Tips for Winter Hiking

Last Saturday, my brother Jonathan and I did something we had never done before. With several inches of freshly fallen snow on the ground and predictions for more in the forecast, we jumped into the 4-wheel drive Envoy and headed for Coopers Rock State Forest in the mountains around Bruceton Mills, WV. The chance to get a good workout while doing some West Virginia winter landscape photography was something I had been hoping to do for a long time.

The park was a completely different place than what I remembered it being like in the summer years ago. Instead of driving out to the famous rock outcropping that overlooked the Cheat River, we had to hike 3 miles in and 3 miles out on snow covered trails. What a fun day!

Here are a few things we learned from our memorable afternoon excursion:

• Most park roads are closed during winter. This should be common knowledge, but I don’t go to parks in the winter very often. Just prepare to do a lot of walking.
• Calculate exact distances before you set a timetable. When I was planning the trip, all I read was, “During the winter months, you must park at the entrance parking lot and walk in.” No problem, park entrances are close to the main attraction, right? Well, not really. It wasn’t until I had arrived at the entrance parking lot that I realized it was three miles to our destination. Three miles isn’t far, but it is a long way to walk for an afternoon excursion.
• Plan more time than you expect. Things like what I just describe happen more often than not.
• Dress in layers. This is also common knowledge, but especially when doing photography. While hiking, it’s easy to stay warm, but while composing pictures and waiting for the right lighting, you cool down quickly.
• Drink the water you bring. When it’s cold, you tend to not get as thirsty, but it’s just as important to drink water to keep from getting dehydrated.
• Bring a map and follow it closely. Trails are hard to follow in the snow so check to make sure you are going the right direction at every fork or questionable passage. Though it’s easy to retrace your steps, it’s always more convenient not to have to.
• Hike with a companion! On an adventure such as this, it’s not hard to find volunteers, but the old saying that “two are better than one” is especially true when normal hazards are magnified by cold weather, snow, and ice.
• It gets dark quick in the winter. It was a rare opportunity to shoot a winter sunset at Coopers Rock, so we stayed at the overlook until the sun set. This meant hiking part of the way back in the dark even though it was only 5:30 in the afternoon.

Having learned these pointers in combination with the photography and hiking, our trip was a very positive experience! I can’t wait to do something like it again.