High Meadows/Seneca Falls Trail

For Memorial Day weekend John and I headed out to West Virginia to do our first over night backpacking trip. Car camping be gone! A few people were surprised this was our first such trip, and it really boils down to two things: poor planning/lack of time to to a good 2-3 day trip and my fear that my back and knee couldn't take it. Well, we planned this trip in about 2.5 days and while I was sore after, I managed to make the trip without too much discomfort. Really, no more than I usually have on a hike, save for my body not wanting to move once we finally stopped.

I think our total "lost" moments come to 5 on this trip, but most of them were simple matters of going the wrong way and figuring it out a mile later. We couldn't find the shitty motel we stayed at on Friday night. Thank goodness for the random store guy who told us we were idiots for missing the huge sign. Yes, we are. And no, he didn't actually say anything. The next morning we again went the wrong way whist trying to find the trail head since our directions came from the google maps location of the hotel...which wasn't actually where the hotel was.

Still, we managed to get to the parking lot around 9am. Then we went the wrong way down the fire road, trying to find the trail head. About 2-3 extra miles added. Then we basically hiked through a muddy creek bed for 4 miles. Not steep, but rough as it's basically walking on slippery rocks or mud the entire time. Because of the added miles early in the day we ended up skipping the high meadows portion of the trail and took another trail to the falls. Probably only saved a mile, but I wasn't sure how far I could go in one day. We did get to see a meadow but not the super cool ones. Instead we hiked more through the forest, though there was a little less mud.

When we finally got to the real creek I was happy. It meant the falls were close and our campsite not much further!

We need to cross the creek here. We did not know this. Creek crossing happened in the morning, right above the falls.

John hated my above pose so I'm giving him a boring shot.

Seneca Falls!

We need someone to follow us around and take pictures so we have more couple shots.

After the waterfall we were supposed to walk back the same way and cross the creek. But the sign was confusing and we went down the trail past a bunch of campsites. This seemed right as we were supposed to be following a creek, come to campsites, and keep going a bit until there were more campsites. It all made sense. Until the trail stopped. I slipped on a rock. We walked across a scary tree bridge. It started raining a bit. It was the wrong way. So we decided to go back to the falls, camp for the night, and finish in the morning. Which meant we weren't as far as we wanted to be on Day 1, but Day 2 would be 5 miles instead of 3. Not bad. After setting up camp and getting some food in us we wandered around near the falls, up and down the creek some. Across the creek once. And eventually we figured out which trail we were supposed to be on. We relaxed by the fire, boiled some water to make sure we had enough for Day 2, and went to bed before the sun was fully down. We also met a nice couple and their dog, and helped them dry their socks.

Day 2 was 5 miles down one trail. Pretty easy to follow, but we zig-zagged across the creek. I think 4 or 5 crossing. It was pretty fun for awhile. But the last mile and a half were brutal. We were ready to be done. I was so happy to sit once we reached the truck. A good first trip....ready for more!