Dolly Sods

Dolly Sods (WV)
7/30 - 8/2/23 (3 nights)
2023 Bag Nights: 10

CalTopo says about 27 miles and 3000' of elevation

Book: The City and The City by China Miéville (I clicked on the wrong title on my Kindle and decided that maybe I was "supposed" to read this book on this trip. Ended up being an awesome backpacking book. Slightly weird and highly recommended.)

My wife took the kids for the annual grndparents visit. Normally, I would have headed for the Sierra, but I had a trip planned for Yellowstone in another week. So what to do while I'm home alone? Haven't been to the Dolly Sods in a while.

I started at the Red Creek Trailhead about 3pm with the idea of a couple miles to camp. I had never been up the Little Stonecoal Run Trail, so that sounded like a good way to start. All of the trails from Red Creek gain a lot of elevation, some of them do it all in a short distance. The Little Stonecoal gains about 1000' in about 1.5 miles, so a good start to the trip. 

Crossing Red Creek on a beautiful day

I had a pretty good idea where I was aiming for the first nights camp and a couple hours later, I was there. 

Night 1 camp

Remains from logging

Camp visitor

Stonecoal Run

Some reflections in the creek ...

... and clouds in the sky

More reflections

Next morning, heading north

Large beaver dam on the edge of the trail, no signs of the builders

Near a favorite lunch spot overlooking Canaan Valley

Along Dobbin Grade Trail, this lake wasn't hear the last time I passed through ...

... The beavers have been working. Someone has routed the trail across the top

I followed a new to me user trail up the ridge to a dry camp and then fetched water down the hill. 

Night 2 camp

I was hoping for a nice sunset, but the lack of clouds made it not very photogenic

The next morning was very hazy, but I did not think too much about it. 

Canaan Valley

Blueberries

Cabin Mountain

Very hazy, a little weird

Old road around Dobbin Slashings

Back on the Dobbin Grade Trail and a little bit of mud

Dobbin Grade Trail has lots of stretches like this

Night 3 camp above Upper Red Creek

About this point I realized that the haze was smoke, probably from Canadian wildfires, maybe a good sunset?

Way to hazy for a nice sunset, the sun just sort of disappeared as it got close to the ridge. 

Next day back to the car and then drive home and get ready for Yellowstone

Greenbrier River Trail

 Greenbrier River Trail

July 10 - 12, 2023 (2 nights)

2023 Bag Nights: 7

With Chris, Will and Brock

We had big plans to ride to the end of the trail over a couple days (about 75 miles), stay in on the cabins in the state park and then ride back. Will was probably the only person who was actually up to the plan, the rest of us ran into the problems of sore asses and tired legs from not enough time on a bike. So, our plans changed.

Almost ready to roll

The trail is a really nice ride

Lots of flowers along the trail

There are views of the river, but a lot the trail is well away from the river.

We ended up riding about 30 miles the first day with a side trip to get beer for camp.

Day 2

Some of the crew were hoping for breakfast in Seebert, the thought was is wasn't too far from camp (about 15 miles). But everyone was moving a lot slower today so it took a long time and then there wasn't any breakfast. 

First tunnel on the trail (Droop Mountain)

The tunnel is long enough to need a headlamp in the middle.

We got to Marlington for lunch and decided that there was no way we were going to make it another 25 miles to Cass State Park for our reservation. I probably would have abandoned the reservation and just had a shorter day, but the decision was made to figure out how to retrieve the truck and drive up to Cass. We were able to rent a car from the local Chevy dealer and fetch the truck. Then up to Snowshoe Ski Resort for dinner and then the reserved cabin. 

Cabin/house at Cass State Park

It didn't make sense to ride anymore, so we called it quits and headed home. Not what we planned, but a fun couple of days. Note to self, spend more time on the bike before planning a 150 mile bike trip.