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

Red River Gorge Fall

A couple day hikes in the Red River Gorge

October 16 - Douglas Trail

October 21 - Sky Bridge for sunrise & Rough Trail for the rest

I almost never see the sunrise in The Gorge because I rarely camp there and I don't wake up early enough to drive there in time. But, I woke up at 5 am and could not go back to sleep. I was already planning on a day hike, so I just left a lot earlier than I normally would. 

Early light on Sky Bridge

I then drove over to Chimney Top Road to hike a part of the Rough Trail that I had not seen in a couple years. 

I saw a 4 foot rattlesnake slithering off into the woods. It was too far back to get a photo, but he did rattle at me as I tried to get close enough for a photo. A minute later this frog freaked me out when it jumped right by my foot :)

And then a minute after leaving the frog, I saw a tiny movement on the trail. It turned out to be one of the smallest snakes I've ever seen. 

For perspective, note the leaf stem near the body. The snake was the size of a strand of linguini or thick spaghetti. I thought it was interesting that as I took some photos he would open his mouth and rear back like he was going to strike. I would have thought that a new snake would be more likely to hide but I guess not. 

November 13 - Swift Camp Creek