Weather: NOAA forecast link
Here’s the working plan for hiking routes.
Friday
Our afternoon warm-up hike. Bear Pen trail from lake dam to North Boundary trail, return via Buck & Doe trail. Approximately 5 miles.
Saturday
My goal is to further explore the unmarked old logging road (discovered last March) that runs along the ridge between Rock Run and Mill Run. On the way there we’ll pass through the arboretum trail system and check out Workman cabin and the Ann Bailey lookout. Bushwhacking from the lookout to lower reaches of Rock Run is an option. Total distance should be under 10 miles, but will depend on the endpoint and how far we make it out the ridge above Rock Run. We may want to preposition cars to allow us to end either at the RV campground or arboretum trailhead rather than our cabin (number 16).
Sunday
Pre-dawn hike out the Burnside Ridge trail. We’ll take that trail to it’s end, then explore the possibility of making a loop down the west side (potentially all the way to the Greenbriar river) and back up the east side of Hatton Run. Return route will be via shortcut to cabin from arboretum trail system. Total distance could reach 15 miles.
Map links (these are the maps we will be carrying):
- Watoga trail map
- Watoga (Topo map, shows most of the park.)
- Watoga West (Same scale as Watoga topo map, just shifted to show Hatton Run and all park borders with Greenbriar river.)
Map & Compass Skills:
- Orienting a map
- Taking a bearing (for navigating to a point that is out of sight)
- Triangulation (for locating your position using visible landmarks)