I’ve been (for quite awhile now) failing at posting about recent hikes.

So here are some pictures from the past month or so.

It’s not quite been a year since I last posted about hiking, but close. I actually have been hiking, but didn’t feel up to writing about it, since I didn’t have much joy to share.

But yesterday was a gorgeous hike at Coopers Rock, and I wanted to share some pictures. Hopefully this means things are slowly (slowly) getting better.

We grabbed our snow shoes got to Coopers Rock where we saw lots of cross country skiers. Since they all seemed to be heading out the roadside trail, we went down Scotts Run trail, which had no ski tracks for and out and back.

It was stunningly beautiful.

There were a couple of trees down across the trail.

And disconcertingly, here you can see the tree lying over the tracks in the snow we’d made on our way out.

Why did so many trees and branches fall? Because under the layer of light fluffy snow, everything was covered in ice.

But that’s why everything was so shiny and bright and gorgeous. And having gotten there early, we got to see parts of the trail no one else had yet traveled upon.

The other thing that’s lovely about hiking in the snow is just how quiet and peaceful it is. For the most part, we all we really heard was the creek.

Because I kept stopping to take pictures, we were overtaken by a guy who was also out to enjoy the fresh snow.

When we reached the point where we generally turn back (after hanging out by the creek for a bit) we discovered he’d stopped briefly.

Thank you, random stranger, for leaving that. It made me happy.

The hike was just under four miles, but some of that is because I kept wandering off the trail, to hike through the fresh snow and avoid the wet bits of the trail.

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trail: Scotts Run (partial, out-and-back)
Distance: 3.9 miles
Elevation: 1860-2253 ft (475′ change)

And just for fun, I’ve been recording creeks for awhile, now I’m putting them into one place.

I took four different videos yesterday. Feel free to click through and look at the rest.

For years now we’ve been meaning to hike to the High Falls of Cheat, but never managed to get there. So we decided to check another trail off our list last week.

High Falls of Cheat Trail
Distance: 7.6 miles (out and back)
Elevation: 2927-3701 feet (1469′ gain) ~10% grade on the mountain

See that ridge-line in the distance? That’s we we’re going up and over.

It was a bit chilly when we set out.

And even cooler along the ridge-line.

Down the other side of the mountain, and after a 2/3rds mile walk down the railroad tracks (which kinda sucked, to be honest), we came to the falls.

Shavers Fork River

Here’s the the graph of the elevation.

Last year we went hiked past Douglas Falls several times but it was incredibly busy, so I didn’t bother with the scramble down.

Distance: 4.8 miles
Elevation: 2327-2648 feet (383′ gain)
Trail: Blackwater Canyon Trail

For some reason, we didn’t see anyone on this hike. Funny that.

If you go far enough down the trail, and peer through the trees, you can see Lindy Point.

Unexpected finding.

We took time off last week and did some hiking, which was marvelous (and desperately needed).

One place we went was Cacapon State Park.

Location: Cacapon State Park
Distance: 4.2 miles
Elevation: 1079-2287 feet (1311′ gain), 20% grade on the uphill, 23% grade on the downhill
Trails: Ziller Loop, Ziller, and Central Trails

Up up up!

And now down!

Also, I managed to find the bog on the way back to the car. (“This looks like a shortcut!”)

We visited Tu-Endie-Wei several years ago, but somehow I failed to take any pictures. So we went down again so I could get some pictures for the hiking class I’m doing for OLLI.

We saw some other stuff too, including this really disconcerting mural.

But more importantly, we got more pictures at the Mothman statue.

Prickett’s Fort State Park

Beartown State Park

And one picture from Canaan Valley

“I don’t know where I want to go or even if I feel up to hiking.”
“Me either”
“So let’s just get in the car and see where we end up.

We ended up at Otter Creek!

I’d actually wanted to hike yesterday, but forgot there is always more snow at Coopers Rock than there is in Morgantown, so I didn’t think to grab snowshoes (in my defense, we haven’t been able to use them since we bought them).

We walked around for awhile, but walking through the deep snow ended up making my foot ache, so we left without a nice long hike, and went for a scenic drive instead, stopping at Valley Falls.

We did walk completely around the reservoir.

Valley Falls we just wandered around and avoided the three other small groups who were there (on group was a HS senior photo shoot, which: good for her!

Saturday we headed back to the Canaan area–mostly because it’s a relatively short drive with a ton of wilderness.

We went back up to Canaan Loop road and did a loop of Fire trails and the Plantation trail.

I did slide into a puddle, but not this one.

Luckily, although a little water got into my boots, my feet stayed dry.

These are actually from two weeks ago. I was just to lazy to post them.

We’d decided to hike around the Blackwater Canyon. Nothing strenuous, but I knew there would be some pretty views and that we would be unlike to see other people.

When they tell you the road isn’t suitable for passenger vehicles, they really do mean it.

We parked before the road completely degraded and walked to the Allegheny / Canyon Rim Trail.

Just past the Canyon Rim Trail, if you watch the side of the road you’ll find a short trail out to the overlook, where you can see into the Blackwater Canyon.

You can hear the creek running below, but even with the leaves fallen could not catch sight of it.

Between the overlook and Canyon Rim Trailhead you can look for another side trail to a waterfall.

This is a scramble and not recommended for all users.

But it is lovely.

The canyon rim trail itself has several creek crossings at the start, but is then wooded / rhododendron thickets.

It was chilly, but a gorgeous (and easy) hike.