While waiting for people to show up for our hike at Canaan Valley State Park, we decided to check out the Canaan Wildlife Refuge.

I immediately decided that we had to take the small people on a hike there. The trail was flat, relatively straight, relatively even, went through woods and fields and several different kinds of plant life, and there was a huge field full of wild blueberries.

It. Was. Awesome.

Location: Canaan Wildlife Refuge
Trail: Beall Loop (partial)
Distance: 1.1 mile
Elevation: 3217-3307 feet

We took a gorgeous hike at Canaan Valley State Park (checked that one off the list!) and although it was muddy in spots (it has rained for seemingly two months straight) it wasn’t difficult to get around the mud (ie, no impassable rhododendron).

Location: Canaan Valley State Park
Trail: Middle Ridge State Park
Distance: 2.4 miles
Elevation: 3210-3501 feet

We spent Thursday through Saturday in the Blackwater Falls / Canaan area, and it was beautiful. Our hikes were shorter than normal, mostly because many of them had people not used to hiking. (Hikers ages ranged from 4 to 90, so, not so much with the long hikes.)

Along the Blackwater Canyon trail were old coke ovens, from Thomas’ industrial days, and then Douglas Falls, which were gorgeous, and well worth the scramble down to the water.

Location: Thomas, WV
Trails: Allegheny & Blackwater Canyon Trails
Distance: 3.8 miles
Elevation: 2743-2946 feet

Bonus: Wild black raspberries.

They were very delicious.

FINALLY we could get back out to Coopers Rock without having to hike in rain and storms.

The streams were running high, which meant I had to be careful traipsing through the water.

I was, and it was gorgeous.

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Rhododendron, Mont Chateau trails (plus splashing through a very cold stream)
Distance: 4.4 miles
Elevation: 874 feet

I believe that’s the most water I’ve seen coming through this stream.

And now a brief rant/whine.

I don’t dislike bicycles. In fact I have one and enjoy riding it.

However.

Some of my favorite trails at Coopers Rock are a muddy mess because of mountain bikers.

It’s been raining, so of course the trails are going to be wet in areas–especially where the trail is also part of a watershed run-off. I expect that.

The problem is that when people bike through these areas when it’s this wet, the entire trail becomes a churned up mess that is messy and ugly and not very fun to hike. There are sections of trail where the churned up mud is twice as wide as the trail, because of mountain bikers.

I don’t mind getting my feet wet (obviously), and I expect the trails to be muddy when it’s been raining as frequently as it has been. But I think it’s ridiculous that whole sections of trail are almost impassible unless you want to slog through a couple inches of mud.

As hikers, we have the ability to go off the trail, to try and avoid the nasty mess, but that’s not in the best interest of the forest.

Yes, the forest is open the everyone–that’s one of the many joys and benefits of living in WV. But I don’t see why bikers can’t use a little common courtesy and not tear up the trails when they are wet and muddy.

They’re ruining it for those of us who want to take our time and enjoy the scenery as we go past.

OK, done ranting.

Here’s some more gorgeous stream to close on.

Stonewall Resort State Park is probably the best maintained park we’ve visited.

Of course, after a month of rain, there’s not much they can do about all the high water and mud, though they did try.

Location: Stonewall Jackson Resort State Park
Trails: Hevener’s Orchard, Cairns, Lakeside Trails (this map is NOT up to date, last check)
Distance: 3.9 miles
Elevation: 719 feet

(SUPER fancy blazes!)

We dubbed this trail, the Canada trail.

Hmmmm….

Nope.

I can see why you might make that mistake, but still: wrong.

Points to anyone who knows WHAT is wrong, and why Michael and I giggled this entire section of trail.

Due to the issues we had at Cabwaylingo, we didn’t have as much time as we’d wanted for Chief Logan State Park.

Location: Chief Logan State Park
Trails: Cliffside, Waterfall (partial) Trails
Distance: 2.5 miles (including roads between trails)
Elevation: 248 feet

The park has an interesting history, as it was built upon old mine sites, and like several other parks/forests in the state, the remains of mining operations can be seen.

There is also a WV history museum that is free to visit, and which includes items from mine history and a Conestoga wagon. (Also, it is air conditioned, which was a nice break between trails.)

No pictures, sorry!

Location: Cabwaylingo State Forest (last check, link was down)
Trails: Sleepy Hollow, Martin Ridge Trail
Distance: 2.9 / 5.8 miles
Elevation: 799 feet

Saturday we were starting in Charleston, so decided to go to some south-west parks. We went first to Cabwaylingo State Forest (the cause of the drive over many one-lane bridges).

It was… disappointing.

The trails we took were not well-maintained, were poorly blazed, and signage was missing in important places.

By not-well maintained, I don’t mean rough trail. I mean sections of the trail being completely unpassable, and alternate routes were somewhat dangerous (as in a fallen tree with branches completely blocking part of the trail on a steep slope. I managed to scramble down the rocks, but might have had serious trouble if the rocks had been wet and even slipperier.)

(Those pictures are terrible, because my cell phone was not clean, and I took them on my fly without stabilizing. But you get the idea. And that isn’t the hill path that was blocked. There I was just concentrating on getting to the next section of trail.)

Yes, in the wilderness everything should not be paved. Believe me, I understand that, but in other state parks trails have been marked as having trees down making them hard to pass.

The other problem was that Cabwaylingo has a lot of gas wells. I don’t care for their existence in state parks, but I recognize that the parks need money, and if the wells can be unobtrusive, fine. I can live with it. Unfortunately, gas wells mean gas company roads. So in multiple parks hiking trails have become gas roads. I don’t much like that, but again, I understand the necessity.

The problem at Cabwaylingo was that in addition to having trails that were on gas company roads, there were also new roads that were not marked on the maps, and the intersections at those roads were not blazed or signed.

Let me tell you, walking down half a mile of gas company road (gravel, no shade, rutted, muddy) and discovering you are at a dead end and must have taken a wrong turn at the unmarked intersection is VERY frustrating. Especially since according to the GPS & maps, you are relatively close to where you are supposed to be–but not close enough.

So our hike that should have been 3 miles plus a half mile (or so) walk back along the road turned into 5.8 miles total.

No, it’s not the end of the world, but it was very frustrating. Especially since the trail we were taking parallels the correct route for quite a distance (we checked multiple times after choosing our path, but it looked like our path was matching the trail we were supposed to be following, so we went on).

I’m a huge fan of the state parks, and want everyone to spend time in them, but I wouldn’t recommend Cabwaylingo to anyone for hiking, unless you were willing to accept the frustrations of missing signs and blazes and a two mile hike on gas well roads and other such issues.

As we were driving to Cabwaylingo State forest, I noticed there were a lot of one-lane bridges on the way. Apparently (as I theorized yesterday) that portion of the road was built on an old roadway bed.

What was odd was that some of the bridges had been replaced, and there didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to the replacement.

So here are the bridges you’ll cross leaving Cabwaylingo and head east.

This was the best part:

There were tons of ATVs (or UTVs or whatevers) on the roads.

After several weekends of somewhat strenuous hiking, we decided we needed a nice, relaxing walk today, and so went to the WV Botanic Garden.

There are trails through the area, which are fairly flat and fairly even, including gravel paths that should be easy for strollers etc.

Although temperatures were a little warmer than I would prefer, it was a lovely stroll. We got there before the gate to the lower parking area opened, so there was hardly anyone there, and it was calm and quiet and peaceful.

A lovely walk.

As we were driving to Cabwaylingo State Forest yesterday, I was checking the GPS route to see our exits and other excitement.

“That’s irritating, why do we have to go so far out of our way? Why can’t we just exit at the road directly?”

Then we take the exit…

That explains it.

The forecast was walling for possible thunderstorms, and we were rained upon during the drive down, but in Fayetteville the weather was beautiful, and we had two lovely hikes (although the second was cut short, and a few drops of rain did fall on us as we were hiking back from the Diamond Point Overlook).

Location: New River Gorge
Trails: Long Point, Butcher Branch, Fayette Trail (loop); Endless Wall (half)
Distance: 4.2 mile; 2.3 mile
Elevation: 832 feet; 281 feet

Our first hike was out to Long Point, and this is the view when you get there.

This is, for obvious reasons, a popular trail, and it’s also relatively easy to hike. Mostly flat and wide, with only a few rocky sections.

After discussion and referring the maps, we took the Butcher Branch trail out to the Fayette Trail, making a small loop off the Long Point trail, giving us a slightly longer hike, and letting us see a little more of the area.

Then we drove to the other side of the river, and did half the Endless Wall trail. We decided upon half because the only way to make a loop is to walk back to the starting point along the road, and I didn’t particularly want to do that, so we turned around at Diamond Point and came back. I definitely want to make the full hike on another visit.

All in all a gorgeous day.

Since we’d already visited three parks, we decided to stop at Carnifex Ferry on the way, to make it four for the day, six for the weekend (a record for us).

Carnifex Ferry overlooks the Gauley River Canyon, near Summersville (Land of Speedtraps). We had no idea what to expect, since it’s a Civil War Battlefield, but it had an utterly gorgeous view of the Gauley River Canyon. If you’re in the area, you should definitely divert her for the view.

Location: Carnifex Ferry Battlefield State Park
Trail: Patterson Trail
Distance: 1.2 miles
Elevation: 157 feet (there is a very steep drop down to the Copperhead Overlook)

View from Copperhead Overlook

Pillow Rapids Overlook

Picnic Overlook

Stop four on Sunday was Little Beaver State Park. If we were local, we’d probably go there frequently; I don’t think we’ll make another trip just to go there, but if we’re in the area, we’ll stop again.

Location: Little Beaver State Park
Trails: Lake Front Trail, Beaver Creek Trail
Distance: 1.8 miles
Elevation: negligible

Had I mentioned what a gorgeous day it was? It was a gorgeous day.

Standing on the bridge over the Little Beaver Creek.

The Beaver Creek trail was supposed to have a bridge crossing the creek. We got there, and… no bridge.

So we cross the creek on the rocks. Oh. That’s where the bridge is.

Michael and I were debating when the damage had been done. I said it was probably Sandy damage, he disagreed.

The website, of course, give us no enlightenment.