Dolly Sods Wilderness

That time had come again.  The time for me and the family to pack our backpacks and head to the trail.  I wanted to try something a little different this time, and my searching had found an area of wilderness in West Virginia that had lots of trails and a few amazing places to hike to.

Entering Wilderness

We loaded up the truck and were on our way to The Dolly Sods Wilderness which is within the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia.  It was a Monday morning and rain was threatening.  Brandi had elected to stay home this time, but the five of us, me, Lisa, Shauni, Alex and Ginger were ready to go.

The Hiking Group

We got to the trailhead after almost four hours on the road.  The last few miles were forest service road and rather bumpy.  A sprinkle or two fell as we loaded our backs and headed down the trail.  Right away we found the trail to be challenging.

Ginger: Pack Dog Extraordinaire

If I had to pick two words to describe the trail, those words would be rocks and mud.  If I could have a third word, it would be roots.  It was a muddy, rocky, rooty trail, but we made progress.  I didn't say good progress, just progress.

The Dolly Sods Wilderness has a unique environment for the area.  People describe it as something that would typically be found in southern Canada instead of West Virginia.  There are lots of bogs and heath and when you come to a meadow, the views are very nice of the surrounding mountains.

First Views

The hiking portion of the trip was intentionally made not too long to accommodate the group.  We had 3.1 miles or so to our camping area.  The "Forks" area promised creeks, waterfalls and even a swimming hole.

The hike wasn't too bad at all.  Just a little slow, but we weren't in any hurry, so we made our way down the trail towards the creeks.  As we were crossing one of the high meadows, I had a feeling that I would make a find.  I looked in the low growth and there they were.  The smallest blueberries I have ever seen, but they were tasty and the short break to pick some was a welcome respite.

Blueberries

The last rocky hill we had to hike down ended at the creek and I pulled into the first camping area I saw.  It was right beside one of the branches of Red Creek, had some good ground for tents and trees for my hammock.  It also had a nice fire ring with some stone "chairs" set up around it.  This area is a popular place to camp, so I knew that firewood would be scarce and hard to find, but this looked like the place to set up camp for the next couple of nights.

We all dropped our packs and Ginger and I headed down the trail to check out the other campsites.  After surveying a few, I knew the first one would suit us just fine.  The quest for wood began here.

We set up camp and made our dinners after finding enough wood in the area to make a decent fire.  Dinner was hot dogs cooked over the fire.  We hadn't had more than a couple sprinkles during the hike, but you could tell the area had had some rain recently.  Everything was damp and getting the fire started and the wood dried was a constant effort, but we were successful.

Our Camp View

Lisa disinfecting water

Camp

As darkness fell, we all headed to our sleeping areas and got ready for the night.  We could hear coyotes barking in the area and the creek sounds had a soothing effect as we drifted off to sleep.

After my usual first night of dozing, waking, tossing and turning, I got up shortly after daylight around 7 am.  Today we planned to day hike to a place called the Lion's Head.  It was a rock outcropping that looked like a majestic lion looking out over the mountains.  My quick calculations said it was a little over two miles to the area, but I didn't know where the side trail went off the main trail and I also didn't know how rocky this trail would be.  I guess when the trail's name is Rocky Point, I should had at least had an inkling of an idea.

We left the tents and sleeping bags and brought our half empty packs.  I didn't want to head up with nothing at all, so I brought food, some extra clothing, fire kit, first aid, water and an emergency shelter.  You know, the basics.

The hike started out pretty nice.  As we came to the creek crossing, we came upon a group of backpackers.  They were a freshman orientation group from a college in Ohio.  We had some nice conversation, then crossed the creek and headed up the trail.  The trail was pretty nice here and I made the comment that it was so nice, thus dooming us to something not so nice up the trail.

Before long we passed another group.  This one an actual college class in back country hiking and plant identification.  They were from a small college in Garrett County, MD and looked to be having a good time.

Well, the trail continued on and started to get a might rocky.  I don't think we touched dirt for the last half mile or so.  It kept going up, but not too steep.  That is, not until the last trail that took us to the Lion's den itself.  Some of it was rock scramble and a little challenging, but we made it.  Later I would find that the hike was more like three miles, but we would survive the six miles of rocks, heat and elevation with no problems.

Rocky Trail

 Not every climb rewards you with a view, but this one did.  We arrived at the area and the last of it was walking across these huge rocks that all fit together.  Sometimes you had to go down then up and some of it was a little scary, but it was beautiful and the views were spectacular.

West Virginia, Mountain Momma

The Lion's Head

My accomplishment pose

We all scrambled around and took pictures and then ate a good lunch.  I think Ginger got stung by a bee or maybe bit by a fly on her back, because she started jumping around and scratching and then would snap at any bug that came anywhere near her.  It was a little funny to watch.

Alex on the rocks

Shauni and Ginger on the rocks

Soon it was time to head back to camp.  The hike back was more downhill than up, but it seemed to take quite a while to get back.  We gathered wood as we returned as the areas that no one camps near are full of good wood.  I carried a stack of sticks for most of the trip back, but even though I realized we had a long way to go, after carrying those sticks for a half mile or so, I wasn't going to drop them until I was dropping them at the fire ring.  

We had plenty of wood for this night's fire and we got it going and made our dinners again.  Oh, there was a short nap time in there too after our six mile trek of the day.  I was feeling tired and uncomfortable sitting on the rock chairs after dinner, so I decided to go read in my hammock for a while, which turned into another nap.  I got up as darkness fell to get the bear bags up, but the others had already accomplished that feat after some keystone cop antics which would have been fun to watch.  But they got them up and away from any critters that would want to snack on our premium backpacking food.

Morning came once again and we all got started stirring around 0800 and finally hit the trail just before 10 am.  The hike out was a reverse of the first day, starting with the rocky climb out of the valley.  There was even a little sprinkles later in the hike as we made our way out of the wilderness and back to our truck and eventually civilization.  

After driving out of the mountains and hitting the Sheetz (our new favorite place to stop on road trips) near Cumberland, we continued on home and ended another successful stint of being Outsiders.

I had a great time and always feel the most comfortable out in the woods, with a nice fire burning and the promise of floating on air with my hammock set up beside me.  Ginger seems to really love being out there with us.  I can't wait to see what our next adventure will be.

Shrooms

Last break at last stream crossing...