Little Blackwater River

Big Cove to Forks                                             6.0 miles

Class           Grad                    Size (Area/Volume)                  Scene/Pol              Level

    A                 5                                  Tiny(/)                                A/A                          

Topographic Maps: Davis WVa, Mt. Storm Lake WVa

County Maps: Tucker WVa

Description: The Little Blackwater winds down the center of the wildest part of the Canaan Valley. Treeless and windswept, the dark river offers panoramic vistas of vast bogs, island meadows and encircling mountains. There is nothing like it in the Central Appalachians. Nowhere is a house visible and the water is clear.

At the head of the Big Cove, in the curve of Brown and Cabin Mountains, three bogs join to form the Little Blackwater. 500 feet later in the backwaters of a beaver pond, the stream is deep enough to paddle. No other river is canoeable in West Virginia so close to its source. The one and half miles is less of a stream, but more of a chain of broad beaver ponds, each with its dam and lodge. The scenery is unique and outstanding.

Below the last beaver dam the stream winds through a narrow gap in the hills. The channel is shallow. This area with its meadows and spruce groves is very much like Canada. Beyond the hills the river meanders along an immense sphagnum bog and again drops over beaver dams, many of which are runnable.

Near Camp 72 the river is 10 feet wide and 1 foot deep. This gradually increases to 30 feet wide and 4 feet deep when it joins the Blackwater. (Reported 1979)

Difficulties: none except the beaver dams

Shuttle: None. The best approach is to paddle up the Little Blackwater from the Forks. Yellow Creek on the Blackwater is the most convenient starting point. The low gradient and lack of logs or rapids make for easy upriver travel.

Gauge: N/A

Normal Wet Period: Normally runnable all spring up to Camp 72 and in the chain of ponds. The unusual geologic structure of the valley helps to make this stream canoeable longer than one would expect from its size.