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

Saturday we did the “Walk Between the Parks” which is an 8+ mile hike between Blackwater Falls State Park and Canaan Valley State Park.

It’s not advertised well enough, so you should look into it yourself. There are two more over the summer, and one October 1st, that I think we may do ourselves. They drive you from one park to the other, and provide a picnic lunch halfway

We’d been keeping an eye on the weather all week, and the forecast not only remained suspect, but it rained every day prior to Saturday.

But we were GOING to do this hike, rain or not, so we went down the night before, and packed for rain and mud.

Mud and water we go, rain, we did NOT. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful hike.

There were 28 of us, and two guides–one to lead and one at the back of the line, to look for stragglers and anyone in need (other than blisters, there were no problems).

The hike is supposedly 8 miles, by my GPS said 9.0 (and my cell phone GPS said 9.3) but we did avoid a super muddy area, which may well have added an extra mile.

Location: Blackwater Falls State Park, Canaan Valley State Park, and Canaan Mountain Backcountry
Trails: Davis, Plantation, Fire Trail #6 (Allegheny Trail), Allegheny Trail, Middle Grade Trails
Distance: 9.0 miles
Elevation: 3135- 3694 feet

No pictures, because as nice as a hike as it was, there weren’t breath-taking views. Just the beauty of being in the wilderness.

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!

Our main hike for the trip was at Greenbrier State Forest, where we did the Kates Mountain Trail.

Location: Greenbrier State Forest
Trails: Old Road, Rocky Ridge, Holsapple, Youngs Nature, Mable Dowdy Nature Trails, and Kates Mountain Road
Distance: 10.2 miles
Elevation: 1689 – 3370 feet (1680 feet elevation gain)

Our hike started with two miles trail, that felt like it went straight up the mountain.

Pictures do not come close to showing precisely how steep this trail was, and I didn’t take many, because I was too tired to even pull out my cell phone for a quick snapshot.

Does this help? Probably not. Just take my word that it was REALLY steep, and I was very glad to be going UP that slope rather than down. (1)

Here is the view looking down towards the valley.

Look! Holsapple Trail!

Sadly, I can’t recommend hiking Holsapple trail, because it is being actively logged, which is not attractive, or pleasant to hike.

We found lots of random bits of wall, in the middle of the woods.

(1) Because of my ankle, I am very uncomfortable going down extremely steep slopes. It puts extra strain on my ankle and both hurts and makes me feel like I’m more likely to plummet down the hill.

I wander through cemeteries when I get a chance. I don’t quite know why, but they fascinate me, these markers of the dead, often fading quickly into illegibility.

This cemetery was particularly interesting, because Lewisburg is close to the VA border, and so families here might have been far more conflicted about the Civil War than those further north (or west).

I took a lot of pictures of the gravestones, but there were some that interested me the most.

This couple died within days of each other.

Thomas Creich Sr
Born in Another Country
Ireland
January 1766
Died December 2nd 1847

Born at Lexington VA
April 23, 1800
Died at Greenbrier Bridge
West Va.
April 22, 1888

These were taken in the “black” cemetery, where there were a LOT fewer headstones, but at least the cemetery was maintained.

Charlot Robeson (?)
Died
May 1, 1899
Aged 85 Yrs
At Rest

This one made me especially sad.

I took a lot more pictures, some of which I posted at Flickr (which you can see if you click through).

For the sake of completeness, I’ll mention that we also stopped and walked (about a mile and a half) on the Greenbrier Rail Trail at its southern terminus.

We plan to go back at a later point in time and bike–I especially would like to visit the Droop Mountain Tunnel–but for now, here’s another crossed off our list!

The second location we checked off our list was Moncove Lake State Park.

The skies cleared on our way there, so no dramatic fog on the water pictures. But it was still pretty. (But not much in the way of hiking.)

Location: Moncove Lake State Park
Trails: Devil’s Creek Trail
Distance: 1.72 miles
Elevation: 2470 – 2550 feet

Another checked off the list!

Plum Orchard Lake Wildlife Management Area is a lake, and so didn’t have much in the way of hiking.

Although it didn’t feel so on the drive, we were lucky to go when it was overcast and foggy. There might not have been any hiking, but it was gorgeous.

Busy day!

We went to the WV Botanic Garden this morning, and then this afternoon, we biked along the Mon River Rail Trail

Taking advantage of the gorgeous weather, we went back to Kumbrabow State Forest. It was a lovely day for a hike, and (for the most part) a lovely location for a hike.

Location: Kumbrabow State Park
Trails: Mill Creek Falls, Potato Hole Trail, Clay Run
Distance: 0.5, 3.3, 2.0 miles
Elevation: 2287-2795, 3187-3881, 3273-3621 feet

We hiked to the top of the mountain, up Potato Hole trail (which follows Potato Hole creek). The trail was interesting, going through several types of land, ending with a disconcertingly barren mountaintop.

Here’s the view from the top.

Here’s the tower you can climb for a better view.

The rustic cabins (as in, outhouses) are near the Mill Falls creek.

The Clay Run Trail itself was nice, but it emptied onto the Fire Road Trail, which you took to an overlook.

Which is being–logged? widened? uglified?

Here’s the view from the overlook. Feel free to skip the fire trail now you’ve seen the view.

But the trail itself was quite lovely

And had a marvelous bridge over the creek.

GPS Maps of the Hike