We need to rent snowshoes, to determine if we’re going to buy some; let me tell you, hiking in deep snow is HARD. We did a mile out on the main road, and a mile back, and it was pretty exhausting. (We foolishly went out with the intention of walking to the overlook. Nope!)

OK, I wanted to post the pretty pictures AFTER the whiny pictures.

Here are some overviews of town.

The Law School (have fun getting in THOSE doors)

And the area around the Alumni Center

If WVU has classes tomorrow, I call BS. As of 2ish, most roads we saw were a lane–lane and a half at most, and sidewalks were for the most part unwalkable.

Sidewalk on University–note that halfway up the hill there is not even a trodden path–you pretty much have to walk in the road

Patteson Drive–sidewalks are not only not cleared, they are covered with plowed snow–completely unwalkable.

You can see there is a path trod right up to the closed sidewalk sign–then you’re forced into the road.

North street–you can see there is only a lane and a half plowed.

Student parking lots

Here’s our walk, Saturday between noon and two.

Saturday morning, between 9:30 AM and 10:30 AM.

15 1/2 to 17 1/2 inches of snow around the house.

Friday evening:

This was our second visit to Babcock in the past month–since we’d had a little snow, I thought it was worth another visit.

It was lovely.

In addition to viewing the grist mill (which is nice) you should take the opportunity to hike around. Even a short hike down the road towards the cabins can get you some beautiful scenery.

A handful of WV State Parks are having a $50/night in January special, so we took this opportunity to spend some more time at Twin Falls State Park.

Location: Twin Falls State Park
Trails: Huckleberry, Cliffside, and Falls Trails
Distance: 1.5, 3.0, 2.3 miles
Elevation: 2155-2449, 2005-2317, 1836-2006 feet

Twin Falls has a Pioneer Farm, which is run as a farm from the 17 and 1800s would have been. The Huckleberry Trail passes alone part of the fence of the Pioneer Farm.

We only saw chickens at work when we hiked by.

The Cliffside Trail is very flat and wide until you reach where it branches off to view the cliffs. Then you actually get some real hiking (and elevation, and scrambling)…

Bet the view is lovely on a fall day–or a clear day. :)

Twin Falls is named for the two falls in the park (Duh).

The Marsh Fork Falls

and the Black Fork Falls

Both have a scramble to get down to the base, and both were muddy and messy, but it was a very nice view. (I really wanted to explore on the other side of the Black Fork Falls, but I decided it wasn’t possible life-flight interesting over there.)

If you go off the main trail, you can reach the point where the Black Fork and Marsh Fork meet, which is a very pretty area, that would be lovely to explore in the summer.

And if you pay attention (and are again willing to scramble) you can view the remains of the foundation of an old mill.

It was a lovely trip.

We hiked EVERY DAY this year!

Sadly, we go back to work tomorrow, so this trend will end abruptly.

But it was good while it lasted!

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Advanced Ski and Mont Chateau Trails
Distance: 6.4 miles
Elevation: 1406 – 2323 feet

I am sorry to report that, aside from being the fastest way down to the Mont Chateau trail when the gate is closed, the Advanced Ski Trail doesn’t have much to offer.

It was–kinda boring. Or as boring as a hike in the forest can get. All the things I took pictures of were on the Mont Chateau Trail.

But, it was still time on the woods, which makes it a good day.

We have had a LOT of rain recently. Luckily, although there was some minor flooding in the southern part of the state last week, we’ve managed to escape the terrible flooding that many areas have seen.

But we still have a lot of water.

Here’s how Valley Falls looked Friday:

(Here’s how it normally looks)

And today we went to Babcock, where there was also a lot of water, even though it hasn’t rained for a couple days.

(Here is Babcock in the fall of 2012)

Although one of us had a sightly sensitive stomach, from eating nothing but junkfood for a week straight, we made it out to Coopers Rock for our first hike of 2016.

The gate is closed, so there are limited trail options, unless you want to hike into the forest and then take a trail from there.

So we took Scott’s Run trail, which I do like, but we didn’t hike all summer and fall, since it’s our fall-back trail when the forest is closed.

Location: Coopers Rock
Trail: Scotts Run Trail
Distance: 3.5 miles
Elevation: 1853 – 2207 feet

Although I took some pictures at Valley Falls, we just hiked at Coopers Rock, and didn’t stop for pictures.

Despite the crappy weather, we got in two last hikes.

Location: Coopers Rock
Date: 30 Dec
Trails: Roadside, Rattlesnake, Ridge, Rhododendron, Unmarked Trails
Distance: 3.3 miles
Elevation: 1901 – 2188 feet

Date: 31 Dec
Trails: Unmarked, Clay Run, Rhododendron, Ridge Trails
Distance: 4.0 miles
Elevation: 1730 – 2251 feet

On the 30th, we came across this interesting stump.

This is the view straight down:

On the 31st, coming up the Rhododendron trail, we came across this newly fallen tree.

The picture is blurry, partially because we had been climbing uphill, and possibly because I’d just pulled my phone from my warm pocket into the cold air. But the exposed root structure was, when tipped on its side, taller than Michael.

It’s rained a LOT recently, and the exposed soil didn’t look like it had been rained on, so this was a very recent fall.