Allegheny Trail TR

“Over the weekend we attempted to do another section of the Allegheny Trail in WV. For those of you not familiar with it, the trail runs in a North/South direction through WV.

We had done the 60 miles south of Durbin last year, so our goal was to do the 60 miles north of Durbin this year.

On Friday morning, Animal, Highmaintenance, Lightfoot, Trail Dancer, Mike, Ron and myself shuttled to Rock Creek.

The hike started off poorly as we immediately started walking on the wrong forrest road. Realizing our error we bagain again...

The trail at this point was well blazed and utilized a lot of old rail road grades so it was fairly easy hiking.

We hiked slow and took a lot of breaks enjoying the views. The trail pretty much parallels the Glady Fork Rive for 25 miles, and it was neat having the sound of flowing water as we hiked. After a short day of 13 miles we found a gorgeous campsiye and set up camp, right by the river...

On Saturday we arose early and hit the trail by 6:45.. We were still uncertain about how far we wanted to go, but again, the rail grade made for easy hiking, and by 9:30 we had done 8 miles.

We were now 8 miles from the small town of Glady, and since our original plan was to camp before we got there, we realized we needed to change plans.. We decided to get to Glady and then weigh our options...

We slowed our pace down and took a long lunch, hitting Glady at 3:00. Thankfully the general store (you gotta see the pictures) stayed opened an extra 5 minutes for us. This store/post office/ notary is only open 10-3 fri and sat.. I want those hours...

Heading south out of Glady, the Allegheny trail is also the North Fork Trail which is a rail to trail... There is private property along here. There were hunting cabins and gorgeous houses.

At THE LAST HOUSE (I swear) there were 3 guys from Richmond VA. Animal started BSing with them and next thing you know, we were having Molsen and Crown forced down our throats.. It was terrible.... Here I am, out in the woods to try to get in shape, and now I have to drink...

Somehow the 'rattler' crown on ice stayed with me too long, and by the time we hit the trail again, I was feeling pretty good... We hiked 2 more miles to were the Allegheny Trail leaves the North Fork Trail and there we set up camp...


(to be continued)”

“It rained most of the nighton Saturday so we awake to a very wet field.

It had been decided that Animal, Lightfoot, Mike, and Ron would continue South on the West Fork (I mistakingly called it the North Fork Trail previously)Trail..
http://www.traillink.com/ViewTrail.aspx?AcctID=6015296

HM, Trail Dancer and myself would take the Allegheny Trail SOuth. We would meet in Durbin that night.. It was approx 22 miles to Durbin Via the Allegheny Trail, but only 19 miles on the much easier West Fork Trail.

Unlike last year's hike along the Allegheny Trail, this year's had been smooth. For the most part the trail had been well blazed, and fairly level. It was actually pretty cool walking over the 'ripples' caused by the decaying RR ties that were under our feet. The trail had wound its way along a river so the views were gorgeous, and while I knew that once we got into the mountains things might change a little, I wasn't expecting the change to be so drastic.

We hit the trail at 7:00 am and started an 800ft climb via switchbacks.. There were actually too many switchbacks and it seemed like we walked for ever to get nowhere. We hit the top of Shavers Mountain pretty quickly and for awhile it seemed liked this day would be no different from the others. The Allegheny Trail (blazed Yellow) now joined a blue blazed trail, and we commented on the fact that the blue blazes were more prevelant then the yellow ones.

After a while the yellow blazes became few and far between, and we questioned if we were still on the trail... Little maintenance had been done on the trail, and blow downs got worse and worse... In some cases bushwhacking around blowdowns only led to more blowdowns, and our mileage dratically decreased.

We then hit private property, and here is where things really went bad. We got off of the trail, taking a trail that was used to get to tree stands. After searching for awhile, HM backtracked, but still couldn't find blazes.

Sitting down, we pulled out the crude maps and compass and I realized that we needed to be east further.. We started to bushwhack back to the east to come up to the crest of the Mountain. The maps showed us just east of National Forest, and we found the Red Paint Marking the forest. No trail, but we were ok. We would bushwack east and then head in a south west direction, trying to make sure we kept the NF to our west.

We still weren't on the trail, but the crest was getting closer so I figured we were good. Then we came upon a clearing. I was aware that the trail had been interupted by some foresting on private land, but I wasn't expecting the magnitude of it.

Logging roads now scarred the land.. Trees that once had been blazed had been logged and dragged away.. We were now way behind schedule (having done only 4.5 miles), it was getting towards 10:00 and the sun was getting hot.. We found some blue ribbons on some trees and a few trees blazed blue and thought that maybe this was another trail... After bushwhacking through this for awhile, we realized that the loggers were randomly painting trees blue for marking purposes...

It was now time to make a decision.. Push on and hope things worked out or head back... We decided to turn back.. It was now about 10:45... We started aheading back down and I realized we were heading too far to the west so we headed East, trying to get back to the clearing.. After awhile we got back to it, but we were further south then we had been before.. We come to a spot were a couple logging roads met, HM and TD headed down the road, but I had a feeling that up was the way to go.. I headed up hill and low and behold I came to a spot that I had been to before.. I yelled to them and sat down.. Water, while still not a major issue was now playing a role in decision making.. The last water we had seen was the morning, and our plan had been to resuuply at 9 miles. We were all carrying 2 litres, but we hadn't planned on the strennuous activities. I removed my back, grabbed my water and started drinking, and as I did, I looked up.. Staring me in the face was a yellow blaze.. It was the first one we had seen in a couple hours.. What was amazing was that I had been at almost this exact spot an hour ago, but I had been on the other side of the tree...

I couldn't believe it.. HM and TD came up and I showed them the blaze.. A little further up hill be saw another, and then nothing but logging roads..

Taking out the map, it looked as if the trail would have been exactly were the logging road was... I told HM and TD to wait and headed off up the road.. It came to a crest and then started down.. I followed it for maybe a half a mile and never saw a blaze... (To this day, I still think that that was the trail)

That was it.. we needed to head back.. It was now 11:30, and I really didn't want to screwed around during the hottest part of the day..

We got back to the yellow blazes and headed back.. Again, blowdowns slowed us down and it took us until 1:15 to get back to our original started point...

6 hours of fairly strenuous hiking, and we were back to were we had started... We also now had to hike 19 miles to get to Durbin by that eveneing..

At 2:15 we took off... By 3:00pm we were in a down pour... I made the mistake of not donning rain gear due to the heat, and I was too pay dearly...

By 3:15 we had done 4 miles and I was starting to chaffe... The rain wan't letting up, so I did what any hiker trash would do, I took my shorts off and hiked in my scivies... I let HM and TD lead as I didn't want to ruin their day, and we proceeded down the trail...

We covered 10 miles by 5 pm, and at 7:35 HM and TD had made it the 19 miles to Durbin.. Having stopped for a GU, Gatorade Break I arrived at 7:40, but found no one at the trail head.

Apparently, Animal and the gang were getting worried and had sent a car to the trail head... They had taken HM and TD down to the local bar/grill...

At 7:51 they sent the car back and found me sitting there doctoring up my feet.. HM was in bad shape as far as blisters (her feet still recovering from the 40 mile days on back to back weekkends) and mine aren't much better...

I got a ride down to the bar and immediatley ordered a bacon cheeseburger and beer battered mushrooms... Dang was it good...

After relaxing for a while we drove back to the state park and set up camp... It rained most of Sunday night as well...

On Monday we headed back to our strting point, picked up the cars and headed home...




I will have pictures posted in a day or two..

'32oz”

“Good grief! I am exhausted just from reading that. Hope you guys heal up soon.”

“http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2631526560103391530rDlWFa

'32oz”

“geezus. Damn loggers.”

“Are they logging in PA?


'32oz”

“I heard recently that PA became #1 in logging for the first time since 1880 or thereabouts. So I would assume so.”

“LOL. Ki0eh.. That was said tongue in cheek..

Didn't realize PA was #1 though.. wow..

'32oz”