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(This is about 1.5 miles along Pendleton County Route 2 beyond the bridge where US Route 220 crosses the South Branch.) Then the plains themselves were violently uplifted and broken. Be sure to watch in HD. This website uses cookies to enhance your experience and analyze performance and traffic on our website. Livestock, especially swine and sheep, were typically free-ranging and huckleberries and chestnuts were harvested from the wooded mountainsides in quantity. The high, dry crests of North Fork Mountain support the largest pine barrens of the Central Appalachianshundreds of acres of gnarled pines dwarfed by the harsh conditions and by thousands of years of recurring wildfires. Chelsey and I went first down the river while Ray fished and followed us along the road. Access point #6 Difficulty: Easy Average duration: 1 to 2 nights. Most of the forest soil in West Virginia is naturally acidic, only growing a certain range of plants. About two miles downstream of the entrance, the river bifurcates to create the low-lying Hermit Island (4.5 acres), formerly a popular picnicking ground and site of a two-storey log cabin that served as a community center ("Calhoun's Community Camp") from 1928. The dry, prairie-like areas along the upper knobs and ridges of the Canyon are home to a variety of typically western plants such as prairie flax. When introduced into a new area, stiltgrass blankets the ground and suffocates other plant life that would ordinarily grow close to the ground. The details of this page are driven by our community. This landscape contains some of the most stunning beauty found in our state, from the 11-mile long Smoke Hole gorge along the South Branch of the Potomac, to the dramatic, 4000+-ft. peaks on North Fork Mountain. This stretches along the crest of North Fork Mountain from U.S. 33 (in the south) to where the Smoke Hole Road (28/11) nears State Route 28 just west of Petersburg (in the north). The run on Saturday was low, but not intolerably scrapey considering we were paddling mostly unloaded canoes, and we had to pick our lines carefully to avoid the shallowest of the gravel bars. The misty fog that often lies along the river as it runs through the "hole" makes the name appropriate. If you are planning a trip to Smoke Hole Canyon, be sure to consider some of the following: Are dogs allowed? White-tail deer were also exterminated from the area, as they were from the entire state, by about 1900. No trips have been created that use this paddling location.