No last resort
Maryland’s Wisp compares well with other regional ski spots
McHENRY, Md. — “Ski Maryland!” isn’t a cry often heard among winter-sports enthusiasts.
But Wisp Resort, tucked into the tiny sliver of western Maryland between West Virginia and Pennsylvania, could open a few eyes to the ski and snowboard potential of the Old Line State. And the resort is less than a five-hour drive from central Ohio.
The resort is in the Allegheny Mountains on Marsh Hill, one of Maryland’s highest peaks.
Wisp offers 34 trails on 172 acres, gets an average of 100 inches of snow a year and has snowmaking equipment covering 90 percent of the trails. From the summit at 3,115 feet, skiers can travel down a vertical drop of 700 total feet to the base of the resort. Seven chairlifts spread over the mountain help speed skiers and snowboarders efficiently up the mountain.
OK, so it’s not Vail or Park City. But Wisp compares well with other regional ski resorts, with plenty of fun and challenges for all levels of skiers and snowboarders. And the ski-in, ski-out lodge makes it a great place to spend a weekend or longer hitting the slopes, not too far from home. There are also many
The Father of Our Country started out as a failure, at least as a military man.
George Washington’s great, early failure is remembered at Fort Necessity National Battlefield in southwestern Pennsylvania, as are some of his later successes.
In 1754, Lt. Col. Washington led a force of Virginia troops to try to push the French out of the Ohio Valley. He was unsuccessful.
After surprising and killing a number of French troops, the British colonial force under Washington’s command quickly erected a makeshift fort to prepare for the coming reprisal.
Washington built Fort Necessity on a “charming field for an encounter,” as he called it. Unfortunately, it was less charming to defend, being located in a meadow within rifle shot of French snipers in the surrounding woods. Washington and his men were forced to surrender and march away with their tails between their legs.
Today a re-created Fort Necessity stands on the site of the original. The first recreation, built in the 1930s, resembled a traditional, diamond-shaped wooden fort, but archeological digs in the 1950s revealed the original to be much smaller, round and, to be honest, a bit pathetic.
Today’s fort is a much more accurate representation. Approaching it through the surrounding trees, a visitor might well wonder, “What was Washington thinking?” Of course, he was only 22 at the time. And, if I recall my history correctly, he was a bit more successful during the American Revolution.
A film at the visitors center museum recounts Washington’s early exploits and gave me a much better perspective on the French and Indian War, a conflict whose history and effects I hadn’t fully considered before.