Sumemrsville Lake was created to keep the Gauley River from flooding everything on it’s path south of Summersville. It–and the other dams in the area with heavy rain–succeeded in their tasks.

“Basically we impound that water in our dam,” Schray said. “If you look at Summersville specifically, the elevation that resulted from this event is the second highest in its history. We stored almost 42 feet of water and we store that water till the downstream stages drop below the damage levels.”

He said they started to see those lower, normal levels on Saturday which led to the release of water at Summersville and Sutton. The controlled release allows the dam to slowly get back to normal levels, so the corp can be ready in case of another weather event.

Here are some pictures taken at Summersville Lake just over a week after the flooding, with comparison pictures if I had them.

Summersville Lake viewing Long Point, July 2016

Summersville Lake viewing Long Point, October 2013 (winter water levels)

Summersville Lake at the Dam, July 2016

Summersville Lake at the Dam, October 2013 (winter water levels)

Gauley River at Carnifex Ferry, July 2016

Gauley River at Carnifex Ferry, May 2015

Water pouring from the dam into the Gauley

Long Point at Summersville Lake. If you zoom in you can see the mud on the trees where the water was.

These pictures of the lake were taken from the car as we drove across the dam.

If you would like to donate to flood relief, please check these links.

Saturday we went to Summersville to see the lake at its high levels. But of course we went on a hike and saw flowers.

Last hike was mountain laurel, this week, rhododendron.

I was sort of obsessed with the Mountain Laurel on our hike.

Blackberry flowers

Every time we go to Cranberry Glades, I say, “we really need to come back here and hike more” so Saturday we finally did.

It was a gorgeous hike, and we ARE going to go back and hike more. We actually had a hike where we didn’t see anyone else the whole hike (although there were other people in the area, mostly visiting the Nature Center and driving along the Highland Scenic Highway).

Location: Cranberry Wilderness
Trail: Forks of Cranberry Trail
Distance: 6.1 miles
Elevation: 4190-4684 feet (0.2% grade)

Looking out over the Cranberry Wilderness.

A section of the Forks of the Cranberry Trail.

Elephant Rocks

If you’re looking for some solitude that you can’t always find at other state and national parks/forests, I highly recommend visiting the Cranberry Wilderness.

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I’m going to start adding another bit here, which is where we stopped to eat (if we enjoyed our meal). This is both for anyone visiting the area looking for a place to eat, AND for us, so we stop having the discussion, “What was that place we stopped to eat around here? I really liked it.”

Dinner:
Mumsey’s Iron Skillet
761 Richwood Rd
Richwood, WV 26261
8:00 AM – 8:00 PM

I had the Southern Fried Chicken and it was very delicious.

To escape the cicadas, we headed south to the New River Gorge area, which is free of this brood. It was hot, but it was good to be outdoors, and to not be bombarded by cicadas.

We chose the southern terminus for our hike which we shan’t do again, as we had trouble getting out, since the road was steep and narrow, with loose gravel in the steepest parts. (We’ll head to the north terminus next time.)

The hike itself was very easy, as it is an abandoned railroad bed, and beautiful, since it is along Glade Creek.

Location: New River Gorge
Trails: Glade Creek, Kates Falls Trails
Distance: 5.3 miles (partial)
Elevation: 1853 – 2145 feet (1% grade)

Here is the I64 bridge that goes over Glade Creek near the start of the trail.

Here’s a little of what we saw hiking the Glade Creek Trail at the New River Gorge.

Saturday we hiked Coopers Rock, which we hadn’t done since March (because of traveling and rain).

It was hot, and we could hear the cicadas, but interestingly they weren’t at the lower elevations, just the higher elevations.

Location: Coopers Rock
Trails: Rhododendron, Mont Chateau, Ridge, Rock City Trails
Distance: 4.1 miles
Elevation: 1459-2069 feet

Rhododendron Trail: 6.7% grade
Mont Chateau Trail: 1.4 % grade
Ridge Trail: 7.1% grade
Rock City Trail: 2.8% grade

New trees down up the creek from Mont Chateau trail

Lots of different flowers blooming in different areas: at Spruce Knob and Dolly Sods we saw trillium, which bloomed here a month ago.

Flax

Blueberries

Chokeberries

Irises with hot butterfly on flower action

We did two hikes at Dolly Sods: a short evening hike around sunset and then a longer hike the next morning. Both were along the Rocky Ridge Trail, but in opposite directions.

Location: Dolly Sods
Date: 2016-05-26
Trail: Rocky Ridge Trail
Distance: 1.8 miles
Elevation: 3940-4175 feet
Grade: 0.2%

Date: 2016-05-27
Trail: Rocky Ridge Trail
Distance: 4.9 miles
Elevation: 3965-4184 feet
Average Grade: 0.5%

Here is our sunset hike, and yes it WAS that gorgeous.

And here was our hike the next morning. Very different, but even more beautiful.

This wasn’t much of a hike, but it was beautiful.

Spruce Knob is the highest peak in WV, and as it’s in a rural area (what you see when you look out is forests and the occasional farm.

Location: Spruce Knob
Distance: .85 miles
Elevation: 4,827-4,859 ft
Grade: 0.2% (included two-story observation tower)

Location: Spruce Knob Lake
Distance: 1.19 miles
Elevation: 3,838-3,870 ft

We also stopped at Spruce Knob Lake.

To remember my cousin Ben, on his birthday we hike up to the top of Seneca Rocks. And because we’re doing it in memory of Ben, we go up without stopping. (Stopping is allowed on the way back down, as is resting once the summit has been reached.)

Location: Seneca Rocks
Trail: Seneca Rocks Trail
Distance: 3.9 miles
Elevation: 1393-2468 feet (11% grade)
Average Speed Hiking Up: 2.3 mph

Dolly Sods is a fascinating place with a fascinating history. Despite the high elevation, it was initially farmed, until a fire wiped everything out. Then, during WWII, it was used as a test bombing range (nearby Seneca Rocks was used to train soldiers who might be fighting in the Alps).

Then it was allowed to go wild, and was eventually designated a national wilderness area.

And yes, there are signs about possible UXO at Dolly Sods.

When you hike there, you’d never know it was ever anything except a wilderness.

It’s an amazing and beautiful place.

Location: Dolly Sods Wilderness
Trail: Rocky Ridge Trail
Distance: 3.7 miles
Elevation: 3987-4192 feet

Since it was on the way, we stopped at Cranberry Glades on our way home.

In addition to the boardwalk, we took a short hike along Charles Creek Trail.

I now need to go back and follow the entire trail, because there were random interpretive signs about a prison there prior to and during WWII.

And the fifth place we checked off our list: Calvin Price State Forest.

For those who are familiar with Coopers Rock–Calvin Price is completely different. Aside from the Allegheny, there are no maintained trails in the forest.

It also is adjacent to Watoga State Park (WATOGA! WATOGA! WATOGA!), so although there aren’t trails, you can access some parts from Watoga.

Because we’d had a long hike the day before, and because we were heading home, we only hiked about a mile into the forest, along the Allegheny Trail.

This is as far as we hiked in.

And as proof, the forest sign!