Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Joe Knob & Nuttallburg

While the weather may have made much of the day seem like a bust, it really worked out well that we saw some interesting things and had some time to work.

We met Jerry "Boozie" Scarles of the Department of Environmental Protection this morning at 9 am to visit mining operations at and near Joe Knob at Anjean, WV in Greenbrier County. Despite the buckets of rain that assaulted us, we were able to see active surface mining and recovery of former mine spoil from gob piles at Bucklily. We were impressed with the monitoring of mining and reclamation by the DEP at the site. Mr. Scarles was an excellent guide and gave us full access to the operations at the site.

After leaving Joe Knob, we made a quick stop at the Meadow River Community Park then on to Nuttallburg after stopping at a picnic shelter for a nice lunch from Karen & Annette’s magic cooler!

Much of Nutalburg was under construction when we were there. Parking, restrooms and improved access is being construction. However, all of this work means that we were unable to reach some of the ruins in the town. The groups were able to do a few water quality assessments and found the water to be of much better quality that anyone expected.

From Nuttallburg, we traveled to the New River Gorge visitor’s center where we visited the observation platform to view the bridge then many of us watched an educational video on the New River Gorge area. We left the visitor’s center and drove to Fayette Station for some bridge photos and great views.

A short trip to the Hampton Inn in Beckley had us back in time for a quick shower before dinner at Bob Evans’ next door. The time this evening is most welcome to allow for time to catch up on blogs and to rest in anticipation of a long day on Wednesday.

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