SLATYFORK, W.VA: The Tea Creek Backcountry provides some of the best mountain biking in West Virginia.
The rugged backcountry near Slatyfork in Pocohontas County offers steep mountain slopes, lush forests of hemlock, hardwoods and even some red spruce and rippling mountain streams.
It is adjacent to the Cranberry Wilderness, a federally designated wild area of 48,000 acres.
The remote 5,400-acre Tea Creek Backcountry features a network of 17 trails covering 45 very wild miles for non-motorized use. The rides range from easy to very technical and difficult. Three Adirondack shelters are located in the backcountry for overnight stays.
The Gauley Mountain Trail is one of those trails and a personal favorite over the years. It has a special feeling.
It is an easy-to-moderate single-track trail along an old logging-era railroad grade with some pretty spectacular scenery. Half sits on the western side of the mountain; half lies on the eastern side.
It is a relatively smooth but narrow dirt trail with plenty of rocks and roots at elevations of nearly 4,500 feet in the Monongahela National Forest.
The Gauley Mountain Trail was mostly hard-packed dirt and grass until recent improvements. It is surprisingly flat for West Virginia.
The trail (Forest Service Trail No. 438) stretches 5.4 miles along a ridge from Mine Road (Road 219/1; it also becomes Forest Service Road No. 24) south to the Highland Scenic Highway (state Route 150). That makes a round-trip of more than 10 miles, a very nice half-day trip for bikers. It’s a 5½-hour drive from Akron.
There are great vistas from atop Gauley Mountain. You will pedal through dwarf spruce groves, hardwoods and yellow birch, tons of ferns and thickets of rhododendrons, and along the edge of wooded coves that are the headwaters of local streams.
It is known for its cool mountain air and, even in summer, only a few insects. That’s a mountaintop blessing.
Small crushed rocks have been added to the always-wet trail to eliminate mud holes and to boost flow for riders. That is an improvement from my last visit to the Gauley Mountain Trail years ago when the trail looked like a streambed in spots.
The work was done in 2011 and 2012 and included trail repairs, drainage and parking improvements. Rocks, stumps and roots were removed and rolling dips, puncheons and turnpikes were added. The trail was also shifted in places, and leveled to maintain a grade of 3 to 5 percent.
Gauley Mountain Trail offers numerous connections to other trails within the Tea Creek Backcountry and lots of loops are possible. Options include Tea Creek, Bear Pen Ridge, Boundary, Right Fork, Turkey Point, Red Run and Tea Creek Mountain.
Bicyclists can also pedal gated roads and old roadbeds in the national forest.
Tea Creek is popular with not only mountain bikers but also hikers, backpackers, anglers in search of trout, snowshoers and cross-country skiers. The area gets 150 to 200 inches of snow annually.
The best way to access the Tea Creek Backcountry is from the campground off state Route 150 (the Highland Scenic Highway) or from the trailheads off Mine Road and Gauley Mountain Road. The scenic highway is not plowed so getting to the campground may be difficult in winter.
The campground with 28 sites is off Forest Service Road No. 86 where an old logging camp once stood. It is flanked by three mountains: Tea Creek, Sugar Creek and Turkey mountains.
The Tea Creek, Tea Creek Mountain, Bannock Shoals and Williams River trails all begin at the campground.
Tea Creek is a pretty stream with pools and cascades. It flows for seven miles before emptying into the Williams River. Its namesake color comes from tannin in the mountain-top red spruce.
The Williams River Trail is a favorite trail for skilled and veteran bicyclists in the 20.5-mile Props Run Loop Trail. Mountain Bike Magazine called Props Run one of the best downhills in the United States.
It can be ridden several ways. One way is to begin at the Elk River Touring Center parking lot with 1,900 vertical feet of climbs and descents. You will climb Gauley Mountain before you begin a 9.9-mile downhill run on a tight, wooded singletrack back to the center off U.S. 219 in Slatyfork.
The Elk River center offers lodging, meals, bike rental, shuttles, guided tours, special mountain biking camps, festivals and instruction. For information, 304-572-3771 or 866-572-3771 or www.ertc.com. Other bike rentals and services are available.
Gauley Mountain is the birthplace of the North Fork of the Gauley River. The Gauley remains one of my all-time favorite paddling rivers as a retired raft guide.
The 105-mile Gauley River is one of the prime whitewater streams in the United States. It merges with the New River at Gauley Bridge to form the Kanawha River that flows into the Ohio River.
Rafters flock to the Gauley with its 100 rapids in the fall, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers releases water from Summersville Dam to lower the reservoir for the winter. That provides a guaranteed flow for paddlers.
Grass-roots groups in West Virginia are pushing for the creation of what they are calling the Birthplace of Rivers National Monument. The area in the southern part of the Monongahela federal forest around the Cranberry Wilderness is the birthplace of the Gauley, Cranberry, Cherry, Williams, Elk and Greenbrier rivers.
Such a designation would provide more federal protection than a national forest can provide, say supporters like the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. The proposal is being supported by a broad statewide coalition of communities, businesses, sportsmen, river groups and recreation and conservation groups.
The fear of lumbering and natural gas drilling is part of what’s pushing the effort that began in 2012. The proposal would better safeguard the areas around the Cranberry Wilderness.
The plans call for the restoration of trout streams and high-altitude red spruce forests, while boosting resource preservation and backcountry recreation. It is seen as the best way to protect and preserve the special parts of the Monongahela forest. It would honor the area’s history, landscape and culture and could provide a financial boost of $5.2 million a year and 143 jobs for the region, supporters say.
The proposal would only protect land already owned by the U.S. Forest Service. That includes the Cranberry Wilderness, the Tea Creek Backcountry, Cranberry Glades, Falls of Hills Creek, the Highland Scenic Highway and an old federal prison site.
For more information, go to www.birthplaceofrivers.org.
Much of the land involved lies off the Highland Scenic Highway, one of the most picturesque routes in West Virginia. It runs 43 miles through the Monongahela National Forest from Richwood east and then north to U.S. 219 north of Marlinton.
For U.S. Forest Service information on the Tea Creek Trails, call 304-799-4334 or go to www.fs.fed.us/r9/mnf.
For tourist information, call 800-336-7009 or go to www.naturesmountainplay ground.com. For rafting information, call 800-CALLWVA or visit www.wv tourism.com/riversports.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.