INN THE WOODS RETREATING TO THE MOUNTAINS OF WEST VIRGINIA

Publish date: 2024-07-11

The last, lingering wisp of morning fog melted into the mountainside, which I took as a hint it was time to get a move on. And I did, but reluctantly, since I had been soaking away the dawn chill in a bubbling outdoor hot tub perched high in the West Virginia woodlands.

What a way to begin a day. Nobody else was up yet in the rustic-looking guest lodge where we were staying, and my only company was the old gray horse that roams freely about the grounds keeping the grass trimmed. From the tub, where I was immersed chin deep, I could look beyond the lawn and across the treetops to green mountain ridges that seemed to step into the sky.

My before-breakfast soak came on the first morning of a three-day driving trip into the Potomac Highlands, the beautifully scenic back country of eastern West Virginia. The Highlands area is near enough to Washington to be convenient for a weekend getaway, and yet it is a world apart -- much of it a vast forested wilderness of sheer-faced cliffs, hidden valleys and tumbling streams. Within this quiet realm, I found three pleasant rustic retreats, each with its own charm.

The closest to Washington, about 120 miles away, is the Guest House, a nine-room bed-and-breakfast hideaway near Lost River, on the western boundary of 1 million-acre George Washington National Forest. Here's where I took advantage of the hot tub and the splendid views.

About two to three hours farther west in the midst of the even more remote Monongahela National Forest are the Cheat Mountain Club near Durbin, once a private fishing and hunting lodge for the wealthy, and the Cheat River Lodge outside Elkins, which is neighbor to one of the finest restaurants in the state. Both lodges edge up to the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River, a clear, fast-flowing trout stream that splashes through the heart of the 830,000-acre national forest.

Each of the lodges is very different, but all three offer attractive year-round accommodations in woodland isolation -- and at modest prices. The Guest House, the fanciest of the trio, prefers adults only, and the background music in the window-wrapped sitting room is classical. The live-in managers of the Cheat Mountain Club, Norm and Deb Strouse, have a 20-month-old daughter, Samantha, and they eagerly welcome families. Privacy is part of the appeal of the Cheat River Lodge's five streamside cottages, each with its own large outdoor hot tub.

I grew up as a backpacker and camper, but my wife likes a solid roof over her head at night. Our compromise when we head for the mountains is to stay in a small lodge such as these three, where nature is abundant but comfortably tamed. And I don't really miss my sleeping bag and tent. Each night, I stepped outside our lodge room to gaze at a broad sky ablaze with stars never visible in the city, and then I hurried back inside before the bugs started biting.

An especially scenic region of forested ridges and rugged peaks, the Potomac Highlands forms part of the Allegheny mountain chain. The state's highest peak, Spruce Knob (at 4,861 feet), is not far from the Cheat Mountain Club or the Cheat River Lodge. A winding road climbs to the summit, where wind-blown red spruce and rocky outcrops aptly illustrate how the spot got its name.

About 100,000 acres of the Monongahela National Forest have been designated as the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. Using the lodges as your base camp, you can hike the area's miles of woodland trails, fish or canoe on white-water streams, bicycle old forestry roads, explore mysterious caves, go mountain climbing or cool off in a rocky pool at the base of a waterfall. Or, as we did, you can find a comfortable spot beside a stream to doze and read on a warm afternoon.

All three lodges are fine choices for a refreshing weekend getaway, but to really savor the mountain quiet you should plan to stay a week. Or you can do as I did and make a scenic circle drive from Washington that takes in all three. I did it in three days, but I suggest staying at least two nights at each lodge. The round trip covers about 500 miles, almost all of it on lightly traveled two-lane roads -- once you have crossed into West Virginia.

As it turns out, I don't really have a favorite among the three retreats, since all are appealing and have multiple attractions, including very impressive settings. I did note at least one not very serious drawback at each place, which may influence your choice of which to head for first.

The Guest House

The hand-lettered sign on the doorway warned, "New cat, keep the door closed." So I stepped inside cautiously, where I was greeted not by a cat but a huge English mastiff about the size of a pony. My first instinct was to flee, but the dog's yawning demeanor suggested I had nothing to fear. Indeed, he pushed his jowly face into my hand begging to be petted, and once gratified he returned to his nap.

Another dog, at least three cats and the aging gray horse on the lawn are permanent residents of the Guest House, a cluster of three appropriately woodsy structures clinging somewhat precariously to 15 sloping acres. I met most of the animals before I finally found Bob Dillard and Bill DeWees, the partners who opened the lodge in 1983. They both were outside working in their extensive flower beds. A hillside of irises was in full bloom when we showed up last month.

The Guest House sits on a thickly wooded slope overlooking Mill Gap, a small cup-shaped valley traced by Mill Run, the little creek running beside the road to the lodge. From the lodge, you get a view of the entire valley, much of which has been sold in five-acre lots for weekend cabins. So thick is the foliage, however, that only a few structures on the distant ridge line are visible. Dillard and DeWees came to Mill Gap as real estate salesmen and decided to stay on.

Initially, the Guest House began with a log cabin, officially dubbed the Log Cabin, which since has been expanded and now serves as a gathering spot for guests. A stone fireplace fills one entire wall of the main sitting room, and outside there's a wraparound deck at treetop level. Two other buildings, the Guest House and Redbud Cottage, were added later, and guests are housed in them in large, nicely decorated rooms with private baths. Outside the Guest House is a large swimming pool, sun deck and the hot tub.

Dillard and DeWees are congenial hosts who welcome guests as if they were old friends invited for a weekend house party. One friendly little extra is a small basket of chocolate candy placed in each room. The lodge does not have a restaurant, which is its principal drawback. Breakfast is the only meal served, and it is a large one that is included in the room rate ( $75 a night for two on weekends).

Just before 9 a.m., one of the partners rings a breakfast gong and guests gather for a family-style meal around a long wooden table in the Log Cabin dining room. The Saturday morning we were there, several people looked as if they had just stumbled from bed, and I suspect the hour was an early one for them. I, of course, had been up for hours, the better to enjoy the mountain morning.

Dillard and DeWees are the cooks, and we were treated to a generous bowl of fresh fruit, orange juice, yogurt biscuits, country-fried potatoes, heaps of crisp bacon, scrambled eggs, sliced fresh tomatoes and coffee or tea. Seconds were offered and accepted.

For dinner the night before, we took our hosts' recommendation and drove into Moorefield, about 20 miles away, where we ate at a quite modest little restaurant called the Cottage. It has no liquor license, so we couldn't order wine. But the menu tempted me with an enormous portion of roast prime rib for $12.95, including a good tossed salad, baked potato and rolls. My wife's entree, mesquite-grilled chicken breast on a bed of noodles, was only $7. Though plain, the dishes were well-prepared. The low prices were typical of our meals in West Virginia.

In the summer, a more convenient restaurant is open at Lost River State Park, about five miles from the lodge. And any time of the year you can ask to use the large, very modern kitchen on the first floor of the Log Cabin to prepare lunch and dinner for yourself.

Dillard and DeWees look on the Guest House as a place where guests can come simply to relax. "This is no Club Med," says Dillard, who purposely avoids constructing a tennis court. But if you get restless, there are good hiking trails in the national forest and at Lost River State Park. Rockcliff Lake, about five miles up the mountain in George Washington National Forest, has a sandy beach for swimmers, and the nearby state park operates a horseback-riding stable.

No matter what you plan for your day, however, start it with a soak in the hot tub. I may never go camping again.

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Cheat Mountain Club

A big old-fashioned cookie jar sits at child's reach in the main lodge room of the Cheat Mountain Club, a reminder that managers Norm and Deb Strouse really mean it when they say they welcome children. The cookie jar is kept filled for snacking any time of the day.

The lodge, which was opened to the public just three years ago, sits on 187 mostly wooded acres that stretch for almost two miles alongside the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River. You can watch the river from the lodge's long covered porch or take a seat in one of the comfortable wooden chairs placed right at the stream's edge. Flat water turns into riffles as Shavers Fork flows past the property.

Cheat Mountain is a lofty, 85-mile-long ridge, and the lodge is situated in an isolated valley high on the mountain at an elevation of almost 3,700 feet. Though the sun was shining brightly the day we arrived, the air was cool and a midday fire was burning in the stone fireplace in the lodge's main room, accurately called the Great Hall.

The lodge was built in 1887 by a group of wealthy sportsmen from Pittsburgh who used it for hunting and fishing outings. Once inventors Henry Ford and Thomas Edison stayed overnight. Native spruce logs were used in the construction of the large three-story structure, which has nine guest rooms on the second floor above the Great Hall. The sportsmen maintained the lodge until 1947, when a lumbering company and a railroad line began to use it for an executive retreat.

Three years ago the property was purchased by five families in Charleston, W.Va., and opened as a guest lodge. It is still maintained in a comfortably rustic style as if all of today's guests continue to be lords of commerce. The Strouses have been managers since the reopening and will acquire a share in the ownership in two more years. They obviously work hard to keep things running smoothly.

Educated as a schoolteacher, Deb Strouse says she was "bitten by the restaurant bug" before she started to teach, and she is chief cook, baker and housekeeper. Husband Norm, a graduate of West Virginia University's School of Forestry, is an amateur naturalist who maintains the grounds and advises guests in outdoor pursuits.

Three hearty meals a day are included in the lodging price, which is $69 a day per person on weekends, and they are served family style around a long wooden table. (For children under 12, the price is $59 a day.) Breakfast is at 8, lunch at 1 and dinner at 7. On the Saturday night menu was a fresh garden salad, barbecued steak, oven-sauteed potatoes flavored with bay leaves and lemon juice, fresh asparagus, homemade oat bread and a spice cake. The lodge has a liquor license, and beer, wine and cocktails are available at a self-serve honor bar.

If the lodge has a drawback, it is that only one of the upstairs guest rooms has a private bath. The other rooms, which are smallish, share dorm-type bathrooms. Morning lines aren't really a problem, since both the men's and the women's bath each have three tiled showers and three enclosed toilet stalls, and they are immaculate. Piles of fresh cotton towels and washcloths are stacked by the sinks.

On the third floor is a dorm room, which the Strouses have furnished for youngsters, so that they don't have to share a room with their parents. "Everything's indestructible up there," says Deb Strouse, "so I tell them, 'Go at it.' " However, in-room trundle beds are available if parents want to keep an overnight watch on their children.

Trout fishing remains one of the most popular activities at the lodge, and Norm Strouse will provide the equipment if you don't have your own. The river is stocked with rainbow, brown and brook trout at least two times a year, as are two ponds on the property. Fishing in the ponds is on a catch and release basis using barbless hooks. No additional fee is charged for recreational activities, which are included in the room rate.

When there is sufficient water in the stream -- it runs highest in spring and fall -- the lodge shuttles guests and canoes five miles upstream, and they can paddle back down to the lodge. Norm Strouse keeps six 18-speed mountain bicycles on hand, and he can map out miles of forest roads to explore. About seven miles of hiking trails wind through the property, and the national forest has many miles more.

Nearby, outfitters lead white-water rafting trips; or you can take a ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad, a state-operated old logging train that ascends to the top of Bald Knob at 4,842 feet; drive to the top of Spruce Knob; or explore the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, an unusual preserve that has been compared to the tundra country of northern Alaska.

And when you return, just grab a cookie from the cookie jar to keep you going until dinner -- that is, if the youngsters haven't eaten them all.

Cheat River Lodge You will find hot tubs at Cheat River Lodge, too, but only the five streamside cottages have them, and we had booked too late to get a cottage. Instead, we stayed in the Lodge itself, a two-story cedar and fieldstone building that has six guest rooms and no hot tubs. But we didn't feel at all sorry for ourselves. The Lodge's double-decked, screened-in porch overlooks the Shavers Fork, and we settled in to comfy chairs after the day's long drive and quickly dozed off to the sound of rushing water.

The Lodge and the cottages, which are very attractive, sit in a narrow valley on about 14 wooded acres that front the river for a mile. It is a pretty spot but not as secluded as the other two lodges, and this is its minor drawback. Just outside the property is a trailer camp, and a through road passes by close enough that you can hear the traffic. But if the Cheat River Lodge isn't in the wilderness, it's very much on the edge of it.

Across the river, not a 10-minute walk away, is the impressive stone entrance gate to the Monongahela National Forest. And just inside the gate is the start of Stuart Memorial Drive, an 11-mile scenic route that traces the southern boundary of the Otter Creek Wilderness Area. The road is unpaved and mostly one-lane, and it winds for much of the way along steep mountain slopes. In places, the trees are so thick they form a canopy over the road. Often bears are spotted. We didn't see any -- only a woodchuck.

The Cheat River Lodge has been owned and operated since 1984 by Roxye Marshall and her husband, Joe, an Elkins dentist. Country life appeals to the couple, she says, and as the principal manager she tries to run the property in a way that provides guests with "a rural West Virginia experience." She inadvertently woke me from my front porch nap when she stopped by the Lodge to see if her guests were comfortably settled.

Our second-floor Lodge room, which was large and pleasantly furnished, rents for $40 a night for two people, which I consider a real bargain given its attractive location. A Lodge room with a kitchen is $46 a night. The private cottages, which have two, three or four bedrooms, range from $98 to $130 a night for two people to $126 to $158 a night for six people. (You are welcome to bring along pets, also.) Marshall says she hasn't raised her rates since 1988: "I'm proud of that."

One of the cottages, called the Rhododendron, is so close to the river you can fish for trout while sitting in the hot tub. That's what I was told anyway.

Just a few steps from the Lodge is the Cheat River Inn, which is earning a reputation as one of the state's finest restaurants. It is owned by Nancy and Rick Krogh: She's the chef and he assists. Krogh fancies fresh seafood -- a holdover from prior jobs at restaurants in Key West, Fla. The inn, operated in tandem with the Cheat River Lodge, is where Cheat River Lodge guests check in on arrival.

From the outside, the inn looks like a roadside honky-tonk, and this impression is reinforced when you step inside. But upstairs, the Audubon Room, the main dining area, has a fresh and inviting appearance, and several tables have nice views of the river. Opening off the room is an outdoor deck with more tables and another small bar with an even better river view.

Although the inn's wine list proved mediocre, everything else about our dinner was first rate. And the price was astonishingly low.

I ordered fresh grilled trout sprinkled with nuts, which came properly moist and flaky; my wife chose trout also, but hers was rolled in oats. Our entrees were served with a green salad, a baked potato and corn on the cob. As an appetizer, we shared a plate of spicy grilled shrimp and sausage on a bed of grilled cucumber and green pepper slices. Dessert was a brownie heaped with vanilla ice cream. Also added to our tab was a half carafe of chablis, and I was so pleased with the service I left a 20 percent tip. The full price for the two of us came to just $35.15.

If this is a rural West Virginia experience, I'll go back for more.

WAYS & MEANS

Our 500-mile circle route from Washington took us to three rustic retreats in West Virginia's Potomac Highlands:

The Guest House, Lost River, W. Va. 26811, 304-897-5707.

Cheat Mountain Club, P.O. Box 28, Durbin, W. Va. 26264, 304-456-4627.

Cheat River Lodge, Rte. 1, Box 115, Elkins, W. Va. 26241, 304-636-2301.

GETTING THERE:

From Washington, we headed west on I-66 to Strasburg, Va., and then west again on Route 55 through Wardensville, W. Va., to Baker. At Baker, we detoured south on Route 259 to Lost River and the turn-off to the left for the Guest House. Driving time was about 2 1/2 hours.

Returning to Route 55, we continued west and south through Moorefield and Petersburg to Seneca Rocks. There we picked up Route 28 south almost to Bartow, turning west on U.S. 250 through Durbin to the entrance road on the left to Cheat Mountain Club. Driving time was about 2 1/2 hours.

From there, we continued north on U.S. 250 to Elkins, turning east on U.S. 33 for four miles to the road on the left to Cheat River Lodge. Driving time was about an hour.

From the lodge, we returned to U.S. 33, continuing east through Harman to Seneca Rocks. From Seneca Rocks, we retraced our path via Route 55 and I-66 back to Washington. Driving time was about 4 1/2 hours.

WHEN TO GO:

The three lodges are open year-round, and they offer recreational opportunities to match the season. All three are adjacent to thousands of acres of national forest lands, and they are near downhill ski resorts and cross-country skiing trails. At any time of the year, they tend to book up well in advance for weekends. Sometimes the entire lodge is taken by a single group for a business function or family gathering. Your best chance for last-minute reservations is for Sunday through Thursday, and some of those rates are less.

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INN THE WOODS RETREATING TO THE MOUNTAINS OF WEST VIRGINIA