Rediscovering America_ Exploring the Small Towns of Virginia & Maryland - Bill Burnham [23]
You might catch sight of Carl Hiner (tel. 540-468-2957) running errands from his horse and buggy. He’s turned his hobby into a business, giving rides to visitors and transporting bridal couples to their nuptials.
Recreation
Highland County has been called the “trout capital of the southeast.” Rainbow Springs Retreat (tel. 804-353-1112), four miles north of Monterey on Route 220, has six stocked ponds and a stream where you can try your hand at fly-fishing. Catch-and-release brown, rainbow and native brook trout. There’s a lodge and guided trips available. At Virginia Trout Company you can fish your dinner or buy trout to go. Located on Route 220, five miles north of Monterey (tel. 540-468-2280).
Highland Adventure rents mountain bikes and provides shuttle, mapping and guide services for caving, rock climbing, mountain biking and camping (tel. 540-468-2722).
Monterey is central to Ramseys Draft Wilderness and Laurel Fork Special Management Area. These units of the George Washington National Forest receive heightened protection for the stands of old growth hemlock and red spruce trees. Ramseys Draft covers rugged Virginia terrain and is not suitable for beginner hikers. Laurel Fork has a more developed and maintained trail network, but take caution in spring when the water level on this tributary of the Potomac River rises. Steel cables stretch from shore-to-shore, a testament to the aid hikers need in crossing at high water. For information about Ramseys Draft, call tel. 540-885-8028. Those wishing to hike Laurel Fork should call tel. 540-838-2521.
Lodging
For such a small town, Monterey has quite a number of Victorian B&Bs and inns, sporting goodies like gingerbread trim, wrought-iron fencing, and rocking-chair porches.
Perhaps the most conspicuous is The Highland Inn on Main Street, with its double-decker front porches. What’s amazing is that it survived the fires and dilapidation most wood-frame hotels have succumbed to. Originally called Hotel Monterey when built in 1904, it had a picket fence to keep the sheep off the lawn. Guests included Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford and Gen. Erwin Rommel, Germany’s WWII “desert fox,” who spent three months here in the late 1930s studying the battle tactics of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson. It has 17 guest rooms, several suites with sitting areas, a dining room and tavern. It may be an old hotel, but rooms have private baths and cable TV. The resident ghost is a friendly, if sad one. Emily, the wife of the innkeeper when the hotel took boarders, had an affair with one of the residents. When her husband found out, he shot her. Consequently the townspeople hung him outside of town. Whether it’s true or not, it makes a great story. (tel. 888-466-4682 or 540-468-2143, $)
Cherry Hill B&B on Mill Alley one block off Main Street, overlooks the town. (tel. 540-468-1900, $$)
The Mountain Laurel Inn was built in 1900 as the Arbogast House. It has five guest rooms, a guest parlor with fireplace and an antique grand piano. (tel. 800-510-0180, www.va-bedandbreakfast.com, $$)
Trimble Acres Bed & Breakfast is another Victorian surrounded by a wrought-iron fence on Spruce Street. (tel. 540-468-1524, $$)
The innkeeper at the Selby Inn on Main Street conducts tours of Civil War sites in the area and displays his collection of “Goofus Glass,” an early 1900s pressed glass. The inn is furnished with period pieces, and has gardens and a stream in the backyard. (tel. 540-468-3234, www.highlandcounty.org/selbyinn, $$)
For a different experience, Bobbie’s Bed & Breakfast is part of a working sheep and cattle farm. It’s a half-mile west of Monterey