I have visited the West Virginia state highpoint twice, once by myself in 2001 and again with my wife Beth in 2008.

First visit, May 2001: This was my final highpoint, number 24, for my 4-day jaunt through this part of the United States. This also marked my 40th state highpoint, so I'm starting to smell the finish line! From my two hikes on Backbone Mountain, I came down through Canaan Valley State Park (to scout Weiss Knob, the Tucker county highpoint which I decided not to do due to time), then along US-33 a ways east and south through some very steep and mountainous terrain toward Spruce Knob. Some traffic made for slow going but the weather was just behaving barely to allow me to gain decent time.

I left US-33 at the Spruce Knob State Park sign, then up about 9 miles of mostly gravel road to the top. The clouds were hanging at about 4,500 feet, so as soon as I got that high, I had about 30-foot visibility in the dense fog. A steady rain was falling and it was downright cold! I was worried the rain would create some problems with the road, but other than mudpits and other small puddles, my little passenger car did fine. I was surprised to come upon other vehicles; in fact, three of us "convoyed" the final mile or so to the Spruce Knob parking area. We parked. The rain was falling steadily. Two women in one vehicle didn't bother to get out at all. Another vehicle, a mini-van, consisted of a family with 3 kids. They were all getting prepped for a rainy walk. I started in on the brief hike first, getting wet but figuring I wouldn't be out long. After about 5 minutes, I came upon the lookout platform and took shelther underneath it. The rain wasn't heavy but it came down in "sharp" sleet-like droplets. The fog prevented any views. I stayed long enough to meet and greet the family of five as they arrived to the tower. This was deliberate so I could get on of them to snap a photo of me with my camera. The mom was kind enough to do so, in between nagging her kids to stay on the path.

Well, that was that! I descended the road back down below the clouds and made the long twisty drive west through Elkins and Buckhannon to Interstate-79, from which I went north toward Morgantown. The rain was pretty heavy most of the way. I stayed the night in St. Clairsville, Ohio, near Wheeling, and visited a child-hood friend of mine who lives and works in Wheeling. I hadn't seen him in 14 years and got to meet his family, too. The next day: back to Columbus and home.

Second visit, May 2008: Beth and I came to Spruce Knob during our travel day from her folks' place in Millwood down to her old school, Washington & Lee University, in Lexington. We decided to take a 150-mile detour to bag the West Virginia state highpoint. Given Beth's familial background in West Virginia, and her travels throughout the state in her early years, she had never visited Spruce Knob, so we were here to fix that problem. I wanted to come back because the first time I was here it was so rainy and foggy I didn't see anything.

It took about three hours to get here from Millwood via Harrisonburg and up and over the twisting mountain roads into West Virginia. We had been battling some storms in recent days but today was mostly cloudy and unsettled, but not rainy. We found the road up to Spruce Knob and followed it, meeting an interesting Canadian couple on their motorcycles on the way up. They were concerned about the gravel but I said they'd probably be fine. We drove on up and made the short hike to the lookout tower and highpoint area. Soon, the Canadian couple had shown up, too. There were other cars in the parking lot but we didn't see anyone else. The wind was brisk and cold and Beth went back to the car early while I made a short walk on the nature trail near the tower before returning to the car. The conditions were much nicer than my first visit.

We drove down and made a long scenic drive south toward the only other highpoint we had planned, an easy short hike up Paddy Knob on the state line, then from there more scenic driving to Lexington.