Dolly Sods

“I was planning a family car camping trip with my son and his family. We were talking about someplace in Pa., but I suggested the Dolly Sods instead. Without batting a lash, they both agreed, "Dolly Sods!"
Happy Happy Joy Joy!
So, a day hike down Red Creek is on the agenda, at long last!”

“have fun, i'd like to get down there. i hear the quehanna trail in northcentral PA is similar to dolly sods.”

“I will have to make a note in my trail journal to check that one out. Thanks jmitch. Was on the Sods in early May, wrestling with the weather gods (and losing, but what the heck) and I'm planning some light backpacking there in the fall. But I can't get too much of the Sods. Not ever nohow. It's the leaving the Sods part that sticks in my craw.”

“here's my source:

http://www.patc.net/hiking/destinations/quehanna.html”

“And the mud too?”

“No Tom, the mud doesn't stick in my craw, although it does stick everywhere else. But that's quality mud, it sure is!”

“Well the pix of elk do it for me. Gotta check that one out, although it probably won't happen this year since I've mapped out what's left of vaca time with others. Heck, even his tent looks like my late, lamented Monongahela Hilton, rest its nylon soul.”

“Hi. The name Dolly Sods threw me, so I looked it up. It looks great. I found that:

Nine trails crisscross this Wilderness. They are relatively rough and wet most of the year. This is easily the most popular Wilderness in West Virginia, and the amount of foot traffic proves it. Maximum group size is 10

The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club says: The Sods is unique in that ALL the trails are worth hiking.

I especially like the pictures of Red Creek Canyon.
Other interesting pictures are here and Dolly Sods North. Thanks for introducing me to something new, interesting and exciting.”

“What is truly unique about the place is that it's a plateau roughly 4,000 feet up behind the Allegheny Front. This governs the weather, which is about what you'd get a few hundred miles north. The topography, for the elevation, is mild since the plateau was just beyond the zone of deformation that produced the folded Appalachians. But stream erosion is at work and just south of the Sods Roaring Plains, another plateau formation, is cut up and partially isolated by deep stream valleys.
Also unique are some forms of wildlife. There is apparently a sizable coyote population up there and woodcock waltz their way all over the place beginning in June.
The plateau is only about four miles wide, making out and backs easy. Bogs are found all over the place, including some where beaver have been at work.
Up until about 20 years ago, farmers grazed sheep up there. The sheep are gone, but the meadows where they grazed remain. Ultimately, the spruce, cut down in the timber boom, will return everywhere but the spaghnum bogs and rocks.
It's just a special place - unique and well worth the time. It's awesome when fronts roll through and the wind howls across the plain.
And then there's blueberry time. Oh my!
Saw some folks up there in early May and they wondered when the flame azalea blooms. "It's still winter up here; they don't bloom until mid or late June," I told them. They looked crestfallen. June is when spring comes, and summer is a week later. Fall begins in late August and by mid October it's winter already. Or does it just seem that way?”

“nowslimmer, you hit the best website around for Sods pix. Jonathan's done one heck of a job with that site. Amazing.”

“Jonathan Jessup updates his photo page often.

Have you guys heard of a book called, "Tumult On The Mountain" ?

The book is about the bad old days of the timber thieves around 100 years ago.
The rivers must have looked like chocolate milk for years with all the unchecked erosion.

THose plateaus were once covered with soil and ancient forest.

Have you all heard about "mountain top removal" ?
The Bush administration is trying to help approve it as a legitimate coal mining method.”

“I've heard of it and hate it and have written letters to that affect.”

“I know of a lonesome flame azalea(rhododendron calendulaceum) up on the Roaring Plains.

My middle son(16) and I were up there Summer Solstice '00 at around 4,600 feet.

This was my first sight of one and it caught my peripheral vision as a bank of thick fog rolled away to my right.

The bright orange startled me as for a moment I thought I saw flame.

Are there more of these beauties on Dolly Sods?”

“I meant that about mountain top removal.”

“Oh yeah, that's what I thought you meant.

This kind of reasource extraction is old hat.
They are typically financed froim New York, as they were 100 years ago.
The operations and production are not so much set up to satisfy a tangible demand but to grab the goods before some other hog gets to it.
They can "create" markets for their products through sales pressure......salesmen, "the patron saints of capitalism".

In the "boom years", about 100 years ago when the West Virginia forests were REAL old growth, it was very common practice for the timber operations to declare bankruptcy when their area were played out.

What is now the Otter Creek Wikderness(20,000 acres) took about 17 years to finish off.......@1914.

The Otter Creek Boom and Timber Co. salvaged all the equipment they could and went "bankrupt" leaving the "woodhicks"(some of my able-bodied kin) holdin' the bag.

It was that kind of boom and bust that landed my father's family in Washington, D.C...........grandpa was a plumber/carpenter.”

“Yes Tom, there are more flame azalea on the Sods, although my recollection from the one trip when I caught them was that they were pretty much all lonesome soldiers. But they're still worth seeing, and they don't seem to turn up anywhere else in my travels.”

“After seeing that beauty I asked a Botany Professor here about it and he told me it was probably Rhododendron Calendulaceum.

I'll be there THIS Summer Solstice........dancing naked around the flame azalea.

I might even meet Jonathan Jessup.”

“He's leading a Roaring Plains hike sometime in June or July. I apparently just missed him somehow in May.”

“Jonathan Jessup is leading a hike on the roaring plains on July 5-7 (Fri-Sun), doing the Canyon's rim trail: see www.jonathanjessup.com/rp-set1.html
I am heading up there in 2 weeks for a trip, should be a great time.”

“Jonathan must go "out there" every couple of weeks.

I'm planning to make it to Dolly Sods for my June obligation.

Someone I met up on The Plains called that trail "The Rock Cairn Trail".....Canyon Rim, that is.

I followed the rock cairns for a while on my "Great Getting Lost On Roaring Plains" trip November '96.

How about July 4-7?
Any place but the beach!”

“Getting lost on Roaring Plains? There are worse fates in the world, I'm sure, but it would not be all that easy since the Plains is a not too wide ridge with steep drops on either side. Several years back I walked up to Porte Crayon, but before I made it I had walked out there in late April intending to strike out for Porte Crayon. When I got to the meadow where the Roaring Plains Trail becomes the Flatrock Plains Trail, the fog was thick as pea soup. I started out on a herd path and stopped, wondering what the h3ll I was doing. Not a great day for bushwacking! So I turned back and saved that trip for a sunny June day, which turned into a good idea. But there was no flame azalea to be had on that trip.
I have not been on the canyon rim trail, but am planning to check that one out first opportunity I get. It should not take rocket science to stumble on it, and once found it would be hard to lose. I think I know where it ties in with the Roaring Plains Trail.
My next foray to the Sods will come third week of August with my son and his family for a car camping trip based at Red Creek CG. We'll day hike the Sods and do some sight seeing to places I've already been but they haven't.”

“I started from Roaring Creek Road, which meets Rt 33 just west of Seneca Rocks.

Daylight was nearly gone as I followed Long Run on the Natl Forest side of the creek.

After spending the night about a half mile up the creek I began my ascent to The Plains at an angle away from the creek and up.
Its a bit over 2,000 feet to the plateau and steep as hell.
The bushwhacking climb took me all day and some of it was on all fours.

I had a map but no compass but was not worried since I had been on Roaring Plains Trail before.
If I stayed on a good line I should hit the trail........yeah, right!....strike one!

It was Thanx-G weekend and I had the place all to myself.
Surely the sun would give me a clue or two.........uh, nope......no sun the entire time.......strike two!

When I got onto the plateau it was wall-to-wall spruce and laurel.
I spent the night thinking I would find the trail the next day.
There was a little snow up there and after the second night it began to rain lightly.
I found my own footprints twice and realized I was circling, following the path of least resistance.

With no sun and moss on all sides of the trees and the flag trees pointing away from the edge(not east), I had to make a bee-line through six-foot deep laurel.
I got soaked.

The Plains is pretty wide there.
I was hung up in thick $hit maybe 1/2-1 mile wide and 2-3 miles long.
I found the Canyon Rim Trail with its rock cairns but thought that I must have crossed the plateau and missed the R P Tr.

I spent my third night under a lone spruce in an area of low bushes and intersecting trails which seemed to go nowhere, probably the old Roaring Creek Trail.
Night fell upon me quickly, as I had no sun and no watch.
I had to gather some standing dead hard wood in the steady drizzle( 40+ degrees) in a hurry and sawed off some of the lower spruce branches to hollow out a place to sleep.
I got a fire going with the hardwood and fed it green spruce, saving the spruce ends for my bed.

For a few hours I sat around and straddled the fire to dry my totally wet arse.
I layed my pad over the spruce ends and rolled up in m tarp.
Sleeping under the tarp got me a bit wet but I was warm.

When it got light I resumed my search for the trail and after going up and down on the Rim Trail, still thinking I was on the far side of things, I decided it was time to do the old Boy Scout thing and go down hill and follow a stream to civilization.

It turned out I was on the same side as I started on and followed Long Run back to my car.

My feet had been wet for almost two days and I lost a big toe nail but there was beer waiting in the car.....and heat!
I sat naked in the car for 45 minutes with the heat going just to dry my wet body.

Good times, noodle salad!”

“Cool story, TomT... that looks like a really cool area, and not too terribly far from me. I'm definitely adding it on my list.”

“Good God man, that's nearly a horror story. That was exactly why I turned back from Porte Crayon in the fog. I don't mind walking on a trail without navigation aids if I know where the trail heads and where it comes out. But I won't go off trail without map and compass period.
That's also one reason I bought this little compass that snaps on my wristwatch. When I go out it's right there and can be checked from time to time. Otherwise, it's hardly noticable.
You obviously hit the Plains right in the least desirable spot at the wrong time in bad weather.
I like adventure, but I also have always had a sense of my limitations and try to stay within them. I'd rather bag a trip and go back under better conditions than plunge on and find myself over my head.
Of course, there are days when getting out of bed is over my head, but that's another story.
Thanks for sharing that tale. Whoa Nellie.
BTW, for wide ridge hiking, the Huckleberry Trail leading north from Spruce Knob is a pleasant walk through heath meadows and spruce groves. It's very much reminiscent of Roaring Plains. There is an old small plane wreck just off that trail. Eventually the trail leads down to Judy Springs, a backcountry campground that makes a nice hike-in spot from which to daytrip (up to Spruce Knob, to the upper falls on Seneca Creek, and up to Allegheny Mountain). There is the proverbial rusty pump in the meadow, or you can take water directly out of the spring issuing from a cavern.
In late August-early September the apples in the meadow get ripe. A bit on the tart side, but free vittles. Deer come there to feed at night, which can be distracting. You just about drift off and right outside the tent comes the sound: "Munch Munch Munch."”

“That was actually one of my greatest adventures.

It was the mini maglite and Sven Saw that made life worth living as the night fell on me on the third day.

With maglite in my teeth, I sawed the wet green spruce.
I would shake the water off the spruce branches and heap them on the fire.
That stuff burns like gasoline once the wetness steams off.

It was dark as the inside of a hat up there with the rain.

After I reached the top of Long Run Holler on my first full day, I looked back down and said to myself, "At least I don't have to go DOWN that steep bastid...."
Never say never.........

Geobeet-
I found Thunderstruck Rock a few years ago starting at the point where the Flat Rock Run Trail meets Roaring Plains.

I stayed on that contour(about 4,600) on a swinging heading of 240-280 degrees, if I recall correctly.

From Thunderstruck I followed a direct heading to the benchmark on Porte Crayon.

My middle son and I went up Flat Rock Run Tr last Sept from Laneville.
After the first two miles we "creek-crawled" up the right fork for about two more miles and found the trail just short of the top.

From there we bushwhacked to the top of Porte Crayon without the compass(we had one) seeking the high ground.
We rammed our way through the baby spruce and found ourselves about 10 meters from the benchmark.
The top is a relatively flat red spruce plantation 50-60 years old.

There isn't much to do or see on Porte Crayon, just say you were there.

A friend told me about the airplane wreck back in the '70s but I've never seen it.

Too many mountains.......
Not enough time.........”

“Here are some pics I took at sods last year...

A pond in a clearing...



Bear Rocks...



Red Creek....

”

“I know the feeling, Tom, I know.
Porte Crayon was a place I wanted to visit from my early visits to the Mon. I finally made it up there, but I was unable to get through the spruce. Fell about 20 feet short I'd guess. I still had an awesome feeling, because I started that trip from FS 19. The bushwack was tiring, and it was hard when I ran into spruce thickets. I headed back to the campground chafed, blistered, sun burned, tired, and with spruce needles down my back. But it was well worth it. I thought the mountain was a worthy tribute to the man. It should stay that wild forever.
Never did get out to Thunderstruck Rock though. I wanted to try for it, but I correctly deduced that I should head back because by the end of the trip I would have reached my limits. In fact, I think I exceeded them that day.
I did find a spring seeping from a boggy area on the shoulder of the ridge along the way. That was both a welcome find and fortuitous since my water was getting low.
One thing I find about hikes and camping trips is that the truly memorable experiences were the ones in bad weather, the ones where things came unravelled, or the ones that pushed me to my limits. Those idyllic moments are cherished at the end of the trip and for weeks later, but the memories of the trips where I had to cope with the elements really live on.
If you get out on the Huckleberry Trail, the what's left of the wreck is on the west side of the trail (left walking from Spruce Knob, right walking toward Spruce Knob). It's probably less than a mile from Spruce Knob. It's an old wreck, but there is still long human hair caught in some of the aluminum. The plane went down in fog from what I understand, but I cannot remember the source. It would probably be from the Mon hiking guide.
Of course, any of these trails through heath meadows are prime blueberry habitat in mid to late August. I intend to eat my fill.
But if it's blueberries you're a-wanting, head down to Mount Rogers and take the Pine Mountain Trail instead of the AT. Those blueberries are the fattest, sweetest, plumpest, tastiest, and scrumptiest blueberries on the planet. You cannot make a quarter mile an hour through there. There was the added benefit of realizing that a backpacker was stealing a bear's food. Should-a hung it up bear!”

“nice pics tarp rat. i need to get out there. it hain't but a few hours from here.”

“How to you copy and paste photos?”

“you have to have them somewhere on the web to begin with. matt prefers links to images but (img src="the image address") will do it. just replace the () with <>”

“Well that takes care of that. My pix is not on the web but my hard drive. It's a sunset shot from Bear Rocks that I use for wallpaper. Oh well, ...”

“i went to dollywood one time




{homer voice} mMmmMmmm, DOLLLY”

“Just upload the pic to a hotmail account or something. then use the link in the HTML code.”

“You're talking to a techno-challenged person here. It's all geek to me!
I do have hotmail. I can attach the photo file to a hotmail email, but I suspect that's not what you mean.
As for HTML, I know it means hypertext markup language, but that's all I know about it.
Heck, time to blow dis joint and quaf a brew. Catch y'all tomorrow!
Like the man said, nice pix, tarp rat. Makes me homesick!
Life begins when the road tops out at Bear Rocks. Til then I'm just a babbling baboon.”

“I'd call that a bog, Rat.
Salut!

Geobeet-
So you've heard of Porte Crayon the man, huh?
Wasn't he a Civil War correspondent?

There was another dude who's monicker was "Gath" and there's a Gathland State Park on South Mountain, I believe.
His name was Townsend, maybe, and he built a "War Correspondent's Memorial Arch" up there on South Mountain.
It's a really funky lookin' thing of brick and stone.

Last Sept I carried a tan colored Macpac on that bushwhackin' adventure......my son Henry had been talkin' about doin' a "hardcore trip"(Oh, he got it alright!).
That pack looks like a kid with crayons went after it.
Its marked up in shades of green and black and brown.
When we got to the benchmark on Porte Crayon we discovered that the wingnut on my Sven Saw was gone.
The saw was strapped on the outside and the bushes had whacked the nut off.
I have carried one of those for over 15 years and dropped the wingnut in the snow or leaves several times but never lost it.

Shee-it, I'll be back up there in two weeks!

I've been backpackin' once each month this year.
Its like when I was in the Natl Guard for four years only no weapons and commo gear......and the Army pack rally sucks.

Last year I had a nine-month streak going broken by back spazzin' in December.”

“Tom, Porte Crayon was the nom de plume of David Hunter Strother, who was a correspondend for Harpers Magazine before the Civil War. He was, I think, a Virginian (western counties that became WVa) by birth and had written and illustrated about expeditions to places like Blackwater Falls and Seneca Rocks. During the Civil War he served as a Union colonel, but was most noted for his drawings during the war. There have been shows of his works as recently as a couple of years ago. I had wanted to get to that, but was unable to do so. Porte crayon is French for pencil case.
After the war, he continued working for Harpers and made several trips back to the area that is now the Mon.
When the peak was dedicated in his memory, his family went up. His grandson was carried up on the back of a Forest Service worker.
There are more complete bios available on the net. Search both Porte Crayon and David Hunter Strother. On the Porte Crayon name you will get a lot of French language sites about art; ain't life ironic?
I can understand losing the wing nut in that spruce hell. I hung onto my gear for dear life while trying to bull my way through.
I had mentioned the Judy Springs Campground along Seneca Creek. The trail along the creek went all the way down until the 1985 flood. I had walked that trail in the summer of 84, a year before the flood, and it was one primal trail. The creek had cut a steep V-shaped gorge just before the trail reached the lower falls. The trail clung to a narrow berm, almost precariously. I wondered at the time how much water it would take to flush the trail and the berm out. I found out a year later.
But the thing that struck me the most was how utterly primal the gorge was. Few people walked that section of trail, and I had it all to myself that day. It was like taking a trip back to the Devonian. I have not been back there since, although I have been to Judy Springs several times. I may have to plan a walk down the creek to see how far I can get. Even the start of the gorge would be rewarding.
I mention that because the summit of Porte Crayon also seemed quite primal to me, the fact that it is second growth notwithstanding. And I thought it a fitting tribute to the man.
I did quite a bit of backpacking in my younger days, but health problems have taken some of the starch out. As soon as I can scare up a spare weekend, I plan to take a short overnighter on the A-Trail up here in Pa. I'm planning a combined car camping/backpacking trip on the Sods, probably in October. I think I could manage short trips. After that I'll have to see how it goes. At my stage of life it's not easy to get back into shape.”

“This just in from the Grant County (WV) Press:
Wind power project gets support at hearing
A proposed 166-turbine Mount Storm wind-powered electrical project received no opposition, last week, during a state Public Service Commission (PSC) hearing in Charleston.

Among those speaking in support of the proposal were Grant County Commissioner Jeff Barger, county Development Authority president Mike Reel, PSC staffers Darrell Peerce and Wayne Perdue, plus state Senator Walt Helmick.

The PSC is expected to decide the project's fate within 60 days.

Prior to the hearing, project developer U. S. Wind Force, of Wexford, Pa., reached agreement with the West Virginia Building and Construction Trades Council (AFL-CIO) to use Mountain State union workers during construction.

It has been estimated the project will generate 250 jobs, plus $800,000 annually in tax revenue to Grant County. There could also be tax advantages to Tucker County, where several of the tower-mounted turbines will be located.”

“By a 3-0 vote, commissioners officially endorsed U.S. Windforce's proposed 250-megawatt power plant. That endorsement was in the form of a letter to the West Virginia Public Service Commission.

The PSC is reviewing the project's application for a state permit. Commissioner Jeff Barger was slated to testify at a PSC hearing about that application.

The power project would be located on Cherry Ridge and Dobbin Ridge.

In their letter, county officials praised the project as a potential source of new tax revenue. It has been estimated the project will bring the county $800,000 in new tax revenues every year.

Additionally, commissioners said the project would make the state a "clear leader" in the eastern United States for high tech wind-powered energy production and related industries.

If built, the project would be known as Mount Storm Windforce.”

“Dobbin Ridge is north of the town of Mount Storm, which is north of the power plant visible from Dolly Sods. Whether or not it will be visible from the Sods is something we'll just have to wait and see.”

“Where is Judy Springs?
It sounds like a good place to go.

That Sven Saw replaces the one I bought in @1985.
The original went through a lot but I never lost the wingnut.
A mechanic friend bent it with his ape-like Popeye arms.....oops!
He used his super human strength to re-shape it back to usable condition.
They are very sharp and don't require that kind of monkeying.

I had been hearing a peculiar "tock-tock" sound from behind as the nut-less threaded end was moving freely for some time during our fight to the top of the mountain.
This is just another mindless detail from yet another wild country experience.

On our way off Porte Crayon the next morning Henry and I came upon a complete skeleton of a medium-small canine.
It was larger than a fox, probably a coyote.
The remains were laid out exquisitely and perfectly clean.

Man, you have my sympathy in regards to physical limitations.
I'll be 50 this year and I have become particularly obsessed with back country rompin' and stompin'.
Hell, the clock is runnin'!”

“Go to your hotmail account and look at the right side of your screen... you will see a list of crap you can do... one says "share photos"... click on that.

Then it will say upload photos, and you can follow the directions...

Once you get the photo uploaded click on the "share photos with friends" tab... send it to my email...

Jednh@hotmail.com

I will post it for you..

Or you can simply right click on the uploaded picture and copy the image location found under properties. It should end in .jpg

Then you use HTML code to post it.

The html works like this... when I use these () you replace them with these <>.. ok?

It will look like this..

(img src="")

so all you have to do, is paste your image location link from the uploaded picture between the two quotation marks and replace the () with <>.

Good luck!”

“Well, I don't suppose the Windforce thing is a negative impact exept maybe visually.

Good for the AFL-CIO!

If it were publicly owned and not-for-profit it would be even better.”

“Tom,
50 was when the sheeyit hit the old fan. Up until then I was a rompin stompin fool and people would only hike with me on the first hike of spring. After that it was not good. But I am eternally optimistic.
I have one of those Svens. One of the best buys I ever made. It's way over 20 now. It's cut almost enough wood to qualify as a lumber company (not really. I use only down and dead).
That probably was a coyote. I heard one in May and one the year before up near Red Creek CG (actually somewhat south of there, probably near Alder Run Bog).
Porte Crayon and the Roaring Plains trail are just about the wildest places around south of the Adirondacks. The ADKs have my vote for wild in the east, although I have never been to Katahdin or the Allagash.”

“The Seneca Creek Trail accesses Judy Springs the easiest. Take the road to Spruce Knob. Where the road branches to Spruce Knob, stay on the same road. It will wind its way downhill until it reaches a gap or valley. There is a parking area on the right. Judy Springs is about six miles from there, heading north. It's an easy walk, could easily be done in the dark with moonlight or flashlight.
The campground is an old meadow with the proverbial USFS rusty pump (does anybody use those things anymore?). The springs for which it is justly named are across a small footbridge and to the right. There is enough room there for a modest convocation, but I never have seen more than two or three groups, counting mine.
From Judy Springs, the Seneca Creek Trail continues past the meadow to the upper falls and some other junctions.
From Judy Springs, cross the footbridge to the east side of the creek. Take the footpath uphill to the left to a big old pasture. Slab diagonally up the pasture (following the path) to intersect with a trail leading uphill to the right. It will crest Spruce Mountain eventually. At the crest in a rhododendron thicket, a trail comes in from the right. That is the Huckleberry Trail leading up to Spruce Knob. If you miss this junction (easy to do) you will come to a jeep road. Double back at that point to the junction.”

“Thanks for the instructions. I will have to rescan the photo since it's saved as a bitmap (and a big file at that). While I'm at it I'll scan in a couple others to share. May take a week or two. I've saved your post until then.”

“hey, so do you guys like Dolly Sods?”

“No, not really. I love it. Second home kinda thing. Can't wait to get back.”

“What kind of question is that!”

“Just kiddin'

Dolly Sods is great but can really be over run with those damn backpackers on a nice weekend in Spring or Fall.

That's what drove me to Flat Rock and Roaring Plains in 1985.

The "50 Hikes in Monongahela" book was saying it was the "best kept secret" or some such thing.”

“well, i had to ask, i couldn't quite tell ;-)

me and Tarpy are going there sooooooon, aren't we! :-D”