Update: As of January 2018, camping is no longer allowed along the Camp 70 Road in Little Canaan Wildlife Management Area.  More information.  

The Camp 70 Road is a fantastic short bike ride along the Blackwater River.

Adam Says…

This is a great ride on a multi-purpose road.  We had heard about this road being a good biking road from a local bike shop employee.  You are likely to see some people hiking or biking on this road.  Despite a lot of potholes, the road does run very smoothly if you keep your eyes open.  The road goes along the Blackwater River and eventually ends right at the river.  If you go to the very end, you will see a small blue-blazed trail.  Continue this along the river for about .1 mile and you will come up to a swinging bridge.  This bridge does look a little sketchy, but I convinced myself that the water wasn’t that deep if it all fell apart.  I thought at one point there was one nail holding the entire thing together.  There are a couple of geocaches along this trail While I was reviewing the geocache log for Blackwater Swinging Bridge Cache, I discovered some friends I met through geocaching found it the day before.

Here is a list of the geocaches on the trail:

• Canaan Camping Cache
• Blackwater Swinging Bridge Cache

Christine Says…

So, we didn’t have great weather… this is still such a pretty, short bike ride – definitely a must-do when visiting the Canaan Valley area.   There are so many gorgeous views of the Blackwater River along the way.  The road is lined with popular fishing spots.  There is even a deck built at one point to allow wheelchair access to fishing. The road surface has many potholes, but it’s easily handled by any mountain or hybrid bike.  The ride out might be ever-so-slightly uphill, because the ride back is super-fast and makes for a fun race.  🙂

Trail Notes

• Distance – About 7 miles
• Elevation Change – insignificant
• Difficulty – 1.5
• Trail Conditions – 3.5 Despite some potholes and larger gravel, this one is in good shape.
• Views – 1. No views unless you count the river views
• Waterfalls/streams -3.5. Nice views of the Blackwater River
• Wildlife – 1.5. Mostly just deer in the area
• Ease to Navigate – 4. The road is easy to navigate, but I dropped it down a point in case you were trying to find the swinging bridge.  The trail is not the best marked out there, but just follow the river.
• Solitude – 1. This road is extremely popular with bikers, campers, and fishers.

Directions to trailhead: The road starts behind the Shop and Save in Davis, WV.  There is plenty of parking right along the road.