Pocahontas County
An Event Like No Other
The Autumn Harvest Festival takes place in Marlinton in late September every year. The festivities include a variety of events throughout its two-day schedule. Join in the fun at this legendary fall celebration in the mountains, including live music by local bands, unique food vendors, crafters from all over the region, and two signature food competitions. The West Virginia Roadkill Cook- off has become the most unusual part of the festival, with enough renown to catch the attention of the Food Network, the Travel Channel, and the Discovery Channel. If you’ve ever wanted to taste exotic dishes like squirrel gravy over biscuits, teriyaki-marinated bear, or deer sausage, this is the place to be. To be clear, it’s not required that the ingredients are actual roadkill, but they must be the sort of animals that commonly find themselves the victims of traffic accidents. Think opossum, groundhog, deer, rabbit, crow, turkey, or squirrel. A $5 ticket gets you into the tasting area, where you can sample all of the roadkill delicacies. The first-place winner takes home bragging rights and $1,200. Bakers from around the state are invited to show off their favorite biscuit recipes at the Autumn Harvest Festival’s Hudson Cream Flour West Virginia Biscuit Bake Off. The bake off features three baker categories: Youth Baker, Master Baker, and Premier Baker. pocahontascountywv.com
Hit the Trails If you’re a mountain biker, then you probably already know Pocahontas County is a major player in the mountain biking world. With nearly 350,000 acres of state and federal land holding hundreds of miles of trails, it has a little something for riders of every skill level. PocahontasCounty has some unique beginner trails that circle theworld’s largest fully steerable radio telescope, atGreenBank Observatory. Other beginner trails take youon a scenic cruise throughGreenbrier River Trail State Park.The longest rail-trail inWest Virginia at 78miles, the Greenbrier River Trail is one of 50 MillenniumLegacyTrails in the United States andwas ratedone of the top 10 hiking trails in the country by BackpackerMagazine. Some of the area’s more
adrenaline-pumping trails can be found at Snowshoe Mountain Bike Park or the Snowshoe Mountain Gravity Park. One trail that you don’t want to miss is the GauleyMountain Trail, an IMBA-designated EPIC Trail in the heart of the Monongahela National Forest. The pinnacle of mountain biking communities are recognized as IMBARide Centers.These are large-scale facilities with something for every rider, froma variety of riding experiences to amultitude of ways to have fun off the bike. SnowshoeHighlands IMBA Ride Center was one of just five ride centers in theMid-Atlantic Regionwhen it received the designation inAugust 2019—and one of only 40 in the world. Snowshoe Mountain is the central point of the IMBA Ride Center with a radius of about forty minutes’ drive time making up the Ride Center area. A significant portion of the trails included in the IMBA Ride
Center is on Snowshoe property, both in Snowshoe’s lift-accessed bike park and its 11,000-acre backcountry. Snowshoe has a storied history with mountain biking, culminating with its selection as the host site for 2019 UCI MTB World Cup Finals, the first UCI World Cup stop on U.S. soil since 2015. The UCI MTB World Cup Finals return to Snowshoe Mountain September 18-19, 2021. Over 10,000 visitors are expected to attend the event. Home to the National Radio Quiet Zone and the Monongahela National Forest, Pocahontas County offers mountain biking on rugged, off-the-beaten-path terrain. But don’t worry— from helpful outfitters to mountain biking–friendly lodging to mouthwatering food and drink options, there is everything you need to feel right at home here in the mountains of West Virginia.
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