Larry Case: "Secret" site is paradise for fishing and hunting

If you visit Paint Bank, Va., the town's general store is an important stop, writes outdoors columnist Larry Case.
If you visit Paint Bank, Va., the town's general store is an important stop, writes outdoors columnist Larry Case.
photo If you visit Paint Bank, Va., the town's general store is an important stop, writes outdoors columnist Larry Case.

"Still round the corner there may wait a new road or a secret gate." - J. R. R. Tolkien

I don't like secrets. Someone said, I think it was John Wayne, "I never knew one to be kept!" Even though in the dusty crevices of my twisted mind I dislike the idea of secrets, I know they're sometimes necessary. Of course, I'm thinking about secrets when it comes to hunting and fishing.

The location of where you located a gang of turkeys is the classic example to me. You may tell your hunting buddy about this; maybe not. It can be the same for deer, a grouse honey hole or a native brook trout stream. I have been known to offer to take a friend to a "secret" place, but only if he agreed to be blindfolded, and I would always run the truck through the creek crossings multiple times so he could not count them.

Secret places are more than special. They are rare gems to be guarded to the utmost.

I'll confess to having a little trouble telling you about this. Telling you about what? What I consider one of the best-kept secrets east of the big muddy.

Paint Bank, Va., is a speck on the map in Craig County, on the banks of Potts Creek between Potts Mountain and Peters Mountain. Paint Bank reportedly got its name from the creek bank's red clay that was used by the Indians to make paint. At first glance this tiny hamlet seems to be the epitome of the old country store at a crossroads. But once you get there, pilgrim, you will find it is so much more.

If I'm going to let this cat out of the bag, I may as well start with the Paint Bank General Store (paintbankgeneralstore.com). Think of it as an oasis on Route 311, roughly between Sweet Springs, W.Va., and New Castle, Va. The store may be best described as one of those places with a "little bit of everything."

As you make your way through the store, you find yourself at the Swinging Bridge Restaurant, which has some of the best food this side of Katmandu. Southern country cooking is the theme here, with everything from fried chicken, beans and cornbread, cheese grits, huge burgers (including buffalo) and barbecue. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, this is the place to be.

(Yes, they have an honest-to-Pete swinging bridge over the restaurant for you to walk on. Don't ask me to explain it; you will just have to make your pilgrimage and see it for yourself.)

If you make this trek, you'll want to stay more than a day in Paint Bank, and the folks here have you more than covered. The range of accommodations is numerous and varied, and you may have so many choices you'll want to try more than one.

First you have the Depot Lodge (depotlodge.com), across the street from the general store. This is the original depot for the train line that ran up and down the valley of Potts Creek. The Depot Lodge offers four beautiful rooms and a master suite. Next door is an actual train caboose converted into a suite. All the accommodations are beautifully decorated - just a tad fancier than most hunting camps I'm used to staying in, if you know what I mean.

The Section Foreman's house is also across the street from the general store. It has two bedrooms, and you will be impressed when you set foot inside. Also, there are at least two cabins to choose from - one is just downstream from the store and just as lovely as the other housing here, plus you can step out the backdoor and fish for trout in Potts Creek. I can affirm there are trout here in Potts Creek in the "slunger class" (that means big - and I mean BIG - trout).

My brothers and sisters in camo will be interested in learning about Potts Creek Outfitters (pottscreekoutfitters.com), which works in conjunction with the store and the lodge. Potts Creek offers bow hunting for whitetail deer (they grow some big bucks here) and spring gobbler hunts. They also offer treestands and ground blinds, and you can check with their Travis Belcher on the slunger class bucks they see here.

Potts Creek has good spring turkey hunting for eastern gobblers, and you may do the traditional run-and-gun hunt, or if you want to slow down one morning, you have the option to sit in a blind and wait for Mr. Gobbler to come to you.

The secret to Potts Creek Outfitters' hunting lies in the fact that they own several hundred acres of land in Virginia and West Virginia. Hunting in two states allows for several different opportunities because the seasons will vary and allow you more options for your trip.

I help out at Potts Creek sometimes by doing a little guiding for spring gobblers, but don't ask for me as a guide if you want to be successful. The turkeys have won more of the battles than me the past few years, and I may be developing a complex. And if you go trout fishing, be ready to tangle with rainbows, browns and brookies in the XXL range.

As if this wasn't enough to tell you about Paint Bank, the folks here have a full-scale buffalo (American bison) farming operation in the form of Hollow Hill Farm. Imagine driving down the beautiful Potts Creek valley, and there grazing in the fields are several dozen buffalo!

Don't worry, the road isn't busy. Pull over, because everyone will want to jump out and take pictures.

Paint Bank is the destination of your quest, pilgrims. Just keep it to yourself, OK?

"The Trail Less Traveled" is written by Larry Case, who lives in Fayette County, W.Va. You can write to him at larryocase3@gmail.com.

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