We will supply more burgers and dogs than you can shake a stick
at, as well as the various accoutrements. You will bring yourselves
and drinks for your family, as well as a pot luck side or dessert
to share! For the non-carnivores, feel free to bring your own tofu
and we'll throw it on the grill for you. Or you can bring a big
dish of veggie-whatever to share. We promise not to laugh (too
much). We'll probably eat around one o'clock-ish, but there should
be plenty of food for stragglers and the chronically late.
Check out the Coopers Rock State Forest website for more
details on the forest.
The following is shamelessly plagiarized from the official
website:
Coopers Rock State Forest gets its name from a legend about a
fugitive who hid from the law near what is now the overlook. A
cooper by trade, he resumed making barrels at his new mountain
hideout, selling them to people in nearby communities. He lived and
worked in the forest for many years.
During the Depression, between 1936 and 1942, the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC) built numerous structures in the forest,
often using durable American chestnut wood from trees that
succumbed to a blight that nearly wiped out the species. Eleven of
these structures, including the rustic picnic shelters near the
overlook, have been included on the National Register of Historic
Places.
Coopers Rock State Forest is 13 miles east of Morgantown and 8
miles west of Bruceton Mills. Its 12,713 acres are bisected by
Interstate 68. Although the forest serves as a recreation and
preservation area, it has a wider range of uses. West Virginia's
state forests also serve as areas of publicly owned land for
forestry research, timber management, and watershed and wildlife
protection.
Bands of rock cliffs line the Cheat River Gorge and provide
numerous overlooks. The centerpiece among these is the main
overlook, which furnishes a panorama of the gorge and distant
horizons. A maze of enormous boulders and cliffs fascinates hikers,
and the trails are especially lovely in June when the rhododendron
and mountain laurel are in bloom. Several trails wind through
forest valleys and over ridges, and a number of creeks beckon the
explorer. Glade Run is dammed to form a 6-acre pond that is
regularly stocked with trout. The observant hiker can hear and
sometimes see squirrels, chipmunks, hawks, owls, turkeys, turkey
vulture, songbirds, fox and deer throughout the
forest.
There are more than 50 miles of trails throughout the state
forest, and
7 existing geocaches. If you've already found them all, there
are dozens of worthwhile caches in the Monongalia/Preston county
area, many of which can be accessed easily from I-68. We have also
hidden two brand new "Wanna Go To The Can" geocaches in time for
the event. These are not temporary "event" caches, but real,
permanent old-fashioned-ammo-can-geocaches.
We'd appreciate it if you could RSVP with a "will attend" log
and let us know how many you'll be bringing so we can accurately
anticipate how much food we need to buy.
Wanna help? We could probably use it. Shoot us an email.