Why I love Snowshoe in summer

Snowshoe sunrise at 6:27am on Sunday, August 23.

For starters, it’s usually about 20 degrees below the temperature at my home in Charlottesville, which itself is a pretty fine place. But when you’ve got the choice of 90 degrees and 70 degrees, Snowshoe wins. And up on the mountaintop, I have yet to encounter a mosquito, something that’s part of everyday life back in Charlottesville. I kept the windows in our condo open all weekend– without screens!

And there are really amazing sights up here. My favorite is sunrise. I came up here last weekend, and the view that greeted me on Saturday was pretty special, and so was the view I ended up photographing on Sunday.

Downhill mountain-biking is pricy but fun.

The previous night, the folks at Snowshoe tried to keep things festive by hauling out a Eurobungy and Orbitron into the main Village plaza— along with popcorn, snowcones, and a free after-dark outdoor movie. Although the two 12-year-old boys weren’t willing to watch the movie– even though it was Inkheart, a tale of a 12-year-old girl— they had plenty of fun up here.

They were particularly thrilled by their mountain bike lesson earlier Saturday with a guy named Trevon. And we all appreciated that the Mountain Adventure Center, i.e. the bike shop, let us rent full-size bikes and pads for the low kid price of $35 each.

Mountain-biking is one of Snowshoe’s signature thrills, but the cost can be tough for families. If you pay full price for everything— bike, lesson, lift ticket– you’re talking about nearly $200 for a day of fun. One wallet-easing thing they offer is an exemption from buying a lift ticket for the duration of your lesson. But I wouldn’t have known that if someone hadn’t told me. And wouldn’t you know it, I can’t check to see if that’s yet been mentioned online because the day I’m writing this, Snowshoe’s downhill mountain-biking website is down for repairs.

The Village was pretty quiet, but at least they were tryin'.

One big shocker for me last weekend was how empty the place was. I peered up at the condos in the Village— Rimfire, Allegheny Springs, Highland House, Expedition Station, and the Seneca— and I swear it looked like fewer than 10 percent of the rooms were occupied. Attendance at the three open restaurants in the Village was pretty sparse, and I never saw anyone actually use the two thrill machines set up in the plaza. But, hey, more fun for us.

I’m back again this weekend. Maybe the big butterfly festival and symphony events will boost tourism up here. And the governor is supposed to be here!

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