Backpack West Virginia's Cranberry Wilderness

The excellent article to a wild area should have mentioned the great free map resource from the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, which provides all the trails mentioned in this article, and more. Point your browser to:
http://www.wvhighlands.org/Pages/Maps_CW.html

While this is beautiful area to hike and camp, it should not be considered a good place for beginners. The only reason I say this is depending on which loop you choose, you may find yourself wandering and bushwhacking aimlessly searching for the trail.

My experience was a tough one my first time here. It was a great challenge, but I am an experienced solo backpacker. I was astonished at the lack of trail maintenance. Most of the trail heads and intersections were marked. However, the problems come in once you are on the trail.

Many instances have you leisurely hiking down a beautiful trail, then the before you know it you are desperately trying to determine where the trail went.

If you have a GPS with current maps, and experience using it, you can use it to 'stay' on the trail and re-join your desired route. Just remember to trust the GPS and keep going.

I would give this 5 stars as it is absolutely beautiful area, but the level of trail maintenance is sadly working very hard against the enjoyment of the place.

Good luck.

I've lived here in WV all my life and spent a good deal of it deep in the woods here. Be careful and use good common sense out there....bears, rattlers, copperheads, coyotes.....lots of wildlife here. Not a bad thing and definately beautiful scenerey.
Just want everyone too stay alert and have fun.
I'd live out there in them woods if I could.....I just seem too get along better with critters than most folks!. Yall come back now...ya hear?!.

A friend and I completed a 25 mile loop of the Cranberry Wilderness of Monongahela National Forest in mid-April 2012, 5-star rating! Spring had not hit yet, not one dogwood bloom. No briars either!!! No people!!!!!! This is very strenous at times, and there will not be an easy way out with an injury... We found sufficient established campsites, sufficient CLEAN water. Lots of old forest, elevation change ranging from rhododendron forests to peat bogs... There is plenty of dead wood in late winter, and very, VERY quiet! Monongahela could be my east coast favorite!

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.

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.

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

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!!

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

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.

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

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