Route 130 Boulders

Up until near the end of the last millennia east coast "mountain climbing" was virtually unknown. You could still search the backwoods and find secret and untouched small cliffs and large boulders and develop them with just you and your friends. Most distanced beyond the beaten path and usually of little interest to anyone but the most ardent of local hunters and hill walkers. Even those guys were few and far between. Other than along roadside pullouts or trailhead parking, or along the numerous four wheeler trails, we can't recall ever encountering anyone more than several hundred feet beyond the "road". And even then it was the same guys from the times before. It was total freedom. That doesn't mean that there weren't near roadside attractions. 

Was recently in the neighborhood so thought that we would drop by a "just off the road" area we hadn't visited since probably the late '80's...

The Route 130 Boulders

Singular form 'Boulder', actually, since the main attraction is a pretty large (not so picturesque) isolated sandstone block. The limited surrounding protuberance isn't much to speak of as far as boulder climbing is concerned. Never touched it.

Was introduced to the place by our good climbing buddy, Rob Goodman. Probably around '82. Was actually his "secret local training spot" since around '77. Maybe a fifteen minute drive from his house. 

A bit of a "highball" - particularly sans 'crash pads, which, at the time, were still maybe twenty years down the road. 

A main attraction steep eastern face. Other than a short vertical crack, there was no definitive routes of note that we can recall. You could work eliminates and traverses 'till the digits barked. For practice and an added workout we would occasionally carry (unroped) a lean rack of small wires and stoppers with the intent of developing some "hang time" endurance fiddlin' with 'em in all those thin horizontal cracks (a valuable and usually necessary skill when frequenting WVA's steep Seneca Rocks).

Not a spot we'd travel much distance to visit but if in our back yard we'd have been a regular. 

As told to us (and assuming that the facts are correct)... In recent years the area was re-discovered and became frequented by a small influx of local climbers new to the now popular "sport". In keeping with the times the outcrop had additionally sprung up as a local SWPA climbing resource on an on-line rock climbing database.

The rock is situated on property owned by the local sect of a particular devout persuasion. Routinely engaged en masse, the new activity garnered the attention and ensuing wrath of an individual (who could that be?) who subsequently notified the presiding cleric of individuals frequenting the property for vile and heathen pursuit outside that of the sects virtuous doctrine. Shortly thereafter the site was posted as closed to all access (see first image above - first tree photo left). The area was additionally removed from the on-line resource. 

We're not advocating that anyone visit this place - that would now be considered trespassing. Posted only as a historical reference.