#willawisps

While she was here, we stayed with my sister in the Summersville, WV area and I showed her the New River Gorge Bridge, Babcock State Park, the lower Summersville Lake, and the Gauley River.

We had a bit of snow and ice, so our hikes were limited.

We enjoyed time at the iconic Babcock State Park reconstructed grist mill. I like to think about where it was when it was functional. I know it’s located in a more aesthetic spot off to the side, but its old spot is still visible downstream.

The Babcock State Park is a good place to practice longer exposure waterfall shots, especially on an overcast day.

The drained lake is interesting because the boulders on the edge are not exposed in the Summer time.

As evening approached the night before she went back to Oklahoma, we took some photos of our LEGO minifigs by the water.

I experimented with the lighting to show the minifigs.

We started our trip by getting food at the Snowshoe Resort.

An interesting thing about Snowshoe is that it is built along the crest of a mountain. The views of this place are gorgeous all around. No matter the window, it is stunning.

Many buildings were designed with “Mountain rustic” aesthetic loosely inspired by Scandinavian towns and old Canadian towns.

In the restaurant, our view spanned over the western side with beautiful sunsets for later guests.

There was a heavy snow in the mountain area the night before we were there, but the ski resort also had their own snowmaking machine.

After we ate, we ventured to the town of Cass for the “Polar Express” themed train ride. Notice the snow levels were much less at this elevation.

In its early days, Cass was surrounded by ancient forests so, logically, the town started as a train-based timber town. That being said, this fact that this factory was also a paper mill came as a surprise for me. I didn’t get a chance to check the mill out for a few more years.

We boarded our train and my niece loved the idea of visiting the “North Pole”

After our train ride, we stopped at the general store. I loved the windows along the wall. It is very tourist driven now, but I like to think about the original general store. I’m sure it had groceries and medicines along with household items and even jewelry and furniture. It served as an emporium of sorts for local artisans.

On this particular trip, it was very cold, but the sky was just a little cloudy. I noticed that blue reflected in the ice in the creek.

Some of the rougher patches gave more textured sections of ice clinging to the sticks and branches.

The boulders trickled water on the shadowed side, forming classic icicles that shimmered when the sunlight hit them.

It wasn’t snowy and it wasn’t too cold, so I spent the afternoon taking photos of the falls.

I’m always looking at the different textures of leaves and rocks when I’m taking photos. I try to provide a few shots grounding the viewer with the little things in my immediate surroundings.

I set up my tripod down river and caught some softer long-exposure shots of the water.

The ND filter I used gave a tinge of a violet overlay, especially on the rocks there.

I love the way these long-exposure shots catch that probably of bubbles and trickles forming a soft cloud.

The rapids downstream from the waterfall formed interesting shapes, especially with the long-exposure.

While I was there, of course I needed to give some attention to the actual waterfall.

I experimented with my color settings to show that contrast with Valley Falls and its iconic center stone.

While I dated my now-wife, she lived 1,100mi (1770.25km) away in Oklahoma. We spent our evenings FaceTime chatting. Often, I would sketch and doodle during our conversations.

On this night, while we chatted, I sketched one of my old toys, a scientifically inaccurate apatosaurus toy with a damaged face.

In 2010 or 2011, my mother called my dad and asked if he minded if she got a cat. When he answered that he did not want her to get a cat, my mom said, “Let me rephrase the question.”

I came home that evening to “Pepper,” an adult Russian blue. We felt that Pepper wasn’t a very fitting name so we renamed her Catherine.

The story was her owner (my grandma’s neighbor) passed away and when the EMTs came to pick this woman up, Catherine got outside under their feet.

Catherine ran around the neighborhood for a long weekend before my mother caught her and took her to the vet. Catherine was a little underweight, but she was healthy. She was already spayed and caught up on her shots.

In Summer 2017, when I moved out of my dad’s, Catherine came with me. For my first time in my own in my apartment, Catherine was my buddy.

She stuck with me when we added my wife to the apartment and she moved with us to the farmhouse and then to our house. She lived until November 2023.

This was the evening after a day of snow at my dad’s farm.

I always found the light fascinating as the sun set behind the mountain, but the snow gives it a unique look.

This was the first time I went to Dolly Sods since I was a child. I went with some friends to the Bear Rocks Preserve to watch the sunset.

On our way up the mountain, I learned from this sign that this wilderness was once used in WWII training exercises. These exercises left explosives throughout the wilderness. Most were cleared out in an Army cleanup program in the late nineties, but the warnings are still present.

When we reached clearings, we stopped and looked. I’ll admit I did not know about the main boulders and cliffs.

The sun started going down and we hung out on the main Bear Rocks boulders.

We hiked over the unofficially named “Turtle Rock” and hopped along the rocks.

As the day grew darker, we found the best view of the Western sky.

I loved the colors on the rocks while the last beams of sunlight spanned over them.