- This week on "Epic Trails", we're in the beautiful state of ♪ West Virginia We're gonna be climbing way on top of things, way down below things, and we're gonna meet some really cool people in between.

I'm Mike Fink and I'm stuck in a crack.

Kinda got a lavender taste to it.

It tastes like it looks.

This is a copperhead?

I'm gonna get a big stick.

What is there to say?

This is breathtaking.

I can see why that's called the Birth Canal.

Woo!

(laughs) Unbelievable.

(upbeat music) Epic Trails is made possible by the following Alaska by rail.

Passengers can travel the coasts and wilderness of Alaska with baggage, service, meals, and wheelchair access.

Information available at AlaskaRailroad.com Collette offers small group exploration tours, destinations and local experiences.

Explorations by Collette.

Guided travel since 1918.

Vivid-Pix memory station and software allows users to scan personal history items like photos and documents, record voice narrative, and share what has been conserved.

More online at Vivid-pix.com.

Host- Additonal support provided by these sponsors ♪ upbeat music (bright music) - Hey, there.

- Good morning.

- How's it going?

- Going good, how you doing?

- Very good.

- Tell me a bit about where we're at.

- [Hannah] Lewis Farm, where we're standing, is a 100-acre farm site.

We grow over 75 varieties of vegetables and flowers, all organic, most of which goes to our restaurant in town, Mack's Bingo Kitchen, and to the Wardensville Garden Market, a sister business as well.

- We started off the day by going to Lewis Farm where I got to meet Hannah, who oversees a lot of the farm operations.

She taught me a lot about the kinds of vegetables that are being grown there.

And I even got to taste-test some, too, which was really fun.

I never really eaten garlic like this before.

Normally, when I see it, it's just in the little can that I buy.

She even showed me which flowers are edible, and I was very surprised because some of those flowers were really good.

Kinda got a lavender taste to it.

It tastes like it looks.

We walked around the farm.

She took me through the greenhouses.

She showed me what they had been growing that year and she showed me some chickens as well.

(chickens clucking) It's got roller windows.

(Hannah gasping) Did you kill it?

- Cut that, please!

(laughs) - Don't cut that.

- I swear I never stall!

(Mike laughing) It's not my first day!

(soft music) - Farm Work Wonders is such a cool project.

This project started with 10 youth in 2016, started a little farm.

Youth were working on the farm there for that summer, and an idea came up of, what if we add a baked good to this?

Got some other products, and so, the idea of the market was born.

We introduced a glass-blowing studio in 2021, and just last August, we opened up Mack's Bingo Kitchen as our full-service restaurant.

We believe that youth have inherent interests, which we call sparks.

And if we combine that spark with opportunities and relationships, they have the best chance to thrive and find their unique contribution to the world.

(upbeat music) - Hey.

- Hey.

- [Mike] How's it going, I'm Mike.

- Byron Gaylord, nice to meet you.

- [Mike] After going to Lewis Farm, we went to Dakota Glassworks.

Byron took me through the process of how to blow glass and asked me if I wanted to try and make something myself, which, of course I did.

- I'm opening this furnace, sticking a hot pipe in there, turning one, two, three, back and down, and I'm coming out.

So, I'm always turning the glass, right here.

Once I stop turning, it falls right off.

That's why we always wanna turn.

- That's why we're always turning.

We're going as fast as we possibly can, heating and reheating this glass so that I'm able to shape it into the desired shape, which, I kinda wanted to make a flower, but I don't think it looks like one.

You know what, it was my first time.

I'll give myself a little bit of slack.

It doesn't look great, but it is mine.

(upbeat music) So, we are here and we're gonna hike up to this lookout point and then scramble our way up to the north point, here.

(laughs) Is this the trail or is this just a picnic spot?

We've arrived.

(laughs) This is it, the peak!

I think we gotta go this way.

(upbeat music continues) The Seneca Rocks hike was really beautiful.

The woods were extremely dense.

You get some extremely dense, extremely lush vegetation out here in West Virginia.

There's tons of life, there's tons of water.

The entire place feels so alive.

(upbeat music continues) It was a pretty misty hike on the way up.

A little bit of rain, not much, nothing bad.

And then we got up to the top and we were greeted with some of the most beautiful views standing out there on the ridgeline on top of Seneca Rocks.

(camera whooshing) What is there to say?

This is breathtaking.

It's funny how you stand on solid ground and you're not falling anywhere.

You're not worried about it in the slightest, but the second you get somewhere where you don't wanna fall, all of a sudden, standing up straight becomes a little bit more difficult.

It's just beautiful up here.

You can see the clouds breaking.

I feel like we're above everything.

And this is beautiful Seneca Rocks.

(bright music) - We're in Downtown Lewisburg, lots of southern charm.

Cafes, restaurants, art shops, everything you'd imagine in a picturesque little Southern town.

Right now, we're on one of West Virginia's many rail trails.

What they've done is they've taken these old railroads that weren't in use anymore, stripped them out, and then replaced them with these nice, easy-to-walk trails.

They're all over the place, kind of a big thing in the South.

I know we had 'em in Tennessee and North Carolina as well.

Any time you see a long, straight greenbelt, that's about as wide as you'd imagine that an old train track might've been, chances are, it's a rail trail.

(bright music continues) We're on our way to a waterfall.

We have the GPS coordinates and we might be heading in the wrong direction.

But it's a beautiful day outside, so, not too worried about that.

(water splashing) (bright music continues) Beautiful!

That'll wake you up a little bit.

(upbeat music) Lost World Caverns is a large underground cavern system that attracts thousands of tourists every year.

There's a large chamber with ceilings over 100 feet high, massive stalactite and stalagmites.

And you can learn a lot about the underground ecosystem of the caves in this region.

Can you finally clear it up?

What is a stalactite versus what is a stalagmite?

- The way we like to remember it around here is stalactites hold on tight to the ceiling, so it's hanging down, and stalagmite, you might trip over it, so they're growing up.

- If you so choose, you can go on a guided wild cave tour where you hop the fence and actually proceed into the depths of the cavern.

You've gotta go with a guide, but it provides a much more adventurous caving experience, if that's what you're looking for.

- Lost World Caverns was founded in 1942.

It was founded when a farmer found this hole and he started using it as a garbage hole, threw everything from household trash to cattle, until eventually, there were some Virginia Tech college students in the area.

They rappelled down in and found one of the most beautiful formation-dense caves around.

Ever since, it's been an attraction for people all over.

Here behind me is the funnel.

This is our first real squeeze.

It's not too bad.

We'll fit through right pretty easy.

But with that, you just wanna crab-walk down on your butt.

Make sure to watch your head, watch your step.

I'll let you know when it's safe to come through, but you really just wanna come down one at a time.

If you don't, you have a tendency to kick the person in the head, and if they get revenge later, I didn't see a thing.

(Mike snickering) - [Mike] It's amazing how quiet it gets.

You don't really hear quiet all that often in the aboveground.

- [Nathaniel] We got a cave cricket, here.

They're so numerous down here that the rule of thumb the guides like to use is that there's one within every five feet of you.

Pretty much harmless, just don't look it in the eyes.

- [Mike] They might charge?

- They might charge.

If you've ever seen the movie "Alien", it's similar to that.

- [Mike] Okay, yeah, just latch onto my face.

- Yeah.

- Cool, that's fine.

I'm cool with that.

(Nathaniel laughing) So, what do we have here?

- [Nathaniel] This is what we call a pit.

There's nothing really crazy about it, but for a couple weeks out of the year in the early spring, we get a lot of rainfall and snowmelt, and this thing will actually fill up to the brim.

If you're on a wild tour while that is filled up, we'll actually let you jump in, almost like a cold plunge.

- So, this being groundwater filtered through the earth, would you say it's drinkable?

- No, so we are actually, we're not very far down, actually.

We're about 150 feet down right now, not far enough down for anything to filter out, and we are directly underneath farmland.

If you wanna do the math, there, it probably has a little bit of cow dung in it, but... - [Mike] Don't drink it.

(laughs) (energetic music) - All right, Mike, so we're getting ready to go through the Birth Canal.

Just to preface this, this is one of the tighter squeezes we do have down here.

Also, there's gonna be about six inches of water towards the end, so you are gonna get a little wet.

- Cool.

- But what you wanna do is you just wanna put your head and torso up on this side, swing your legs around, and then head on down.

- All right, see you on the other side.

- [Nathaniel] See you on the other side.

- Oh, boy.

(grunts) The Birth Canal is a very tight squeeze deep inside the cavern.

It's not something that I could do with both arms at my side.

I had to really adjust myself and come in at an angle to be able to fit through this thing.

And the entire time, you're in about six inches of standing cold cave water.

I've done a lot in caves, but being stuck in a tiny little space like that and soaking wet, that's new for me and was really fun.

I can see why that's called the Birth Canal.

(upbeat music) Whew!

And that's Lost World Caverns.

Super fun.

- [Nathaniel] All right, glad you guys enjoyed it.

- Thanks, man, thank you.

Man, a lot of cool history in there.

And now we know the difference between stalactites and stalagmites.

If you take nothing else from this, take that with you and don't forget it again, 'cause I know you will.

Right on, hey, thanks, man.

- Thanks for coming.

(upbeat music) - Today, we are on the North Fork Trail heading into the Cranberry Wilderness.

This is about a 13, 14-mile loop.

Should make for good camping.

We're in another really interesting location.

You can see everything's really lush.

It gets a lot of rain, here, so Gore-Tex is a good thing.

I'm not wearing Gore-Tex.

Lots of life around here, lots of flowers.

This is just another example of the many ecosystems you can see out here in West Virginia.

(upbeat music continues) Hiking through the Cranberry Wilderness, there was so much lush vegetation.

Everything was dense, everything was dark, everything was alive.

The ground was soggy from where it just retained so much moisture.

We hiked alongside creeks for a good bit of the hike, so there was just tons of life, animals, deer all living in this little area that we were passing through.

(Mike laughing) We found a great spot, but unfortunately, somebody else found it first.

So, now we're looking for a new place to make camp, preferably by this nice little creek, here.

We've picked our spot, here.

Now, we're gonna set up camp, we're gonna hang out by the river, we're gonna take it easy, and most importantly, we're gonna eat.

Might even have ourself a nice little fire, here, and just kick back for the rest of the evening.

We're on a quest.

(suspenseful music) We're gonna find some firewood and then we're gonna do something fun.

We're gonna make a fire with this fun little thing that I bought at REI the other day.

If I don't use my little fire kit and get a fire going, it's gonna be real embarrassing.

I had with me this really cool little fire-in-a-can kit that used magnesium and a flint striker so you could try to make fire the old-fashioned way.

And I did my absolute best, but I couldn't do it.

(sparks fizzling) The odds were not in my favor.

(laughs) I wound up resorting to cheating a little bit.

We're gonna do it (lighter flicking) the old-fashioned way.

But you know what, that's okay.

I'll get it next time.

(suspenseful music continues) (flames roaring) (Mike laughing) (bright music) Good morning!

I don't know about you, but I slept like a baby.

We're gonna get a little breakfast this morning using my fun little PocketRocket stove.

(stream burbling) There we go.

Any new hikers out there, you can be a coffee addict and still do this.

Starbucks?

Never heard of it.

This is Mikebucks.

Just like mom used to make.

(bright music continues) I've been able to keep my shoes mostly dry today.

Let's see if I can keep it up.

I might have to do a little hopscotch, here.

No biggie, no biggie.

(laughs) That was a little wobbly.

Look at that.

It's almost like we went from regular old West Virginia to the rainforest.

Beautiful.

(bright music continues) The trail on the way out was just as good as it was on the way in.

We were started off in this lowland, marshy kind of area with really sloppy trails, and eventually we got into some dry stuff, and it was an easy, beautiful hike out.

(bright music continues) (upbeat music) - Nice to meet you.

- Bryan Williams, nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you, Bryan.

Tell me a bit about this place.

What do you do here?

- I'm the operations manager here at NROCKS Outdoor Adventures in Circleville, West Virginia, and our primary activity is the Via Ferrata that we'll be checking out today.

Via Ferrata is an Italian phrase that essentially means "The iron path."

It's a unique style of rock climbing that allows beginners much like yourself to experience this really extreme activity that's often inaccessible to inexperienced climbers.

- And what what kind of heights are we expecting once we get out there on the top?

- Today, the very highest point will be about 300 feet off the ground, with views closer to about 600 feet.

- [Mike] Right on, well, let's get started.

- [Bryan] Awesome!

(upbeat music continues) - Approaching NROCKS, you drive up into this long gravel driveway and you see cresting from up above the tree line these huge rock faces just jutting over the tops of the mountains.

And I'm not gonna lie, it gave me the heebie-jeebies.

I've been on plenty of high stuff before, but the thought of scaling something so sheer is just a little bit intimidating.

- The Via Ferrata route consists of the rock formation itself.

A lot of times today, we'll have stainless steel steps, and then, most importantly, we have this steel cable that's bolted into the rock every few feet.

What do you think the most important rule is today?

- I'd say the most important rule is to always be clipped in on at least one of these.

- Exactly, I couldn't word that better myself.

Most of the time, we'll have two.

Whenever we have to transition, as I'll show in a moment, we temporarily have one.

That's fine.

One is plenty strong to catch us if we fall.

If I take them both off, what is there to catch me if I fall?

- The ground?

(record scratching) - Sure, nothing, essentially.

- Cool.

- We find it's very important, choose one hand, one carabiner, then make sure to come back with that same hand for the second carabiner, and that makes it very difficult to accidentally unclip.

(upbeat music continues) - The beginning of the climb was the most nerve-wracking part because you start at the bottom and you go straight up.

That was unusual for me.

I don't know if it was Bryan's excellent explanation or me just being exceptionally brave, but I wasn't really that worried.

I hit the bottom of the Via Ferrata and went up.

(upbeat music continues) - [Bryan] Have you looked down yet?

- [Mike] Now I'm going to.

- [Bryan] Good!

- Been avoiding that for the most part.

(laughs) (energetic music) So, we're climbing up the Via Ferrata, here, and I'm starting to get used to it.

It's not as dicey as it looks.

I'm having a very good time out here.

- This bridge is about the halfway mark of our tour today.

The bridge is approximately 200 feet long and 150 feet above the ground, and you can see it's composed of wooden 2x4s with about a foot and a half between each one.

- [Mike] Awesome.

- How are you feeling about the bridge?

- [Mike] I'm loving it, man.

- Good!

- The bridge never worried me.

(energetic music continues) So, here we are on the Via Ferrata bridge.

It's a little wobblier than it looks.

I'm not sure if the camera's picking that up 100%.

Yeah.

Oh, it's cool!

It feels like you're standing still and the bridge is moving underneath you.

It's a really weird feeling, sort of sucks the wind out of you at first.

This is fun, but I'm ready to be back on solid ground.

(energetic music continues) (camera whooshing) - [Bryan] Nice job, welcome to the top.

Thanks for coming out.

- [Mike] Thanks, buddy.

- [Bryan] What'd you think?

- Amazing.

Unbelievable.

Woo!

(laughs) That's quite the drop.

Gotta love it.

West Virginia is a warm, inviting state full of wonderful people.

And the variety that you get in the ecosystems out here is unlike a lot of other states.

Alpine forests, there's dense lowland marshes, there's big, rolling hills, and there's sharp, jagged cliff edges all right there for you to explore.

There's a ton to do in West Virginia, and it's all right here at your fingertips.

This has been an extremely varied week, and it's one that I would happily have again.

(upbeat music) And that's West Virginia.

We ate some stuff, we made some stuff, we went way beneath the surface of the earth, and we climbed way over top of it, and we met some really cool people in between.

Until next time, I'm Mike Fink with "Epic Trails", and I'll catch you around.

Epic Trails is made possible by the following Alaska by rail.

Passengers can travel the coasts and wilderness of Alaska with baggage, service, meals, and wheelchair access.

Information available at AlaskaRailroad.com Collette offers small group exploration tours, destinations and local experiences.

Explorations by Collette.

Guided travel since 1918.

Vivid-Pix memory station and software allows users to scan personal history items like photos and documents, record voice narrative, and share what has been conserved.

More online at Vivid-pix.com.

Host- Additonal support provided by these sponsors ♪ upbeat music