Dolly Sods w/ Kids take 2

Dolly Sods Wilderness (WV)
June 16 - 19 2019 (3 nights)
2019 bag nights: 7

After the success of last year's joint backpacking trip, Doug and I again met at the Dolly Sods to take the kids out for a couple of nights. Unfortunately, the weather forecast did not look good. I probably would have bailed if it was just me and my kids. Our big hope was that any rain would hold off on the first day until bedtime after that we would just see what happens.

Two things to note

#1, my oldest now has a REI kids pack instead of the day pack last year.

#2, I left my camera at home. Probably better since I did not use it much last year, but my cell phone takes crappy photos and now it has a crack across the lens, so even worse photos. 

So last year we did a loop that basically went through the middle of the Sods. This year I wanted a little bit more of the big open views of the north. So our plan was to take the Blackbird Knob Trail to the Left Fork area for the first night and then loop up the Rocky Ridge Trail and over the Dobbin Grade Trail to a campsite on the Left Fork that I found in March. We were going to stay there for two nights and just dayhike a loop up and around the Northwest corner of the Sods. And then back to the cars on the 4th day. I always forget how hard hiking can be for little legs so we ended up modifying this a little bit.

Mountain Laurel were everywhere

Grey skies as we start hiking, but very pretty.

1st night's camp near the Left Fork of Red Creek. This was were we stayed on night 3 last summer. Kids in the tent and me in my hammock. It did not rain until about midnight and then it poured for a bit.

But everything blew over by morning.

More mountain laurel

Still grey skies, but no rain yet

Flame Azaleas, only saw one patch of these on the Rocky Ridge Trail

Near our camp for night #2, the mosquitos were a bit annoying, but not too bad.

Next morning it spritzes a little bit on us as we were packing up, Doug put his pack cover on, kids have rain jackets. We decided that the kids would end up miserable if we made them do a 6 mile dayhike in the rain and then 5 mile on the last day with packs, so we packed up and continued east on Dobbin Grade to the Upper Red Creek Trail and then took that south to the Blackbird Knob Trail with the idea of a 2ish mile hike out on the last day.

The Dobbin Grade Trail is nice in parts ...

... and very wet in parts

I did not take a photo of the part near the beaver dam where the trail was almost knee deep water.

This part of Dobbin Grade is nice as it approaches the Upper Red Creek Trail

Even though no one mentions it online, the Upper Red Trail is just as bad in places as the Dobbin Grade Trail that everyone complains about. My muddy feet after a couple hours on the Dobbin Grade and Upper Red Creek Trail

My youngest's shoes at the same point, so much mud the velcro on her shoes stopped working. My oldest actually had a shoe sucked off her foot by the mud on the Upper Red Trail.

We setup for the third night where one of the tributaries of the Red Creek crosses the Blackbird Knob trail. We were happy that it had never rained, but it still looked like a possibility.

While scrounging for firewood, the kids found a salamander, they all checked it out/passed it around and then complained when I said to let it go.

No rain, but under the tarp for some reason, I think they might be playing a card games

The area is heavily used, but very pretty.

Woke up the next day, time to head for the car, no rain, but the trail is still muddy

It ended up only raining the first night and then very light sprinkles a couple other times. Mostly perfect weather, I'm glad we ignored the weather forecast.

Everyone online complains about the Dobbin Grade Trail, but there are others that are just as muddy in places, i.e. the first mile of so of the Blackbird Knob Trail and the Upper Red Creek Trail. Once they got used to the wet/mud, the kids had no problems even though this was basically a 4 day trip with wet muddy feet the whole time. With that said, I think we are ready for a different part of WV for next summer.

Dolly Sods Spring

Dolly Sods Wilderness
March 11 - 13 2019 (2 nights)
2019 bag nights: 2

I had permission to get away for 4 nights over my spring break. The weather looked cold and dry in the Dolly Sods, so I decided to head back there with the hope of nice views and some stars. I assumed that FR 75 was gated for the winter and I did not want to ford Red Creek from the south, so I decided to enter from the west side via Cannan Valley Wildlife Refuge.

I parked at the bottom of Cabin Mountain at the first parking area in the Refuge since I was sure what the rest of the road was like. It was a pleasant walk in the sun, but I could have parked a little further up the road.

Higher up is this parking area. I guess you would need to stop in the Refuge office for a permit to park here, I'd rather just walk the extra mile :)

Higher up, the road is blocked and turns to trail.

I had decided for the first night to head north and camp somewhere along the Dobbin Grade Trail, so when the old road ended, I continued on the Rocky Ridge Trail. Unfortunately, the wind was gusting in the 30 - 40 MPH range and it was about 30 degrees, so cold and uncomfortable. I did not linger on the ridge for long. I passed one woman walking her dog, I assumed she hiked up from the houses below the ridge.

I got to the Dobbin Grade Trail and turned east. I had never been on this part of the Dobbin Grade Trail, so I was uncertain if I would be as wet/muddy as parts of the trail further east. It was very wet, but mostly frozen, so I managed to keep my feet dry.

I got to where the trail crosses the Left Fork of Red Creek and found a place to set up and hopefully be out of the wind a bit and still able to see stars.

The sunset was nice, but the clouds got thicker, the wind got higher and I decided to crawl into my tent on the early side.

Next morning I woke up to another beautiful, but very windy day. A little bit of exploration in the area for future trips and I found this weird "artifact", no idea what it is/was.

Up onto the ridge via the Beaver View Trail, it was very windy with gusts about 40mph. I ended up hiding behind a large tree for lunch and decided that I would head south to a more protected area for the night.

You can see the ice on the trail, I was glad at times that I had hiking poles to keep from slipping too much. Unfortunately, I could not avoid the water today and my feet ended up pretty wet. Normally I don't mind, but I had a new pair of socks and they did not dry as fast as my usual ones do. I ended up with blister on both feet that were pretty uncomfortable.

So after lunch, I continued on the Beaver View Trail to the intersection with the Raven Ridge Trail and then followed that south to the Upper Red Trail and on to the "forks" area on Red Creek.

I aimed for the "forks" area, knowing it would be a little more sheltered, but still allow views of the sky. When I got there, I set up camp and went to look for firewood. Someone must have been really bored, because there was a huge amount of processed wood near one of the fire rings.

I also found a beer, with a relatively recent (~6 months) bottling date. It did not look like it had ever been opened, so I assumed it was left for me. Luckily I have a small bottle opener in my first aid kit, so I was prepared :) and the beer tasted great.

I took some photos of the creek and generally just relaxed and then started a fire with all that nice wood.

This is higher up the creek before you get to the forks

Right around the corner from my campsite.

Crescent Moon while waiting for the stars.

The stars finally came out, but I had already decided that I was going to hike back to the car vs. extra nights because my feet were really bothering me. That also meant that I had extra bourbon to drink and a campfire to enjoy. All of that means that my star photos did not come out that great :)

The next morning the creek was still there and still pretty. I had to immediately ford the creek which meant wet feet and it proved that I had made the correct decision to hike out today.

Old railroad spike in the middle of the Red Creek Trail

I followed the Red Creek Trail for a short distance and then followed the Breathed Mountain Trail back towards the old forest road. Parts of the Breathed Mountain Trail pass through wet but pretty meadows. I enjoyed what was a new trail to me, but the blisters made me happy to be heading towards my car.

Good trip, just not what I planned because of the blisters. No more hiking with those socks :)

Dolly Sods w/ Kids

7/18 - 7/21/18 (3 nights)
2018 bag nights: 21

My wife's brother asked at the beginning of the summer if I was interested in meeting up in the Dolly Sods this summer with our kids (his oldest is 6). I had already been planning on taking my three (5, 7, 9) on a trip or two, so I said sure.

We met at the trailhead next to the campground and headed down the trail. Note the pack on my daughter's back, I had visions of this being a great pack if the weight was kept low. It ended up being terrible. Also note my camera near my hip, I barely touched it and would have been happier if I had left it and the tripod at home.

Beautiful views as we head down the Blackbird Knob trail towards the intersection with the Red Creek Trail.

We got to the "forks" area on Red Creek and there was only one other person in the area. I felt kind of bad for bringing 4 noisy kids into his solitude, but I was happy that there weren't a lot of other people.

The next day we headed towards the Lions Head, but the Rocky Point Trail was very slow going for the little legs, so we ended up saving it for next time. It was still a great hiking day.

We set up camp off the Big Stonecoal Trail

There were a bunch of deer in the area that were not afraid at all. The kids had fun chasing them though the woods for a little bit.

Just to remember that it is not all positive memories :) At about 10pm, the kids were all in bed and Doug and I were enjoying a little bourbon when I heard noises from my tent. It sounded like someone was having a nightmare, so I wandered over just in time to unzip the tent and have my five year old empty her guts just outside the tent. Only a little bit got on her and her sleeping bag. So, I got her cleaned up and gave her my sleep shirt and quilt and she went back to sleep while I tried to get puke off the outside of her sleeping bag. No issues the rest of the night and she woke up happy in the morning.

Another beautiful day for hiking, but a little bit warmer.

We set up camp for our third and last night off the Blackbird Knob Trail

The forecast was for rain in the morning and the sky doesn't look promising.

We woke up the next morning to grey skies but no rain. Time to head for the car, ended up getting lucky and never got wet.

In the end, we covered about 15 miles and other than the failure with the kids pack and the barfing, everything went great. The kids had a great time and were mostly good hikers/campers and I enjoyed having another adult to help herd my kids. I suspect we will do a similar trip next summer.