Random (but not really)

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Autumn Color Coming to a Close

Autumn is over in most regions in WV. In fact, I was startled to find so much color in Morgan county.

I adore the watching the springs bubble.

2022-10-29_Berkeley_Springs_04

2022-10-29_Berkeley_Springs_23

2022-10-29_Berkeley_Springs_33

The color at Cacapon was amazing–so much brighter than I expected.

2022-10-29_Cacapon_16

2022-10-29_Cacapon_23

One day we’ll do the full hike over the mountain at the Paw Paw Tunnel. But Saturday was not that day. Was gorgeous from the top though.

2022-10-29_Paw_Paw_Tunnel_14

Shockingly the panoramic view along Rt 9 wasn’t busy.

2022-10-29_Prospect_Peak_04

Everyone else’s loss.

Because it really as a perfect day to enjoy the wood and forest.

2022-10-29_Cacapon_17

Written by Michelle at 3:29 pm    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Photos,State Park / Forest,West Virginia  

Sunday, October 16, 2022

Color Outside the Lines

Friday I led a work hike up Ravens Rock trail.

We started the hike at nine, so there was still a little fog when we reached the rocks.

2022-10-14_Ravens_Rock_05

2022-10-14_Ravens_Rock_06

It was a perfect morning for a hike.

Saturday we decided to take a scenic drive with occasional stops to hike.

Our first stop was Seneca Rocks. From the visitor center we could see how busy things were upon the rocks, so we walked around a bit and then headed off to our next destination.

2022-10-15_Seneca_Rocks_13

We hit the Blackwater River trail at Canaan Valley much later than normal, so the light was different.

2022-10-15_Canaan_Valley_05

Not at all bad, but the things I normally look at were in the shade.

2022-10-15_Canaan_Valley_06

I was pleased to be able to see things I don’t normally.

2022-10-15_Canaan_Valley_20

2022-10-15_Canaan_Valley_08

It had been several years since we’d been to Freeland Boardwalk. The entire thing has been completely replaced and rerouted in areas.

2022-10-15_Freeland_Boardwalk_03

Last we went to the Beall’s Trails area in Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge.

2022-10-15_CVWR_05

Just a short hike, but gorgeous, even though most trees were past peak.

2022-10-15_CVWR_01

Written by Michelle at 4:52 pm    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,Photos,West Virginia  

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Fallen Leaves

I ended up flipping through my hiking books to find a trail near where we were going to be Saturday, which is how we ended up at the Shavers Fork Area, which is (I’m pretty sure) part of the Cheat River WMA.

Aside from our GPS disagreeing with the map, we found our way there and hiked the Crouch Ridge Trail.

It was lovely. We saw no other humans, the leaves were turning, and we there was even a tiny bit of snow falling from the sky!

2022-10-08_Cheat_Canyon_WMA_02

2022-10-08_Cheat_Canyon_WMA_11

2022-10-08_Cheat_Canyon_WMA_03

Written by Michelle at 4:50 pm    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,National Park / Forest,Photos  

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Hiking WV: Otter Creek

I really do like hiking Otter Creek. I almost always find solitude there, and the entire hike is beside the creek, which is one of my favorite sounds.

I’ll be honest–all these pictures are simply ones I liked, rather than ones that show the landscape. These stills reflect how being there makes me feel.

2022-09-24_Otter_Creek_57

2022-09-24_Otter_Creek_71

2022-09-24_Otter_Creek_83

2022-09-24_Otter_Creek_79

It was a lovely day.

Written by Michelle at 6:58 pm    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,National Park / Forest,Photos,West Virginia  

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Hiking WV: Tiny Glimpse of Fall

Canaan Valley State Park

2022-09-17_Canaan_Valley_29

2022-09-17_Canaan_Valley_31

Blackwater River Trail, Canaan Valley State Park

2022-09-17_Canaan_Valley_22

2022-09-17_Canaan_Valley_17

2022-09-17_Canaan_Valley_18

Table Rock, Canaan Mountain Backcountry

2022-09-17_Table_Rock_16

2022-09-17_Table_Rock_24

2022-09-17_Table_Rock_27

Written by Michelle at 9:17 pm    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,Photos,West Virginia  

Sunday, September 11, 2022

Hiking WV: Wandering to Waterfalls

The forecast was rain, but there was a night, home game, so we settled on a series of short hikes to waterfalls.

Douglas Falls is just outside of Thomas, and although the Blackwater Canyon trail is easy, there is a scramble down to the waterfall.

2022-09-10_Douglas_Falls_02

My favorite spot is along the top of the old (and crumbling) retaining wall, and down past the falls a bit.

2022-09-10_Douglas_Falls_15

Then we headed to Blackwater Falls to hike along the Falls of Pendleton.

This hike is not an easy one.

2022-09-10_Pendleton_Falls_13

2022-09-10_Pendleton_Falls_33

2022-09-10_Pendleton_Falls_38

But the views were lovely.

2022-09-10_Pendleton_Falls_35

2022-09-10_Pendleton_Falls_09

Sadly, as much as I enjoyed sitting there watching the falls, my pictures don’t really show just how amazing the views were.

2022-09-10_Pendleton_Falls_15

On the other hand, the weather meant we didn’t see anyone anyone else, which is always a plus.

Written by Michelle at 8:18 pm    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,Photos,West Virginia  

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Scenic Bits from Various Hikes

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

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

2022-07-03_Canaan_Mountain_Backcountry_22

2022-08-23_Botanic_Garden

2022-09-03_Canaan_Valley_SP_02

2022-09-03_Canaan_Valley_SP_08

2022-09-03_Canaan_Valley_SP_14

2022-09-03_Canaan_Valley_SP_52

2022-09-03_Canaan_Valley_SP_60

Written by Michelle at 8:28 pm    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Flowers,Hiking,Photos,West Virginia  

Sunday, February 6, 2022

Snowshoeing at Coopers Rock

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.

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_014

There were a couple of trees down across the trail.

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_015

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

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_042

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

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_010

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_019

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.

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_012

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_046

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_016

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.

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_025

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.

2022-02-05_Cooopers_Rock_041

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)

scotts run showshoe

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.

Written by Michelle at 8:34 am    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,Photos,State Park / Forest,West Virginia  

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Hiking WV: High Falls of Cheat

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.

2021-04-03_Upper_Falls_Cheat_016

It was a bit chilly when we set out.

2021-04-03_Upper_Falls_Cheat_013

And even cooler along the ridge-line.

2021-04-03_Upper_Falls_Cheat_018

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.

2021-04-03_Upper_Falls_Cheat_036

Shavers Fork River

2021-04-03_Upper_Falls_Cheat_057

Here’s the the graph of the elevation.

High Falls of Cheat Elevation

Written by Michelle at 8:14 am    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,National Park / Forest,Photos,West Virginia  

Monday, April 5, 2021

Hiking WV: Blackwater Canyon Trail

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.

2021-04-02_Blackwater_Canyon_020

2021-04-02_Blackwater_Canyon_052

2021-04-02_Blackwater_Canyon_054

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

2021-04-02_Blackwater_Canyon_062

Unexpected finding.

2021-04-02_Blackwater_Canyon_066

Written by Michelle at 8:05 am    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,Photos,State Park / Forest,West Virginia  

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Hiking WV: Cacapon State Park

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!

2021-04-01_Cacapon_SP_016

2021-04-01_Cacapon_SP_016

And now down!

2021-04-01_Cacapon_SP_024

2021-04-01_Cacapon_SP_026

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

Cacapon State Park Ziller Elevations

Written by Michelle at 7:53 am    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,Photos,State Park / Forest,West Virginia  

Thursday, April 1, 2021

WV State Parks: Tu-Endie-Wei

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.

2021-03-31_Tu-Endie_Wei_040

2021-03-31_Tu-Endie_Wei_013

2021-03-31_Tu-Endie_Wei_021

2021-03-31_Tu-Endie_Wei_025

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

2021-03-31_Point_Pleasant_013

2021-03-31_Tu-Endie_Wei_018

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

2021-03-31_Mothman_021

2021-03-31_Mothman_023

2021-03-31_Mothman_016

Written by Michelle at 7:36 am    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Photos,State Park / Forest,West Virginia  

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Prickett’s Fort State Park

Prickett’s Fort State Park

2021-03-20_Pricketts_Fort_014

2021-03-20_Pricketts_Fort_038

2021-03-20_Pricketts_Fort_037

2021-03-20_Pricketts_Fort_041

2021-03-20_Pricketts_Fort_051

Written by Michelle at 3:45 pm    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Photos,State Park / Forest,West Virginia  

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Hiking WV: Beartown

Beartown State Park

2021-03-13_Beartown_020

2021-03-13_Beartown_016

2021-03-13_Beartown_024

2021-03-13_Beartown_027

2021-03-13_Beartown_058

Written by Michelle at 3:36 pm    

Comments (0)  Permalink

Categories: Hiking,Photos,State Park / Forest,West Virginia  
Next Page »

Powered by WordPress