CB photos: Fall colors in the WV Highlands 10/4-10/06 2013

Headed out to Canaan Valley to do some biking and hiking for the weekend and to take in the fall colors.
Not much color in the Va mountains as of 10/04 but things started to come to life after crossing into WV on a scenic rt.

Arrived at the Canaan Ski area and bought a 4 hr scenic lift ride ticket for $8 . Managed to get about 4 rides up in before close .They let you bring a bike up if you sign a waiver .
The view was worth turning around for.

Figured I could cover more ground on the bike than hiking .Accessing the backcountry areas through the top of the lift accessed trail to Weiss Knob. Shes a rocky buger for the first 100 yards or so

Helmet cam shot. Starting with dropping down from the top of the knob

About 1 1/2 miles or so from there to the top of Bald Knob
Pretty amazing view with really vivid colors .

Not far from here is the scenic wonderfully wooded forest of the Whitegrass area

And down into their trail system

Also poked around in the Dolly Sods for a bit and then back in WG . Actually past peak color on the Eastern side of the Ridge. One could easily explore this vast area for weeks , its huge and spread out

Next day wanted to enter WG from the Timberline side. They wanted $10 for a single ride up the lift . I opted to peddle a couple miles up the Salamander trail instead of riding the squeaky slow orange popsicle chair up . About 30 minutes up hill with breaks to get to the access to the sods .

Not much of a mtn biker so these cross country rides with only moderate elev changes are right up my alley .

Entering the WG area and back into the vivid colors.

This pic is 1/2way through a run down the mtn on my snowboard after I hiked up to this area last winter to snowboard under amazing conditions with 28 inches of natural snow cover on the ground. It was a pretty tough mile 1/2 hike in deep snow. After exploring the area this fall it has me seriously contemplating making a splitboard for easier access . WG is a cross country ski area w/ very nice manicured glade runs. Some of which are on a great downhill fall line with about a 1200 ft vertical drop from top to bottom.