It’s been a rough couple of years, and I’ve been crap at posting anything besides book roundups, but I’m going to try for a little more variety–no promises, because I’m still struggling, but I’m going to try.

We spent a long weekend at Canaan Valley (the first time we’d been hiking since November, which is a really long time for me) and although the weather was meh for part of the weekend, it was wonderful to be back in the woods.

By meh, I mean Saturday was either rain or this:

(Guess what Michael did.)

But we did hike, and of course we our first walk was along the Blackwater River Trail. It’s my favorite.

The beaver dam is starting to fall apart; not sure if the beavers have moved or it was just the ice melting. We’ll see in the coming months.

Since the ground was frozen Sunday morning, we decided to try to Abe Run and Mill Run trails.

Why that caveat?

Those trails are wet.

There are several boardwalks throughout that system.

Luckily the water was mostly frozen (or avoidable) so we get to enjoy this view.

And of course I sat by a creek for a bit.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

It was a lovely day.

Canaan Valley State Park

Blackwater River Trail, Canaan Valley State Park

Table Rock, Canaan Mountain Backcountry

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.

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

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

This hike is not an easy one.

But the views were lovely.

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

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

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!”)

Beartown State Park

“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!