Hiking the North Fork Mountain Trail

The North Fork Mountain Trail runs 24 miles along its namesake mountain in West Virginia. The trail often pops up on lists for best hikes and mountain bike rides in West Virginia. The trail is known for its frequent views along its long ridge. I was interested in checking it out for myself. While I would like to hike and mountain bike the trai, I decided to travel the trail by foot first.

Since the lineal trail runs 24 miles, it's often hiked as an overnight backpacking trip. Unfortunately the mountain is one of the driest ridges in all of the Appalachians with no water along its route without a detour. Not wanting to dry camp and always enjoying long traverses, I decided to hike the 24 miles in a single day.

Since a 24 mile one way hike would require a shuttle or hitch, I reached out to Josh Norfolk to join me on the hike. Josh previously joined my on the Devil's Path in the Catskills last summer so I knew he was capable of a 24 mile day. After waiting out a hot and rainy forecast, we headed out on July 19th.

North Fork Mountain

Most people tend to travel the length of the trail from south to north. This allows for a start at higher elevation with less overall climbing and finishing with a long downhill to the northern trailhead. We decided to start from the north. We planned on running parts of the trail. Starting in the north eliminated a knee pounding descent at the end of the trail. We hit the trail in the dark around 520AM donning headlamps. Fortunately, the sun rises early mid-July and the early dawn light soon brought enough daylight to see without our lights.

Trailhead before dawn

Most of the elevation gain hiking southbound comes at the start of the hike. The northern trailhead statrs at just over 1,100' and climbs to over 3,000' in a couple miles. Even with the early elevation gain, the trail didn't seem to steep. We made our way to the ridge fairly quickly. Soon after reaching the ridge, the views began. This was a pretty good preview of what to expect the rest of our time along the ridge. In the Lower North Fork Valley below, you see a good mix of forests and cleared land with a little bit of civilization dotting the landscape. Across the valley, surrounding mountains border the valley with long ridge lines. Further south on North Fork Mountain, a continuous wall forms a cliff on the west side of the ridge for miles. 

First view

New Creek Mountain

Along the cliff

The first of many cliff views

The valley below before the sun

When the trail leaves the ridge crest, it never drops to low. Its possible to stay above the trail and follow the top of the cliff band at places. The trail never seems to stay below the crest of the ridge long.

The trail below the crest 

You reach one of the most interesting points along the ridge after about 2.5 miles. Chimney Top features interesting rock formations. Hoodoo like formations, separated rock outcroppings, and the large cleft between two outcroppings make up the summit of Chimney Top. More views of North Fork Mountain's cliffs and the North Fork Valley continue from the summit as well. If looking for Chimney Top, the trail isn't marked. Keep an eye out for an obvious herd path leading to the ridge.

Hoodoo like rock by Chimney Top

Fog in the valley

Looking south from Chimney Top

Cleft in Chimney Top

The main Cliff at Chimney Top

From Chimney Top, the trail drops back below the crest of the ridge. The vegetation along the trail differs from other trails in West Virginia. While there are still stretches of dense forest with mountain laurel and ferns, much of the forest cover is more open. My guess is the dry nature of the ridge doesn't promote the lush greenery seen in most of the state.

Lush forest

Scrubbier forest

Long, flat ridge lines are common in the area

Lingering fog below

Mountain Laurel

The trail bounces back and forth between the crest of the ridge and just below on the east side of the ridge. Even when the trail travels below the crest, it's often possible to leave the trail to catch a view from the apex of the ridge. You never have to wait to long to catch a view either way.

Back on the crest

Looking down on the Champe Knobs, the low
mountains along the river with numerous cliffs

Another scrubby section of forest

More long, flat ridgelines

Open forest floor

Another long cliff band in the Champe Knobs

Near the middle of the trail, the path diverts from a standard footpath and follows dirt roads for a couple miles. During this stretch the trail gains more elevation as it passes some towers. Although not the most scenic part of the trail, we managed to pass through pretty quickly since the walking is rather easy on the dirt road. We saw quite a few colorful butterflies along this stretch as well.

Joining the road

Following an older road

Back on trail

After you leave the dirt roads for good, you reenter the forest. From here you get views of one of West Virginia's best known landmarks, Seneca Rocks. Seneca Rocks is best known for rock climbing. The rock wall rises about 900 feet above the valley below. While not nearly as impressive when looking at it from 1,000 feet above, it is kind of interesting to look down on the formation.

Open forest

Seneca Rocks

Closer look at Seneca Rocks

The southern third takes in views of the Germany Valley and the lower mountains south of Seneca Rocks called the River Knobs. The ever present cliff along the crest seems to fade the further south you go. The views over the Germany Valley are more developed with more farmland and a few stretches that are even a little ugly with industrial development.

Rocky section of trail

Germany Valley

Another view into Germany Valley

An old woods road

Denser forest near the southern end

The high point along the trail tops out around 3,776'. The southern trailhead at Route 33 comes up quickly and sits at a pretty high 3,589'. When hiking along the crest, you take in views of the highest terrain in West Virginia. Because most of the Alleghenies form long and relatively flat ridges, it's not obvious you are looking at the state's highest terrain. You look out at Spruce Mountain, which tops out at West Virginia's highest point, 4,863' Spruce Knob. To the north, you look into the Dolly Sods and Roaring Plains areas, which sit at over 4,000'.

Hiking along the southern half

One of the southern-most views

One last view over the Germany Valley

Another woods road

Southern trailhead along Route 33

We finished hiking before 230PM, wrapping up 24 miles in just over 9 hours although we did sprinkle in some stretches of running.  Hiking the trail southbound, we climbed just under 4,700' with only 2,200' of descent. Given the distance, the trail is relatively easy. In comparison, other long ridge traverses I have hiked like the Great Range Traverse, Presidential Traverse, and Devil's Path climb over 9,000 vertical feet. Hiking northbound, you have significantly less climbing. If you don't mind lugging water, you can always break the hike up into an overnight trip. Now that I tackled the trail on foot, perhaps I'll plan to mountain bike the trail. Although the hike is fairly moderate, a mountain bike ride would be a little spicier.

I enjoyed this hike. Even at 24 miles, you get a pretty good bang for your buck if you are looking for views compared to most trails in West Virginia. The trail pops up on so many "best" hiking lists in the state for good reason. If you can't hike the entire trail, I recommend hiking the northern section to Chimney Top. Keep in mind a shuttle is needed to hike the entire trail if you aren't prepared for a nearly 50 mile out and back hike. This is one of the driest ridges in the East. While there is an off trail water source near the dirt road portion of the trail, be prepared to carry water. There are no streams along the length of the trail without a side trip.

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