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Post by jnk556 on Aug 20, 2015 12:52:44 GMT -5
OK, tossing some ideas for routes for arfcomhkr and I for around October or so. Want to try to hit up something not too horribly difficult, but yet something we haven't done, as we haven't been out at all this year (yeah I know). Right now, I'm tossing the idea of going in at the frosty gap parking area, and road walking Dogway back in, past the liming station, and crossing the low water bridge back on the river. Spend the night at the shelter on the river, and hike out over Rough run, up to North-South, hang a left, and then a right down little fork, and out to a vehicle at the forks.
This would all be new ground for us, we would not have to ford the river, plus it would give us a chance to try to locate the former site of "dogtown" on the road back in there. What I need to know is the mileage from the parking area at Frosty Gap to the Low water bridge, if we followed Dogway Rd FR232 . Anyone hiked Rough Run, what kinda shape is it in, and how steep is it?? Also, We'll have to scout the trail head at the forks trailhead, as I don't recall ever seeing where little fork comes out at there?
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vdeal
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Post by vdeal on Aug 20, 2015 14:14:29 GMT -5
jnk,
I did some of that a few years back. Went up Lick Run, out North-South and down Little Fork. Little Fork is an old woods road for the most part if I recall correctly. North-South is your typical Cranberry ridge walk and quite nice. Can’t comment on Rough Run. The distance from the gate on Dogway Fork Rd down to Cranberry River is about 8.5 miles by my calculations.
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Post by jnk556 on Aug 20, 2015 17:29:13 GMT -5
jnk, I did some of that a few years back. Went up Lick Run, out North-South and down Little Fork. Little Fork is an old woods road for the most part if I recall correctly. North-South is your typical Cranberry ridge walk and quite nice. Can’t comment on Rough Run. The distance from the gate on Dogway Fork Rd down to Cranberry River is about 8.5 miles by my calculations. Thanks, 8.5 sounds pretty good for a mostly downhill road walk. I have done some calculations using my hiking guide, and it looks to be about 7-8 mi over to the forks from the cranberry, so that will make for a nice hike out. Plus we'll be passing 2 shelters back there in case one is being used. All else fails we'll still have our tents. |
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Post by Admin on Aug 21, 2015 7:08:15 GMT -5
From what I recall Little fork is a series of RR grades. You'll pass some old stone bridge abutments at one point. We hiked it from the bottom u and had no trouble following it however a recent Outing critique submitter hiked it from the top down and missed a couple of places where the trail jumped from one grade to the next by a short foot path, some possibly confusing, apparently changing directions (They are switchbacks?) so keep an eye on it. The ford across Middle Fork of the Williams River might be daunting if the water is high.
P.S. I'll have the critique posted in a few days.
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vdeal
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Post by vdeal on Aug 21, 2015 7:53:57 GMT -5
That downhill mistrack sounds a bit like Tumbling Rock trail. First time we did it we missed the ford and rock hopped the entire way down the stream. Now, it was fun but we were confused. The next time we found the trail and it stayed quite high above the stream. MR, the crossing of Middle Fork will be right at the parking lot for the Three Forks of Williams River. I don’t recall that being a problem at all, in fact, I don’t even recall the crossing at all (I really need to get back down there) but in October it probably won’t be a problem unless we’ve had the remnants of a tropical storm or some serious late season rains. For a good overview set of maps check out the WV Highlands Conservancy maps. |
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Post by Admin on Aug 21, 2015 9:43:14 GMT -5
It was wide, knee deep but flowing gently when we did it.
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Post by jnk556 on Aug 21, 2015 20:00:30 GMT -5
Yeah we'll be coming down Little Fork, so we'll have to watch out for the RR grade jumps. Does little fork come out right at the the same exact trail head as Middle fork, or does it come out closer to those camping spots there?? We've come out Middle fork before, and I don't ever remember seeing the little fork trailhead. Middle fork is decent size down that way, but as said above, I don't think water depth will be a issue in October. Either way, we'll be right at the truck then, so I don't think we'll care!
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Post by Admin on Aug 21, 2015 21:05:10 GMT -5
There is an old kiosk trail junction of the two. It's hard to see the Little Fork trail from there becauseit goes under a Hawthorne tree. Watch out for those thorns!. It's more obvious as you come down Little Fork Tr.
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Post by jnk556 on Aug 21, 2015 21:57:06 GMT -5
There is an old kiosk trail junction of the two. It's hard to see the Little Fork trail from there becauseit goes under a Hawthorne tree. Watch out for those thorns!. It's more obvious as you come down Little Fork Tr. You referring to the Kiosk just a bit from the parking area, kinda there behind the weeds?? I know the weeds tend to grow up right there between the parking area and it. So Little fork splits from right there at that Kiosk huh? Like you said it will be more obvious coming down little fork to the vehicles. We'll probably camp on the Williams the night before anyways, so we'll walk up and scout it out. I do know there is a kiosk up on the hill above that as well, but that is for county line. |
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vdeal
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Post by vdeal on Aug 22, 2015 7:09:51 GMT -5
By kiosk do you mean a trail sign?
jnk, don't you mean you'll be camped along Cranberry?
Oh, maybe you mean you'll camp there when you park the second car?
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Post by jnk556 on Aug 22, 2015 18:02:26 GMT -5
By kiosk do you mean a trail sign? jnk, don't you mean you'll be camped along Cranberry? Oh, maybe you mean you'll camp there when you park the second car? By kiosk I meant the little wilderness trail map lean to thing. I have never seen a trail marker for the Little Fork trail, but honestly the one time I was though there i didn't look too close. I meant we'll be camped on the williams the night before we do our hike, arf and I have a favorite camping spot back there, we meet at. We normally camp there, and the next morning, drop a car and drive over to the other end to start the hike. |
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Post by countryroads on Sept 19, 2015 15:01:59 GMT -5
Rough run was in great shape in late June. It was easy to follow with a few blow downs that were easy to either go under or around. Did not hike little fork Trail. A couple of people I hiked with hiked the section of north-south trail between Lick Branch Trail and Rough Run trail and they simply could not keep track of the N-S trail. Since they had a coordinate for a food cache, they just headed to it. So, N-S trail in that area is difficult if not impossible to find. The two guys are from that area and have hiked in Cranberry for years, but they had not hiked that part for a while.
N-S trail from Rt 150 was in good condition and easy to keep track of. It did have a very nasty wash out area about 1.5 to 2 miles from Laurelly Branch trail.
The walk along the Cranberry is extremely nice!
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Post by arfcomhkr on Sept 21, 2015 13:31:44 GMT -5
Kind of surprised that North-South is hard to follow, but I haven't been on it South of Birch log. It was always well defined from there up to 150.
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Post by jnk556 on Sept 21, 2015 17:12:13 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't think alot of folks use it from that end mainly from 150 in, and the main trails over the hump like Birch log, tumbling rock and the like. I know the intersection of birch log and n-s is well defined, or it was about 3 years ago, hell had a sign there, and it's only .2 miles from where rough run intersects, and I think it's only about .2 the other way twords lick branch to little fork, so we should be ok on this hike. Hell we've done worse. In all honesty though, that part of n-s is outside the wilderness, and technically should be blazed, but that never means anything  |
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Post by countryroads on Sept 21, 2015 19:36:47 GMT -5
I think the two guys I was with were pretty surprised too. There were a lot of blow downs. They criss-crossed back and forth and could not locate the trail. The trail was in pretty good shape from Rough Run to 150. There were some blow downs, but trail was easy to follow. What for them should have been about 3 to 4 hours or less to retrieve food cache (we had to change plans due to Trop storm Bill and high water heading towards middle fork) turned in to 7 hours. Even though Rough Run was pretty high from the previous night's rain, they decided to head back that way after retrieving the food bags instead of trying to back track.
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Post by jnk556 on Oct 11, 2015 21:08:45 GMT -5
Well, I guess the idea for this hike will wait till next year. Arf and I camped on the Williams Thursday night to awaken to a short rain shower friday morning. Packed our gear, got ready to drop off a truck at the forks, and before we packed the tents up, it came one hell of a rain, and we waited it out in the trucks, till it slacked enough to get out and pack up the tents.
We decided to cut our losses, and leave, I don't mind a little rain, but I'm not backpacking in a pouring rain. oh well, we drove back to arfs cabin, and made the best out of a crappy weekend.
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