Explorer's Guide 50 Hikes in West Virginia by Leonard M. Adkins

Author:Leonard M. Adkins [ADKINS, LEONARD M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58157-739-6
Publisher: Countryman Press
Published: 2013-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

Overlook of Hill Creek Valley with Jacox and Briery Knobs forming a backdrop

From the tower, walk through the middle of the playground to begin following the Musket Trail. (Do not take the trail leading to the outhouses.) Cross a paved park road at 0.75 mile, and descend beside striped maple, huge oak trees, and the large stumps of chestnut trees. The size of the stumps is impressive, so imagine how large the chestnuts must have been at the time of the battle.

Turn uphill to the left at 1.0 mile, where flame azalea brightens the forest understory and a right turn would drop you to a park road. The four-way intersection at 1.1 miles presents you with an option. If you are tired or have run out of time, the park office and parking lot are a few hundred yards to the right. To continue the hike, stay to the left, now following the Cranberry Bogs Trail past skunk cabbage growing in moist areas beside the pathway. Mountain laurel and club mosses line the trail, while pine needles and mosses soften your footsteps.

The trail to the left at 1.2 miles goes back to the observation tower. Continue right along the Cranberry Bogs Trail, and pass under a utility line at 1.3 miles, with foamflower making up part of the understory. As you approach them from a distance, the flowers and their lacy stamens have a tendency to look like frothy foam balanced on the end of the long stem. This explains the common name, but several different sources give slightly varying accounts about how the plant received its genus name of Tiarella, which means “little tiara.” Some say that the way the yellow pistils rise above the white petals resembles the points of a golden crown—referred to by the Greeks as a tiara. Others sources claim that the generic name is in reference to the headdress once worn by Persians, as the shape of the pistils resemble a turban.

The small swamp to the right at 1.4 miles is at the heart of the cranberry bogs. It’s definitely not as large as any of those at the Cranberry Glades (see Hike 21) but is certainly an environment not common to most of West Virginia. Black birch, hickory, red oak, and maple are part of the forest where you cross a woods road (the Old Soldier Trail) at 1.5 miles and gradually ascend. Be alert when you come to the unsigned Y-intersection at 1.6 miles. A left turn would take you to a picnic area. You want to keep right, cross the paved park road, and reenter the forest on a woods road, which is the Horse Heaven Trail, at 1.7 miles. It may not feel right for the first few hundred feet, but it soon becomes an obvious pathway lined by jack-in-the-pulpit and trillium and running along the top of low rock cliffs beside large rock formations.

Just as you come to the paved park road at 1.9 miles, a wooden bridge to

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