North Fork Trail, West Virginia

“I want to go some time between 12/24 and 1/4 for a three-nighter.

Who has been to the North Fork Trail?

Any advice?”

“assuming this is the North Fork Mtn. Tr. Bubbha Bear is the expert round here I think

advice - cache water - there aint none up there, also hope like heck you can actually get up the road to where you can cache the water. Probably still a good idea to wear some blaze orange (not too sure of WVa's hunting seasons).”

“Thanks HOI !

I'm thinkin' there may be snow up there in late December and I won't have to cache water.

This trail is one I have been "planning" to walk since about '96.”

“Buddurman has all the cool stuff GPS'd out. The trail does rock though, and is seldom used. Bring your camera!”

“I'd rather bring Pennsy and his camera.

Buddur, huh?

Didn't you guys go there a couple of years ago?”

“yeah - it was a rather funny on the trail meeting for me - I had hiked in from the North end and met up with folks on the last day.

A very memorable meteor shower the previous night - absolutely the best.”

“We started the hike on the South end from WV33 and ended up at the trailhead parking on CR28-11 just off WV28/55 West of Petersburg. It was this time of the year we hiked it but the weather had been dry for a while and the spring wasn't producing.

The spring is just off the radio tower road at the top of the hill where the road makes a left-handed turn. It is on the NW side of the road and there is a campsite there. You'll have to hike that road if hiking in the northerly direction, and when you get to that turn the trail heads into the canopy. At that point, go to your left and follow a grown-in lane. The spring is off the road to your left just downslope. Follow your instincts regarding the topographic slope and you should come pretty close to it.

With all the precipitation we've had so far, I'll bet there is water there, or ice 8) Maybe you'll get lucky and there'll be enough snow to melt for water.

Seems to me it's about 24 miles with the radio tower road at about the middle point. It took us a long time to drive CR28-11, up and back from caching water, and getting to the southern end, so plan for this if you do decide to cache water.

The trail meanders up and down the southeastern slope, down into the woods then back up again to the northwestern-facing white-colored milky quartz sandstone and conglomerate cliffs, and doesn't really have any hard climbs, so it's a relatively easy trail...with kickass views.

I'll have to do a search and try to find the thread on that hike. We did it during the peak of the Leonids meteor event which, albeit cold, turned out to be kickass.”

“Here's the North Fork Mtn Trail link.”