Bat Boy, Bikers and Seneca Rocks!

The day before had been so long and crazy, we were too tired to really complain about the hotel room we were in.  I won't lie, it was old and smelled like wet dog. I do have to say that besides the orange bedspread, the hand towel in the bathroom was the scariest sight I had seen in at least a month.  I opened it up before stepping into the shower to find that there was an old large brown stain on it.  That in my mind could only mean one thing and it wasn't a good thing.  I threw the wash cloth onto the floor and decided to clean up without the help of a washcloth as it would probably be more sanitary in the long run.


What was even more bizarre was that the cleaning crew kept trying to get into our room starting at 7:00AM in the morning.  7:00AM!!!  The woman tried 3 times before we finally started to get our stuff together and leave.

Water Wheel of Fun

Because of the dirtiness of the place, the next morning, we decided to skip the free breakfast and grabbed a coffee while snacking on our store bought goods.  After the washcloth incident, we figured it probably wouldn't be a good idea to eat the food from the establishment.  This place was an interesting West Virginia experience of its own.


So after we grabbed our iced coffees, we were on our way once again.  Today we knew that we had an ambitious itinerary as it was our last full day.  Noah had an interest in seeing a cave while in West Virginia as he had never been in one before.  When I was about 7 I had gone to the Oregon Caves on a family road trip from California to visit my grandparents.  I remember being freaked out due to the heights and the steps that seemed rather questionable.  There came a point where there was a high climb to some room that I just couldn’t do.  My brothers laughed in my face while Mom stayed below with me.  Yeah, nice caving memories.  


Still, I am one to face up to my fears and told him I had no problem with it.  I mean I was 7 years old at the time and felt it was possible that I was overreacting.  I do remember the dank coldness of the cave and pulled out a thick sweater and change into sneakers as I did not want to repeat the stupidity of the day before.


It was decided that we would be going to the Lost World Caverns as they were on our route and looked to be pretty easy to handle.  On their site, we noticed that they had the Wild Cave Tours.  It is a four hour trek deep into the caves with a guide.  There you climb through small spaces, splash through water and mud and just have a crazy good old time.  After seeing some of the photos, I wanted to do this, but we had limited time and Noah didn’t appear to be into the whole experience so we stuck to the plan of taking the 40 minute self guided tour.

Onto the Cave Adventure!

The ride to the caves was about the same as any other drive.  We got behind a 90 year old guy going 15 under the speed limit while the cars behind me tailed us one inch from the back of our car.  Finally, the guy turned onto a dirt road and the pack was off.  It didn’t take long before we got to our destination.  


The road to the caves is marked, but we weren’t prepared for a full on narrow gravel road.  It was crazy!  Because the car was borrowed, we were a little nervous to take it down the road, so we took our time so as not to bang it up with flying rocks.  It took a good amount of time before we finally reached the cave, but there were greeted by a beautiful horse and a nicely kept wooden establishment with a working waterwheel churning away.


Noah was pretty giddy when we hit the door as he knew he was a few feet away from the site where the infamous Bat Boy was spawned.  Yes, the infamous Bat Boy supposedly came from this, the Lost Caves.  Now why would anyone be this excited over a bat child?  Well the same reason I was excited over Mothman, it is ridiculous good fun.  That and Noah had played the title role in the musical Bat Boy and it left a positive impression on him.  So, in a way it was a character study too late, ah well, better late then never.

Bridal Formation

Before we entered the cave, we entered the large gift shop and dinosaur fossil area.  It’s really large and really well put together.  The co owners are also extremely nice and really funny, we ended up talking to them for over an hour.  Bat Boy eventually came into the conversation which gave them both a good laugh.  They had nothing to do with the original story posted in the crap magazine, but they did find it amusing and bought a copy and hhad it behind the counter.  Apparently, there are contrasting stories about where Bat Boy comes from, but either way, they were more interested in people enjoying the actual caves though they said the extra tourism from the bogus article didn’t hurt either.


The cave itself it quite nice and well taken care which can’t be cheap.  It is a self guided tour and takes about 45 minutes and is quite nice for a smaller cave.  We ran into people of various ages including children and seniors so it’s fun for all ages.  The rock formations are pretty cool and we had fun singing in the cave once we were the only once left inside as the acoustics were pretty sweet.  Pseudo opera sounds pretty crazy in a big empty cave.


At the end of our tour, we thanked the owners and headed back out to the world of light towards our car, but it didn’t take long for me to get distracted by a big, friendly dog by the waterwheel.  I love animals and this guy slowly lured me over before he made me a slave to scratching his head and tummy.  I seriously love animals!  But soon, I had to say goodbye so that we could hit the road to our last sought at destination; Seneca Rocks.  


Seneca Rocks had been suggested to me by a few people who had been to West Virginia and the rocks seemed pretty cool, but it was already early afternoon and we had quite the ride ahead of us as it was across the state from where we were.  So we got back in the car and were off.

The Cave

Our only option was a back road that took us past many incorporated towns.  I will be honest, I had no idea what that meant.  Noah did as he comes from an area with smaller towns.  It basically is an area with no local government and a very small population.  Interesting!  While on this ride we past a lot of farm land, but soon realized that even though it was relaxing due to the lack of cars, we needed to take the freeway if we planned on seeing the rocks before dark.  So we veered onto the freeway for about an hour before getting onto a narrow two way road that would take us to the highest point of West Virginia.  The drive up was gorgeous as the leaves were turning into vibrant autumn colors the higher we climbed the more the leaves came swirling from the trees to covering the roads in bright orange, yellow and red.  It was beautiful and a rewarding drive.


Then, the bikers came!  Yes, bikers!  There were about 20 of them and they passed our car in true West Virginia style.  I was going over the speed limit but didn’t want to push it past 15 over as I didn’t feel like careening over a cliff that day.  There was one guy in the back who was driving a piece of crap that couldn’t pass us and I knew one thing, I didn’t want him to get in front of us.  His ride was really lame!  Well eventually, I did let him pass because he was annoying me and apparently bikers only feel comfortable if they are all together.  It isn’t like they are running away from Jason Voorhees in the woods and need numbers on their side, there are 20 bikes you won’t lose them.  In the end, they ended up going 10 under the speed limit once they passed.  Yeah, not a fan!  An interesting thing to note, when bikers pass other bikers going the opposite direction they give each other the “we’re bad ass” signal even if the biker is on a crappy bike like the lame guy who probably picked up his for $10 at a garage sale.  It was pretty much a glorified scooter!  I mean if you are on a Harley why give this guy a thumbs up?!? Ah well!

Vulture!  I've Known a Few

Eventually, they all turned off and I did the happy dance in my seat hitting the speed limit for the first time in an hour.  Finally, we arrived at Seneca Rocks. We had the chance to visit the highest point in West Virginia, but skipped it as I had been on higher points on the West Coast.  We were about the rocks!


Now, there was a hiking trail that people can take to the “lookout point.”  It was getting a little late in the day and we knew we didn’t have much daylight left, so we forged ahead.  I apparently got confused as I thought that the lookout point would be an area closer to a better view of the rocks for taking photos.  My first clue should have been the 1.5 miles trail, but it didn’t click.  It turns out the trail takes you close to the top of the rocks on a steep switchback trail all the way up.  Why we didn’t figure this out, I have no idea.  Maybe it was because we hadn’t been sleeping.   My body was still aching from the New River Gorge Bridge hike from the day before but this time I was ready as I had the appropriate shoes on, so on we marched.

The Arrow is Where We Climbed To

It wasn’t bad at first, but after a quarter of the hike we kept passing people who were red in the face and sweaty.  Many of them were older and perhaps not in the best shape of their lives, but still, it concerned us, that and the sun had gone down.  I don’t know how long it took us as I had left my phone in the car like an idiot, but it was quite the hike.  It is completely uphill and it was really humid out and my calves were burning from the day before thanks to the 1600 steps half of which were up.  Still, it was a lot easier than the hike before, but it is a decent workout   

By the time we hit the top, we were surprised to see a wooden structure that looked like a porch deck at the top jutting out from the side of the rocks.  Now Noah is afraid of heights and pretty much freaked out.  I didn’t realize I was truly afraid of heights before getting out onto this thing.  It just didn’t seem stable for some reason though it totally was.  It was just strange to be on something you would expect to be sitting on drinking a cold beer on a hot summer night with friends on the side of a rock formation.  It was a great view and the after light of the past sunset was a pretty shade of deep pink.  We then realized it was probably best to head back as it would be dark soon.

Face the Fear!

The hike back down was a lot faster than the climb up that’s for sure.  That and we were booking it to get back to civilization before night fall which was coming quickly.  On our way down we ran into a couple on their way up.  They asked how the view was.  We wanted to be nice and told them it was great, but that it was pretty dark when we left so they may not see much.  This didn’t deter them at all and they continued up which I thought was crazy.  For the rest of the night we would talk about whether or not they turned around or if they got stuck up there for the night or possibly got eaten by a bear.  I don’t really know why, but I couldn’t stop thinking about them!  


By the time we got to the car, it was dark, and we knew we needed to get moving to get to our hotel sometime before midnight as we were staying in Maryland as we had to catch a bus by 1:30 the next day in Philadelphia.  


Again, the ride sucked.  We were on back roads going through the mountains and again, we ended up in front of a dude who was tailing me like a maniac with full high beams.  I was going 20 over on dark unfamiliar roads with nowhere to let him pass or any place for me to pull over.  These drivers sucked, period.  Noah thought we were going to die, so as soon as I could, I let the idiot pass.  Worst drivers EVER and this is coming from someone who drives in NYC on occasion thanks to drunk friends who can’t get home.  

The Dark Hike Home

Finally, we got off the death road and hit the freeway.  The drive from there was pretty easy going thanks to a 3 to 4 lane freeway.  We ended up  leaving West Virginia and then reentered all on the same freeway within a 10 minute span which was special.  Saying goodbye the second time was a lot easier than the first.  Also, West Virginia likes their big crosses and you can see them from the freeway for miles but the biggest thumbs up goes to Lord Fairfax Community College for such an awesome name for a facility for higher education!


Before hitting our hotel, we decided to stop by somewhere to get food.  It turns out there is not much open in Hagerstown, except for the Waffle House we passed the first day of our trip.  The place was scary, but it was 11:30 at night and we were hungry!  Sadly, we looked over at the now closed Cracker Barrel.  Please, don’t eat at this Waffle House for your own good.  The service sucked and there was a big dead roach on the first table we passed.  When our food came it was not great and my eggs were raw in parts.   I was so tired and hungry I just cut away the crap part and got the hell out of there as fast as I could and prayed I wouldn't get food poisoning.  It was just skeevy!  So after that delicious meal, we headed to the hotel as we both were exhausted.  Luckily the hotel was clean and inviting with no crap stained towels.  Yay Hagerstown!