Cranberry Wilderness 7/02 Trip Report

“Cranberry Wilderness
Monongahela National Forest, WV
July 26-30, 2002
Total Nights = 4
Total Miles = 38.41

Had this trip in mind for that weekend, but didn’t find out I’d be able to get the extra time off work until the Wednesday 2 days before leaving. Not having anywhere close to purchase dehydrated food, I went to the local supermarket and walked the isles looking for foodstuff to bring. I ended up purchasing fresh fruit (apples and bananas), fresh vegetables (tomato, cucumber, onion, avocado, bag of cut lettuce, bag of cauliflower and broccoli bits), bagels, tortillas, salad dressing, pre-packaged meat (chicken and ham), candies, yogurt sticks, Slim Jims, coffee and teabags. Pack with food weighed in at just over 35lbs prior to leaving the house, and that was without water. Got the food the night before and had all of it and my gear already packed in my pack before going to sleep Thurs night.

Friday July 26, 2002
Day 1

Clocked out of work at exactly 2:30pm, raced home to shower and hit the road by 3:40pm. Arrived at trailhead parking off WV150 at 9:11pm and was on the trail by almost 10pm after dicking around with my gear. Don’t know why but my pack smelled like it was rotten, so before taking off I assessed my gear to find out what smelled, and it turned out to be the bag of cut broccoli and cauliflower I got for food…boy did it stink. It said “No Preservatives” but I figured it’d still be good.

It was almost dark when I got to the trailhead, and I wondered if I should sleep in the vehicle and begin the hike the next morning… Naaaaaaaaaaaaa!…On went the Tikka headlamp and off down the trail Buddur and I went.

The trail starts as the North South Trail and has other trails offshooting from it. Within a few minutes of hiking, I stepped over a log crossing the trial, which I found out acted like a settling pond for muck, and sank my foot more than ankle deep in wet sloppy mud. Well, it turns out the trial had lots of water ON it, so fortunately my foot got cleaner as I trekked on. After hiking about 2.54 miles (that’s what the GPS said), I got to an intersection where if I went forward it was another trail, the North Fork Trail, and if I turned it was the same trail. Beings I just hiked about an hour in the dark, I decided to stop and set up Camp 1.

I ended up setting up just about 20-yards down and just off the North South Trail as there was more space off to the sides of the trail. The area had pine trees, and a thick undercoat of fluffy furry micro-fern-like matting on the ground, and lots of mushrooms growing everywhere (no jokes please)…I didn’t even need a groundpad as fluffy as the ground was.

When bear-bagging my stinky foodstuff, I ended up getting the chord stuck in the first tree because the stick I attached the chord to wasn’t heavy enough to pull the chord to the ground, so when I pulled it to whip the stick back over so I could try the throw again, it stuck...and how. Well, the tree was one that died, fell and was leaning on another standing tree, so with the right angle and enough hard tugs…down came the tree. Found another tree and successfully hung my goods.

I think I was in bed (bedsheet and sheet of fleece from JoAnn Fabrics) by 12midnight.

Saturday, July 27, 2002
Day 2

Got up rather early, and woke to the most beautiful surreal surroundings I think I’ve ever seen. I’m sure my pictures won’t even capture half of how beautiful it was.

Went to get my bear-bagged goods, to find out when I pulled the bag up the night before, the chord literally sliced it’s way into the dead tree (this tree was also dead and leaning against another) , and couldn’t get the bag down. What a predicament! Thinking of how I got the chord down the night before, I set myself up with the right angle, wrapped the chord around a thick branch and pulled with all my might. Sure enough, the whole tree came crashing to the ground…with all my food, thank you.

Ate Oatmeal surprise made with 1C instant oatmeal, dash of salt, 1T brown sugar and 1C of some nutty-dried fruity trailmix I got in thr bulky section of the local supermarket. Also had a bagel, bananna and a cup of coffee.

Wind picked up and thunder was sounding in the distance as I broke down camp. I put on the raincover over my backpack, and slung my raincoat over me and the pack for the hike. Sure enough, just after I prepped myself, the rain came a pouring down. I got back onto the North Fork Trail intersection and headed onward. The rain poured cats and dogs for almost the length of the trail, but how I was set up, I only got drenched from the hips down…OK, waist down.

Within 5 minutes of being on the North Fork Trail, I knew I was hiking the wrong trail. This trail was an old dirt road at one time, having the sides thick with sun-drenched vegetation, whereas the trail I camped on was under the canopy of the pristine forest and much MUCH more beautiful. The North Fork Trail paralleled North Fork tributary to the Williams River, so there was LOTS of water. Not many water crossings, but there was one crossing by an old bridge that once spanned the creek. Large sandstone blocks mark the foundation of each side of the bridge, and the water was thigh-deep that day.

Near the end of the trail I passed a cairn which, because in a few places the trail did head upslope through the woods and back to stream-level, I thought was the trail…so I took it. Turns out it was a sidetrail which connected the North Fork Trail with another. Fortunately, the other trail’s trailhead was about 2-tenths a mile from the North Forks, so I really didn’t go much out of my way…just upslope and back down.

The end of the North Fork Trail, the lower elevation portion that is, T’s off on a gravel road, FR 76, but no motor vehicles are allowed on it, and by that time the rain ended. Walking north in the direction of the next trails I was to hit, I passed a shelter which had a family with a horse and mule. There are shelters about every ¼-1/2- mile on FR76, and I wondered if the rest of the shelters would be full also. But when I got to the Tumbling Rocks Shelter, there was noone… I was pleased!!! GPS says I did 9.33 miles.

By then the clouds were breaking and the sun was shining through, so I laid out all somewhat moist gear to dry. I remembered being at that location 3-4 years ago when a buddy from skool and hiked the area. We got to the shelter to find some silent, mean-looking, camo-dudded dood who never said a word, with another person who was a little too friendly, very feminine and talked like a woman in a man’s body.

While getting water from the nearby stream, I got stuck in the finger by a small thin-like splintery plant, which would bother me sporadically throughout the hike whenever I’d put pressure on that spot. I couldn’t get the darn splinter out, and it wasn’t until after I got home, that I successfully extracted it.

I used the broom that someone left at the shelter and swept out the dust and mice droppings, and read some of the carvings on the walls. FYI…I had nothing to carve with, and therefore, did not leave a mark of my own. I kept hearing squeaking coming from the walls but just could not figure out exactly where or what they were coming from.

Took a nap for a short while, maybe a long while, I dunno, but my stuff was nice and dry afterwards.

For dinner (because of the rain, I skipped lunch) I had lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, ranch flavored almond slices, onion, tomato and cucumber salad with Wendy’s Onion Ring Dipping Sauce as dressing, and tortilla, hummous, cucumber, onion and string cheese sammiches, with a beef stick, strawberry yogurt tube and caramel creams for dessert. Brought teabags for ice tea, but grabbed the regular teabags instead of the “cold brew” bags that can make ice tea without hot water…so it took longer to make the tea in cold water, oh well.

Bear-bagged my stuff, then made a fire in the fire pit and passed the time tending it till drowsiness set in. Slept on the hardwood floor of the shelter with the moon gleaming down on my face.

Sunday, July 28, 2002
Day 3

Woke up to the sound of intermittent rain. I immediately jumped up, and ran to my bearbag and got it down before the rain came down in full force. Of course, it had to rain and drench everything before I got on the trail, fortunately, it didn’t rain for long.

Had oatmeal surprise again, banana, bagel, and cup of coffee again for breakfast. Heard the squeaking again from the shelter walls, but this time it was constant, so I homed in on its location and it turned out to be a bat that was hanging out (literally and figuratively) behind a board of a wall. Who’d’ve thunk??? I thought it was from a mouse the whole time prior.

Was on the trail by about 10am (about the same time as the day before). Took Tumbling Rocks Trail north upslope. Got to a cairn where the trail crossed the stream and switched back the other side the other direction. Looking at the map, it showed this was a side trail that took you back to FR76, so I went back to the stream. I didn’t immediately see where the trail was, but having just gotten my feet wet and it feeling soooo good, I figured I’d hike the stream upslope for a while. What a cool hiking trail, even though it wasn’t technically where I was supposed to be, but hiking the middle of a running stream was a break from the usual trail.

Looking at the map, it showed a sidetrail (however, on the TopoZone map, it shows up as the main trail…but NOT shown as the main trail in the hiking guide’s map which is the current trail) trending off to the left up a tributary, so I figured I’d hike the stream till I got to this trail and take it instead of the main trail. Well, when I got to this area, I looked for the trail but couldn’t even find a trace, so I figured what the heck I’ll keep hiking till I find it. I did find an old grade which was pretty grown over, so I hiked it till it disappeared. I ended up trekking through the woods upslope towards a ridge. The woods really weren’t that thick, but were heavenly looking…so heavenly, I found a huge orange fungus sumpinorother, that using my trekking poles measured almost 155cm across. Had to get a pic using my dog as scale.

Hiked for a while through pine thickets, ferns infested and rocky mossy slopes till I got to the ridge. There I found the grade again which led me to the North South Trail (formerly called Red/Black Trail). That was the best hike I’d done in a long while…nothing like seeing the scenery from the other side of the trail.

Took the North South Trail, a ridge-trending trail, west to the Little Fork Trail. On the map I had which was photocopied from the Monongahela Natl’ Forest Hiking Guide, a side trail is shown shooting north off the North South Trail just after the intersection with the Birchlog Trail. Turns out the sidetrail is actually the beginning of the Little Fork Trail, and the beginning is not as shown on the map (what is shown on the TopoZone Map is NOT the current beginning of the trail)!!! Anywho… I took the Little Fork north and downslope.

The map also showed a chicken’s foot-shaped trail shooting east off the Little Fork and contouring a number of tributaries then shooting up into a ridgeling. Having just bushwhacked earlier, it looked veeeeerrrryyyy interesting…so I took it.

This trail was an old lane that wasn’t really that grown in, but had many downed trees across it and lots of wet spots with accumulated muck. Passed some cool rock outcrops that were blasted from the hillside to make the lane. After passing the second stream I started seeing lots of hooved tracks in the muck. After a while it hit me…”How could horses have gotten over around all those downed trees that I had to climb over and slide under?” Then I saw some smaller tracks (larger than the palm of my hand) of the same shape, then a track having toepads, and that’s when the tracks looked pretty familiar…Bear! Some tracks were as big as my hand with fingers spread out, and after taking two pics using my hiking poles and mine and Buddur’s foot as scales, I found a track so fresh you could distinguish the claws. If I didn’t already take 2 of the 14 pics I had altogether, I would’ve taken a pic of THAT track, but figured a third wouldn’t be prudent.

Not giving the presence of bear much thought, I trekked on. At the end of the trail where it contoured the hillside was a wooden-floored A-framed structure with no roof, like all it’d take was a large tarp to make it a roofed camp quarters. Lots of deerflies in that location, too…enough to drive me crazy. Couldn’t locate the end of the lane shown on the map going upslope, so I headed in that direction anyways. The deerflies wouldn’t leave Buddur or I alone. Poor Buddur couldn’t adequately fend them off, and one of his eyes was almost swollen shut from their bites. That’s when I had enough…F with my dog and you’ve F’ed with me. Of course, there was nothing I could do but retreat, so we headed over the ridge then downslope to the Little Fork Trail.

I intended to head upslope, take the uppermost ridge north to where it doglegged west and camp there. There was an intermittent stream nearby, and I planned to hike down and get enough water for the night, but it didn’t happen, Oh well, had to protect the boy!!!

Did I mention that I ate lunch on the bear track trail??? They probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the avacado, onion, tomato, hummous, string cheese tortilla sammiches anyways. Maybe the bananna and sweets….and me!

Hiking downslope was treacherous to say the least. It was steep, very rocky/bouldery, which were covered with slippery moss, and there was lots of false ground where the fallen leaves and forest fluff covered notches between rocks. My hiking poles kept sinking into them, and my feet would too every once in a while. I kept thinking my foot would fall through and I would tumble forward and hurt my ankle/knee/leg somehow. Even worse, the outside of my right knee was beginning to hurt, like I was straining it. I took my time, because I had to really concentrate on every step, and it took quite a while to descend that slope.

Finally got back to the Little Fork Trail and hiked down, which has many stream crossings near the base. Hiked around for a while and found a good established campsite for Camp 3 with enough firewood to keep me occupied. GPS says I did 10.91 miles.

Took a shower using my 4L MSR dromedary bag. I filled it full of water, emptied enough to fill my cookpot, heated the water then put it back in the bag. It warmed the cool water enough to make the temperature comfortable. Found a tree to hang the bag from, stripped down to nothing but my sandals and went to it. I just opened the small spout to wet myself, closed it up and lathered, then opened it again to rinse. It was truly refreshing.

Made a fire, but it took awhile to get the fire going because of the wet wood, but hey, I didn’t have anything else to do and wasn’t going anywhere. After dinner I spent the time starring into the fire and thinking about the day’s events.

In the middle of the night I got up to take a squirt and stepped on something pretty sharp, but because I was barefoot just figured it was a stick or something.

Monday, July 29, 2002
Day 4

Woke up to overcast skies and wind, giving me the impression it was going to rain. So I went and got the bear-bagged food ASAP. My foot hurt from where I stepped on something sharp that night while going to take a squirt. My feet hurt anyways from the hike the day before, but that was typical, even with wearing my hiking boots as my feet aren’t atuned to such rigorous trekking. Prodded around to find something had been stuck in my heel, and the pain was more than just the poke. Turns out a thorn had impaled my foot and the first 3/16” of it was still there.

While packing up, it sprinkled for a short while. Got on the trail and headed for the Three Forks Of William’s River Camping Parking Lot where the western trailhead is for Middle Fork and County line Trails. Had to cross Middle Fork stream which is about 20-30 yards across and thigh-deep to get to the parking area. Middle Fork trail parallels a creek, whereas County Line heads upslope and follows a ridgeline. After already being on a trail similar to Middle Fork (the North Fork Trail), I decided to head up to the County Line Trail (not shown on TopoZone map). The weather had been rather wet the past few days, so I felt confident I’d find water.

The actual trail, the beginning of it that is, isn’t as shown on the hiking guide map and is a more gradual sloped trail that crosses an intermittent stream and around rocky outcroppings as you near the top.

There were no vistas the whole trial, but it takes you through about every different type of woodland/landscape that can be found elsewhere in the area. Lots of water on the western half, but not much the eastern end.

Had to stop on the trail and duct-tape an area of one of my sandals because my foot was bleeding from the sandal rubbing itself into my foot. You know, once you’re hiking, you can feel the sting, but it doesn’t bother you till you stop…then it stings! By the end of the trip, my other foot had a bleeding blister area also.

Ate lunch near the middle, and drank the rest of my water. With all the water I passed prior, I figured there’d be some soon up the trail. Not! I didn’t get to an adequate water bearing spot till the end of the trail where it splits to the District Line trail (approximate location shown on map). There I headed offtrail and followed a rill downslope where it turned into a gulley with films of standing. Farther downslope, the gulley slowly formed into a channel with very shallow flowing water. At a spot where the water was constantly flowing, I dug a pool and used the dug sediment to damn the pool. It was only about 6-inches deep but deep enough to pump/filter from. I left the spot and went back to my backpack that I left at the trail intersection and took a 20-30 min break to let the mud settle in the water. When I went back, sure enough, there was a pool of clear water to filter from.

I slowly, so as to not stir up the sediment, put a flat rock on the bottom in the middle of the pool for my filter-hose nut to rest on, then wrapped the filter hose around a long stick and set the stick over the pool while making sure the filter hose nut would rest on the rock underwater and not stir up the sediment as I pumped. It worked like a charm, and I got plenty of water to drink.

Well, about ¼-mile down the trail was a water spot I could’ve easily got water from…it figures!!!! There was only one other water spot on the District Line and it was near the end near Big Beechy Trail. Once on Big Beechy, there was NO water.

I was hoping to take a sidetrail shown on the map that takes you downslope from Big Beechy and beside a tributary of Middle Fork but I couldn’t find the trial. I even dropped my pack, headed back the trail and even hiked in the woods beside the trail…for well over 30 minutes but never found the trial. I’m thoroughly convinced the woods swallowed up the trial and it no longer exists. That shot my idea of camping near some water. The thing really bugged me about it was that just down the trail I was nearing the trailhead parking where my van was parked, but I still wanted to spend another night. So I made my own trail.

Saying to myself “F it…I did it before…I’ll do it again!” I made a right turn and headed into the woods and descended the slope between Big Beechy and Middle Fork Trails. I hiked for about 45 minutes through the woods and down the rocky slope and during then I ended up passing a half-dozen spots where I could get water prior to reaching Middle Fork Trail. Anywho… when I hit the Middle Fork Trail, I quickly found a nice spot directly adjacent to the stream to set up Camp 4. GPS says I did 12.93 miles.

Got my water, and took a shower like I did the night before. The shower(s) felt so good, I may start making that a part of my hiking routine…no more sleeping all sweaty, sticky and stinky.

Poor Buddur was ready to end the hike well prior to when we did, and as soon as I pitched the tarp he was there to lay on my groundpad and blankets…he knows where the comfort zone is. Had dinner, bear-bagged my food and hit the sack rather early. Early heck, it was dusk by the time I ate dinner. Layed in bed for a long while and listened myself to sleep to the stream babble its sounds.

Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Day 5

Got around 7am and made some coffee, ate breakfast, broke down camp and got ready to head back on the trail. Hiked southeast up and out of the Middle Fork stream valley and to the North South trail and got back to the van by about 10 am. GPS says I did 2.70 miles.

Total trip length was 38.41 miles, but I wasn’t done hiking because I still had the rest of the day, so I dayhiked another trial for 9.68 miles prior to leaving the area.

My pack weighed in at 22lbs when I got home…guess how much the total food weight was when I started??? I can’t believe it myself…never again!

As I had been to this area once before and knew of all the stream crossings, some thigh high, had met many Appalachian Trail thru-hikers wearing sandals, and had been dayhiking local trails wearing my Teva sandals, I figured I’d do my first backpacking trip wearing them. It wasn’t until the next to the last day where my feet truly hurt…from the bleeding blisters, the black and blue marks from the straps and from the lack of better footbed. It was liberating and refreshing to be able to walk through mud and not go around it, to splash through puddles and stop and soak your feet in streams while not having to take off your shoes. The hike up Tumbling Rock stream was the first and “one kind” of hike I’d like to do again somewhere else…but I’ll never backpack in those sandals again regardless of how bombproof the are (I thought they were). And the offtrail hiking never really bothered me either, but the total of being on my feet for so long, for such distance, and with the extra weight sure made for aching feet at night and the next morning.

All in all, it was an awesome adventure!”

“WHAT??? All that cut and pasting the TopoZone Maps for nothing???”

“Cranberry Wilderness
Monongahela National Forest, WV
July 26-30, 2002
Total Nights = 4
Total Miles = 38.41

Had this trip in mind for that weekend, but didn’t find out I’d be able to get the extra time off work until the Wednesday 2 days before leaving. Not having anywhere close to purchase dehydrated food, I went to the local supermarket and walked the isles looking for foodstuff to bring. I ended up purchasing fresh fruit (apples and bananas), fresh vegetables (tomato, cucumber, onion, avocado, bag of cut lettuce, bag of cauliflower and broccoli bits), bagels, tortillas, salad dressing, pre-packaged meat (chicken and ham), candies, yogurt sticks, Slim Jims, coffee and teabags. Pack with food weighed in at just over 35lbs prior to leaving the house, and that was without water. Got the food the night before and had all of it and my gear already packed in my pack before going to sleep Thurs night.

Friday July 26, 2002
Day 1

Clocked out of work at exactly 2:30pm, raced home to shower and hit the road by 3:40pm. Arrived at trailhead parking off WV150 at 9:11pm and was on the trail by almost 10pm after dicking around with my gear. Don’t know why but my pack smelled like it was rotten, so before taking off I assessed my gear to find out what smelled, and it turned out to be the bag of cut broccoli and cauliflower I got for food…boy did it stink. It said “No Preservatives” but I figured it’d still be good.

It was almost dark when I got to the trailhead, and I wondered if I should sleep in the vehicle and begin the hike the next morning… Naaaaaaaaaaaaa!…On went the Tikka headlamp and off down the trail Buddur and I went.

The trail starts as the North South Trail and has other trails offshooting from it. Within a few minutes of hiking, I stepped over a log crossing the trial, which I found out acted like a settling pond for muck, and sank my foot more than ankle deep in wet sloppy mud. Well, it turns out the trial had lots of water ON it, so fortunately my foot got cleaner as I trekked on. After hiking about 2.54 miles (that’s what the GPS said), I got to an intersection where if I went forward it was another trail, the North Fork Trail, and if I turned it was the same trail. Beings I just hiked about an hour in the dark, I decided to stop and set up Camp 1.

I ended up setting up just about 20-yards down and just off the North South Trail as there was more space off to the sides of the trail. The area had pine trees, and a thick undercoat of fluffy furry micro-fern-like matting on the ground, and lots of mushrooms growing everywhere (no jokes please)…I didn’t even need a groundpad as fluffy as the ground was.

When bear-bagging my stinky foodstuff, I ended up getting the chord stuck in the first tree because the stick I attached the chord to wasn’t heavy enough to pull the chord to the ground, so when I pulled it to whip the stick back over so I could try the throw again, it stuck...and how. Well, the tree was one that died, fell and was leaning on another standing tree, so with the right angle and enough hard tugs…down came the tree. Found another tree and successfully hung my goods.

I think I was in bed (bedsheet and sheet of fleece from JoAnn Fabrics) by 12midnight.

Saturday, July 27, 2002
Day 2

Got up rather early, and woke to the most beautiful surreal surroundings I think I’ve ever seen. I’m sure my pictures won’t even capture half of how beautiful it was.

Went to get my bear-bagged goods, to find out when I pulled the bag up the night before, the chord literally sliced it’s way into the dead tree (this tree was also dead and leaning against another) , and couldn’t get the bag down. What a predicament! Thinking of how I got the chord down the night before, I set myself up with the right angle, wrapped the chord around a thick branch and pulled with all my might. Sure enough, the whole tree came crashing to the ground…with all my food, thank you.

Ate Oatmeal surprise made with 1C instant oatmeal, dash of salt, 1T brown sugar and 1C of some nutty-dried fruity trailmix I got in thr bulky section of the local supermarket. Also had a bagel, bananna and a cup of coffee.

Wind picked up and thunder was sounding in the distance as I broke down camp. I put on the raincover over my backpack, and slung my raincoat over me and the pack for the hike. Sure enough, just after I prepped myself, the rain came a pouring down. I got back onto the North Fork Trail intersection and headed onward. The rain poured cats and dogs for almost the length of the trail, but how I was set up, I only got drenched from the hips down…OK, waist down.

Within 5 minutes of being on the North Fork Trail, I knew I was hiking the wrong trail. This trail was an old dirt road at one time, having the sides thick with sun-drenched vegetation, whereas the trail I camped on was under the canopy of the pristine forest and much MUCH more beautiful. The North Fork Trail paralleled North Fork tributary to the Williams River, so there was LOTS of water. Not many water crossings, but there was one crossing by an old bridge that once spanned the creek. Large sandstone blocks mark the foundation of each side of the bridge, and the water was thigh-deep that day.

Near the end of the trail I passed a cairn which, because in a few places the trail did head upslope through the woods and back to stream-level, I thought was the trail…so I took it. Turns out it was a sidetrail which connected the North Fork Trail with another. Fortunately, the other trail’s trailhead was about 2-tenths a mile from the North Forks, so I really didn’t go much out of my way…just upslope and back down.

The end of the North Fork Trail, the lower elevation portion that is, T’s off on a gravel road, FR 76, but no motor vehicles are allowed on it, and by that time the rain ended. Walking north in the direction of the next trails I was to hit, I passed a shelter which had a family with a horse and mule. There are shelters about every ¼-1/2- mile on FR76, and I wondered if the rest of the shelters would be full also. But when I got to the Tumbling Rocks Shelter, there was noone… I was pleased!!! GPS says I did 9.33 miles.

By then the clouds were breaking and the sun was shining through, so I laid out all somewhat moist gear to dry. I remembered being at that location 3-4 years ago when a buddy from skool and hiked the area. We got to the shelter to find some silent, mean-looking, camo-dudded dood who never said a word, with another person who was a little too friendly, very feminine and talked like a woman in a man’s body.

While getting water from the nearby stream, I got stuck in the finger by a small thin-like splintery plant, which would bother me sporadically throughout the hike whenever I’d put pressure on that spot. I couldn’t get the darn splinter out, and it wasn’t until after I got home, that I successfully extracted it.

I used the broom that someone left at the shelter and swept out the dust and mice droppings, and read some of the carvings on the walls. FYI…I had nothing to carve with, and therefore, did not leave a mark of my own. I kept hearing squeaking coming from the walls but just could not figure out exactly where or what they were coming from.

Took a nap for a short while, maybe a long while, I dunno, but my stuff was nice and dry afterwards.

For dinner (because of the rain, I skipped lunch) I had lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, ranch flavored almond slices, onion, tomato and cucumber salad with Wendy’s Onion Ring Dipping Sauce as dressing, and tortilla, hummous, cucumber, onion and string cheese sammiches, with a beef stick, strawberry yogurt tube and caramel creams for dessert. Brought teabags for ice tea, but grabbed the regular teabags instead of the “cold brew” bags that can make ice tea without hot water…so it took longer to make the tea in cold water, oh well.

Bear-bagged my stuff, then made a fire in the fire pit and passed the time tending it till drowsiness set in. Slept on the hardwood floor of the shelter with the moon gleaming down on my face.

Sunday, July 28, 2002
Day 3

Woke up to the sound of intermittent rain. I immediately jumped up, and ran to my bearbag and got it down before the rain came down in full force. Of course, it had to rain and drench everything before I got on the trail, fortunately, it didn’t rain for long.

Had oatmeal surprise again, banana, bagel, and cup of coffee again for breakfast. Heard the squeaking again from the shelter walls, but this time it was constant, so I homed in on its location and it turned out to be a bat that was hanging out (literally and figuratively) behind a board of a wall. Who’d’ve thunk??? I thought it was from a mouse the whole time prior.

Was on the trail by about 10am (about the same time as the day before). Took Tumbling Rocks Trail north upslope. Got to a cairn where the trail crossed the stream and switched back the other side the other direction. Looking at the map, it showed this was a side trail that took you back to FR76, so I went back to the stream. I didn’t immediately see where the trail was, but having just gotten my feet wet and it feeling soooo good, I figured I’d hike the stream upslope for a while. What a cool hiking trail, even though it wasn’t technically where I was supposed to be, but hiking the middle of a running stream was a break from the usual trail.

Looking at the map, it showed a sidetrail (however, on the TopoZone map, it shows up as the main trail…but NOT shown as the main trail in the hiking guide’s map which is the current trail) trending off to the left up a tributary, so I figured I’d hike the stream till I got to this trail and take it instead of the main trail. Well, when I got to this area, I looked for the trail but couldn’t even find a trace, so I figured what the heck I’ll keep hiking till I find it. I did find an old grade which was pretty grown over, so I hiked it till it disappeared. I ended up trekking through the woods upslope towards a ridge. The woods really weren’t that thick, but were heavenly looking…so heavenly, I found a huge orange fungus sumpinorother, that using my trekking poles measured almost 155cm across. Had to get a pic using my dog as scale.

Hiked for a while through pine thickets, ferns infested and rocky mossy slopes till I got to the ridge. There I found the grade again which led me to the North South Trail (formerly called Red/Black Trail). That was the best hike I’d done in a long while…nothing like seeing the scenery from the other side of the trail.

Took the North South Trail, a ridge-trending trail, west to the Little Fork Trail. On the map I had which was photocopied from the Monongahela Natl’ Forest Hiking Guide, a side trail is shown shooting north off the North South Trail just after the intersection with the Birchlog Trail. Turns out the sidetrail is actually the beginning of the Little Fork Trail, and the beginning is not as shown on the map (what is shown on the TopoZone Map is NOT the current beginning of the trail)!!! Anywho… I took the Little Fork north and downslope.

The map also showed a chicken’s foot-shaped trail shooting east off the Little Fork and contouring a number of tributaries then shooting up into a ridgeling. Having just bushwhacked earlier, it looked veeeeerrrryyyy interesting…so I took it.

This trail was an old lane that wasn’t really that grown in, but had many downed trees across it and lots of wet spots with accumulated muck. Passed some cool rock outcrops that were blasted from the hillside to make the lane. After passing the second stream I started seeing lots of hooved tracks in the muck. After a while it hit me…”How could horses have gotten over around all those downed trees that I had to climb over and slide under?” Then I saw some smaller tracks (larger than the palm of my hand) of the same shape, then a track having toepads, and that’s when the tracks looked pretty familiar…Bear! Some tracks were as big as my hand with fingers spread out, and after taking two pics using my hiking poles and mine and Buddur’s foot as scales, I found a track so fresh you could distinguish the claws. If I didn’t already take 2 of the 14 pics I had altogether, I would’ve taken a pic of THAT track, but figured a third wouldn’t be prudent.

Not giving the presence of bear much thought, I trekked on. At the end of the trail where it contoured the hillside was a wooden-floored A-framed structure with no roof, like all it’d take was a large tarp to make it a roofed camp quarters. Lots of deerflies in that location, too…enough to drive me crazy. Couldn’t locate the end of the lane shown on the map going upslope, so I headed in that direction anyways. The deerflies wouldn’t leave Buddur or I alone. Poor Buddur couldn’t adequately fend them off, and one of his eyes was almost swollen shut from their bites. That’s when I had enough…F with my dog and you’ve F’ed with me. Of course, there was nothing I could do but retreat, so we headed over the ridge then downslope to the Little Fork Trail.

I intended to head upslope, take the uppermost ridge north to where it doglegged west and camp there. There was an intermittent stream nearby, and I planned to hike down and get enough water for the night, but it didn’t happen, Oh well, had to protect the boy!!!

Did I mention that I ate lunch on the bear track trail??? They probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the avacado, onion, tomato, hummous, string cheese tortilla sammiches anyways. Maybe the bananna and sweets….and me!

Hiking downslope was treacherous to say the least. It was steep, very rocky/bouldery, which were covered with slippery moss, and there was lots of false ground where the fallen leaves and forest fluff covered notches between rocks. My hiking poles kept sinking into them, and my feet would too every once in a while. I kept thinking my foot would fall through and I would tumble forward and hurt my ankle/knee/leg somehow. Even worse, the outside of my right knee was beginning to hurt, like I was straining it. I took my time, because I had to really concentrate on every step, and it took quite a while to descend that slope.

Finally got back to the Little Fork Trail and hiked down, which has many stream crossings near the base. Hiked around for a while and found a good established campsite for Camp 3 with enough firewood to keep me occupied. GPS says I did 10.91 miles.

Took a shower using my 4L MSR dromedary bag. I filled it full of water, emptied enough to fill my cookpot, heated the water then put it back in the bag. It warmed the cool water enough to make the temperature comfortable. Found a tree to hang the bag from, stripped down to nothing but my sandals and went to it. I just opened the small spout to wet myself, closed it up and lathered, then opened it again to rinse. It was truly refreshing.

Made a fire, but it took awhile to get the fire going because of the wet wood, but hey, I didn’t have anything else to do and wasn’t going anywhere. After dinner I spent the time starring into the fire and thinking about the day’s events.

In the middle of the night I got up to take a squirt and stepped on something pretty sharp, but because I was barefoot just figured it was a stick or something.

Monday, July 29, 2002
Day 4

Woke up to overcast skies and wind, giving me the impression it was going to rain. So I went and got the bear-bagged food ASAP. My foot hurt from where I stepped on something sharp that night while going to take a squirt. My feet hurt anyways from the hike the day before, but that was typical, even with wearing my hiking boots as my feet aren’t atuned to such rigorous trekking. Prodded around to find something had been stuck in my heel, and the pain was more than just the poke. Turns out a thorn had impaled my foot and the first 3/16” of it was still there.

While packing up, it sprinkled for a short while. Got on the trail and headed for the Three Forks Of William’s River Camping Parking Lot where the western trailhead is for Middle Fork and County line Trails. Had to cross Middle Fork stream which is about 20-30 yards across and thigh-deep to get to the parking area. Middle Fork trail parallels a creek, whereas County Line heads upslope and follows a ridgeline. After already being on a trail similar to Middle Fork (the North Fork Trail), I decided to head up to the County Line Trail (not shown on TopoZone map). The weather had been rather wet the past few days, so I felt confident I’d find water.

The actual trail, the beginning of it that is, isn’t as shown on the hiking guide map and is a more gradual sloped trail that crosses an intermittent stream and around rocky outcroppings as you near the top.

There were no vistas the whole trial, but it takes you through about every different type of woodland/landscape that can be found elsewhere in the area. Lots of water on the western half, but not much the eastern end.

Had to stop on the trail and duct-tape an area of one of my sandals because my foot was bleeding from the sandal rubbing itself into my foot. You know, once you’re hiking, you can feel the sting, but it doesn’t bother you till you stop…then it stings! By the end of the trip, my other foot had a bleeding blister area also.

Ate lunch near the middle, and drank the rest of my water. With all the water I passed prior, I figured there’d be some soon up the trail. Not! I didn’t get to an adequate water bearing spot till the end of the trail where it splits to the District Line trail (approximate location shown on map). There I headed offtrail and followed a rill downslope where it turned into a gulley with films of standing. Farther downslope, the gulley slowly formed into a channel with very shallow flowing water. At a spot where the water was constantly flowing, I dug a pool and used the dug sediment to damn the pool. It was only about 6-inches deep but deep enough to pump/filter from. I left the spot and went back to my backpack that I left at the trail intersection and took a 20-30 min break to let the mud settle in the water. When I went back, sure enough, there was a pool of clear water to filter from.

I slowly, so as to not stir up the sediment, put a flat rock on the bottom in the middle of the pool for my filter-hose nut to rest on, then wrapped the filter hose around a long stick and set the stick over the pool while making sure the filter hose nut would rest on the rock underwater and not stir up the sediment as I pumped. It worked like a charm, and I got plenty of water to drink.

Well, about ¼-mile down the trail was a water spot I could’ve easily got water from…it figures!!!! There was only one other water spot on the District Line and it was near the end near Big Beechy Trail. Once on Big Beechy, there was NO water.

I was hoping to take a sidetrail shown on the map that takes you downslope from Big Beechy and beside a tributary of Middle Fork but I couldn’t find the trial. I even dropped my pack, headed back the trail and even hiked in the woods beside the trail…for well over 30 minutes but never found the trial. I’m thoroughly convinced the woods swallowed up the trial and it no longer exists. That shot my idea of camping near some water. The thing really bugged me about it was that just down the trail I was nearing the trailhead parking where my van was parked, but I still wanted to spend another night. So I made my own trail.

Saying to myself “F it…I did it before…I’ll do it again!” I made a right turn and headed into the woods and descended the slope between Big Beechy and Middle Fork Trails. I hiked for about 45 minutes through the woods and down the rocky slope and during then I ended up passing a half-dozen spots where I could get water prior to reaching Middle Fork Trail. Anywho… when I hit the Middle Fork Trail, I quickly found a nice spot directly adjacent to the stream to set up Camp 4. GPS says I did 12.93 miles.

Got my water, and took a shower like I did the night before. The shower(s) felt so good, I may start making that a part of my hiking routine…no more sleeping all sweaty, sticky and stinky.

Poor Buddur was ready to end the hike well prior to when we did, and as soon as I pitched the tarp he was there to lay on my groundpad and blankets…he knows where the comfort zone is. Had dinner, bear-bagged my food and hit the sack rather early. Early heck, it was dusk by the time I ate dinner. Layed in bed for a long while and listened myself to sleep to the stream babble its sounds.

Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Day 5

Got around 7am and made some coffee, ate breakfast, broke down camp and got ready to head back on the trail. Hiked southeast up and out of the Middle Fork stream valley and to the North South trail and got back to the van by about 10 am. GPS says I did 2.70 miles.

Total trip length was 38.41 miles, but I wasn’t done hiking because I still had the rest of the day, so I dayhiked another trial for 9.68 miles prior to leaving the area.

My pack weighed in at 22lbs when I got home…guess how much the total food weight was when I started??? I can’t believe it myself…never again!

As I had been to this area once before and knew of all the stream crossings, some thigh high, had met many Appalachian Trail thru-hikers wearing sandals, and had been dayhiking local trails wearing my Teva sandals, I figured I’d do my first backpacking trip wearing them. It wasn’t until the next to the last day where my feet truly hurt…from the bleeding blisters, the black and blue marks from the straps and from the lack of better footbed. It was liberating and refreshing to be able to walk through mud and not go around it, to splash through puddles and stop and soak your feet in streams while not having to take off your shoes. The hike up Tumbling Rock stream was the first and “one kind” of hike I’d like to do again somewhere else…but I’ll never backpack in those sandals again regardless of how bombproof the are (I thought they were). And the offtrail hiking never really bothered me either, but the total of being on my feet for so long, for such distance, and with the extra weight sure made for aching feet at night and the next morning.

All in all, it was an awesome adventure!”

“I'm pizzed now!!!”

“The Darn Semi-Colons didn't transfer over...they are there but not recoznizeable I guess. Hope this'll work...

Cranberry Wilderness
Monongahela National Forest, WV
July 26-30, 2002
Total Nights = 4
Total Miles = 38.41

Had this trip in mind for that weekend, but didn’t find out I’d be able to get the extra time off work until the Wednesday 2 days before leaving. Not having anywhere close to purchase dehydrated food, I went to the local supermarket and walked the isles looking for foodstuff to bring. I ended up purchasing fresh fruit (apples and bananas), fresh vegetables (tomato, cucumber, onion, avocado, bag of cut lettuce, bag of cauliflower and broccoli bits), bagels, tortillas, salad dressing, pre-packaged meat (chicken and ham), candies, yogurt sticks, Slim Jims, coffee and teabags. Pack with food weighed in at just over 35lbs prior to leaving the house, and that was without water. Got the food the night before and had all of it and my gear already packed in my pack before going to sleep Thurs night.

Friday July 26, 2002
Day 1

Clocked out of work at exactly 2:30pm, raced home to shower and hit the road by 3:40pm. Arrived at trailhead parking off WV150 at 9:11pm and was on the trail by almost 10pm after dicking around with my gear. Don’t know why but my pack smelled like it was rotten, so before taking off I assessed my gear to find out what smelled, and it turned out to be the bag of cut broccoli and cauliflower I got for food…boy did it stink. It said “No Preservatives” but I figured it’d still be good.

It was almost dark when I got to the trailhead, and I wondered if I should sleep in the vehicle and begin the hike the next morning… Naaaaaaaaaaaaa!…On went the Tikka headlamp and off down the trail Buddur and I went.

The trail starts as the North South Trail and has other trails offshooting from it. Within a few minutes of hiking, I stepped over a log crossing the trial, which I found out acted like a settling pond for muck, and sank my foot more than ankle deep in wet sloppy mud. Well, it turns out the trial had lots of water ON it, so fortunately my foot got cleaner as I trekked on. After hiking about 2.54 miles (that’s what the GPS said), I got to an intersection where if I went forward it was another trail, the North Fork Trail, and if I turned it was the same trail. Beings I just hiked about an hour in the dark, I decided to stop and set up Camp 1.

I ended up setting up just about 20-yards down and just off the North South Trail as there was more space off to the sides of the trail. The area had pine trees, and a thick undercoat of fluffy furry micro-fern-like matting on the ground, and lots of mushrooms growing everywhere (no jokes please)…I didn’t even need a groundpad as fluffy as the ground was.

When bear-bagging my stinky foodstuff, I ended up getting the chord stuck in the first tree because the stick I attached the chord to wasn’t heavy enough to pull the chord to the ground, so when I pulled it to whip the stick back over so I could try the throw again, it stuck...and how. Well, the tree was one that died, fell and was leaning on another standing tree, so with the right angle and enough hard tugs…down came the tree. Found another tree and successfully hung my goods.

I think I was in bed (bedsheet and sheet of fleece from JoAnn Fabrics) by 12midnight.

Saturday, July 27, 2002
Day 2

Got up rather early, and woke to the most beautiful surreal surroundings I think I’ve ever seen. I’m sure my pictures won’t even capture half of how beautiful it was.

Went to get my bear-bagged goods, to find out when I pulled the bag up the night before, the chord literally sliced it’s way into the dead tree (this tree was also dead and leaning against another) , and couldn’t get the bag down. What a predicament! Thinking of how I got the chord down the night before, I set myself up with the right angle, wrapped the chord around a thick branch and pulled with all my might. Sure enough, the whole tree came crashing to the ground…with all my food, thank you.

Ate Oatmeal surprise made with 1C instant oatmeal, dash of salt, 1T brown sugar and 1C of some nutty-dried fruity trailmix I got in thr bulky section of the local supermarket. Also had a bagel, bananna and a cup of coffee.

Wind picked up and thunder was sounding in the distance as I broke down camp. I put on the raincover over my backpack, and slung my raincoat over me and the pack for the hike. Sure enough, just after I prepped myself, the rain came a pouring down. I got back onto the North Fork Trail intersection and headed onward. The rain poured cats and dogs for almost the length of the trail, but how I was set up, I only got drenched from the hips down…OK, waist down.

Within 5 minutes of being on the North Fork Trail, I knew I was hiking the wrong trail. This trail was an old dirt road at one time, having the sides thick with sun-drenched vegetation, whereas the trail I camped on was under the canopy of the pristine forest and much MUCH more beautiful. The North Fork Trail paralleled North Fork tributary to the Williams River, so there was LOTS of water. Not many water crossings, but there was one crossing by an old bridge that once spanned the creek. Large sandstone blocks mark the foundation of each side of the bridge, and the water was thigh-deep that day.

Near the end of the trail I passed a cairn which, because in a few places the trail did head upslope through the woods and back to stream-level, I thought was the trail…so I took it. Turns out it was a sidetrail which connected the North Fork Trail with another. Fortunately, the other trail’s trailhead was about 2-tenths a mile from the North Forks, so I really didn’t go much out of my way…just upslope and back down.

The end of the North Fork Trail, the lower elevation portion that is, T’s off on a gravel road, FR 76, but no motor vehicles are allowed on it, and by that time the rain ended. Walking north in the direction of the next trails I was to hit, I passed a shelter which had a family with a horse and mule. There are shelters about every ¼-1/2- mile on FR76, and I wondered if the rest of the shelters would be full also. But when I got to the Tumbling Rocks Shelter, there was noone… I was pleased!!! GPS says I did 9.33 miles.

By then the clouds were breaking and the sun was shining through, so I laid out all somewhat moist gear to dry. I remembered being at that location 3-4 years ago when a buddy from skool and hiked the area. We got to the shelter to find some silent, mean-looking, camo-dudded dood who never said a word, with another person who was a little too friendly, very feminine and talked like a woman in a man’s body.

While getting water from the nearby stream, I got stuck in the finger by a small thin-like splintery plant, which would bother me sporadically throughout the hike whenever I’d put pressure on that spot. I couldn’t get the darn splinter out, and it wasn’t until after I got home, that I successfully extracted it.

I used the broom that someone left at the shelter and swept out the dust and mice droppings, and read some of the carvings on the walls. FYI…I had nothing to carve with, and therefore, did not leave a mark of my own. I kept hearing squeaking coming from the walls but just could not figure out exactly where or what they were coming from.

Took a nap for a short while, maybe a long while, I dunno, but my stuff was nice and dry afterwards.

For dinner (because of the rain, I skipped lunch) I had lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, ranch flavored almond slices, onion, tomato and cucumber salad with Wendy’s Onion Ring Dipping Sauce as dressing, and tortilla, hummous, cucumber, onion and string cheese sammiches, with a beef stick, strawberry yogurt tube and caramel creams for dessert. Brought teabags for ice tea, but grabbed the regular teabags instead of the “cold brew” bags that can make ice tea without hot water…so it took longer to make the tea in cold water, oh well.

Bear-bagged my stuff, then made a fire in the fire pit and passed the time tending it till drowsiness set in. Slept on the hardwood floor of the shelter with the moon gleaming down on my face.

Sunday, July 28, 2002
Day 3

Woke up to the sound of intermittent rain. I immediately jumped up, and ran to my bearbag and got it down before the rain came down in full force. Of course, it had to rain and drench everything before I got on the trail, fortunately, it didn’t rain for long.

Had oatmeal surprise again, banana, bagel, and cup of coffee again for breakfast. Heard the squeaking again from the shelter walls, but this time it was constant, so I homed in on its location and it turned out to be a bat that was hanging out (literally and figuratively) behind a board of a wall. Who’d’ve thunk??? I thought it was from a mouse the whole time prior.

Was on the trail by about 10am (about the same time as the day before). Took Tumbling Rocks Trail north upslope. Got to a cairn where the trail crossed the stream and switched back the other side the other direction. Looking at the map, it showed this was a side trail that took you back to FR76, so I went back to the stream. I didn’t immediately see where the trail was, but having just gotten my feet wet and it feeling soooo good, I figured I’d hike the stream upslope for a while. What a cool hiking trail, even though it wasn’t technically where I was supposed to be, but hiking the middle of a running stream was a break from the usual trail.

Looking at the map, it showed a sidetrail (however, on the TopoZone map, it shows up as the main trail…but NOT shown as the main trail in the hiking guide’s map which is the current trail) trending off to the left up a tributary, so I figured I’d hike the stream till I got to this trail and take it instead of the main trail. Well, when I got to this area, I looked for the trail but couldn’t even find a trace, so I figured what the heck I’ll keep hiking till I find it. I did find an old grade which was pretty grown over, so I hiked it till it disappeared. I ended up trekking through the woods upslope towards a ridge. The woods really weren’t that thick, but were heavenly looking…so heavenly, I found a huge orange fungus sumpinorother, that using my trekking poles measured almost 155cm across. Had to get a pic using my dog as scale.

Hiked for a while through pine thickets, ferns infested and rocky mossy slopes till I got to the ridge. There I found the grade again which led me to the North South Trail (formerly called Red/Black Trail). That was the best hike I’d done in a long while…nothing like seeing the scenery from the other side of the trail.

Took the North South Trail, a ridge-trending trail, west to the Little Fork Trail. On the map I had which was photocopied from the Monongahela Natl’ Forest Hiking Guide, a side trail is shown shooting north off the North South Trail just after the intersection with the Birchlog Trail. Turns out the sidetrail is actually the beginning of the Little Fork Trail, and the beginning is not as shown on the map (what is shown on the TopoZone Map is NOT the current beginning of the trail)!!! Anywho… I took the Little Fork north and downslope.

The map also showed a chicken’s foot-shaped trail shooting east off the Little Fork and contouring a number of tributaries then shooting up into a ridgeling. Having just bushwhacked earlier, it looked veeeeerrrryyyy interesting…so I took it.

This trail was an old lane that wasn’t really that grown in, but had many downed trees across it and lots of wet spots with accumulated muck. Passed some cool rock outcrops that were blasted from the hillside to make the lane. After passing the second stream I started seeing lots of hooved tracks in the muck. After a while it hit me…”How could horses have gotten over around all those downed trees that I had to climb over and slide under?” Then I saw some smaller tracks (larger than the palm of my hand) of the same shape, then a track having toepads, and that’s when the tracks looked pretty familiar…Bear! Some tracks were as big as my hand with fingers spread out, and after taking two pics using my hiking poles and mine and Buddur’s foot as scales, I found a track so fresh you could distinguish the claws. If I didn’t already take 2 of the 14 pics I had altogether, I would’ve taken a pic of THAT track, but figured a third wouldn’t be prudent.

Not giving the presence of bear much thought, I trekked on. At the end of the trail where it contoured the hillside was a wooden-floored A-framed structure with no roof, like all it’d take was a large tarp to make it a roofed camp quarters. Lots of deerflies in that location, too…enough to drive me crazy. Couldn’t locate the end of the lane shown on the map going upslope, so I headed in that direction anyways. The deerflies wouldn’t leave Buddur or I alone. Poor Buddur couldn’t adequately fend them off, and one of his eyes was almost swollen shut from their bites. That’s when I had enough…F with my dog and you’ve F’ed with me. Of course, there was nothing I could do but retreat, so we headed over the ridge then downslope to the Little Fork Trail.

I intended to head upslope, take the uppermost ridge north to where it doglegged west and camp there. There was an intermittent stream nearby, and I planned to hike down and get enough water for the night, but it didn’t happen, Oh well, had to protect the boy!!!

Did I mention that I ate lunch on the bear track trail??? They probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the avacado, onion, tomato, hummous, string cheese tortilla sammiches anyways. Maybe the bananna and sweets….and me!

Hiking downslope was treacherous to say the least. It was steep, very rocky/bouldery, which were covered with slippery moss, and there was lots of false ground where the fallen leaves and forest fluff covered notches between rocks. My hiking poles kept sinking into them, and my feet would too every once in a while. I kept thinking my foot would fall through and I would tumble forward and hurt my ankle/knee/leg somehow. Even worse, the outside of my right knee was beginning to hurt, like I was straining it. I took my time, because I had to really concentrate on every step, and it took quite a while to descend that slope.

Finally got back to the Little Fork Trail and hiked down, which has many stream crossings near the base. Hiked around for a while and found a good established campsite for Camp 3 with enough firewood to keep me occupied. GPS says I did 10.91 miles.

Took a shower using my 4L MSR dromedary bag. I filled it full of water, emptied enough to fill my cookpot, heated the water then put it back in the bag. It warmed the cool water enough to make the temperature comfortable. Found a tree to hang the bag from, stripped down to nothing but my sandals and went to it. I just opened the small spout to wet myself, closed it up and lathered, then opened it again to rinse. It was truly refreshing.

Made a fire, but it took awhile to get the fire going because of the wet wood, but hey, I didn’t have anything else to do and wasn’t going anywhere. After dinner I spent the time starring into the fire and thinking about the day’s events.

In the middle of the night I got up to take a squirt and stepped on something pretty sharp, but because I was barefoot just figured it was a stick or something.

Monday, July 29, 2002
Day 4

Woke up to overcast skies and wind, giving me the impression it was going to rain. So I went and got the bear-bagged food ASAP. My foot hurt from where I stepped on something sharp that night while going to take a squirt. My feet hurt anyways from the hike the day before, but that was typical, even with wearing my hiking boots as my feet aren’t atuned to such rigorous trekking. Prodded around to find something had been stuck in my heel, and the pain was more than just the poke. Turns out a thorn had impaled my foot and the first 3/16” of it was still there.

While packing up, it sprinkled for a short while. Got on the trail and headed for the Three Forks Of William’s River Camping Parking Lot where the western trailhead is for Middle Fork and County line Trails. Had to cross Middle Fork stream which is about 20-30 yards across and thigh-deep to get to the parking area. Middle Fork trail parallels a creek, whereas County Line heads upslope and follows a ridgeline. After already being on a trail similar to Middle Fork (the North Fork Trail), I decided to head up to the County Line Trail (not shown on TopoZone map). The weather had been rather wet the past few days, so I felt confident I’d find water.

The actual trail, the beginning of it that is, isn’t as shown on the hiking guide map and is a more gradual sloped trail that crosses an intermittent stream and around rocky outcroppings as you near the top.

There were no vistas the whole trial, but it takes you through about every different type of woodland/landscape that can be found elsewhere in the area. Lots of water on the western half, but not much the eastern end.

Had to stop on the trail and duct-tape an area of one of my sandals because my foot was bleeding from the sandal rubbing itself into my foot. You know, once you’re hiking, you can feel the sting, but it doesn’t bother you till you stop…then it stings! By the end of the trip, my other foot had a bleeding blister area also.

Ate lunch near the middle, and drank the rest of my water. With all the water I passed prior, I figured there’d be some soon up the trail. Not! I didn’t get to an adequate water bearing spot till the end of the trail where it splits to the District Line trail (approximate location shown on map). There I headed offtrail and followed a rill downslope where it turned into a gulley with films of standing. Farther downslope, the gulley slowly formed into a channel with very shallow flowing water. At a spot where the water was constantly flowing, I dug a pool and used the dug sediment to damn the pool. It was only about 6-inches deep but deep enough to pump/filter from. I left the spot and went back to my backpack that I left at the trail intersection and took a 20-30 min break to let the mud settle in the water. When I went back, sure enough, there was a pool of clear water to filter from.

I slowly, so as to not stir up the sediment, put a flat rock on the bottom in the middle of the pool for my filter-hose nut to rest on, then wrapped the filter hose around a long stick and set the stick over the pool while making sure the filter hose nut would rest on the rock underwater and not stir up the sediment as I pumped. It worked like a charm, and I got plenty of water to drink.

Well, about ¼-mile down the trail was a water spot I could’ve easily got water from…it figures!!!! There was only one other water spot on the District Line and it was near the end near Big Beechy Trail. Once on Big Beechy, there was NO water.

I was hoping to take a sidetrail shown on the map that takes you downslope from Big Beechy and beside a tributary of Middle Fork but I couldn’t find the trial. I even dropped my pack, headed back the trail and even hiked in the woods beside the trail…for well over 30 minutes but never found the trial. I’m thoroughly convinced the woods swallowed up the trial and it no longer exists. That shot my idea of camping near some water. The thing really bugged me about it was that just down the trail I was nearing the trailhead parking where my van was parked, but I still wanted to spend another night. So I made my own trail.

Saying to myself “F it…I did it before…I’ll do it again!” I made a right turn and headed into the woods and descended the slope between Big Beechy and Middle Fork Trails. I hiked for about 45 minutes through the woods and down the rocky slope and during then I ended up passing a half-dozen spots where I could get water prior to reaching Middle Fork Trail. Anywho… when I hit the Middle Fork Trail, I quickly found a nice spot directly adjacent to the stream to set up Camp 4. GPS says I did 12.93 miles.

Got my water, and took a shower like I did the night before. The shower(s) felt so good, I may start making that a part of my hiking routine…no more sleeping all sweaty, sticky and stinky.

Poor Buddur was ready to end the hike well prior to when we did, and as soon as I pitched the tarp he was there to lay on my groundpad and blankets…he knows where the comfort zone is. Had dinner, bear-bagged my food and hit the sack rather early. Early heck, it was dusk by the time I ate dinner. Layed in bed for a long while and listened myself to sleep to the stream babble its sounds.

Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Day 5

Got around 7am and made some coffee, ate breakfast, broke down camp and got ready to head back on the trail. Hiked southeast up and out of the Middle Fork stream valley and to the North South trail and got back to the van by about 10 am. GPS says I did 2.70 miles.

Total trip length was 38.41 miles, but I wasn’t done hiking because I still had the rest of the day, so I dayhiked another trial for 9.68 miles prior to leaving the area.

My pack weighed in at 22lbs when I got home…guess how much the total food weight was when I started??? I can’t believe it myself…never again!

As I had been to this area once before and knew of all the stream crossings, some thigh high, had met many Appalachian Trail thru-hikers wearing sandals, and had been dayhiking local trails wearing my Teva sandals, I figured I’d do my first backpacking trip wearing them. It wasn’t until the next to the last day where my feet truly hurt…from the bleeding blisters, the black and blue marks from the straps and from the lack of better footbed. It was liberating and refreshing to be able to walk through mud and not go around it, to splash through puddles and stop and soak your feet in streams while not having to take off your shoes. The hike up Tumbling Rock stream was the first and “one kind” of hike I’d like to do again somewhere else…but I’ll never backpack in those sandals again regardless of how bombproof the are (I thought they were). And the offtrail hiking never really bothered me either, but the total of being on my feet for so long, for such distance, and with the extra weight sure made for aching feet at night and the next morning.

All in all, it was an awesome adventure!”

“It works now.”

“good report buddur. i haven't made it out there yet but imagine the drive time would be similar for me. sounds like a good trip. pretty nice you had 5 days and 38 miles. that really allows for some side trips. thanks for the info and maps. very thorough. that will help in the future.”

“My feet are finally recovering...the rawskin/blisters are scabs now, my feet have shrunk to their original size (I swear my feet swelled up and my work shoes fit smaller than usual) and the black and blue marks from the straps are disappearing.”

“Okay, I read through your report, which was labeled a trip report
:-) (there must be another thread labeled Cranberry Wilderness). I was thinking that you really injure yourself a lot, LOL. You had an interesting time. I liked the descriptions of camp, but I couldn't bring up the picture of the first camp. Sorry that I didn't read your report two weeks ago.”

“Yeah, I read most of this report at work last week, but then I actually had work to do and felt obliged since I am paid to be there and stuff. Sounds like a killer trip, that camo-dude and his "friendly" friend sounded pretty skeery!”

“1) I promise to never write another loooong trip report as this one.
2) I've never written a trip report since because, well, look at how many people (4) read and posted to this report thread.
3) So frankly, don't expect a trip report from me after Memorial Day weekend either.”

“well, FINE then.”

“I think you didn't get too many responses because people are STILL reading the report. I always give an abbreviated version here or post it in pieces and then put the uncut whole version online on a webpage. In a week when people are done reading it they might reply.

Cranberry is awesome.”