Plans for this spring: Cranberry Wilderness

Well, it is that time of year again, the air is warmer, the birds are returning and people like myself start making plans to head off into the woods again. This spring has found me dreaming of a "bucket list" hike.

Over ten years ago I read an article in Backpacker Magazine about the Cranberry Wilderness in the southern part of the Monongahela National Forest (MNF) ( You can find a more recent write up at Backpacker.com )  Please continue reading after the jump for more!

For those of you unfamiliar with this part of the United States, the MNF stretches along the eastern border between West Virgina and Virgina. This rugged section of the Allegheny Mountain range contains the highest peaks in the state of West Virginia. It is also very lightly populated. In fact, the Cranberry Wilderness is located right smack dab in the middle of the darkest patch of night sky found on the Eastern Seaboard. This is an amazing fact considering that it is less than a six hour drive from Washington DC.

The Cranberry Wilderness itself is the one of the largest designated wilderness areas east of the Mississippi River consisting of over 47,000 acres. It encompasses part of the Yew Mountain range and the drainage basins for both the Cranberry and the Williams Rivers. The wilderness is a black bear sanctuary and hunting of black bears in this area is prohibited. Located mostly in Pocahontas County, the wilderness is a rugged slice of heaven.

I'm planning to take a three or four man crew on a twenty mile, four day hike through the wilderness. We will be using the parking area for the North-South trail along SR150 and hiking a circuit similar to the one described by MidAtlanticHikes.com. From everything I have read the Cranberry is true wilderness; rugged, unmaintained and lightly used. I think the trails will be challenging even though most of them are based upon the narrow gauge railroad beds that were used when this area was logged in the early part of the Twentieth Century. In many places though the trail has been washed out by erosion, causing a more difficult re-route up the steep hillsides. There are also several river crossings, none of which have foot bridges.

I'm very excited about this trip and I'm looking forward to writing a trip report upon my return. I will be making some gear related posts in the near future as I prepare for this trip, specifically I have a couple of projects that I have in the works, one is a pot cozy and the other is a food cozy for freezer bag cooking. Stay tuned for those.

~Occasional Hyker