Finally! A Saturday without rain and mud!
After scanning the regional weather, we headed south towardsNew River Gorge, but as always happens, I said, “Oh! Can we stop by Babcock?”
Since there weren’t that many people, and since the day was beautiful, we decided to take the Lake View Trail, which we hadn’t hiked before.
It was gorgeous.
Location: Babcock State Park
Trail: Lake View Trail
Distance: 1.7 miles
Elevation: 2404-2596 ft
Of course I took a picture of the grist mill.
We went onto New River Gorge for a hike there, and decided to take the Bridge View Trail, which… was a view of the underside of the bridge. Which is fine, but not what I was thinking (I was thinking a view like Long Point, but from the other side.)
Location: New River Gorge
Trail: Bridge View Trail
Distance: 1.6 miles
Elevation: 1587-1852 feet (519 feet climb)
It was steep (with switchbacks) and rocky, with steps made from the area stones.
Not one of my favorite hikes, but I was outside in the woods, so that made it better than many other things.
Because I’m me, the other thing I paid a great deal of attention to in Fairbanks was the trees. The boreal forest (Taiga) is beautiful.The trees are very different from what I’m used to here, mostly being black spruce, white spruce, and birch, and all of them tall with thin trunks.
These last two are probably my favorite pictures of the trip.
I wish I’d been more acclimated to the cold, because I could have spent quite awhile wandering along this creek / stream and finding others like it. But hopefully we’ll get to visit again and I’ll be more prepared for the cold.
As I live along a river, I tend to orient myself to water. I found myself unable to do this in Fairbanks, possibly because much of the water was frozen. Also, because I didn’t walk as much as I normally do, because I wasn’t really acclimated to the temperatures during our short visit.
But I did get to walk along the river, which was good.
SO! MANY! DUCKS!
If I’ve been quieter than normal recently, it’s because we were getting ready for our big trip–heading north to visit Tania in Alaska! HUZZAH!
My goals were simple: Spend time with Tania and see the aurora. Both goals were accomplished! Although all my pictures of the aurora were blurry and out of focus, I didn’t mind, since I actually got to see the aurora, and it was amazing.
If you’ve spent much time reading here, you know that we spend a lot of time driving WV roads. Which are pretty abysmal. So of course I was interested in the Fairbanks roads and how very different they were from WV roads. First, being covered in snow was normal. Second, the scenery was so different from what I’m used to, I kept starting at it in fascination.
The angle of the light also made things look even more gorgeous than they already were.
Here are some of the roads Tania drives regularly.
Even more exciting, I got to expand my skill set and drive Tania’s car for a bit!
This may seem a strange place to start with our trip, but in rural areas transportation is how communities survive (or not) so I can’t help but be fascinated.
Technically, this is in Maryland.
But it is labelled the Paw Paw tunnel, and Paw Paw is in WV.
I can’t believe we’d never been there before.
When building the C&O canal, they were in a race against the completion of rail lines, so they decided the it would be easier to build a tunnel than to follow the river (understandable really, because the river is really twisty and the riverbanks weren’t necessarily good for canal building).
It’s pretty impressive.
We totally counted all markers and found the four markers for shafts.
Oops.
After a long search, we found that there was a break in the rain on Saturday in the Berkeley Springs area. So that’s where we headed.
This is a beautiful, and we spent some time wandering around the town. I wouldn’t want to live on the main street, but it is a lovely little town.
The pools fed by the springs were quite high–higher than I ever remember seeing them.
They were also as pretty as they always are.
For something different, instead of going to Cacapon, went up to what used to be called Panorama Peak. Still not much color, but beautiful never-the-less.
Our friends ended up with two extra tickets for the Potomac Eagle in Saturday, and asked if we’d be able to go with them. A train ride AND time with two lovely small people (and their parents)? Of course!
Three of them rode in the gondola through the trough. Michael and I and one of the small people declined. I was more interested in the scenery than the eagles, and the small person thought the gondola would be too loud, since it was behind the engine.
It was a beautiful day, and there were actually eagles, but I enjoyed the view (even if there was almost no fall color).
Look an old house!
Look! A couple of walls that used to be a house!
Interesting rocks!
The river!
Fields and mountains!
An excellent day!
There was also a dearth of color at Canaan Valley (and Blackwater Falls).
Still pretty though.
Since the weather was forecast to be nice, and Michael had the day off, Saturday we decided to head down to Seneca Rocks, in hopes of catch some fall color.
The weather was lovely, but there was a distinct lack of fall color.
Location: Seneca Rocks
Trail: Seneca Rocks Trail
Distance: 3.7 miles
Elevation: 1573-2520 feet (1003 ft rise)
Hike Up
1.2 miles
1611-2446 feet
33 minutes
It doesn’t look like there’s that much water going over the bridge!
Guess who had wet feet for this hike?
One of the reasons I wanted to make this hike on a Friday and not Saturday is that it tends to be really busy on Saturdays, and I selfishly prefer solitude when at the top of the rocks.
After a week of rain, Saturday was clear, so we headed to the Cranberry Wilderness, which has become one of my favorite places, since it is far less visited that most other spots in WV.
We hiked two shorter trails, wanting the views as much as the hiking.
Location: Cranberry Wilderness
Trail: Red Spruce Trail
Distance: 2.3 miles
Elevation: 4386-4722 feet (420 ft gain)
Is that… a bear track? (Click through to Flickr for a comparison picture.)
The trail at the top of the mountain was unbelievably gorgeous. Look at that! So beautiful!
Because Red Spruce Knob is the highest peak in the area, there was a fire tower here at one point. That tower is long gone, and most of the overlook is overgrown.
Still worth the hike.
Trail: High Rocks Trail
Distance: 3.2 miles
Elevation: 4312-4507 feet (471 ft gain)
The trail to High Rocks was possibly one of the easiest we’ve ever hiked in the Mon Nat’l Forest. We kept waiting for it to get super muddy or terribly rocky or ridiculously steep; Nope. It was a very easy hike.
It was a ridiculously easy hike, for the view at the end.
Since we had a long weekend and didn’t have to drive, we wanted to do a long hike on Friday.
There are so many places to choose from in the Canaan Valley area, but we eventually settled on Dolly Sods, and a trail we’d wanted to hike before, in the hopes that it being a Friday morning we wouldn’t see so many people.
We saw… fewer people than we would on a Saturday, but we still saw more people than I particularly wanted to on a hike in the wilderness.
Location: Dolly Sods Wilderness
Trails: Rocky Ridge, Blackbird Knob Trails
Distance: 7.6 miles
Elevation: 3757-4184 feet (1137 feet gain)
Blackbird Knob Trail
Yes, the trail really is that rocky and wet and muddy. So many people hike Dolly Sods that everything is very worn and never gets a chance to recover.
Despite the wilderness being busier than one would expect, views like this make the trip worth it.
Since it was raining off and on (and then on and on and on) we went to the main falls three different days to see the water levels. (Because of COURSE I needed to have points of comparisons.)
Saturday:
Sunday:
Monday:
I also took video, because of course I did.
On Saturday we also did the scramble down to the base of Elakala Falls.
We hadn’t been out to Pace Point in awhile, so we decided that’d be our easier hike after a long hike at Dolly Sods.
Location: Blackwater Falls State Park
Trails: Pendleton Trace, Dobbin House and Pase Point Trails
Distance: 2.9 miles
Elevation: 3009-3170 feet
Location: Blackwater Falls State Park
Trails: Lindy Point Trail, Canaan Loop Road
Distance: 1.4 miles
Elevation: 3139-3216 feet
The next day we decided to head out to Lindy Point (and the stream along Canaan Loop Road)
Here’s the stream that crosses Canaan Loop Road. I haven’t seen that much water there before.
We ended up having a multi-day debate as to whether you can see Lindy Point from Pase Point (and vice versa)
I say you can’t, Michael says you can.
We did two hikes at the Canaan Wildlife Refuge. A hike along the Beale Trail that’d we’d done before, but chose because it was easy, because it was raining.
The first hike was new to us, partway up Cabin Mountain. We considered hiking to the top of the trail, but were afraid it’d be dark on the way down, and I’d trip over everything.
Location: Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge
Trails: Middle Ridge and Sand Run Trails
Distance: 3.6 miles
Elevation: 3246-3571 feet (597 ft gain)
Is that… a bridge?
Yes! A completely useless bridge!
Michael: They need to mow this bridge.
All kidding aside, it was a nice, if rather steep hike, and I definitely want to hike up to the top of the Cabin Mountain Trial to see the view.
Location: Canaan Wildlife Refuge
Trail: Beall Trails
Distance: ~3 miles (I forgot to turn on the GPS until half a mile in)
Elevation: 3151-3375 feet
It’s raining. Where shall we hike? A bog of course!
At the Bog Overlook
