High Falls of the Cheat River, WV

We hiked to the High Falls of the Cheat River on Saturday, August 23rd. We began our hike at the High Falls Trailhead, located 4 miles south of the small community of Glady, on Forest Road 44. After crossing the foot bridge over the West Fork of the Glady, we began ascending Shavers Mountain, passing through a large open field with the West Fork Rail Trail running through it. High Falls trail soon enters the woods as it quickly begins climbing Shavers Mt. via a series of switchbacks. The climb is not bad, and the trail is in good shape and well marked. Toward the top of the mountain the trail passes through a lush forest of ferns before finally meeting up with Allegheny Trail in a saddle at the top. We stayed on the High Falls trail and began the descent down into the Shavers Fork of the Cheat river valley. This portion of the trail was rocky in places, and toward the top we were able to pick our share of blackberries. At the bottom, we finally came to the Cheat river, turning north on the railroad tracks and followed them down stream for 1/2 mile to the High Falls. There's a train depot located here so that those who are unwilling to make the trek over the mountain can also experience the beauty of the falls via the Cheat Mountain Salamander passenger train. The falls are nice, but there wasn't much water flowing over them during our visit. It was also very busy, with quite a few campers and some fishermen in the area. We returned to our vehicle using the same route. Overall, it was approximately 5 miles round trip. A nice day hike. The bottom photo is taken from the Gaudineer Scenic Area off of route 250, a few miles west of Durbin.