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Backpacker Magazine – April 2008

Backpack West Virginia's Cranberry Wilderness

Discover a slice of rare Eastern wild country in West Virginia, where Canadian taiga meets Southern forests.

by: Alistair Wearmouth

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West Virginia, Courtesy of National Park Service

MORE WEST VIRGINIA HIKES
Hit the Appalachian Trail with our GPS-enabled West Virginia hikes.

East Coast hikers in search of wild country don't need to get on a plane: Trails in West Virginia's 35,864-acre Cranberry Wilderness are unsigned and unmarked, the streams don't have bridges, and the canopy is so dense that cell phones are dead weight. This is the crown jewel of the 919,000-acre Monongahela National Forest. It's a mix of alpine balds, rhododendron thickets, quartzite slabs, red spruce, and trout streams. It feels like the Canadian taiga wrapped in the South's homeyness.

A loop visiting the best of the wilderness is a 22-miler starting from the North-South Trailhead on WV 150. Head west on the North-South Trail on a 4,000-foot-high ridge that winds between the Middle Fork Williams and North Fork Cranberry Rivers. Camping is plentiful; sites in secluded grassy meadows pop up within the first four miles. The next day, you'll descend into a dank, mossy hollow with so many shades of green it'd take an entire division of Pantone to name them. Turn right onto Laurelly Branch Trail; there are three creek crossings over its 3.3 miles to the Middle Fork Trail, the second of which hides a deep swimming hole just upstream.

If you're in no hurry, go right on Middle Fork and scout for hidden campsites near Hell For Certain Branch, a steep mountain creek feeding the Williams River. Otherwise, turn left and follow Middle Fork to Big Beechy Trail. Turn right and begin a stair-stepper ascent that gains more than 1,000 feet in two miles. When the path levels out, hunt for a tent site amid the red spruce and yellow birch. The wilderness is also a black bear sanctuary (no hunting or bear-dog training allowed). Hang your food bag well, or pack a canister.

To finish the loop, hike the remainder of Big Beechy, then turn south onto the North Fork Trail, which leads three miles back to the trailhead on terrain so rugged that it was never homesteaded. Who says you have to go to Wyoming to find someplace wild?

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READERS COMMENTS

Had a wonderful trip there over the labor Day weekend .. but there were definitely bear dogs around! One spent the night under our tarp which we didn't mind as he definitely kept the bears away.
Posted: Sep 07, 2010 AMR

We hiked this exact hike over Labor Day Weekend 2010....Fantastic hike, beautiful scenery, and definitely remote. Only saw 5 people in 3 days over the holiday weekend. 2 items hikers should be aware of that were misleading from the description above....1) there are no overlooks as suggested by the photo above. 2) there are no 'sites in secluded grassy meadows', although there are a few camping sites within the first 4 miles. Overall, we'd do this hike again.
Posted: Sep 06, 2010 BDR

This is a excellent area to see a bear after hunting here in a week I seen about 20 bear and some streams have a healthy population of brook trout. Also be careful storing food at camp sites bears can be a problem at night. Posted: August 1,2010 Brandon Burket
Posted: Aug 01, 2010 Anonymous

Just got back from the 22 mile loop with that chris guy below me, the scenery was beautifull, the hike was exilerating, and the expereince is extremly memorable, Anyone who wants a glimpse at a black bear should def. check out the cranberry wilderness!!
Posted: Jun 17, 2009 Glenn Stoker

i was just in the cranberry i got back today, the middle fork area is great...the area around hell for certain is beautiful...starting on the middle fork trail and going onto the north fork trail at the beginning and then going north south down into the valley and back up thoruhg the tumbling rock area and laurelly branch to the middle fork is a nice loop
Posted: Jul 26, 2008 chris

cranberry wilderness is great, and hopefully we will be seeing an expansion soon. there is legislation in front of the senate right now that could make it a reality. anyone who likes cranberry should also check out dolly sods, another west virginia gem.
Posted: Jun 26, 2008 andrew

i live in wv and i am just about to start hiking and i want to go some where more secluded and this sounds like my best bet for some where near by
Posted: Jun 02, 2008 Jared Lowe

I do alot of off trail hiking in cranberry and often find signs of old logging/minning camps. Like wroght iron beds to large iron stoves. If you truly want to get away from it all this is the place
Posted: Jun 02, 2008 Richard Ross