New trail at WVa's Stonewall Jackson Resort State Park highlights mysterious rock piles

A new trail allows visitors to Stonewall Jackson Resort State Park to explore a mysterious chapter in West Virginia's past.

The 3-mile Cairns Trail opened June 30, two months to the day after a professional trail-building crew started building it. The trail gets its name from the many cairns, or rock piles, strewn along its length.

Stonewall Superintendent Sam England said no one knows exactly who made the cairns, when they were built or why someone took the trouble to put them there.

"Some think they're Native American in origin, and others think they might have been put there by early white settlers or by Civil War soldiers," England explained. "The official word from the state Historical Preservation Office is that their origin is 'undetermined.'"

Soon after the park opened to the public in 1990, people exploring its 1,736 acres began finding stacks of stones located high on some of the hillsides.

"To date, we've found about 200 of them," England said. "They range from knee-high mounds the size of a coffee table to walls almost 300 feet long."

When England became superintendent in 1998, the park had no recreational trails.

"My wife and I would go out walking the hills, and we'd encounter these cairns," he recalled. "I thought we should do something to make them more accessible to our visitors, so I mapped out some ideas for a trail network."

Teams of AmeriCorps volunteers came in 2002 and 2003 to build the Hevener Orchard Trail, the park's first officially designated footpath. The trail passed by a couple of the enigmatic rock walls, but didn't go out of its way to feature them.

"The more cairns we found, the more I felt we should do more to highlight them. We drew up a plan for a trail that would connect the Hevener Orchard Trail with the Autumn Laurel Brook Trail — one that would lead hikers to some of the most interesting cairn groupings."

An $83,000 recreational trails grant from the Federal Highway Administration allowed parks officials to have the trail professionally constructed. The contract went to Tri-State Co. of Lesage, W.Va., an outfit with extensive trail-building experience.

England said he couldn't be happier with the work done by Tri-State owner Charlie Dundas and his crew.

"Some of the hills are fairly steep, but they cut the path with such a gradual grade that even older or out-of-shape hikers can make it to the top and barely be breathing hard," England said. "And they did a great job, too, of having the trail look like a natural part of the landscape."

The trail leads past dozens of cairns — from loosely consolidated nondescript piles, to carefully stacked waist-high columns, to downright imposing walls. One of the most interesting features along the path isn't a cairn at all, but an odd sandstone boulder England calls the Standing Stone.

"It's a huge, flat-faced piece of sandstone that has been stood on its end," he said. "It appears to have been shaped by tools of some sort, and it has pieces of metal embedded in it."

One particularly strange aspect to the Standing Stone is its orientation.

"If you come up here on the winter solstice and stand with your back to the flat face of the rock, you face the exact spot where the sun sets," England said. "That's one of the reasons some people think it might be Native American in origin. Places like this were often set up by Native Americans to pay respect to some natural occurrence."

Now that the trail is open, England said parks officials plan to erect explanatory signs to help hikers interpret what they're seeing.

"We're also working on a map that includes interpretive information, a brochure that people can take with them and refer to as they hike along," England said.

"The bottom line is that we know the cairns are something of unique cultural or historic value. We want the public to come and see them. We don't want them touched or disturbed, but we certainly want people to enjoy them."

Take That, Tsunami

Japan's World Cup soccer victory over the US women's team yesterday devastated the Yanks, but also gave a major kick in the pants to the bad fortunes haunting a nation struggling in the wake of a devastating tsunami. It was the first-ever World Cup win for the gutsy women, who endured to outshine the US team in a penalty shootout 3-1. "This was a devastating loss for us," said US midfielder Heather O'Reilly. "We were all stunned when that second goal went in, thinking we were five minutes from a championship." The US dominated play throughout much of the game, and was up 1-0, then 2-1 until a tie pushed the contest into overtime, then, finally the shootout.

Nimble, quicksilver Japanese goalie Ayumi Kaihori nabbed two of the American penalty kicks, and Carli Lloyd sent her ball sailing over the crossbars, giving the Japanese their victory margin. Though heartsick, the Americans were generous in defeat, notes the Wall Street Journal. "Japan was playing with a very large 12th man—it's called desire and hope," said US striker Abby Wambach. "I feel devastated. Japan, give them all the credit. They never gave up." Added goalkeeper Hope Solo: "We lost to a great team. I truly believe that something bigger was pulling for this team."

Surfers compete for $20,000 cash prize in weekend tourney

Costa Rica will host surfers from all over the globe at the Quicksilver Open. The tournament begins Friday and runs through Sunday.

The tournament will be held at Santa Teresa Beach on the central Pacific coast province of Puntarenas where the surfers will compete for a $20,000 prize purse. The top three finishers will also receive a camera from Olympus, the tournament’s sponsor.

“We have confirmed people from 15 different countries, and we’re expecting more than 30 to be coming from outside of Costa Rica,” said Carlos Enrique Brenes of the Costa Rican Surf Federation. “In all we’ll be expecting about 80 total competitors.”

Among the confirmed participants are world-class surfer Clay Marzo and two-time Costa Rican national champion Gilbert Brown.

According to a press release from Quicksilver, the Costa Rica Open will be “the first professional international surfing tournament that Costa Rica has held in the past few years, where surfers from anywhere in the world are allowed to compete.”

For Brenes, the tournament holds many oppertunities not only for Costa Rican surfing but also Latin America.

“Hopefully now international surfers will want to come to Latin America to compete,” he said. “We want Costa Rica to be able to host most than just one or two international tournaments, and this will help.”

Julian Wilson And Jordy Smith In South Africa | Surfing

Following the Australian's win at the Quicksilver Pro Portugal, Wilson cut some fine lines in the pristine tubes rolling in and placed an impressive joint third. He lost out to only John John Florence in the semi-finals, who eventually finished second to California's Patrick Gudauskas in the final.

'I’m definitely happy with my result,' said Wilson after his semi-final. 'That little bit of wind came up and it was hard to come out of the barrel. John John was by far the standout of this whole contest and that was pretty much like surfing a final. He’s the one to beat at this event for sure and I hope he goes all the way.'

Wilson moves up to 16 in the ASP world rankings with his finish.

Defending Mr Pro Price champion Jordy Smith (above), riding home surf, also finished  joint third. He climbs from world number five to world number two in the ASP world rankings.

'It was a bunch of fun but it’s just a pity there weren’t any waves in that heat,' said Smith afterwards. 'You win some and you lose some and it’s still a great result that I will be looking to take into the next event in Jeffreys Bay.'

Chuck Is A Super Lightweight, Customizable Application Launcher for Mac

Routt County commissioners are looking at beefing up the northwest Colorado county's oil and gas permitting regulations.

The Steamboat Pilot & Today reports commissioners indicated Tuesday they may require energy companies to post bonds to ensure that rural roads that weren't designed to bear heavy truck traffic can be repaired without burdening local taxpayers. They also may require energy exploration companies to obtain annual road permits.

County officials are anticipating a wave of drilling applications in the wake of recent mineral leasing activity. Already, officials with Quicksilver Resources have informed County Planning Director Chad Phillips' office that the company intends to apply for a special-use permit to allow exploratory drilling west of Hayden. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company develops coal bed methane and shale gas.

Theater review: 'Betrayal' at the Comedy Theatre in London

It's not easy to mistake a British actress for a French one, but Kristin Scott Thomas, who was born in England yet calls France home, has that certain je ne sais quoi. Her beauty is rife with implication. She has that Gallic ability to seduce or scorn without opening her mouth. Shakespearean phrases no doubt fall trippingly from her tongue, but an eloquent silence is her chief asset.

How marvelous to see her wield this expressive reticence in the revival of Harold Pinter's “Betrayal” at the Comedy Theatre in London's West End. Pinter was a playwright who relished his opaque mystery as much as his articulate Englishness, and both come naturally to Scott Thomas.

As befits a work about marital infidelity, the play is largely a three-character affair — an isosceles triangle, if you will, with equally significant male roles intersecting with Emma, played by Scott Thomas with just the right mix of ice and smolder.
Betrayal 2bThe production, directed by Ian Rickson (whose Broadway credits include “Jerusalem” and “The Seagull” with Scott Thomas), takes one major risk, casting the role of Jerry, the man who had a seven-year affair with Emma, with Douglas Henshall, a Scottish actor with a thick brogue and a soft demeanor. His eyes and voice plead with an ardency that is quite a departure from the more watchful passion of Jeremy Irons, who starred in the 1983 film version. This transparent vulnerability takes getting used to — especially for an American theatergoer who might have difficulty culturally placing Henshall's Jerry — but in the end Pinter's drama is luminously X-rayed.

The assured Ben Miles offers a more traditional Oxbridge portrait of Robert, Emma's publisher husband who understands the advantage of a good poker face. He's needed to have one. Jerry, his best friend, was sleeping with Emma on the sly. True to his willfully unflappable temperament, Robert revealed nothing, understanding that the weakest thing a man in his position could do is show the slightest hint of emotion.

The play, which begins in 1977 after the affair between Emma and Jerry has ended and concludes in 1968 just as it's about to get started, is really about the shell game of knowledge that is at the heart of adultery. Pinter, as is his wont, leaves his characters on such slippery ground that it's not easy to figure out who's doing the betraying and who's being betrayed. Deception is always a two-way street. “Betrayal” is as much a puzzle as a poem of faithlessness.

In one of the liveliest scenes, Robert and Jerry meet for their usual lunch at an Italian restaurant not long after Robert has found out about the affair. Their conversation is tense, but the cause of the tension remains buried. Miles suggests Robert's fury without every letting it become explicit. Henshall lets us see the way Jerry has to continually deflect his guilt and fear. A waiter, played by John Guerrasio, provides comic relief simply by trying to keep up with the men's barking orders for food and wine.

Rickson's fluid staging, with one scene still lingering disquietly in the air as spare pieces of furniture are repositioned for the next, makes theatrical sense of the play's reverse chronology. The movement is from cynicism to innocence (in the sense of hopefulness, not purity). Experience has cultivated in this trio an inveterate stealth, which makes the moments before romance and friendship have curdled so heartbreaking to encounter in the play's final stretch.

“Betrayal” has a minimalist construction requiring precision acting. This is Scott Thomas' specialty. A gifted film actress (“The English Patient,” “I've Loved You So Long”) who works best in confined and pressurized dramatic situations, she doesn't need great swaths of realism to get the job done. Her quicksilver nature, able to turn on a dime, is particularly well suited to Pinter, whose terse language swells with ambiguity and contradiction.

After Robert discovers, while on vacation with his wife in Italy, that Jerry has surreptitiously written to her, Scott Thomas' Emma, realizing that she has been found out, writhes in the hotel bed with a regret that seems oddly — yet fascinatingly — tinged with rage. Is Emma a cornered or a wounded animal? Scott Thomas knows that she's both and plays her accordingly, as only someone unafraid of the irrational aspect of complexity would dare to.

The term “Pinteresque” connotes the way the playwright invests ordinary objects with extraordinary menace. Scott Thomas' natural aptitude for this quality is evident in the way her Emma drapes a wrap around herself in the love nest that Jerry has set up for their trysts. The flat has grown chilly, literally and figuratively, and Emma covers herself with a strenuousness that dissolves the distinction between offense and defense. She is simultaneously protecting herself and withholding herself — a perfectly Pinteresque thing to do.

This resonant “Betrayal” is afoot with paradox. Perhaps none greater than the final one suggesting that Jerry, the character who instigated this whole sorry mess, may be the least capable of handling its sorrowful fallout.