Hiking_wv_log_cranberry3

Hiking

Cranberry Glades Wilderness

Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia

"Camping in 85-degree weather with a winter tent"

04/2001 - by Christopher Burk, Outdoor Travels

Day 1

Since the driving distance for me is about the same whether I drive straight to Cranberry Glades or to Jeff's house, I decided to drive to Jeff's on Friday night. It eliminated the chances of us missing each other at the trailhead and one of us are standing around waiting for the other to get there.

The drive down was pretty uneventful. It was a fairly nice evening with a slight chance of rain. The rain never materialized but some dark clouds did which prompted several strange looks from people as I passed them with the top to my car down. Why have a convertible if you're not going to use it?

I arrived at Jeff's around 7:30. We had a couple of errands to run including picking up Emily at the library and stopping to pick me up something to eat. Once we returned back home, we set about getting all our gear ready for our hike.

Jeff had mentioned that he planned on having a new sound system installed in his car so we may have to take mine. It would be tight but I figured we could get all our gear plus the two of us in the Miata. As it turned out, the guy who was going to install the system wasn't available that weekend so we ended up taking Jeff's car.

Day 2

Cranberry Glades has very few trails that connect to make a decent loop. The choices are either a couple of miles or almost 20, but that didn't stop us. We had to get a little creative but we came up with one. The only downside was it required us to hike about a mile-and-a-half along the road. The plan was to park the car at the Kennison Mountain trailhead hike down WV 55/39, up Pocahontas Trail across Frosty Gap Trail back to Kennison Mountain Trail and the car. We could have hiked the loop in either direction however we chose to go clockwise. That way we would hike on the road first and more importantly not finish with a one-and-a-half mile hike uphill.

Cranberry Glades is only about an hour away from Lewisburg, so we didn't have to get up at 4:00 in the morning to be at the trailhead by 9:00, in fact we left Jeff's house about 7:30. It took us a little longer than an hour to get there but nonetheless we started our hike around 9:30.

The hike down the road was easier than I thought. There was enough room along the shoulder to keep us out of harm's way of passing cars and our knees and shins weren't being pounded by hiking on asphalt. In no time at all we reached the bottom of the hill.

We passed the parking lot for the Pocahontas trail on the left side of the road, and, according to the map, the trail crosses the road just a littler farther down the road, so we kept hiking. We hiked a couple hundred yards farther but found no trail. We finally decided to hike back to the parking lot and see if there was a sign with a map on it indicating where the trail crossed.

Unfortunately there wasn't a map there but the trail did go off in both directions. It occurred to me that we could just follow the trail from there and it would take us to the spot where it crossed the road. But first we needed to shed some layers and take a couple of pictures. That was when disaster struck.

As I was putting my pack back on and tightening the waist belt, I suddenly heard a loud crack. I looked down to discover the buckle on my belt broke! At this point I was weighing my options, either bag the trip and hike back up the road to the car or continue on without the use of the waist belt. Neither sounded very appealing.

As I looked at the broken buckle I came up with a third option. Only half the buckle broke. If I could thread both straps through one side of the buckle and pull it tight it should hold. The only problem would be that I would have to step into the belt and pull the pack up around me. At this point anything was better than the other alternatives. I actually got it to work. I had to push the padding around the belt in while Jeff tightened the straps but the buckle held. With my belt MacGuyvered back together we set off down the trail.

We did finally come across where the trail crossed the road; it was much farther down than the map showed. As we crossed the road we did notate that on our earlier search for the trail, we hadn't missed it, we actually stopped just short of it when we turned around.

The next part of the trail was actually really nice. It was up hill the whole way but it traversed back and forth across the hill so none of the climbs were very steep or very long. Along the way we stopped and took a couple pictures of a large boulder field that actually looked like a river of rocks flowing down the mountainside. We also came across a small snake. Actually I almost stepped on it.

Now I'll admit that snakes are not exactly on my top ten list of favorite creatures and granted it was a small snake. But it seems like every time we find a snake while hiking, I'm the one who finds it and I usually almost step on it too. But thanks to Steve Irwin and the Discovery Channel I didn't freak out that much. After a couple of quick pictures of the snake, we, and it, went on our merry way.

From that point to the junction of Pocahontas and Frosty Gap trails, the hike went pretty smooth. There was a nice stream crossing along the way complete with a bridge and several other scenic spots. As we reached the junction of the two trails the forest changed from hardwoods to evergreens.

One other item to note was the lens cap I found along the trail. I had lost the cap to my Canon AE1 several years ago and just never bothered to replace it. As we made the turn onto the Frosty Gap Trail, I looked down and lo and behold, there was a Canon lens cap in the middle of the trail. It fit perfectly and I still use it to this day.

We had hiked down Frosty Gap Trail probably about ½ a mile when we came across the most unexpected part of the entire trip, a dirt road. It wasn't on any of the maps and was literally out in the middle of nowhere. We had no idea why it was there (we later found out) or if we were going to encounter traffic along the way, but it was roughly running the direction we were headed so we followed it.

Walking along the road had its ups and downs. On the upside there were no big rocks or fallen trees we had to navigate around, was relatively level and very easy to follow. But on the downside, who wants to go backpacking in the wilderness and end up hiking along a dirt road. The other nice thing is because the trees were cut back, you had a very nice view of the surrounding mountains and the valley below.

Around 2:30, we were near the midpoint of our loop and decided it was time to start looking for a place to camp. We finally settled on an area off to the side of the road where the trees had been cleared out. Again, we didn't know why but the area was near a small stream and comparatively flat so we made the decision to pitch the tent there.

But before we started setting up camp we took off our packs and opted to take a little siesta. Although we were hiking in early April, the temperature that day had reached the mid eighties and we were both a little tired. We looked like two reptiles sunning ourselves on a rock. I don't know about Jeff, but I could have stayed that way for hours. Jeff did mention later that he figured it was time to get up when he noticed several birds circling overhead.

We pitched the big North Face VE-25 tent. Yes, more tent than we needed, but in Cranberry, you never know. Besides it's not supposed to be 85 degrees in early April. Built a small fire ring and started gathering firewood. That was the one good thing about the trees being cut down. It was very easy to find suitable wood.

As Jeff was collecting the last bit of wood, I set about breaking up the large pieces. From previous experiences, I have discovered the best way to break wood into shorter sections is to either place it across two other pieces or up against a large rock at about a 45-degree angle. Then simply take a manageable sized rock and smash it against log where you want it to break. It's not very scientific but it does work.

One thing you need to be aware of though. Every now and then a piece of the log will kick up, so I suggest you step back as soon as you let the rock go. The reason why I know this is because it happened to me. As I was breaking the very last piece, half the log kicked up in the air. Now I reasoned that because the wood was moving in a straight line, the best direction for me to move to avoid being hit was sideways. I didn't get hit, but apparently the piece of wood came a lot closer than I expected.

I say apparently because I never saw it. I naturally had my eyes closed as I was frantically diving for safety, but once Jeff stopped laughing he explained how the wood seemed to hover in the air for a moment or two before turning to the side and coming after me. Apparently the wood follows the same laws of physics as the bullets fired at President Kennedy in Dallas.

So, with one disaster narrowly adverted, we set off to start another one, dinner. I unpacked my MSR stove, hooked it up and set it on a couple of flat rocks we placed near the fire ring. After all the entire area was grass, I didn't want to burn down the forest. The one thing I didn't get ready was a match to light the stove. And because of that oversight, I still almost burnt down the forest. Because in the couple of extra seconds it took me to dig out the matches while the white gas was evaporating in the fuel cup, I had a nice little fireball go up when I lit the stove. Jeff and I quickly put out the small sections of dry grass that had caught on fire.

Fortunately, that was the last mishap for the day. Once we made sure the grass was out, we sat down and enjoyed a nice dinner of chips and salsa, Spanish rice and chicken fajitas. After dinner we kicked back with some wine and the rest of the chips and salsa.

Around 9:30 we decided to call it a day. This was the first hiking trip that I got to use my Petzl Tikka headlamp. When I first got it, Jeff asked me if I had planned on hiking at night, but as I cleaned up and got ready for bed, Jeff saw the light. (Very bad pun, but I couldn't resist.)

Day 3

The next morning was very uneventful compared to the previous day's antics. We got up, had a nice breakfast, broke camp and started on our way. We were about 100 yards down the trail (road) when we suddenly heard a loud noise. It sounded like something fell out of a tree. We looked around but didn't see a thing. Most likely it was a bear, because other then the initial crash, there was no other sound but of course we didn't stick around very long to confirm what it was.

According to the topographical map, the trail continued relatively flat along the side of the mountain for a while before climbing up 250 feet and crossing over the top. But since we were hiking on a road that didn't exist on the map, why should we believe anything else on the map would be correct. Of course it wasn't. The road was flat, and then it would climb uphill. It would go downhill for a short distance before climbing back up. Every time we would turn the corner and think we reached the top, we would be greeted by another valley to circumnavigate and another ridge to climb. We thought it would never end.

The uphill part finally did end but we had gotten so use to the up and down that it took us a good half-a-mile before we realized that we were continuously headed down. It wasn't until we reached the gate at the end of the road that we were 100% sure. At that point we also found out why the road was there. According to the sign on the gate, it was created to allow handicapped hunters access to the area.

From the gate, we crossed over an access road (that was on the map) and plunged back into the forest. It was a pleasant change from the road. The trail was rather wet and rocky and passed through a mix of hardwoods and pine trees. It didn't offer the scenic views the road did but we certainly felt we were in the wilderness and not hiking down a back road just outside of town.

The last part of the Frosty Gap trail is about a half-a-mile up hill, but it's an elevation change of only 200 feet so it's not real steep. The steep part is when you reach the Kennison Mountain Trail. It drops over 400 feet in less than 1/3 of a mile. Fortunately the trail had a couple of switchbacks so we weren't hiking straight down, but we were pretty darn close. All I could think about on the way down was at least we don't have to go up this hill.

The last incident of note happened as we got back to the car. A group of about four fishermen were getting out of their car and wanted to know if this trail would take them back towards Richwood. Apparently they had left one of their cars there and were going to hike and fish along the Cranberry River. We told them the trail would lead them back but they were in for about a ten-mile hike. They deemed ten miles was a bit much and decided to make their way to the river from the access road we crossed while hiking Frosty Gap trail. And knowing the big hill they would have faced hiking in along Kennison Mountain Trail, I don't blame them.