THE HIGH PLAINS
Last summer, Christy and I stopped in West Virginia on the way back from Pennsylvania for some dayhiking and car camping. We visited the Dolly Sods wilderness, and immediately fell in love with it. We just knew we'd have to return with our backpacks. This summer, we decided to do just that.
Christy and I left Charlotte at 3pm on Thursday. We hit nasty traffic downtown, and again in Elkin, and again heading up to Fancy Gap. It was close to dark when we reached Harrisonburg, but we pushed on. Our goal was the Brandywine Lake Campground, just across Shenandoah Mountain in West Virginia. The last hour of the drive was interesting, with deer along the road at every bend. Then there was an unverified bear sighting, as Christy spotted a large dark creature crossing the road ahead of us.
We reached the campground at dusk, and set up quickly. It was half-empty and very quiet. Luckily the rain held off long enough for us to get the tent up.
The rain stopped Friday morning just in time for breakfast. After some eggs and bacon, we hit the road for Seneca Rocks. After some exciting driving involving questionable passing zones and logging trucks, we reached the restaurant / gas station / hotel / video store / bar that accounts for the entire population of Seneca Rocks. We picked up some last minute supplies and headed for the wilderness. We drove up through farmland, then up a narrow dirt road to the crest of the mountain. At the top we reached Bear Rocks, and parked in a desolate, wind-blown pull-off. The weather looked downright hostile. The sky was gray, and the wind was howling as we loaded our packs.
We got on the trail a little before noon. We started down an unmarked path running towards Red Creek. The entire area was wide-open meadows, with the occasional grove of spruce trees. It reminded me of Wyoming, although without the spectacular snow-covered peaks.
The path we followed turned out to be part of the American Discovery "Trail". The ADT mainly follows back roads, but crosses the country from Delaware to California. It was interesting to follow part of the actual route.
We descended an eroded trail to reach the Dobbins Grade. This trail is an old railroad grade that parallels upper Red Creek. We headed south, through more meadows. At one point we passed a beaver pond. We saw several deer through here, which would be a common occurrence throughout the trip. The views were continuous, and were only interrupted by a few clumps of trees. At one point we passed a stand of young Aspens. This part of West Virginia is the southern-most limit of Aspens in the country.
After a little more than an hour we crossed Red Creek. It was an easy rock-hop to the far side. Beyond the creek we turned off the trail and headed up through a meadow. We found a nice spot for lunch there in the grass. As we relaxed, the sun finally began to break through the clouds.
After lunch we hiked up a side stream, still on the Dobbins Grade. We followed the trail up and away from the creek, and crossed a divide northwest of Blackbird Knob. This path took us through a mixture of meadows and woods, and we found another beaver pond on the far side of the gap. From there we headed down to the Left Fork of Red Creek. Just upstream we spotted a large lake, and we decided to investigate. We hiked through more meadows and spruce to reach a huge beaver dam at the base of the lake. Out in the middle was a massive lodge. Downstream was a second dam, and surrounding us was nothing but meadows and spruce forest.
Eventually we had to leave. I didn't find much in the way of campsites, so we had to continue on. We left the Dobbins Grade, and followed an eroded trail up Harmon Knob. We climbed up through fields of blooming mountain laurel, and reached a junction with the Cabin Mountain Trail. My map indicated campsites here, but I didn't find anything except flat spots in the meadows. We found a nice scenic meadow bordered by more spruce trees. We set up camp, and I found a spring just off the plateau to the west.
We were preparing dinner when the weather changed suddenly. A cold rain came out of nowhere. It ended as quickly as it started, and was followed by sun, and then fog. We enjoyed a meal of bean burritos despite it all. By dusk, the fog cleared and we relaxed in our meadow to gaze at the stars. It had been a great day, with incredible scenery, and absolute solitude. Our final tally for the day? 7 deer, 1 snake, and zero humans. However, the highlight of our day was still to come.
We had been star-gazing for some time, and had already spotted several shooting stars. Then, out of nowhere, it happened. A colorful streak shot across the sky. There was a brilliant bolt of energy, followed by a spectacular shower of color. It was as if God was playing with a Roman Candle. It was beautiful and awesome all at once. It was very much like the Fourth of July, all in about 10 seconds. It was the first time that I had seen a meteoroid, and all I could think was, "wow, do that again!"
RED CREEK CANYON
It was a little hard to get to sleep after that, but not too hard. We slept well, but the brilliant sun heated the tent quickly Saturday morning. We got up to find our meadow dripping with dew. I got absolutely soaked fetching water. Breakfast was interesting, as the blueberry pancakes were nice but would've been better with the syrup we forgot.
We broke camp, and hit the trail up Harmon Knob. We passed more meadows (and possible campsites) and finally reached the crest. The summit was very rocky, but the views were outstanding. Ahead of us was Canaan Valley. Behind us were the Dolly Sods Plateau and Cabin Mountain. More mountains rose above us to the south.
We hiked on, heading south. We reached a major junction at the wilderness boundary. We picked up the Big Stonecoal Trail, which continued ahead of us. I consulted my watch, and discovered a problem. We were supposed to meet Kevin and Leigh at 11:00. It was already almost 10:30, and we had more than 2 miles to go. Oops.
We picked up our pace, but it was difficult due to the rocky trail. The hiking here was totally different from the high plains. We hiked through thick forest full of rhododendron, which was more reminiscent of trails back home. We did pass some nice campsites, and another area of meadows near Big Stonecoal Run. We crossed the stream, and left it as we headed deeper into the woods. We passed some great campsites in a stand of Red Pines and worked our way back to the creek. We rock hopped it again and found Kevin and Leigh at the Dunkenbarger Trail junction. We were only 45 minutes late, but Kevin had already finished writing a note they were going to leave for us.
Kevin and Leigh had come in late Friday from Laneville up Little Stonecoal Run. They had just made it to camp before dark. This was Leigh's first backpacking trip. She seemed pretty upbeat, despite Friday's uphill hike and an interesting ford of Red Creek.
We hiked downstream, but left the Big Stonecoal Trail for the Rocky Point railroad grade. This trail was aptly named, as in consisted entirely of rocks of all shapes and sizes. We followed it around Breathed Mountain, and began to look for the side trail up to Rocky Point. The first promising path was marked with cairns, but didn't seem to go anywhere. I scouted the second one, which led up through the woods to a meadow and campsites in another grove of Red Pines. From the meadow, I could see the cliffs we were trying to get to. I decided to explore further, in hopes of finding a quicker route back to the rest of the group. I wandered through a maze of rhododendron, and eventually came out on the cliffs. The views were incredible, with the deep chasm of Red Creek Canyon far below. I looked for another route down, without any luck. Everywhere I looked was sheer cliffs.
I backtracked, and got mildly lost again in the rhododendron maze. Eventually I made it out to the meadow, and ran into Christy who had come looking for me. I had been gone longer than expected. I didn't want to try to bring Kevin and Leigh this way, so we decided to regroup and look for another route. I had seen some separate cliffs below that looked easier to get to. We ran into two more hikers a little further down the trail, and they suggested the next path up. We took their advice, and scrambled up through the boulders. After a few minutes, we found ourselves back where I had been. It had been quite an adventure, and we were all tired and hungry. We had a long, relaxing lunch on the cliffs. Eventually though we got hot from the sun, and decided to head down.
We resumed our hike curving around Breathed Mountain. However, Christy and I were both out of water, and Saucony had only found a little water in a pothole on top of the cliffs. All of the "streams" running off Breathed Mountain were dry. Finally, I decided to go ahead of the group and search for water. When I reached the Red Creek Trail junction, I headed down towards the stream. The trail was much less direct in reaching the creek than the map suggested. However, I eventually got there, and finished off a pint while filtering.
We all regrouped at the junction. Leigh's feet were pretty beat up from the rocks, and they decided to shorten their route. They headed down where I had just been, with plans to camp near the creek. From there, they'd head downstream on Sunday to return to Laneville. Christy and I continued upstream, and found some nice campsites near the Forks. Two of the sites were taken, but we found a good one just downstream from the confluence, a small cascade, and a big swimming hole. After setting up camp, we couldn't resist a quick dip. It was getting late though, and the water was cool, so we didn't swim for long. Afterwards, we enjoyed a dinner of salmon cakes and made smores over the campfire. We both slept well after a long, tiring day.
BLACKBIRD KNOB
We got up early on Sunday to hike out. We had to meet Christy's parents for lunch in Seneca Rocks, so we had another deadline to meet. We continued on the Red Creek Trail, which crossed the left fork and ascended a ridge of Blackbird Knob. This part of the trail brought us to more meadows and spruce groves. A few more deer made appearances. It was a steady climb until we reached the Blackbird Knob trail. From the junction we headed east through the woods. I searched for a connecting trail that would take us back to the Dobbins Grade, but didn't see it. There was a faint path in about the right place, but it looked dubious. We didn't have time for me to be wrong.
Instead, we continued east on the Blackbird Knob trail. We descended again to Red Creek and a campsite. We rock-hopped the creek, climbed a bit, and then descended to a tributary. This stream was especially pretty, in an open forest full of ferns. We hiked up from the stream, and passed through one final meadow. Afterwards, we passed some more nice campsites in a Red Pine Grove, then crossed a boardwalk through a marshy area to reach the road just up from Red Creek Campground. Unfortunately, we were still several miles down the road from the car. I left Christy with the dog and packs and started a fast walk. I reached the car at 11:30 and headed back to pick up Christy. From there it was a fast and easy drive into Seneca Rocks. We pulled in right at our designated meeting time of 12:30. We had a nice lunch at the picnic area, and then parted ways. Christy and Saucony headed on to Pennsylvania with her parents, while I started the long, lonely drive home.
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