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~~~~~~~JIM~~~~~~~

                   Jim Kinney photo

One Bladed Paddles

Kayak Paddles

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What's New in Ruth Bell?

Here’s the story of my recent trip to Japan.

Feather Study

Don’t miss the sweet
Gift Veneers
by Taiki Sugawara
of Sapporo, Japan!

Hey! I’m All About
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Logo Story...

yeah...  wood is good!

You’re going to love the               Warranty!

Stew Caldwell
testing on Gorilla

Green River, NC

Glossary

   The “Gravey” Campsite

OK- so this story is a bit weird- and un-resolved at this point.

Act 1.   A couple winters ago I went winter camping with some friends from around Huntington, WV. We ran the last 24 miles of the Shavers Fork of the Cheat. We were slow and a zero degree night was closing in on us fast.   So-in the deepest darkest section of the river-it was time to hide from the wind and make camp. I pulled up on a beach and squirrelled my way into a rhododendron ‘hell’ under some tall pines.  Inside I found a cool secluded place where we could pitch a few tents and be out of the wind with a nice small campfire.

  We had a great camp and stayed up till about midnight and it did get to zero degrees or less.  I was first up in the morning- and was pretty alarmed to see the river was freezing shut fast-  and we had a long ways to go! Long story/short- we made it to the take out around dark that second day.

Act 2. A year later myself and some friends were back on that same stretch on another cold winter’s camping trip. As it got late- I remembered this perfect wind sheltered campsite- so we went for it. We even put the campfire in the very same spot!  Again we enjoyed a cold night which we fought off with various anti-freeze libations.  The next morning was pretty relaxed- the river wasn’t freezing shut- although it did get down to 10 or so that night. While we were packing our tents-  one of the chaps asked, “Why did you put the fire right next to a shallow grave?”.....

This is the “grave”. It is anomalous to the surrounding area because it is elevated and made from carefully set rocks.  It had moss and small plants growing on it. Our campfire was near the blade end of this photo. We had never noticed the grave when we camped there the year before!

  I tried to explain it away by saying it was a hummock of dirt from a rootball from a fallen tree- but no fallen tree.  It couldn’t have been a skidder track because we were so deep in the rhodies that a skidder couldn’t get in there! And there’s no way it was flood damage- because- well- you could just tell. We were, however on a flood plain. So-  who would bury a pet or a loved one- in a rhododendron hell on a flood plain in the middle of nowhere??

Here’s a shot that shows how the “grave” is elevated.

  So-  I couldn’t explain the grave away but we kinda laughed it off and went on our merry way.  But the thought kept haunting me. If it was a suspicious grave- involving some kind of mischief-  there might be family who are missing a loved one. And I didn’t want things to just be like that.

  So- on the next trip I took these photographs and eventually I came up with GPS coordinates and notified the local authorities. I haven’t heard anything back. But soon-  I’ll be back camping on that stretch of river-  and I’ll see if they dug into it or not. I will update this page as things evolve...