Camping, Trout Pond WV

Set here. Trout Pond makes Bull Run Regional Park look like the back-country. The bathrooms are immaculate; the sites are immaculate; the trails are wide open, clean, and easily navigable. I cannot recommend this enough for those looking to have a camping experience that also has nice flush toilets.

We’re probably going on one more trip, assuming our lovely global-warming fall stays as nice as it is.

It was enlightening, as well, to ascend through the mountain road to the park/campground and see what parts of West Virginia are becoming. You’ll have a plot of land with a dilapidated, crumbling house, someone clearly in the grip of stereotypical WV poverty. Up the road a quarter mile is someone’s weekend get-away house, immaculately manicured property, just-detailed SUV in the paved driveway, $1000 grill out front, satellite dish, freshly scrubbed Mom and Dad and Susie and Billy having breakfast on the porch.

Along the trail we found expended shotgun shells; I’m guessing there’s enough poverty that in the lean times, people hunt along these public trails (esp. when the parks/campgrounds are closed to the public).