A West Virginia Outdoor Glossary

Gauley Season

The roughly six weekends of scheduled dam releases on the Gauley River beginning the Friday after Labor Day, when the whitewater community converges on Nicholas and Fayette counties.

The Sods

Dolly Sods Wilderness. 'Sods' refers to the open grazing meadows created after the original spruce forest was logged and burned in the early twentieth century.

Nuttall sandstone

The hard, sharp, quartz-rich sandstone caprock of the New River Gorge, named for the Nuttallburg mining town. It gives New River climbing its distinctive edges and its reputation for stiff grades.

Tuscarora quartzite

The metamorphosed sandstone forming Seneca Rocks, Nelson Rocks and the North Fork Mountain outcrops — much harder and more fractured than the Nuttall of the gorge.

Upslope snow

Snowfall generated when moist air is forced up the Allegheny Front, producing far greater accumulation in Tucker, Preston and Pocahontas counties than in surrounding regions. The reason the Canaan Valley snow belt exists.

Karst

Landscape formed by dissolving limestone — sinkholes, springs, sinking streams and caves. The Greenbrier Valley sits on some of the most significant karst in the eastern United States.

The Quiet Zone

The National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000-square-mile area around Green Bank Observatory where radio transmissions are restricted by law. Practically: no cell service, exceptional dark skies.

Rail-trail

A former railroad grade converted to recreational use. West Virginia's rail-trails follow logging and coal-hauling lines and are unusually long, gentle and scenic as a result.

Water trail

A mapped river corridor with established legal public access points, published mileages and hazard information, maintained by a local river or watershed organization.

Blaze

A painted mark on a tree or rock indicating a trail route. Notable in West Virginia mainly for its absence — federal wilderness trails are deliberately unblazed.

Hollow (holler)

A narrow valley between ridges, typically holding a creek, a road and a string of houses. The basic settlement unit of the coalfields.

Run, fork, lick

Local terms for streams. A run is a small creek, a fork is a branch of a larger river, and a lick historically marked a salt deposit where game gathered.

Tailwater

The cold, regulated river below a dam. The Elk River below Sutton is West Virginia's premier tailwater trout fishery.

Trail town

A community that has organized services — lodging, food, shuttles, permits — around an adjacent trail system. Gilbert and Man for Hatfield-McCoy; Davis, Marlinton and Fayetteville for non-motorized trails.

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