Really, more of a saunter than a hike.

Watters Smith Memorial State Park

Saturday was gorgeous, and we spent it at Audra, some hiking, but mostly playing around the water.

If you’ve never been Audra has a boardwalk through the Alum cave, which is a lot of fun.

Watch your head!

The main trail goes along the West Fork river, and there are many paths to get down to the water. We spent half our time walking along the river.

And throwing sticks into the river.

One log we threw in and followed along the river for as long as we could, freeing it from the rocks and cheering it on its journey.

Finally got out to Coopers Rock.

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trail: Advanced Ski Trail
Distance: 5.2 miles
Elevation: 1518-2226 feet (773 feet)

No snow. No flowers. But there was water.

Since the fall leaf color is done anywhere within driving distance, we jumped straight into winter with a hike at Blackwater Falls.

Since I’ve been slacking on walking / hiking in recent months, we decided to take a relatively easy hike, and hiked part of the Davis Trail. This is the part of the Allegheny Trail that runs from Blackwater Falls to Cannan Valley State Park.

It was lovely.

Location: Blackwater Falls
Trail: Davis Trail / Allegheny Trail
Distance: 5.1 miles
Elevation: 3203-3669 feet (660 ft)

I managed to forget to share the pictures from last week’s drive to Berkeley Springs. Neither of us wanted a long drive, but we wanted to a chance to see some leaf color, so off we went.

We went first to Cacapon SP, where a recent storm had taken down a lot of trees, so the road going up to the mountain top was closed, which was disappointing, since I’d hoped to see how the entire valley looked.

But it was still pretty.

Some nice color at the lower elevations.

Then we went to Berkeley Springs, which I always find lovely to walk around.

Beautiful!

The other places we stopped (right in the middle of our day) was Babcock State Park.

There was a decent amount of color there, although nowhere near peak.

So! Adorable!

We stopped at several state parks on Friday, two of which have some lovely river views.

We were a tad bit late for good light at Carnifex Ferry, but none-the-less it’s a lovely view of the Gauley River.

There was a bit of color, but nowhere near as much as there should have been for mid-October.

We stopped by Hawk’s Nest earlier in the day, and saw a different portion of the New River.

We also went down into the New River Gorge. They were getting ready for Bridge Day, and there wasn’t very much color, even if it was a lovely view.

Saturday was supposed to rain, plus my aunt was coming in, so we did our hiking on Friday, which turned out to be a perfect choice.

Checked what the leaf color was supposed to be, so headed back down to the Canaan / Blackwater Falls area.

Canaan Valley State Park: Blackwater River Trail

Blackwater Falls

Table Rock

Went south yesterday for the Jackson’s Mill Jubilee. As noted in previous years, there are fewer crafters each time we visit. But lots of live music–and I saw quite a few younger musicians alongside the old bearded dudes.

Since we were wasting time waiting for the start of the game so we could go home, I spent lots of time wandering around the mill.

I love that place So. Much.

Our original plans for the weekend were thrown into disarray, so we went to Canaan Valley on Saturday for a little hiking, and to see what spring wildflowers were out.

Answer: lots and lots.

I really want an app that gives me the forecast for the state and tells me where it will NOT be raining over the weekend. Is that really so much to ask?

The forecast looked least wet in the Berkeley Springs area, so we headed east to do some hiking at Cacapon.

Irises

Pink Lady Slipper

FUTURE SNACKS!!!!

Not finding a lot of flowers at Canaan, we went to Blackwater Falls, in hopes some drier trails might have more wildflowers.

They didn’t, but it was a gorgeous day for a hike, so it’s still a win.

Location: Blackwater Falls
Trails: Elakala and Shay Trace Trails
Distance: 1.2 miles
Elevation: 3082-3228 feet (212 feet rise)
Temperature: 68F

Trails: Dobbins House and Pace Point Trails
Distance: 2.9 miles
Elevation: 2993-3160 feet (274 feet gain)
Temperature: 72F

We went out to Pace Point, in the hopes we’d see lots of flowers. Not many flowers, but still a lovely hike. Then we spent a bit of time at the top of Pendleton run.

And since we were on Elakala Trail, we of course scrambled down.

It was such a lovely day!

One of the reason I wanted to go hiking was because I finally replaced my GPS.

I’ve had the Oregon 550t since 2013, and it remains a workhorse. However, it’s accuracy was getting problematic. If we’re hiking a loop, our starting and ending elevations should be approximately the same.

The last loop we hiked our starting elevation was 1592 and the ending elevation was 1637. And our peak elevation was 1774 feet going out, and 1850 feet coming back. Those elevations should have been the same, not 45-76 feet different.

So after a lot of back and forth and a month of thinking about it I got a Garmin Oregon 700.

There have been a lot of improvements in the past six years, and although I liked the Orgeon 550t, I LOVE the 700.

The point of all this is what I wanted to use the new GPS.

So our first use was one of my favorite trails.

Location: Canaan Valley SP
Trail: Blackwater River Trail
Distance: 0.8 miles
Elevation: 3202-3261 (78 feet gain)

GPS was perfect, and the hike was lovely; Win win!

Finally! A Saturday without rain and mud!

After scanning the regional weather, we headed south towardsNew River Gorge, but as always happens, I said, “Oh! Can we stop by Babcock?”

Since there weren’t that many people, and since the day was beautiful, we decided to take the Lake View Trail, which we hadn’t hiked before.

It was gorgeous.

Location: Babcock State Park
Trail: Lake View Trail
Distance: 1.7 miles
Elevation: 2404-2596 ft

Of course I took a picture of the grist mill.

We went onto New River Gorge for a hike there, and decided to take the Bridge View Trail, which… was a view of the underside of the bridge. Which is fine, but not what I was thinking (I was thinking a view like Long Point, but from the other side.)

Location: New River Gorge
Trail: Bridge View Trail
Distance: 1.6 miles
Elevation: 1587-1852 feet (519 feet climb)

It was steep (with switchbacks) and rocky, with steps made from the area stones.

Not one of my favorite hikes, but I was outside in the woods, so that made it better than many other things.