It was getting pretty late, and pretty cold, as Steph and I wound through town after remote town in sleepy West Virginia, heading for the Spruce Knob Recreation Area.  The driving through was pleasant, but as soon as we entered the park, the road conditions crapped out and we spent the rest of the drive plowing and sliding through a foot or two of snow cover. 

Finally, after about 45 minutes of driving and some sketchy bends on the mountainous roads, we came to the junction of the road that hangs a left and leads up toward the summit of Spruce Knob itself.  The conditions on this road were initially just as bad, but as we gained elevation, the wind picked up and the snow began to drift off to the sides, making the going fairly easy.

We were mindlessly putting along when we came around a gradual bend and suddenly found ourselves in a parking lot.  Confused, we looked around and saw a sign that notified us that we had reached the highest point in West Virginia!  We were both a bit stunned, not expecting such an easy finish to our highpointing trip.  We did jump the gun a bit on the easy part, however, since the temperature on top of Spruce Knob was well below zero.  We geared up in full layers and balaclavas, and set out down the relatively short trail to the observation tower. 

On top of the tower, the winds were easily 50 miles an hour sustained, with gusts that I guessed to be in the 60 mph range.  It was colder than I have ever experienced, but I have never seen so many stars in my life!!  It was absolutely incredible, and we stayed on top for at least 20 minutes staring up at the sky in wonder.  Finally, we couldn’t handle the cold any longer, and we hoofed it back to the car as fast as we could.  Along the way, I noticed that the summit of Spruce Knob has a real alpine feel to it, and all of the trees are bare on one side (not sure which direction it was,) suggesting a long-term pattern of high-force prevailing winds. At night, the overall effect was pretty surreal.

We ended our trip by returning to the lower reaches of the Spruce Knob Recreation Area, where we camped next to Candy Creek. The cold bit right through our 5-degree bags, but a jetboil and a stomach full of spaghettios warmed us up and kept us reasonable comfortable until the sun came up.  The morning drive through West Virginia and Virginia was gorgeous, and we passed Seneca Rocks and even took a detour down Skyline Drive on our way to Great Falls, DC, where we climbed all day with my cousin Andrew Roda and a few of his close friends.  A great end to a great trip, and I managed to check off three highpoints in the process!