Location: Coopers Rock
Trails: Henry Clay Iron Furnace Trail, Mont Chateau Trail to Cheat Lake
Distance: 5.3 miles
Elevation: 1371 feet

Henry Clay Iron Furnace Trail (one way)
Distance: 0.9 miles
Elevation: 267 feet

Mont Chateau Trail to Cheat Lake (one way)
Distance: 1.4 miles
Elevation: 739 feet

The best park of the hike was switching from boots to water shoes and hiking in the creek. We managed 0.6 miles in about an hour, which was pretty good, since it was a lot of trying to figure out how to move get up rocks or around deep pools.

The balanced rocks are still there!

Map of complete hike

Thursday, on our way back from the Mountain State Arts and Craft Fair at Ripley, we stopped at North Bend State Park for a brief hike.

Location: North Bend State Park
Trails: Overhanging Rock Trail, Extra Mile Trail, Oil Well Access Trail to North Bend Rail Trail
Distance: 2.4 miles
Elevation: 375 feet

It’s a rail trail, so it’s quite flat (for WV).

The Extra Mile trail is a paved and has handrails on both sides, for visual and mobility limited visitors. (Amusingly, we saw this at the END of the trail, so came up with many theories as to why there were railings on both sides of the paved trail.)

It links to the North Bend Rail trail, at Tunnel 13 and the bridge over Bonds Creek.

Tunnel 13, South Entrance

Tunnel 13, North Entrance

Remains of train platform:

Map of hike

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Scott Run and Roadside Trails
Distance: 5.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 1038 ft

Scott Run Trail
2.9 miles
763 ft elevation gain

Roadside Trail
1.8 miles
187 ft elevation gain

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Rhododendron Trail, Mont Chateau Trail, Ridge Trail, Rock City Trail
Distance: 5.4 miles
Elevation: 1259 feet

Sunday we took a nice long hike at Coopers Rock. We hike most of the way down to the lake, but I’d spent a very long time playing in the stream, so decided to turn around so we wouldn’t have to climb an additional 100 feet.

Towards the end of Mont Chateau trail (or rather, before we turned around) we came across this waterfall, which I would love to figure out how to hike down to without injuring myself.

But the best part was spent in the creek. I brought a pair of water shoes, so when we got down to the area I liked so much previously, I rolled up my pants, switched my boots for the water shoes and clambered around in the stream.

It was cold.

But it also felt really good on my bad ankle, so I wasn’t complaining at all.

The stream was gorgeous, and running quite high, as we’ve had rain rain rain rain rain.

I have my Rebel XSi back (I’d loaned it to my parents for their trip to Alaska) and as much I find it so much easier (and less nerve racking) to carry the XSi, the pictures aren’t quite as sharp as my other camera.

But I’m not taking my good camera into a stream. So I’ll just have to live with it. :)

And then I came across a scene that made my day.

You could not have seen that from the bridge. You had to get down and hike in (or alongside) the stream.

Thank you, to whoever left that transient art. It’s marvelous.

GPS Map of Hike

Location: Tomlinson Run State Park
Trails: Fuse Trail, Dynamite Shack Trail, Beech Trail
Distance: 1.7 miles
Elevation: 423 feet

Here is one of the views.

And here is the stuff I found really interesting:

EVERYTHING is not permitted!

I almost forgot, you have to cross a stream at one point, which, considering how much it’s rained (and rained and rained) wasn’t easy going.

Location: Lost River State Park
Trails: White Oak Trail
Distance: 2.2 miles
Elevation Change: 640 feet

There were several miscalculations made on Saturday: how long it would take to get to Lost River State Park and how much food we’d want to bring.

The end result was that I ended up getting too hungry, my blood sugar dropped, and I felt off for much of the rest of day. It happens, but it’s frustrating, because it was a gorgeous day for hiking.

Lost River State Park would be a great park to take kids: lots of playgrounds and swimming pool. I wish we’d have hiked more, but it was a longer drive than we were interested in for the hiking.

GPS Map of White Oak Trail

Saturday we were still pretty tired from the previous days’ hikes, so we just went to Valley Falls State Park to take pictures of the water and maybe take a short hike.

We hiked the Rhododendron trail to the Dogwood trail, and then the signage got a little wonky, and we were following signs that simply said “Picnic Area”. We came out on the Rocky Trail, but were only on that for a little bit. So who knows where were actually were.

Location: Valley Falls State Park
Trails: Rhododendron Trail, Dogwood Trail, ??? Trail
Distance: 3.2 miles
Elevation: 615 feet

Valley Falls hike (gps map)

Friday we hiked up Seneca Rocks, in memory of my cousin Ben.

We hiked to the top without stopping, because that’s what Ben would have done. One the way down, however, I stopped many times for pictures.

Location: Seneca Rocks
Distance:4.4 miles
Elevation: 1092 feet

Most of the above pictures were taken from the viewing platform (noted with red arrow below), or several feet above. Because of COURSE I went past the STOP HERE DO NOT GO FURTHER sign.

The hike started approximately from where the next two pictures were taken, and then went up to the viewing platform (and just past).

Seneca Rocks at sunset:

Seneca Rocks mid-day:

Seneca Rocks Hike (gps map)

We took Thursday and Friday off, and traveled south. Thursday, we hiked Dolly Sods, which ended up being far less pleasant that it sounds, because 1) it rained for about 3/4 of the hike 2) it’s been raining for most of May and 3) about 2/3 of the way through our hike, the trail went through a swamp. And it’s been raining a lot.

Location: Dolly Sods National Wilderness Area
Trails: Blackbird Knob Trail, Upper Red Creek Trail, Dobbin Grade Trail (swamp), Beaver Dam Trail, and then Forest Road 75 back to the Blackbird Knob Trailhead)
Distance: 6.7 miles
Elevation: 838 feet

Here is what part of the non-swamp portion of the trail–the Upper Red Creek Trail–looked like:

Here’s another view of the Upper Red Creek Trail area. Yes, it was raining. And raining. And raining.

This is part of the Blackbird Trail, and approximately where we made the mistake of turning onto the Upper Red Creek Trail. Which would eventually lead us into the swamp.

I admit that even in the rain the Blackbird Trail was beautiful.

Here are the remains of the swamp I took out with me.

Dolly Sods Trails Hike (gps map)

After we finished our hike? The rain stopped, the skies cleared, and it was beautiful.

Location: Blackwater Falls
Trail: Pendleton Trace Trail, Dobbins House Trail, Pase Point Trail and into Monongahela National Forest
Distance: 3.9 miles
Elevation: 513 feet

This hike was actually three trails, that lead one to the other: Pendleton Trace Trail, Dobbins House Trail, and Pase Point Trail. We actually continued past the end of the Pase Point Trail into the Monongahela National Forest, where the trail is not maintained by the WV State Park system, but is in good shape, and not much more difficult than the Pase Point Trail. (At some point, I’d like to follow the path out and back.)

We started at the parking lot by the Pendleton Point Overlook. From there, to where we turned around (in the Monongahela National Forest) the hike was 3.9 miles. The elevation ascent was only 513 feet and 0.8% grade.

Here is the trail end:

Pase Point Trail (starting from Pendleton Point)

It’s Primary Election Day, so after doing our Civic Duty, we headed out to Coopers Rock for a hike.

We hiked the Ridge Trail down to the Mont Chateau trail, hikeed the Mont Chateau trail, and then came back to Rock City via the Rhododendron Trail.

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Ridge & Rhododendron
Distance: 4.3 miles
Elevation: 959 feet

At the bottom of the Mont Chateau trail, I went off the path, and clambered along the creek. It was simply gorgeous–the pictures do not do it justice. (All GPS location stats are available if you click through to Flickr.)

It was a gorgeous hike.

Hike Map

Hike Stats:
4.3 miles
2 1/2 hours
959 feet elevation rise

Sunday we (again) hiked the Scott’s Run Trail at Coopers Rock. It was a gorgeous day, and the ground wasn’t nearly as muddy as we were expecting.

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Scott’s Run Trail
Distance: 4.5 miles
Elevation: 758 feet

You’ll notice that I take a lot of pictures of water. There are two reasons for this: first, I love running water, but second, because I continue to appreciate these clean clear streams, something we didn’t always have (and some areas of WV still don’t have). It like noting these positives.

All pictures are tagged with the Geo-coordinates if you click through to Flickr.

Out hike was 4 1/2 miles, and we ascended 758 feet, most of it rocky terrain.

Scott’s Run Trail