Once again, we missed seeing the falls in the snow. I’d forgotten how much rain we’d had last week, so that wiped out any ice.

The snow was very wet, and difficult to walk in where it hadn’t been compressed down, so we cut our hike short when my ankle started to bother me.

It was still a gorgeous day, and we had a nice hike.

Park: Blackwater Falls
Trails: Pendelton Point Overlook, Pendelton Trace, Dobbin House
Distance: 2.4 miles
Elevation: 409
Time: 1:20

The stairs were not recommended…

In fact…

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Elekala Falls

Looking down the falls from the bridge:

GPS Map of the Hike

Finally! The first hike of 2015!

Between illnesses and unpleasant weather, we didn’t get out to hike until today, but it was a gorgeous, glorious day for the first hike of the year. Even better, last year I purchased snow pants, which means that I wasn’t afraid to kneel down in the snow to get closer to interesting things, and I didn’t come out of the woods soaking wet from the knees down.

Because the entrance gate is closed, there are a limited number of trails to hike (unless you want to walk into the park and then start your hike, which I don’t), so we took my favorite trail, Scotts Run.

Trail: Scotts Run
Elevation: 1168 feet
Distance: 4.4 miles
Time: 2:13

GPS map of the hike.

Hiking WV: Coopers Rock State Forest: Raven Rock

The weather was too nice not to go hiking, so we went to Coopers Rock, which is the park I visited so many times as a child, but weirdly, rarely hiked. We’d wander beneath the overlook and climb rocks, but didn’t much hike any of the trails.

Raven Rock is a nice climb to look out down the mountain, however, there are a couple reasons it’s far less popular than the main overlook. 1) It’s a relatively steep walk up unpleasantly rocky terrain. 2) Power transmission lines. 3) To the north you can see power plant stacks and steam. The latter two are the bigger irritation to me, not that my ankle was well-pleased with the rocky terrain.

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Raven Rock Trail & McCollum Trail
Distance: 2.9 miles
Elevation: 743 feet

This is what the Raven Rock trail looks like pretty much the entire way.

My ankle is displeased with me, because walking on ground like this is a lot more uncomfortable and difficult than you’d think–you have to watch the ground, and even so, smaller rocks slide out from under your feet.

All of which is why we took the McCollum trail back as soon as it branched off.

And the reason it looks like an old road, is because that’s what it is. This is how they got all the equipment for the power lines up the hill. So perhaps this is Mother Nature’s revenge.

Looking east, over the Cheat Canyon.

Looking west:

Looking North. You can see the overlook to the right, and in the background the Longview and Fort Martin power plants.

The power lines and towers kinda ruin the view to the south. (Looking south west here.)

Ferns are quite tenacious.

We were trying to remember where this rock fell from. No place obvious.

GPS Map of Raven Rock hike

After discovering the WV Dept of Forestry Fall Foliage Map, WV State Parks Fall Foliage Map, we decided that a trip to Blackwater Falls was in order.

I wanted to visit my favorite overlooks and falls, so we went to lots of different places. (This would have been more energy efficient if we’d had bicycles, however, we only had a couple hours, so we were in and out of the car instead.) The last time we hiked most of these trails, it was early spring and had also been raining for two weeks straight, so there was a LOT of water. This time we were able to hike along creeks that were flooded last time.

It was a gorgeous fall day, temperatures in the upper 60s to 70–perfect for hiking–and the skies were clear. It was a perfect day.

Location: Blackwater Falls State Park
Trails: Pendleton Trace Trail, Dobbin House Trail; Pase Point Trail; Lindy Point Trail
Falls: Elekata Falls (off Elekata Trail); Blackwater Falls
Distance: Pendleton Trace to Dobbins House to Pase Point and Back: 2.9 miles; Lindy Point: .8 mile
Total Distance (including going off trail): 4.9 miles
Elevation: Pendleton Trace to Dobbins House to Pase Point: 261 feet; Lindy Point: 66 feet
Total Elevation (including going off trail): 911 feet

Elekata Falls (here it was in the spring)

Blackwater Falls (here it was in the spring)

Oh look! A turkey vulture!

This sighting was followed by a discussion of the difference between a vulture and a buzzard. Answer: in the US–the terms are interchangeable.

Pendleton Lake

Wait… what’s that?

A heron!

Lindy Point. This is an easy hike for a spectacular view.

Pendleton Point

Pase Point

The river below Dobbin House Trail (here’s how things looked in the spring)

This area was completely inaccessible in the spring.

On the Dobbin House Trail someone had set up a silent walk. About a quarter of the signs were botany and nature related, the others were exceedingly touchy-feel. (Look around at the colors. How do they make you feel?) But THIS sign made my day.

Will no one rid me of the troublesome philosopher?

I am easily amused.

Dobbins House Trail + Pase Point Trail GPS map (with bonus Pendleton overlook and going off trail)

Lindy Point Trail GPS map

Go ahead. Say it: WA-TOGA! WA-TOGA! WA-TOGA!

You’re welcome.

Location: Watoga State Park
Trails: Honeybee Trail, Buckhorn Trail, Dragon Draft Trail
Distance: 2.4 miles
Elevation: 920 feet

At Watoga there’s a lake:

As you can see, the leaves are just starting to change:

There’s also an arboretum:

This is a tree (still alive) that has been attacked by some kind of insect, which was then rooted out by woodpeckers.

We hiked the outside of the trail, then cut into the center, where the arboretum trail crosses back and forth across the creek:

It’s fascinating, the amount of stone and rock in the creek bed, that has been uncovered over time, and shifted around every time there’s a hard rain.

There’s also access to the Greenbrier river:

It was a lovely park, and as it’s the end of the season, it was quite empty and quiet (which I always enjoy).

GPS map of hike

Due to events beyond our control, we arrived at the park much later than expected. That, combined with the heat, meant we only took a partial hike along the Left Fork of the Holly River.

It was utterly gorgeous, and I very much want to go back and hike the Potato Ridge trail complete, as well as other trails in the park.

The park office provides maps with distances as well as an elevation graph.

Location: Holly River State Park
Trail: Potato Ridge Trail (partial)
River: Left Fork Holly River
Distance: 3.6 miles (we only hiked 1.7 miles)
Ascent:

This trail is NOT going to be accessible after a rain or when the river is running high. Not unless you want to get your feet wet.

The Potato Ridge trail abuts private property, so local residents will ride their 4-wheelers off park territory to visit the river. When we got to Shupe’s Chute, there was a father with his young son (probably about 4) sitting on the rocks watching the water. When we arrive, the son excitedly told us that the water was VERY fast, and picked up leaves to throw into the water.

It was, in fact, very fast.

Shupe’s Chute was pretty fascinating. I’ve tried to stitch together three pictures so you can see it in its entirety, but I don’t think it worked really well.

Then when we mentioned we were going to hike down to the lower falls, he begged his dad to go down to the lower falls too. When we passed them later (them heading back, us heading down) the boy excitedly told us that if we crossed the river, we could even go UNDER the falls.

He was delightful.

Cooler weather and an influx of horrific traffic to Morgantown got us on the road again, this time to Audra State Park.

The Girst Mill (it’s earlier use) is long gone, except for a grinding stone, but the Alum Cave trail along the river has multiple paths to wander down to the water, where you can swim and sunbathe in relative isolation if you’re willing to hike a bit.

I really like Audra. It’s not a particularly strenuous hike (we went out and back the same way, because I prefer to walk closer to the water) but it’s very pretty, and has lots of options for going down to the water.

Location: Audra State Park
Trail: Alum Cave Trail
River: Middle Fork River
Distance: 2.9 miles
Ascent: 497 feet

I love the board walk. It’s more solid than it looks.

We had a long discussion about this root formation:

Rotting logs can be absolutely fascinating:

And lots of paths to get down to the water:

GPS map of hike

But it was better than all the other trips this year!

Ice cream was made…

…and eaten!

There was walking…

…and jumping.

Rocks were picked up and checked under.

Big sticks were found and carried.

Stairs were climbed…

…as were rocks.

It was a marvelous day.

Location: Cedar Creek State Park
Trail: Stone Trough Trail
Distance: 3.0 miles
Elevation: 814 feet

The trail was slightly problematic at two parts. At the sealed oil well pipe, when coming up from the stone trough, it took us a long time to pick the trail back up. (You head right, and then head back up the hill.) And towards the end of the trail (for us) the trail suddenly went down a very steep hill. The rest of the trail was relatively easy, but this part was not.

This is not the sealed gas/oil head. This was a random, rusting piece of machinery.

“Yes, you’re really going that way.”

That was moderately steep.

Yeah, a bit steep here.

“We’re not kidding. You go pretty much straight up here.”

GPS map of the trail.

Here are some of the flowers we saw blooming at Coopers Rock.

Rhododendron are blooming in some areas of the forest:

OMG! It’s a YIP YIP!

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