for trading and in war if
they needed to fight. So, like I said, we anticipate
that they utilize that. Another reason we think that the
Indians were probably the first to utilize that Seneca rock

(08:55):
was when they were building the visitor center, they on
earth remnants of two villages. Ah, sweet, two Indian villages.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
That's pretty awesome.

Speaker 5 (09:04):
Yeah, and the most recent of those villages dated back
roughly about seven hundred years ago. So a little bit
of evidence laying to the fact that more than likely
the first to use it were the Indians, which we
would anticipate. I mean, they were the original settlers in America. Okay,
the first Europeans to see the Seneca Rocks were actually surveyors,

(09:30):
the first settlers to the Mouth of Seneca, which was
the original name before Seneca Rock took its place fifteen
years later. Not the name, but the settlers came in
fifteen years later from after the survey, so it was
settled around seventeen sixty one. Now, around eighteen fifty three,

(09:53):
we know that a writer and illustrator by the name
of David H. Struther, also known as the pseudonym Orte Crayon. Yeah,
I Crayon of all things, had visited Seneca Rocks and
sketched it, and eventually on June of eighteen seventy two.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
All is that the one that was in Harper's Weekly.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
His sketch is published in Harper's New monthly magazine entitled
The Cliffs of Seneca. So eighteen fifty three, you know,
you got somebody there's seventeen sixty one's the first settlers.
That's just seventeen forty six. Those are crazy dates to
me to know that people have been utilizing that area

(10:39):
for that long of a time and still to this day.
It's such a huge attraction. Now, the first historical climb,
and I say historical because it wasn't the first climb,
but the first historical climb was in nineteen thirty nine
when they found the inscription dB September sixteenth, nineteen oh

(11:00):
eight near the top and they assume and think they
think that it came from an area surveyor by the
last that had a last name of Bittinger, so they
think he described his initials on that location after he
had made it to that point.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
That's crazy because if he climbed that thing in nineteen
oh eight, you figured he would go back and like, hey,
guess what I did, you know what I mean, Like
it would be established that he did this.

Speaker 5 (11:31):
Thing, or he would be like, I did it, but
don't ever do what I just did because it was
too dangerous.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Yeah, trying to deflect
people from trying to go do the same thing he
did right now.

Speaker 5 (11:45):
The first documented climb was done by Paul Braddett and
Florence Perry in nineteen thirty five, and back then times
are tough. There's not a lot, so there's not a
lot of climbers going out there, so it's not like
it's a heavily u used rock climbing area at that
point in time, from nineteen forty three to nineteen forty four.

(12:07):
We know that the tenth Mountain Mountain Division of the
US Army used the Seneca Rock to train troops for
action in Italy for the World War Two, And of
course many of the iron pittons can still be found
in the face of the mountain.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Yeah, there's like, what seventy five thousand of them or
something that was an estimate.

Speaker 5 (12:28):
Yeah, I mean, it's just an absolutely ridiculous amount. Of course,
you don't want to use them because a lot of
them have corroded to the point that they're probably not
safe anymore. But yeah, there's so many of them. They
actually named one face of Seneca Rock the Face of
a thousand pittons.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
Yeah, so it actually got his name because of the
fact of all the military pittons that were left behind, right, So, yeah,
absolutely incredible.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
And then after World War Two it became a hotspot
from mountain climbers.

Speaker 5 (13:01):
It did. It did a lot of the guys that
had used it during that time came back and utilized it.
Strangely enough, and it pains me a little bit to
say this, not terribly because we're not talking football so
it's not terrible, but it does pay me a little bit.
The first documented kind of maps of Seneca Rock and

(13:24):
how to climb it came from a Pittsburgh climbing group. Really, yeah,
most of the climbers that did Seneca Rock early on
were either from Pittsburgh or Washington, d C.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
You figured it would be locals.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
They were probably too busy farming and working the coal
mines to get out one.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
Too many farms in the middle of Pittsburgh or to
eastern right, right, I gotcha.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
Yeah, So yeah, that was I thought that was kind
of strange myself to find out that, like say too,
I guess back then they probably weren't quite as big,
but too absolutely enormous metropolitan areas were making their way
out to little little old Seneca Rock back at the end.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
But that was the genesis of the popularity for rock climbing,
and with a lot of rock climbers coming out, that
means there is more of a likelihood that someone is
going to get hurt or worse. Oh way, so there
is a sign that says since nineteen seventy one, fifteen
climbers have died here. Yeah, and it's try it's to

(14:30):
try to dissuade them from doing it, but they do
it anyway.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
But that sign sits right behind the looking point right
Like you walk up the trail, you get to to that,
it's a deck basically a wooden deck coming out the
side of it, and yeah, if you turn around, there's
that sign right there. The reason, the reason I know
that is because the first time I went up, we

(14:56):
get to the top, I'm walking out with my kids.
It's my wife. I'm walking out and I got my
wife and kids. Now my kids are older, so I
want to make that very well known and established. At
this point, you're not talking six, no, no, we're talking seventeen, eighteen,
nineteen years old. I think the youngest one was maybe fifteen.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Well that's old enough.

Speaker 5 (15:22):
Yeah. So anyway, my oldest one, when I turn around,
who is nineteen, is starting up the rock why. And
I turned around and went, what are you doing? He's like,
I've been up here before. Dad. He's like it's fine.
And I'm looking at him like the sign says stop. Yeah,
and he's like, trust me, it's okay, and so famous

(15:45):
last words yeah, and of course me it's you know,
even though my kid's nineteen it's I'm still worried. I
stupidly follow so to make sure that he's going to
be okay.

Speaker 4 (15:59):
Instead of saying no, you stay with me, it's I'm
gonna go with you.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
Well, you know, there's still a little bit of daredevil
left and dad every once in a while. How about now,
I would do it again. I would now, like I said,
the sciences stop people. If you got young kids, that's
a definite no. If you're elderly, it's a definite no.
You need to have a good pair of shoes on

(16:22):
good pair of hiking shoes. You need to be cautious.
You need to be respectful, careful because there are a
good many people that will go on up and like
I said, you were talking eight to twelve feet and
then you're falling. So when you're coming together, you got
to work with whoever's up there and take turns, you know,

(16:46):
and just be very cautious with what you do. If
you decide to take that next step, they recommend that
you have climbing gear and you be trained before you
go that far. I would advise that too. But if
you're going to be stupid enough to go ahead and
go to the like I did, and my son then please, please, please,
we beg you just be super careful. We don't want

(17:07):
that number going from fifteen to sixteen seventeen.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
Because if you fall off of this thing, it's like
falling off a ninety story building.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
Yeah, you're not gonna you're not gonna be around after
it's over, well more than likely.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Also, this thing has been climbed, climb climbed, So if
you go there to climb this thing, don't think for
a second that you're gonna find a spot where when
you climb it you're the first to do it. That's
not gonna happen. So let's go over some of these
classic climbs Jerry, and what the ratings are. These are
climbs that are rated beginner, intermediate, and advanced under the

(17:43):
Yosemite Decimal System rating system. So the beginner ones, you
have the five point three it's gun Sight to South
Peak five point fours cons West, five point five, Candy
Corner five point six is cons East. Then you have
three climbs that are five point seven. These are more

(18:04):
popular climbs. Okay, you have Ecstasy, Solar and Westpole, and
then five point eight it's called there's two of them
the bum in triple s. Okay. So for the intermediate,
I don't understand this decimal system at all. Okay, because
the decimal system beginners, it goes from five three to

(18:27):
five point eight, and then when it gets to intermediate,
it goes to five point one. That makes no sense.
So two of them Castor and Pollocks, and then if
it gets more difficult, then it goes five point one
to oh a, okay, So you have Marshall's Madness crack

(18:47):
of Dawn, five point one oh c is Adam's climb,
and then five point one one. See, mister Jones, now
here's the dangerous ones. You have the advanced ones. Five
point one two A is the they have a couple
five point one two See you have Psycho Driller and
Black Mamba. That that's enough for me to say, nah,
that's okay, right, and then you have five point one

(19:11):
three A. Fine you on cannibals. Who names these huh
Candy Corner Pollocks, Adams climb, mister Jones, Fine you on cannibals.
So and if you don't like these climbs, Jerry, there
are three hundred and sixty other routes you can try.

Speaker 5 (19:29):
Yeah, there's just an astronomical amount of different ways to
climb this thing. I'll tell you a good website. If
you're a climber out there and you're interested in doing
some climbing at Snicker Rocks, you can go to mountainproject
dot com and it will tell you everything you need

(19:51):
to know. On top of that, it's kind of map
with the locations of where those climbs start, which will
be very helpful because I you don't recall seen anything
when I was there, so that's and of course that's
if you're doing this on your own. If you're a
seasoned climber, you know what you're doing, you got all
your gear, then I would use this website in a

(20:14):
heartbeat because it was very informative and really laid things
out really well for you.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
Okay, so three hundred and seventy five climbs for this thing.
The length of the rocks is about fourteen hundred feet
across there, so plenty of space. Even if there's several
hundred mountain climbers out there, you're gonna be fine.

Speaker 5 (20:35):
Right in the east and west side of this thing.
Both of them have single and multi pitch routes. Yeah,
there's options on either side.

Speaker 4 (20:43):
Yeah, there's four pitches and grades one and two, and
just a bunch of different ratings there depending on the
section of rocks you want to climb on. Like I said,
the jagged section of raisor thin rocket at the top
is like a quarter mile long, So thirteen four teen
hundred feet across plenty of space there. So here's the deal.

(21:04):
You don't have to climb this rock to enjoy it.
Number one, Like I said, I've been there a couple
of times, never climbed it, and I really didn't have
enough gumption to walk up the trail where the overlook
was where you went, right, I don't that's not for me. Okay,
I'll enjoy it from the bottom. Okay, So if you
don't like mountain climbing, you can hike right.

Speaker 5 (21:27):
Absolutely. There's one hiking trail at that facility, and of
course has the Seneca Rock hiking Trail that will take
you up to the platform. But there's some like between
there and thirty miles away, you have about seven other
hiking trails that are fairly significant. It's just it's gonna

(21:48):
be off the beaten path. You're not gonna be technically
at Synic Rock anymore. Real quick before we move on, though,
I got a do Did you know the South Peak
is the tallest part of Seneca Rock.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
If you're looking at it, it's the one on the right.

Speaker 5 (22:05):
Yes, okay, okay, that is the tallest peak east of
Devil's Tower.

Speaker 4 (22:11):
Wait a minute, let me guess where that's at Devil's Tower.
It's either Utah or Wyoming.

Speaker 5 (22:18):
It's Wyoming, Wyoming, yep.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
And that's several thousand miles away.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
Absolutely, and it's only in Devil's Tower is only accessible
by fifth class climbing.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yikes.

Speaker 5 (22:30):
So Seneca Rock is the highest technical summit on the
entire East coast.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
That's awesome. Yeah, east of the Mississippi anyway.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
Yeah, so that's that's why you get so many people
that flock to it.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
That's awesome. Yeah, it's it's a lot closer for most
of the country's population to go there then go all
the way to Wyoming, right, right, you know what I mean? Yeah,
we're not dis in Wyoming, No, but West Virginia is
where it's at. Absolutely otherwise we'd have a Wyoming yes. Right.

Speaker 5 (23:01):
So now back to your hiking trail. Yeah, the Seneca
Rock hiking trail is to me, if you're in fairly
decent shape, this is a trail that you can make.
It's it's not super easy, but the way it's laid out,
take your time and you'll be just fine. You can

(23:23):
plan if you want a comfortable time walking up, walking down,
and then sitting at the at the top and looking off.
You're probably talking about two two and a half hours.
The trail itself is two point six miles long round trip,
so it's one point three out and then one point
three back, so that.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Takes a while.

Speaker 5 (23:42):
Yeah, it starts out at the Seneca Rock Discovery Center
and then it'll go from there, it'll cross the Seneca Creek.
It's a little bridge. You're not gonna get your feet wet,
so you don't have to worry about that. And so yeah,
it crosses the Seneca Creek to the picnic area and
from there you'll end up on the pathway that will

(24:04):
go up to the observation platform at near the very
top of Seneca Rock.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Okay, yeah, so here's the deal. I think we covered
Seneca Rocks to the extent of well, let's talk about
if you're mountain climbing and you you put in a
day of climbing, you don't want to drive back to
wherever you came from, Roanoak or DC or wherever. Okay,
so where are you gonna stay? So after long day
of climbing you want to turn in and rest. There

(24:32):
are two campgrounds in the in the area, Seneca Rocks
RV Resort and Seneca Shadows. Now that area of West
Virginia is a great place to bring an RV and
especially if you have a toy hauler, because I know,
I know a lot of motorcycle enthusiasts they like the

(24:53):
twisty back roads because it's pretty for one, you know
what I mean, And you can take it easy. You're
not on the highway, so you know, RV's are awesome.
And then if you have a toy hauler, you can
take your motorcycle with you, unpack it and take a
ride through Pendleton County. There's so many things in Pendleton
County to see, Okay, there is so as far as

(25:14):
RV parks, that's what we have. And then you have
several cabin locations. And we're not talking like well there's
one cabin up the road. I'm talking about a big
you know, neighborhood of cabin right, So you have fishermen's cabins,
you have family cabins, and apple Latchin cabins.

Speaker 5 (25:32):
Do not make what's that got a place too well, I'm.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
Getting to that. Yeah, and don't make the mistake of
calling it Appalachian cabins. It is the apple Lachan Cabins. Okay.
So the hotel at the base of Seneca Rocks is
Yoakum's Vacation Land, as Jerry mentioned, and that seems to
be the favorite. They offer hotel rooms, cabins, cottages, and

(25:57):
yurts to go with the store and restaurant.

Speaker 5 (26:01):
You want to know something cool about Yoakum's, Okay. And
you may already know this, I don't know. You can
tell me if you do.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
Let's see.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
Okay. So the Sites family originally owned Seneca Rock the
property before the government came and took it. I don't
know this, okay. And there's a cabin down in the
parking area okay, before you get on the trail that
you can look at it. So it's like the old homestead.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
Yeah, I've seen that.

Speaker 5 (26:30):
Yeah, so that was I guess it's replica because I
believe the originals got washed out. Yes, but yeah, it's
a replica sites his old spot. His I want to say,
great granddaughter is the Yoakums. Oh okay, Yeah, so it's there.
It's his descendants that run the Yoakums. And then there's

(26:53):
is it Hadley's. There's there's another storefront not too far
from there, and it started with an h and I
can't recall I remember seeing it, but that was owned
and operated by a descendant as well.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
Oh okay, yeah, I do know this. You know the
flood thing. I do know this. A section of the
rock actually fell off in nineteen eighty seven and landed
near the school.

Speaker 5 (27:21):
Yeah, the middle piece between the two peaks.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
Yeah, there was a saddle. Yeah, there was a name
for that. I can't remember the name of that thing.

Speaker 5 (27:28):
I'll be honest with you. I had that information, but
I could never pronounce it right, So I was like,
you know what, I'm just going to leave that out.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
Yeah. So it was like a little peak in between
both big sections, and it actually broke off in eighty
seven and landed near the school. Remember our teacher telling
us that when I was about ten years old. So
it was pretty wild. So Yoakam's they offer a lot
of stuff yurts. I mean, have you ever stayed in
a yurt?

Speaker 5 (27:54):
No?

Speaker 4 (27:55):
Have you ever seen a yurt?

Speaker 5 (27:56):
I have not.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
It looks a.

Speaker 5 (27:58):
Lot like a TP, but bigger.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
I wouldn't say it's bigger. Maybe yeah, I would say so, okay, So,
but it's a it's pretty rustic. Yeah, it's pretty neat.
It's definitely an alternative to what you're used to staying in.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
I wonder if it's like glam camping what they call it.
Glam camping is where they put like them said lamb.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
No, it's like, what does that mean? What's lamb camping?

Speaker 5 (28:24):
Go out on the field like the shepherds did way
back when?

Speaker 4 (28:26):
That doesn't sound very uh enticing for me to to consider. No,
I don't think so. No. So, but Yoakams isn't the
only place to eat. You have Asbury's Restaurant and Allegheny
Restaurant just a few miles away Alleghany restaurant is headed
towards Harmon.

Speaker 5 (28:47):
Did you say Asberry's Aspbury's Yeah, yeah, cause that where
is that located?

Speaker 4 (28:52):
It's just south of Seneca Rocks.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
Oh, come on, it's a much more important place than
that is.

Speaker 4 (28:58):
It near Seneca Cavern?

Speaker 5 (29:00):
Is it Seneca Caverns?

Speaker 4 (29:01):
Well, see that I'm coming to that too, Yep, Because
if you're if you're there to walk climb, that's what
you wanta do. You want to climb rocks. Now, if
you're you're planning on stand there for a couple of nights,
there's other things to see and do around Seneca Rock.
So you can go a couple miles in each direction
and find something else to spend the day doing. So, uh,

(29:22):
Smokehole caverns and Dolly Sods or just north Seneca caverns
and Spruce Knob is to the south. Plus you got
plenty of hunting, fishing, and hiking. They're all around you there.
Let's be clear, if you come to this part of
the Mountain State, it's because you love the great outdoors.

(29:42):
You will not find the opera here. Uh, You're not
gonna find Cinderella's Castle here, and you are not gonna
find an Imax theater here. Okay. This is for people
who want to rough it but still have conveniences at home.
This is not for modern culture. This is not for

(30:03):
entertainment that someone produced. This is what Depending on what
you believe this is what God gave us to and
to entertain us. So there's plenty of natural things there
that Dolly saw it. Spruce Knob's the highest point in
the state, about a half hour away. And then you
have you know, Smokehole Cavern, Seneca caverns. That's not like

(30:24):
they're next to each other, They're in opposite directions from
Seneca Rocks.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
Right, the furthest of those is roughly about thirty miles. Yeah, right, yeah,
so yeah, I mean it's it's all. And if you're
in a metropolitan area, I know, thirty miles can seem
like a five hour trip. I've been through Dallas, Fort
Worth and rush hour. It took me, you know, an
hour to go three and a half miles. Yuck. But

(30:50):
in the great state of West Virginia and Pendleton County,
some recover in the entire county in about if it's
twenty miles, it's twenty minutes.

Speaker 4 (30:58):
You know, say some of the roads in West Virginia,
it might seem like you're driving for an hour over
three nowurs.

Speaker 6 (31:04):
Right, yeah, I mean you may be dizzy when you
get off the road, but yeah, I mean things you
travel a lot further with a lot less stress because
the traffic's just not there.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
It's not uh huh, it's not. And uh. You know
if you say to yourself, well, okay caverns, I'm not
going to two separate caverns. You see one, you've seen
them all? No, you have not. Okay take it from
a guy that loved to go caving in the past
aka splunking. Right, They're all different and that's what makes

(31:35):
it fun to go to, you know what I mean,
because they're not all the same. Okay, it's not a
big open room that's got four walls in it. You know.
The caving I did was in Hardy County or Grant. No,
it's Grant County and some of those places. You cannot
be claustrophobic, man, you know, so Smokehole Caverns is great,

(31:58):
and Seneca Caverns is great for people who aren't claustrophobic,
you know what I mean, because they have boardwalks and
railings set up where you can just walk through it.
You know, caving in some of these places I've been in.
If you are claustrophobic, you are not gonna.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
Make it right. There's times where you feel like you're
gonna get stuck. Other times you're drenched in mud. Well,
you never know what you're gonna come up on.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
I mean, you're laying on your back and you're trying
to shimmy your way up through some of these things,
and you know if you keep going, you're not gonna
come out. So you're like, Okay, I'm gonna shimy myself
back down while little brown bats are hanging inches away
from my nose. But they're all sleeping daytime, you know.
So other thing, Hey, if you ever knock a bat

(32:43):
off it's perch when it's asleep, put it back. Put
it back. Okay, you're gonna have gloves when you go
into these caves. Put it back because it'll die. Ye Okay.
So anyway, like I said, this is for the people
who truly enjoy the outdoors. It's not for people who

(33:05):
want to go around in uh knotted sweaters or suits
and ties. Right, It's not for you, okay, But just
give it a try anyway, even if you're that type
of person, give it a try. May change your life.

Speaker 5 (33:17):
Absolutely. I got a couple of things I'd like to
say real quick, just kind of some insider information for
people out there that might be interested in this. That
Yoakum's vacation land. They have like a they got a
horse barn and they do horse back riding.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
Yeah, I forgot about that.

Speaker 5 (33:37):
Yeah, so that Yeah, they offer horseback rides if you
don't have the capability of walking up you know, maybe
you got bad knees or something like that, but you
can ride on the back of a horse. They charge
forty dollars a person. Oh, they do, you know, ask
that you make reservations. But you can just go to
their website, right and get a hold of the dates

(33:59):
in which they're open and operating. If you're going to
do Seneca Rocks, my advice is to take the spring
or the fall. Summer's okay, but it's so hot at times. Yeah,
that springs, spring and fall really enjoyable, especially at fall
with the leaf changing going on. Yeah, you got to
see the foliage down there, man, fantastic. Penalton County is

(34:22):
not a urban area, okay, right, so they're your closest
cities are what Petersburg and Davis. Yes, it's probably gonna be.

Speaker 4 (34:33):
I was thinking like Franklin and Harmon, and Harmon's one
of the smallest.

Speaker 5 (34:38):
Towns, right, I was gonna say, you know, if they're
coming from Big c they're gonna but I I would probably.

Speaker 4 (34:43):
Headed Petersburg, right, But and no offense to yoakums. But
I'm not riding a horse up there either if I
don't trust my own feet to hold me steady. And
I'm gonna quote Jerry Seinfeld here, I'm not going to
sit on a jittery, glassy eye dinosaur of a horse
not doing it. Not doing it. That's not for me,

(35:05):
but it's for others. Enjoy yourself.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (35:08):
Now, if you're interested in starting to rock climb and
you don't know a thing about it, there are two
rock climbing schools in Seneca Rock that are highly reputable,
great people. The first one is Seneca Rock Mountains Guides
and the other one is Seneca Rocks Climbing School. Both

(35:29):
of them have websites. You're more than welcome to look
those up. They have a beginner all day classes, so
a great thing if you want to take your young
ones out if they're adventurous and they want to kind
of live on the edge, but you want them to
do it the right way and learn the right way.
This is a great opportunity if you do go up

(35:50):
to Seneca Rocks. You walk it and you're hot and sweaty.
At the end, there is a swimming hole down at
the base. Yeah. You go down through the park parking
lot and uh, like I said, where where the old
homestead's at and stuff like that. You walk out the back.
There's a pathway. You'll see it when you get there.

(36:11):
It's it's it's worn down because so many people use it. Yeah,
great place to go jump in the water and cool
off from that extremely hot and incredibly challenging climb that
you just did.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
Yeah, that's cool. So I also want to give a disclaimer.
I said, you know, if you're not if you're looking
for the opera, if you're looking for IMAX or what
was the other thing? I said, No, I don't even
I can't remember. It's not like we script these things
or whatever. Hey, will you have those things in West
Virginia too? Just reference our library of previous podcast episodes. Okay,

(36:48):
and uh, that's going to do it for us. But
before we go, Jerry had one of the greatest days
of my life yesterday.

Speaker 5 (36:55):
Tell me what happened?

Speaker 4 (36:56):
Went to the Rock in the Mountains Festival Music festival
over in uh, nearby Cumberland, Maryland, right right on West
Virginia's line from Ridgley. And because of what we do
got to hang backstage with alien Ant Farm, and I
hung out a lot of the day with Non Point,

(37:16):
mostly the lead singer, Elias Soriano, but a lot of
their band members. Rob Rivera, the drummer, he really left
an impression on me. Uh, you just gotta he's gotta
draw sense of humor. You just got to know this guy.
But the rest I'm super super nice. Not that Rob's not.
He's just got a different way showing it, you know.

Speaker 5 (37:35):
So how many autographs did you get me?

Speaker 4 (37:38):
You?

Speaker 5 (37:39):
Well, yeah, oh oh none.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
I'm sorry. What happened was I left him on the
hood of my car and I drove away. So someone
else has.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
Him now, but I'll accept that.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome. Got to see him before
they went on, after they got done, and interacting with
the fans was awesome. Now alien Ant Farm, we wasn't
sure if they were going to be able to play
because four minutes until showtime, lead singer wasn't there yet.

Speaker 5 (38:06):
Hey, you're going to make an entrance has got to
be grand.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
Well he did it. He did it. He showed up
at eight eight fifty seven and he was like immediately,
like a light switched, boom. He was on the stage
and trying to think of what song he opened. I
think it was courage, I think.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
But if his presence is almost as good as ours.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
Yeah right, yes almost Yeah, So folks listen. I know
it's not a West Virginia thing, but it's pretty close
to being there. It's right on the Potomac River. You
could sit rigidly on the levee and listen to these
great groups yesterday. But look out for him next year.
Rock in the Mountains it's going to be in July,

(38:50):
and check them out. We had people from Virginia, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina, nice, West Virginia, Virginia, just from all over
the place. It draws him in, and this is like
many concert venues because you are right up and close
and personal with these guys. Super super cool. They had
Drowning Pool there on Friday, Elitea's Way, Any Givenson and

(39:13):
a bunch of local bands all day, all day Saturday,
and then today is Sunday. It's their country day. So
if you like country music, Boom, Sunday's your day so.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
And just as heads up for those who don't follow music,
Drowning Pool is not a pool that they were drowning
people in. It is a musical group.

Speaker 4 (39:33):
And I hope I didn't say Deadpool, because I've known
you that you didn't. I've made that mistake a couple
of times. We're like Deadpool, what's a movie?

Speaker 5 (39:39):
I'm like that, I'm in Drowning I actually was watching
that last night.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
Yeah. Yeah, so special shout out to Jimmy Crawford who
puts us together, also a musician, plays bas and a
band called anger Box. To check them out as well.
So that's gonna do for us. I know we got
off on a separate tangent, but Seneca rocks super super cool.
If you're just into looking at the scenery, that's the
place for you. If you're a hiker, go check it out.

(40:04):
Hunter fishermen, go there. If you are a rock climber,
mountain climber, this is your place. Okay, picture that little
mountain climber on the price is right, is climbing.

Speaker 5 (40:17):
Up the thing, but just picture going straight up exactly.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
It's not an incline. It is vertical, so the kind
of like Bannuffs Rock up in Canada.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
Take your camera, take your camera, Like I said, bald eagles, falcons,
Paraquin there, it's all there.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
Oh, there's bald eagles all over the place down there.
Check it out once again, Seneca Rocks, Pendleton County Route
twenty eight, fifty five and thirty three. Absolutely very very
close to Roanoke and Richmond, all those places in Virginia
that you know, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
I mean, Washington Davis is probably gonna have the nicest
facilities to stay at if.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
You're yeah, and they're not that far away.

Speaker 5 (40:52):
Yeah, so you're talking thirty minutes, you're right there at
Canaine Resorts right there.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
And that's going to be a future podcast. Yes, you
got black Waterfalls, and then you have Canaane Valley, as
you said, Cane Valley Resource. Yeah, me too. So that's
gonna do for us. Once again, it's Seneca Rocks. Please
check out our other episodes. We have it in our library.
If you want to text us, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 5 (41:15):
Jerry, don't worry about texting this because now you can
hit the fan mail button. Yo. That's what I was
getting ready to say when you said that, Yeah, oh
I do that.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
I was just leaning.

Speaker 5 (41:22):
Yeah, hey, it was perfect, perfect and yeah, now they
just hit that fan mail button on the podcast and
they can send us any kind of response. We take
good and bad. We get them both and it's okay,
we got five shoulders or we mess up sometimes and
sometimes we do, we do, but sometimes they just don't
understand what we're saying.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
That's true, especially you.

Speaker 5 (41:45):
We'll call it a fifty to fifty split between you
know who's right and who's wrong half the time.

Speaker 4 (41:49):
Yeah, right, right, I'll take that. But also, if you
want to email us, it's West Virginia Talk at yahoo
dot com and Jerry. We're up to over eleven hundred
cities that have downloaded US, forty five countries that have
downloaded US, and that's just downloads. We have many, many
more that have streamed us. And we want to thank
everyone that is tuned in listen to us. Hope you

(42:12):
like what you hear, and just drop us an email
once in a while to tell us what you think.
We've gotten some of them, but not in the way
we wanted to. So, hey, we don't care criticism. Yeah,
so I hope I'm not opening the door.

Speaker 5 (42:27):
It's okay if you are, you know, we love. We
love the fact that y'all are listening.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
Hey, and just because you send us the stuff doesn't
mean we're gonna respond to it, all right, Just keep
that in mind. Okay, So Seneca Rocks. Check it out.
Check out on other episodes. I'm James, I'm Jerry. You've
been listening to West Virginia Talk, Jay and Jay Production,
James and.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
Chamby on the mic.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Repped in West Virginia Pride, Fucking history with a visit,
Way to eat a lot, from the mountains to the valleys.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
The State's are home podcasting people know of a walk
along West Virginia Talk the stories we unfold. Come and
join us. Our adventures never grow old, exploring the beauty
the heart of the land.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Listening together, We'll make us stand for Charleston, the markets.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
How we got it all hollow on the airway.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
If you're a mountain, call community, culture and perseverance in
our voice, sharing no love for w F It's our choice.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Bringing the past to life, creating memoris a.

Speaker 4 (43:44):
New Western China.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Talking like Repp in Westernvirginia Pride Talking History, Way, Where
to visit Wedding We'll hide from the mountains to the valleys,
the veto hide, from the mountains to.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
The valleys, beatle high, West Virginia Talk.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
The stories we behold through laughter and tears, our tales unfold,
discovering the richness the soul of the state.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
Tune in.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Let our voices resonate.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
The stories we behold to left her in tears, our
fails unfold, discovering the richness the soul of the state.

Speaker 3 (44:30):
Soon, let our voices resonate. West Virginia talk, and a
love for the land. Embracing the legacy, hand in hand,
join the conversation.

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Let your spirits are West Virginia Talk forevermore.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
A A A A M, A mother
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