It was the trip of a lifetime...

Alone in the beauty of the West Virginia mountains, and only 78 miles of the Greenbriar River Trail separated us from our car. It's hard to say which was greener—the trees bordering the old rail line or the two of us!

Daena loves to read maps. There's just something about the way they promise so much about roads not taken. West Virginia was the map of choice in the early 1990's, and Seneca Rocks just sounded interesting. Now there's much to tell about Seneca Rocks and Spruce Knob and Green Bank another day, but this story is about Watoga State Park and the Greenbriar River Trail.

One summer we fell in love with Watoga State Park and its quiet peacefulness. Built as part of the CCC work during the Depression, Watoga is a mountain jewel undiscovered by those in search of the fast lane. We spent almost every weekend there that year, and one Saturday, we wandered over to the general store across the river in Seebert, about a mile away. Click here to see photos of Watoga and the Greenbriar River Trail, and our favorite country store.

Seebert, at the time, was little more than a dozen houses, a picturesque church, and a general store. On one side of the Greenbriar River was Watoga and the campground where we tented, and the on the other was Seebert and the Greenbriar River Trail. We'd noticed the bike rental shed next to the store, and asked about it. Since we had no particular plans that day, we decided to rent a couple bikes and ride on the trail. It wasn't long until we were hooked!

The rest of that summer and way into October we rented bikes and rode further and further on the trail, first in one direction and then in the other. We even drove to different sections of the trail to ride the bridges and explore the tunnels. When winter arrived, we began hatching a plan to ride the entire trail—78 miles from Cass to North Caldwell.

The problem? We'd never ridden more than 10 or 15 miles on the trail! But that didn't dampen our enthusiasm for the trip. By June of the next year, we were determined to go, ready or not.....