Davis/Allegheny Trail

Posted by Hilary

Today started out with quite a bit of frustration. We had planned to try to hike the trail in Otter Creek Wilderness that we were unable to finish last year due to a torrential downpour. We got to the parking lot for the trailhead and realized we had another downpour on our hands. Both Scott and I hike with water bladders (AKA camel packs). When I went to pick up my pack, it was soaking wet! Come to find out part of my bladder was not tightly secured and almost 1 liter of water had leaked inside my pack. The back of my pack was soaked, and I was disheartened. While we contemplated whether to just call it a day or soldier on, a car with three men came into the already pretty full parking lot. They said, "Hello" and we waved back. They had enough gear with them for me to know they were serious hikers out for an overnight backpacking trip. They were also very fit. All this intimidated me. And thus I became frustrated with myself. Why am I not like them? Why can't I hike 10 miles in a day? Why can't I be more into overnight trips? Why can't I be thin? I told Scott I wanted to hike somewhere else, and we left. We stopped by the side of the road for Scott to check out a little cove and for me to get out my hiking books and figure out just where we were going. After much hemming and hawing, we settled on hiking part of the Allegheny Trail I had eyed a few weeks ago. The Allegheny Trail goes 330 miles from the West Virginia/Pennsylvania border to Peter's Mountain in Virginia. (http://www.wvscenictrails.org/AlleghenyTrailOverview.aspx) It's meant for some serious overnight backpacking in the same vein as the Appalachian Trail. I've been wanting for some time to be able to say that I've hiked part of the Allegheny Trail. Almost 140 miles of it runs through Monongahela National Forest. The trail when it was constructed used existing trails as well as new trails. One of the existing trails is the Davis Trail that goes from Blackwater Falls State Park into Mon Forest. The Davis Trail is 2.8 miles from the trailhead in Blackwater to Canaan Loop Road in Mon Forest. We decided to hike 1.6 miles of the Davis Trail to a shelter meant for overnighters on the Allegheny Trail, and then hike back out the way we came in. So, overall this hike is about 3.2 miles.

Parking for the Davis Trail is in Blackwater Falls State Park at their petting zoo. If you follow the signs for the lodge and the petting zoo, you will notice signs also for the Davis Trail. Park at the petting zoo, head back down the driveway towards the road and you'll see a sign that says "Yellow Birch Trail/Allegheny Trail." This is the trailhead. Not too long after entering the trail there's an intersection. The Yellow Birch Trail continues straight; turn right to join up with the Allegheny Trail/Davis Trail. The first half of the hike meanders through the forest that borders a nice babbling brook. Scott really liked hearing the water as we hiked. You can tell it's an old railroad grade by the wideness of the path. The only hard part about this portion of the hike is that there are several rocks and tree roots in the path. And on top of that, these rocks and tree roots are slick from moss and dampness. Scott said "Watch that root; it's slick!" so many times that he said I should title this blog post that! If you do this hike, please make sure you have hiking boots on. This would not be a fun hike in sneakers. About 0.75 miles into the hike you reach the uphill portion of this hike. It is a moderate ascent, nothing too severe. Not far after the top of the hill is the shelter. Neither of us had seen one of these before. I've read about them from my hiking books and reading Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. They are very simple structures with a platform and a roof. There's also a register for people to sign to say where they are from and what they are doing on the trail. Evidentially one time the register must have been full because a certain Tom and Bobbi decided to sign the wall above the register: "Too old and too fat to be out doing this!" That made me feel better about the whole fit-hiker incident at Otter Creek. That and the fact that someone had decided that the sign for the shelter looked a bit like Jesus's birthplace. (Check it out in the picture below.) We hiked back out the way we came and stopped for a bit to soak our feet in the babbling brook towards the trailhead.

Overall, this was a cool hike just to say I've done part of the Allegheny Trail. It's also a nice forested walk. I give it 3 out of 5 hiking sticks; an average hiking experience.