Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Thanks to a natural snow belt created by the Allegheny Front and plenty of new snowmaking technology, West Virginia's winter playgrounds are open for business as soon as the temperature drops. Most years, the deep, fresh snow extends the ski season through mid-April.
Snowshoe Mountain, one of the major all-season destinations in the East, keeps getting bigger and better. Ski magazine's 1999 reader survey awarded the Pocahontas County resort two silver medals and ranked it in the top ten for snow, scenery and weather. Along with 56 slopes and trails for downhill skiers-including the Jean Claude Killy- designed Cupp Run and epic Shay's Revenge-there's Mountaineer Terrain Park for snowboard, skiboard and free skiing fun; Kid's World at Ruckus Ridge; Ski & Snowboard Scholl with Snowshoe's snow pros; and a host of other ways to enjoy the white stuff, form high-speed tubing to old-fashioned sleigh rides
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What better way to see the Potomac Highlands than from an open train car? Three excursion railroads operate in the region, offering distinctly different rides - and they may just whet your appetite for other rail travel adventures throughout the Mountain State.
On nine trips out of ten, passengers on The Potomac Eagle do spot American bald eagles as the train glides through a narrow, pristine valley beside the South Branch of the Potomac River. During the three-hour trip, which begins in Romney, they also see fish resting in shady shallows of the clear waters, abundant wildflowers, evergreens and mixed hardwoods on unspoiled mountainsides. Enjoy first-class dinner and lounge service, or bring your own picnic. Trains operate weekends spring through fall, with weekday and daylong trips during fall foliage season and for regional festivals
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Bicycling is no longer West Virginia's best kept secret, it's arguably the fastest-growing outdoor activity in the Mountain State. That's good news, but it gets better: there's plenty of room left! Mountains and mountains of rugged single-track territory. Hundreds and hundreds of miles quite, picturesque country roads. A well developed, growing system of beautiful rail trails. Family excursions that combine biking with history learning adventures. Inn-to-inn tours. Lighted nighttime rides through spectacular National River scenery. Bike-and-train tours. State park and national forest trails and excursions.
The Potomac Highlands spawned some venerable and highly respected mountain bike racing events, and new races are popping up all the time in this and other areas of the state. Private event planners, state and national associations sponsor more than a score of mountain and road races in West Virginia-on the sort of terrain that lured US Olympic teams to train for the 1996 summer games
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