Into the Wild - Dolly Sods Wilderness

Ahh Dolly Sods - or should I say Dolly Sogs? More on that later. First, for those of you who do not know, Dolly Sods is an incredible piece of Earth in the highlands of West Virginia. It's in the Monongahela National Forest and is a tract of land designated as a wilderness area. Views across the tundra-like, windswept, open meadows in the northern section of Dolly Sods are reminiscent of Alaskan landscapes. When you look across the Sods, it's easy to forget you're in West Virginia.

According to Wikipedia (it must be true!) because of the high altitude the climate is cool so the plants and animals are more similar to ones found about 1,600 miles farther north in Canada. Many species found here are near their southernmost range. For example, the snowshoe hare found in Dolly Sods is usually found in Canada and Alaska and is adapted to snow conditions, with its large, hairy feet which allow it to run on the snow surface. Other animals include red and gray foxes, bobcats, black bears, wild turkey, grouse, and white-tailed deer. It truly is a magical place!

Moving right along...Doug and I decided to head into the wild over the Memorial Day weekend. Our plan was to drive in Friday evening and car camp that night. On Saturday morning, we would trek into the wilderness and stay until Sunday or Monday. After discussing gear, we decided that we wouldn't backpack with a tent. Instead, we would rely on an army style "hooch". *foreshadowing* Also, in the days leading up to the trip, I told Doug we could use my car camping sleeping bags and tent for the car camping section of the trip. Doug took the items from my house on his last visit. *More foreshadowing*

Fast forward to Friday. I left work and headed to Cville to meet up with Doug. On the way there, I saw a huge storm brewing over Staunton. I raced to Cville hoping to avoid the storm. Unfortunately, we drove INTO the storm on the way back to the Valley as we made our way to Harrisonburg. It was a humdinger too! It made driving conditions pretty treacherous. Once we made it to Harrisonburg, the sky cleared out.

Fred, the GPS sent us on some backroad through Harrisonburg as we traveled towards route 33. Along the way, we saw Mennonites in their old fashioned clothing and that excited me a bit. My dad has always had a fascination with Mennonites and Amish and I guess it rubbed off one me. I find their simple way of life intriguing but also puzzling. What made them decide that they wouldn't advance any further than 1870 or whatever? Can you imagine if they made it all the way to 1983 before decided to advance? All Amish and Mennonites would have hair like Flock of Seagulls, leg warmers, and Member's Only jackets! Instead of horse and buggies, they would drive Le Cars, Yugos, and Deloreans. Somehow going to see them just wouldn't be as fun. I digress....

We headed over the mountain and I somehow managed to avoid car sickness. Twisty roads make me so sick! With clinched jaw, I tried my best to concentrate and meditate my way through it.  Once we made it over the mountain, the rest of the way was foggy and rainy. Kind of a shame because the scenery is so gorgeous. Oddly though, there was something really beautiful about the fog. I remarked that it felt as if we were driving through a dream because the world was completely white except the road.

 We passed Seneca Rocks along the way  but we didn't stop because we were in a hurry at that point to get to Dolly Sods and try to snag a campsite for the night. Red Creek Campground is the only campground at Dolly Sods and it only has 11 rustic camp sights. If you don't manage to snag one, you must muck out into the wilderness to find a place. Luckily we did manage to find one but more on that in a moment....

We finally spotted the road for Dolly Sods. I tried to warn Doug that it was a long and twisty road to the top. It starts off paved but quickly disentigrates into a dirt pig path full of pot holes. On this particular occasion, the pot holes were small lakes thanks to all the rain!

When we finally reached the top, it felt as if we immediately transported to Alaska or Canada. The deciduous forest gave way to beautiful spruces, ferns, moss, and rock. As we made our way up the road, I prayed for a site at the campground, but I also thought about "Bear Rocks" and how I desperately wanted to see them again and share it with Doug.

After an eternity on that old road, with shocks squeaking and kidneys aching, we arrived at the campground only to find one spot available--naturally, the crappiest spot in the campground. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to have a spot. We parked and as soon as I stepped out, I felt frozen! The temperature was in the 50's and the sky was still spitting a bit of rain. Dark clouds rolled over our heads but we quickly began unloading the truck and setting up our site.

First, we set up the tailgate tent and spread some things out on the picnic table. Next, we took the tent out and spread it out on the ground. Remember the foreshadowing I warned you about? Well here is the first round: So as Doug spread the tent out, he asked " Where are the poles?" to which I replied "Huh?". He asked again and we both immediately realized that we didn't have the tent poles with us. NOOOOooooooooooooooo!!!!!  I grilled Doug for a good 10 minutes about where the poles were and if he saw them when he took the tent out of the box at my house. Honestly, I truly believed that the poles were in the box and I couldn't understand why they were not with the tent. It puzzled me and disappointed me because I really wanted to sleep in a tent that night. I was also totally bummed that wood was too wet to have a campfire. Hot dogs on a stove just aren't the same as sitting around a campfire roasting them.

With daylight fading fast I insisted we hurry down to Bear Rocks so that Doug could fully grasp why I loved Dolly Sods so much. As we drove down the dirt road towards the rocks, we saw several groups of people camping off on the side. I remarked that you never saw this years ago and that Dolly Sods seemed much businer than it ever was when I used to go there as a teenager/young adult. We stopped to take photos of the setting sun before finally arriving at Bear Rocks. On a clear day you can count SIX mountain ridges in the distance. That evening you could barely see the range in front of us but what we missed in long range view was made up to us by another type of beautiful. You could see fog and the storm below us in the valley and it made for incredible sight! With the light slipping over the horizon, everything seemed a strange shade of gray. The rocks, the sky, the fog...it was magnificent!

With the light all but gone, we headed back to our campsight. We decided the only course of action was to sleep in the back of the truck on an air mattress. Since we had no campfire, we went to bed as soon as we got back. Luckily I brought a deck of cards so we were able to play a few rounds of War by the light of a lantern. Eventually, we lost interest in cards and decided to call it a night. Unfortunately, the night would be a long one for me. Doug normally does not snore but on this particular occasion, it sounded as if he was running a saw mill on his side of the air mattress. It was SO loud and I tried so hard to ignore it but eventually I couldn't. He tried propping his head up more but it didn't help so I finally accepted defeat and tried to sleep in the front of the truck. It did not work. I was cold and couldn't stretch out fully. I remember feeling a little irritated that he was the one snoring but also the one tucked in comfortably in the back. I thought, "Would a gentleman really send his woman off to find another place to sleep?" -  lol  Frustrated, I got up and decided to heard to the latrine since sleeping wasn't an option. The moon was bright but it was still really dark inside there. Using a nasty latrine in the dark just isn't fun.  On the way back I stepped into a giant mud puddle and cursed everything I could think of. I contemplated sleeping on the picnic table but it was soaked. Doug must have heard my cursing and lamentations because he asked me to get back in the bed with him. Desperate and tired, I agreed. Luckily he didn't snore the rest of the night...or maybe he did and I was just too tired to care. Either way, morning came too quickly that night.

We woke up to sunlight and the sound of other campers rustling in the campground. We got up, changed our clothes, and packed up. We decided to eat the remaining hotdogs for breakfast. No point in wasting them. After looking at the map, we decided to hike the Bear Rocks Trail. This meant heading back down to Bear Rocks and parking there. Once we arrived, we snapped off a few more shots of the rocks before taking off down the trail. I was shocked by the number of people who were heading down the trail as we started. We immediately passed and older man and a guy I assumed was his son. We later passed a group of three chubby people. The trail was a sloppy mess. I thought this would improve as the day went on but I would later find that it would actually get worse. Mud everywhere!

As we descended down the trail we encountered a boardwalk. Apparently that part of the trail was so boggy and mushy that a boardwalk was built. It was a nice change from the sloppy trail and I am sure it helped protect the environment. Later on I would see parts of the trail that looked like a cattle stampede had taken place. The boardwalk was just before a small creek (the name escapes me). There was no good way to cross it without getting feet and boots wet so I decided the best method would require taking shoes off and crossing barefoot...which is what we did. The water was cold but it was fun. As we were putting on our boots, the chubby people showed up but I guess they decided against crossing. Instead, they turned around and headed back. The old man and his son showed up just behind them and started taking off their boots. Good for them!

The next part of the trail had us climbing a knoll. We passed through some deciduous trees before reading the top. The view was gorgeous! We walked through a grassy area that overlooked a beautiful valley. It was definitely one of my favorite places on the trail and I definitely did NOT feel like we were in West Virginia.

As we reached the intersection of the Bear Rocks Trail and the Raven Ridge Trail, we encountered three dudes just hanging out in the grass chillin'. They looked so happy and so relaxed! It was around that time that we decided it was time for a rest. We had been hiking for over an hour or so and we were getting hungry. My shoulders needed a rest as well. We headed into a spruce forest and found a nice spot under a tree where we had a nice lunch of beef jerky and MRE stuff. Once we felt rested, we through our packs back on and headed on down the trail.

After another 30 minutes or so, we came to the intersection of Raven Ridge Trail and Upper Red Creek Trail. The trail ws HOPPING with people. It looked like a bus had dropped people off. Kind of disappointing and shocking. Anyway, we headed on down the trail and came to another creek crossing. This one was a muddy mess but had the distinction of being right next to a beaver dam! Very cool! Unfortunately, we were crossing around the same time was a boy scout troop and they were so loud and silly. We snapped a few pics of the dam before heading out.

The next section of the trail wasn't as enjoyable as the previous sections. I think it was because I was starting to ache pretty badly. I had too much stuff in my pack and my shoulders were rebelling. Also, the trail had been destroyed by the boy scouts and it was a task trying to avoid the giant mudholes they had created. We decided earlier in the day that we would try to make it to Red Creek before calling it a day and setting up camp. When we finally heard the roar of the creek, I felt elated! My shoulders would soon have a break! When we reached the bottom of the gorge, we were surprised to see a ton of people camping along the banks of the creek. I guess I never expected to encounter so many people in a "wilderness" area. Then again, it's a gorgeous place made popular thanks to the internet AND it was Memorial Day weekend.

We picked a lil spot at the edge of the spruce forest, not too far from the creek and started setting up camp. We decided not to bring a tent because we thought we would save weight. In hindsight, I see now that bringing stakes, bungees, and poncho liners probably equaled or exceeded the weight of a good backpacking tent...oh well, lesson learned. None the less, we set up our hooch in our site and headed over to the creek to relax a bit. We found a nice sunny rock and perched ourself upon it for a good 20 minutes or so. While we dangled our feet in the icy, water, we became the object of a strange lil' moth's affections. This lil white moth would NOT go away. No matter how many times we swatted him, he insisted on sitting on one of us. Talk about co-dependent! After lounging a bit, we decided to break the moth's heart and begin our  search for firewood. This was difficult for several reasons: 1 - all the wood was still wet. In fact, everything is wet in Dolly Sods. 2. The spot we chose was obviously a popular stop for backpackers and the forest had been picked through pretty thoroughly by previous hikers. We managed to scrape together enough wood and kindlin' for a small fire but getting it going was a nightmare. Our wet wood smoked a lot but it was difficult to get a good flame going. Doug and I played with it for a good hour and got a small blaze going but it never roared the way I wanted it. While sitting around the fire, hunger pangs kicked in and we cracked open our MREs. I settled on Chicken Fajita which was, surprisingly, not bad. Then again, I had hiked a good 6 or 7 miles with a pack on so I think anything would have seemed tasty at that point. Oddly, I didn't have any good chocolate treats in my MRE like Doug. It seemed that ALL of Doug's MREs had Reeses Pieces or M&M's or something similar. My MREs had cheese spread and crackers. I suspect my MREs had been "rat $%#*" but I won't point fingers.

After eating, we played a few rounds of Go Fish. My exhaustion kicked in around 8:00PM and I tried my best to stay up but by 8:30, I was ready to call it a day. I crawled into my sleeping back underneath our lil' hooch and said good night. I was hoping for a very restful sleep and thought I had much going for me. I was tired, I didn't sleep well the night before, and I had the sound of water rolling down the creek. A recipe for a great night's sleep, right? Wrong. I have no idea what time it was because I didn't have a watch but judging by the position of the moon in the sky, it wasn't too late...but I woke up FROZEN. I was shivering and shaking in my bag. I figured putting socks on would help so I grabbed them, threw them on, and covered up and went back to sleep. Some time later, I woke up again. This time I felt certain I was going to get hypothermia if I didn't do something. I threw on more clothes and covered myself up in the back. For the rest of the night, I kept waking up, shivering and praying to God for the sun. The moon moved so slowly in the sky and it felt like the longest night. At one point I actually felt comforted by the fact I could still hear the creek because I knew it meant things weren't down to freezing (Even though it felt like it!). I doubt I slept more than four hours that night.

I drifted into semi-consciousness when I heard voices in the camp across the trail. Since I was hidden in the depths of my sleeping bag, I wasn't aware that they were actually packing up and heading out. I wouldn't find this out until later when I walked down to the creek and saw their empty camp. The only proof that they were ever there was the smoldering embers in their fire pit. I stayed in my sleeping bag for awhile longer but finally got up when I heard Doug snapping twigs by our firepit. He was trying to light a fire but it seemed pretty pointless. I crawled out of the bag and ran down to the sunlight in a desperate attempt to warm my cold skin. All I wanted to do at that point was throw on my pack and hike. I knew that getting my blood pumping would warm me faster than anything. But we still had to take down our camp and eat.

Doug was eating his breakfast (granola and blueberries in freeze dried milk) when I came back from my foray into the sunlight. Unfortunately he used cold water. I decided to use hot water on mine and it was actually pretty tasty. It was like oatmeal and that is exactly what I needed on that cold morning. I still find it incredible that the termperature got down so low. It was easily in the 40's or lower...yet the day before and the day after were in the 80's. Strange...but just another mystery of Dolly Sods. The place changes on a dime.

After eating and packing up, we had to do ONE more creek crossing. I failed the mention that Red Creek gets it's name from the iron deposits in the water. The creek really is red! It's also cold, though not as cold as I imagined. Doug crossed first and headed up the bank to put his shoes on. I labored on the bank of the creek trying to wash the dirt off my feet before sticking my socks on. That simple task turned into a Vaudeville routine as I stumbled and lost my balance a millions times. How I avoided falling IN the water is not known...but anyone watching got a good laugh to be for certain. I managed to stick my socked foot in the water and cursed up a storm but it was better than falling in with my pack. After I managed to get my boots on, I scrambled up the bank only to hear Doug say that he can't find the truck keys and he thinks they are in the camp. I could tell he was nervous as he headed back over to the campsite. A few minutes passed before I called across the creek to inquire. He told me to start searching his stuff because he couldn't find them. In a panic, I started ripping things out of his pack right in the middle of the train. He then called back over and asked me to check inside his boots. Guess where they were? In his boots. I was relieved but hated the fact that I didn't look there before I started ripping things out of the pack. Figures.

My shoulders hurt so bad at this point and it seemed all I could think about was just reaching the end of the trail. Every step felt like someone was ripping my shoulders apart. I tried to concentrate on my footing as I slogged through the mud but it was difficult. The day before I was careful to avoid muddy holes and the like. That morning I was stepping wherever my foot landed...I just didn't care about dirty boots anymore. All I cared about was getting the pack off my back and resting my shoulders. We finally reached another creek but instead of taking my boots off, I just walked through it (and leap frogged a bit across some rocks). When we passed some familiar faces, I knew we were getting close to the campground. Our hiking trip actually took us on a loop with our ending point being the trail head near the campground we stayed in the first night.
When we finally reached the end of the trail, I pulled my pack off my left shoulder and let it dangle from my right one. It felt sooooo good to take the pack off! I suddenly had new found respect for horses, mules, oxen etc. Poor creatures!

Since the truck was approximately two miles away at Bear Rocks, we decided that I would wait with the packs while Doug walked to get the truck. I found a picnic table in an empty campsite and parked myself. I spent a good 20 minutes sleeping in the sun. It felt glorious to be warm after such a cold night! As I rested on the table, I saw a white car pull up and look at the site. Before I could get up and invite them to stay (I knew they needed a spot and just assumed I was claiming it), they drove away. 10 minutes later they made another pass and pulled in. A man jumped out and asked if I would be willing to share the spot. I told him I could do better than that and told him he could have the spot as I was just waiting for my ride. His son jumped out of the car and squealed with delight! Made me feel good to be the bearer of such good news! :)

Not too long after that Doug pulled in. We toss our packs in the back, grabbed some drinks in the cooler and headed down the road. We stopped for a few photo ops and for a geocache. As we drove out of Dolly Sods, the road looked like a used car lot - so many cars. So strange, so different, and so sad. The Dolly Sods I remembered from 1995 was an empty, quiet place with no humans. We used to see evidence of human presence ( cars and tents in the campground) but never saw any humans. I guess it was inevitable though....

So that's our adventure....We stopped in Seneca Rocks and had some lunch and a Pepsi and did a little bit of people watching. We planned on doing some additional geocaching but passed on it after missing the turn. It was just as well. We were both exhausted and ready to go home and rest. I found the poles to the tent in my closet at home. Oops.

I can't wait to go back to Dolly Sods. I'd like to visit again in the Fall but this time I'm taking a tent AND poles!