The Sinks of Gandy
Last week, I wrote about “A Time with Students”. This week, I will describe another time with students on a different year from the former event, but still one that happened in the eastern, central mountains of West Virginia. The occasion was a biology class on an extended field trip in May, just after Heidelberg’s graduation. There were about 15 students and four faculty involved.
From our base camp on Shaver’s Fork between Parsons and Elkins, we went to several different areas, mostly in the Monogahela National Forest to study the biology and geology of the varied habitats.
On one trip we visited the Cranberry Glades one of the largest bogs in eastern U. S. encompassing hundreds of acres. Here we saw many rare plants, including several wild orchids.
Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia at an elevation of 4861, presented an unreal scene with large exposed boulders and scrubby vegetation and an occasional flagged red spruce gave us an illusion of being in northern Canada.
Dolly Sods was another destination. It is above 4,000 feet and stretches for many miles on the Allegheny front. It had originally been a forest of almost pure red spruce. The area was logged out in the early 20th century and the mostly humus soil burned away. The original forest may never regenerate, even though the area is a protected part of the National Forest. A large part of the Dolly Sods is designated a Wilderness area. We saw wild azaleas, mountain laurel, bleeding heart and sundew, an insectivorous plant.
We passed Seneca Rocks which present a vertical stone face hundreds of feet high, that is one of the famous places for rock climbing in the eastern U. S. This vertical wall is visible as an outcrop for miles along the South Branch of the Potomac River and U.S. Route 33.
In the same area, Canaan Valley is one of the largest and highest valleys in the east. Here is the southernmost location for several Canadian plants. The larch tree, common to our northern states and Canada, is found here.
Some years we visited Blackwater Falls, nearby. This state park contains a beautiful picturesque falls. The black water is due to organic acids that are dissolved as the creek flows through evergreen and rhododendron forests. It is also a trout stream.
Forest covers most of the mountains and valleys of this part of West Virginia. Every so often, the forests give way to farmland where cattle and sheep are a common sight. These areas are among the few places in the state where there are limestone outcroppings. Most of the state’s soils are acid in nature and the addition of lime becomes necessary for productive farming. There are also some of the most extensive cave systems in the east.
In l986, we planned a trip to the Sinks of Gandy. We traveled several miles in the vans to a limestone area where there were several caves, and Gandy Creek ran through the area and disappeared into the side of a mountain.
That year we came well prepared with extra dry warm clothes and battery operated headlights. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day as we walked the pasture fields beside the swift running Gandy Creek. There was no forecast of rain, and the creek was at normal flow. Several times before I had guided groups in the creek through the mountain. It usually took about one hour to travel the mile through the mountain. Little did we know what lay ahead. Some of the slightly older but a lot wiser staff decided to go around the mountain and await our exit on the other side. All of the students chose to follow Gandy Creek into the mountain, so we paired off and everyone was given a number to sound off at intervals in the passage. Dr. Robert Murray and a student were the last pair.
The deepest pools of the creek in previous years had been only waist deep and they could be avoided by wading around them. Most places, it had been only one to two feet deep. The water inside the mountain was probably about 55 degrees.
My partner, Joyce, and I led the group down Gandy Creek. After 100 yards inside the mountain we found the conditions had changed from previous years. My probing stick was too short. Joyce and I found ourselves hanging on to ledges above the water, moving hand over hand. . Suddenly we fell off and found ourselves swimming with only our heads above water. We yelled back that it was too deep this way and to go around.
After about another hour, we did manage to arrive at the point where the creek disappeared into the ground. We searched for 30 minutes trying to find the familiar exit out of the mountain. That also had changed as a result of a serious flood in the area. We almost gave up and were ready to retrace our path back up the creek, but luckily we discovered a newly formed exit with air above water and escaped.
Just inside the exit was a large pool of water which reflected the sunshine and green hills outside. The sun was welcome as we sat down in Gandy Creek and washed off the mud and cold of the cave. We got back to the vans, separated into two groups by gender, and walked into the woods , changed into warm, dry, clean clothes. In spite of our difficulties, the students voted the walk through the Sinks of Gandy the highlight of the trip that year.
Looking back on the trip to the Sinks, we realized that the passageway through the mountain had been radically changed by a terrible flood in the Cheat River drainage area that had occurred on November fourth and fifth, l985. Forty-four people died and three people were drowned in Tucker County. Several people from Tiffin, including Bob Avers and his wife, traveled to Parsons and helped to rebuild homes in the area.
If our readers would like a vacation in one of the most scenic areas in eastern U. S., they would not be disappointed with Tucker, Randolph, Pendleton, Preston, and Pocahontas counties. Try for the lodges or cabins at Blackwater Falls or Canaan Valley State Parks or locate lodging at Elkins or Parsons. May through October are ideal for flowers and fall coloration. The area also is home to many ski resorts. Trout fishing is superb in the many mountain streams that abound in the above counties. Native brown and brook trout may be caught.
– Percy