Hiking
Otter Creek Wilderness Area
Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia
More Stamina than Brains
05/2000 - by Christopher Burk
Day 1
Once again we planned on driving out to the wilderness on Friday evening, meeting Jeff there and hiking Saturday and Sunday. However, we planned this trip a little better than last month's adventure in Dolly Sods. We knew the road to the campground would be open and we had a better understanding of how long it would take to get there. But true to form, Jeff still had to wait almost an hour before Dana and I arrived.
We set up camp at the Bear Heaven Campgrounds and kicked back for the evening. The highlight of the evening was attempting to pass the football in falling light. Thank God it was a soft football or we would most likely have had several broken fingers. As the evening wore on, we decided that Jeff had won the most thoughtful award. He brought two folding camp chairs for us. Granted, we had a picnic table there, but the chairs were much more comfortable. And they had built-in drink holders, thus eliminating any chances of spillage from an errant football.
The rest of the evening was uneventful. We sat around the campfire, talked about the usual guy stuff, and looked forward to hiking the next two days.
Day 2
For breakfast, we got to use one of my new toys, a MSR Whisperlite International Stove. At first, Dana questioned the need for the stove, but once he considered the fact that I had boiling water for my oatmeal before he even had the fire going, he started to understand the reasoning behind my purchase.
After breakfast, we packed up our gear, loaded the cars and set off for the trailhead. Our planned hike was to start at the southern end of the Otter Creek Trail, take the Hedrick Camp Trail over to the Shaver Mountain Trail, hike north on the Shaver Mountain Trail to the junction of the Possession Camp and Green Mountain Trails, down Possession Camp Trail and return on the Otter Creek Trail. Total distance, about 16 miles.
That was our planned route, what we actually hiked was nothing close to that.
The first mistake we made was when we initially set out. We missed the Hedrick Trail off to the right. In our defense, there wasn't a sign or anything marking the trail, but we didn't look very hard for it either. We just followed the trail we were on, oblivious to the fact that we missed the other trail.
It didn't take us long to figure out that we had missed our junction, but rather then back track, we decided to just reverse our loop, no harm, no foul. The Otter Creek trail roughly follows along Otter Creek. At times the trail offers a panoramic view of the creek as it meanders through open fields. Other times, the trail wanders through a mix of hardwoods and evergreens while the creek cascades over rocks and into deep pools.
The trail crosses over Yellow Creek at 1.2 miles and makes its way through a huge open field at about 2.0 miles. Because it's an old railroad grade, there are several sections where the trail is lower then the surrounding ground; therefore the trail becomes a bog.
Stopped for lunch around the junction of Otter Creek and the Mylus Trail. Nice field off to the right of the trail.
First major stream crossing. Only about a foot or so deep but no way to rock hop. It looked like we had to take off our boots and wade across. Didn't tie our boots to our packs, big mistake. Water was ice cold, feet were freezing. Painful when you stopped on top of a rock. Jeff slipped and fell. Natural reaction to put his hand down, caused him to drop his boots. The good news was that they miraculously landed sole side down. The bad news was they basically became boats and started floating downstream in the current. The only thing that kept it from being a total disaster was the fact that I recoved his pair of make-shift speed boats because I was still behind Jeff and slightly downstream from him.
Dried off on the bank. Gave Jeff an extra pair of socks. To this day, he still doesn't find it half as funny as Dana and I do.
Reached the junction with Possession Camp Trail but hiked a little further down Otter Creek to a nice waterfall. Just below it was a deep pool, perfect for swimming, or at least would be in the middle of the summer. In May the water is a little cold. Needless to say, Dana and I hit the water and immediately jumped right back out. It was extremely cold, but worth it.
Hiked back to Possession Camp trail and started up the mountain. Had to cross Possession Camp Run. Not as dramatic as our last creek crossing but it did offer a nice view of the surrounding terrain. Along the way, the trail also passed several large rock outcroppings and one huge rock right in the middle of the trail.
Where to trail meets Green Mountain and Shaver Mountain Trails, there is a very nice field. Stopped there for a snack before setting for our last mile to where we thought we would camp for the night. We were looking for an old hunters shack that according to the guidebook, offered a nice view of the valley to the east. We never found it, nor did we find any area suitable for camping. This is where a bad idea becomes a stupid idea. Rather then backtrack to the nice field about a mile back, we decided to hike on and see if we could find another place to camp. Bad idea. There really is no place to camp until you reach the junction of Mylus trail and Shaver Mountain Trail, which is another 3 miles down the trail. But before we ever realized that, we had a stupid idea. We decided to test our limits and see if we could hike the entire loop in one day. So we set off.
Heads down, feet pounding singing television theme songs to get our minds off the strain we pressed on. Of course we weren't paying that much attention to the map. As we started to descend we assumed we were on the southern side of Shaver Mountain. All we needed to do was find the Hedrick Camp Trail, turn right and we'd be back at the cars in no time. Right idea, wrong place on the map.
We found a junction, turned right and started down the mountain. We were almost there! After crossing Otter Creek for the last time, we started up the hill to the main trail. It wasn't until we passed the field were we had lunch that we realized exactly where we were, still 2-1/2 miles from the car! With all the wind taken from our sails, we wearily trudged on.
Once we finally got back to the cars and took off our packs we realized how stupid that was. We did learn that we could hike 16 miles with a full pack but that wasn't the idea. We did a long day-hike carrying sleeping bags, food, tents, cook pots, a stove and several other items that we never used.
Trail Snapshot
Trail(s) Hiked: (loop) In: Otter Creek Trail to Possesions Camp Trail to Shavers Mtn Trail to Mylius Trail to Otter Creek Trail
Distance Covered: 14.8 Miles
Outdoortravels.com Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Backpacks
Thumbs Up
- Scenic river and swimming hole along Otter Creek Trail
- Nice waterflalls along Possessions Camp Trail
- Area is a nice combination of river valley and mountain terrain
Thumbs Down
- Don't hike it all in one day if you don't have to, especially with a fullpack on your back
Lessons Learned
- We can hike at least 15 miles with a full pack over challenging terrain.
- If you find a nice camp-site less then a mile from where you think you might find one, go ahead and camp!
- When crossing a steam, tie your shoes to you as oppossed to carrying them in one hand. If you slip, you shoes will become boats or worse, submarines!
Nuts & Bolts
Location: On the Cheat-Potomac Ranger District of the Monongahela National Forest in Tucker and Randolph Counties, West Virginia.
Trail System: Otter Creek Wilderness has 45 miles of trails, many of which follow old railroad grades, logging roads, or farm roads.
Directions: From the South at the junction of US33 and FR91 at Alpena Gap drive north on FR91. Follow FR 91 for 1.3 miles to a triangle-shaped intersection with FR 303. Take the right side of the triangle and proceed on FR 303 to the southern trailhead of the Otter Creek Trail. The northern trailhead is just off WV 72, 2.0 miles south of Hendricks, WV.
Activities: Hiking
Contact: Potomac Ranger District, HC 59, Box 240, Petersburg, WV 26847
Admission: none
Maps & Stuff
Trail Photos
Lots of great photos to give you a good idea of what the area is like!
