The Gaudineer Old Growth Trail is located just down the road from the Gaudineer Picnic Area and is an easy 0.5 mile hike. Watch your step as there are downed trees and roots sticking up in some areas. This is just a short 20 minute walk through the forest, but for those looking for a longer trail, the Allegheny Trail is connected to this trail.
The Gaudineer Picnic Area is an exquisite picnic area for anyone who loves privacy, as most of the picnic tables are secluded in the spruce old growth forest and cannot be seen from other picnic tables or from the parking lot. The entire area is known as Gaudineer Scenic Area and includes the loop trail through the forest to the overlook atop this mountain in the Monongahela National Forest, where a nice bench awaits those who come here. Not too far from this location is the Gaudineer Old Growth Trail, the subject of next week's pictures.
This is the East Fork Campground in Durbin, West Virginia. The pictures show the beauty from right next to the East Fork Greenbrier River. Temperatures this day went down into the lower 30s (F) overnight, which made spending any time in the bathrooms chilly at best. The bathrooms here are not heated, so I opted to forgo a shower since this was just an overnight stay. As you can see, there also are no parking pads, just grass. There is a historical train depot next to the campground which offers train rides. This was once a bustling small town which, like many small towns across the US, is in an advanced state of decay.
