rush hOur: upper Gauley river.
photos: bryan KirK
WhiteWater LoWDoWn
Fayetteville is at the epicentre of some of
appalachia’s best year-round whitewater.
new river Gorge national Park extends south
from town, protecting 53 miles of free-flowing
river. the scenic upper reaches of the new
hold class ii-iii rapids and make an excellent
weekend trip for intermediate canoeists and
kayakers. it’s the seven miles of class iii-V high
volume whitewater in the Lower Gorge, how-
ever, that attracts legions of expert kayakers
seeking to pit themselves against monstrous
class V puzzles like Double Z rapid. the
gorge takeout at Fayette station is just minutes
from downtown. Keeney’s and Mann’s Creeks
spill into the Lower Gorge, offering up classic
steep creeking, and the famed class iii-iV new
river Dries surf spot is reached 10 minutes
north on highway 16. hungry for more? spend
long summer afternoons or weekends at the
Gauley (1½ hrs, class iii-V) or Cheat river (3
hrs, class iV-V).
Cross-training
roCK CLiMBinG: Climbing in the new river
Gorge is world class, with over 1,400 set
routes on heavily featured, super hard
sandstone. Crack and face routes are
sPoiLeD For ChoiCe in
mostly single pitch 5.9 to 5.12, with both
trad and sport climbs.
hiKinG: Fayetteville town Park is linked to 50
Fayetteville
miles of trails in the national Park. the
popular Long Point trail travels 1.6 miles
through field and forest to a spectacular
overlook of the gorge and new river
Bridge.
bY Virginia MarshaLL
MoUntain BiKinG: old railroad grades like
the seven-mile Kaymoor-Cunard trail offer
easy, scenic riding on the gorge rim. steep
N
estled among the oldest mountains in the world, Fayetteville sits on a plateau above one of the
singletrack beckons an hour south at Little
planet’s most ancient rivers (at 160 million years, it’s second only to the Nile)—the ironically Beaver state Park and 30 minutes up high-
named New River. Carving through southern West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains to depths of
way 19 at summersville Lake.
over 1000 feet, the New River Gorge has exposed no fewer than four coal seams sandwiched between
grub, Pub anD hubbub
layers of precipitous sandstone. High quality “New River Smokeless Coal” fueled the trains, factories With the new river Gorge Bridge—the second
and power plants of a rapidly industrializing nation at the turn of the 19th century. Originally settled
longest single arch bridge in the world—just
two miles to the east, Fayetteville plays home
in the early 1800s as a farming community, Fayetteville boomed later in the century as thousands of
to the remarkable Bridge Day Festival. every
Irish-Catholic immigrants and formerly enslaved African-Americans arrived to work in the mines and
october, hundreds of terrestrially challenged
on the new railroad. With the decline of
freefall junkies—and tens of thousands of in-
the mining and logging industries some 30
credulous onlookers—congregate for an adren-
aline-filled day of B.a.s.e. jumping and rappel-
years ago, the town has reinvented itself as
ling off the 876-foot high bridge. this october
a hub for outdoor tourism. Once again, the
will mark the 31st anniversary of the state’s
gorge of the New River is the centrepiece.
biggest party. Fayetteville’s gustatory goods
are every bit as varied as its whitewater. the
A new wave of immigration has occurred
Cathedral Café is a popular après-paddle
over the past decade—raft guides, rock hangout with funky atmosphere—the café is
climbers, mountain bikers and other thrill-
housed inside an old Methodist church—great
espressos, award-winning desserts and wire-
seekers who arrived for summer jobs and
less internet connection. Climbers voted Pies
ended up staying. These days, the person in and Pints—an outdoor-friendly pizzeria and
line behind you at Ball’s Grocery is just as
likely to spend his afternoon tying follow-
through figure eights on climbing rope as
he is clinch knots on leader. 8
pub—as their favourite “crag chow.”
BEST ALL-RIVER TOWNS
1 Fayetteville, West Virginia
2 Copperhill, tennessee
3 Clearwater, british Columbia
factoids
4 Confluence, Pennsylvania
5 Petawawa, ontario
» population: 2,659 » average house price: $89,170 » average rent: $543 6 Crested butte, Colorado
» number of gear shops/guide outfitters: 12 » number of rafting companies: 6 7 Kernville, California
» McDonalds: yes 8 Maniwaki, Quebec
2 Rapid spring 2010
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