BLACKWATER FALLS

Our hiking club has had a problem with the "hiking to driving" ratio for years. It's not unusual for us to spend 6 hours driving for a 6 hour hike, or worse. On Saturday I set the all-time record. I spent 6 hours driving from Winston-Salem to Blackwater Falls State Park in northern West Virginia. Christy, her Mom, her sister, and Saucony met me there around lunchtime. The plan was for me to pick up Christy and bring her home. Of course, we planned to do a little hiking along the way.

The drive was long, but not too bad, and the destination was worth it. After a lengthy exchange of luggage, Christy and I set off in search of a suitable place for lunch. We drove over to a very crowded parking lot and hiked the short trail down to Blackwater Falls. The falls are certainly a tourist attraction, but that didn't detract from their beauty. They were not especially high, but there was a lot of water flowing over them, and the view was impressive. We had lunch, and moved on to the next attraction. We drove over to the Pendleton Point overlook. There was a nice view of the canyon from the cliffs. From here, there is a trail heading down into the canyon. It was tempting, but we had decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in the Dolly Sods wilderness.

DOLLY SODS

The drive to Dolly Sods was the biggest part of the adventure. It started with a paved but extremely narrow winding road. From there, the pavement ended. We passed the valley trailhead at Laneville and headed up onto the plateau. We arrived at the Red Creek campground (at least 2 miles from Red Creek) around 3pm. There were only 12 sites, so I was nervous about getting a spot. Luckily, there were still a few empty, though it was full by that evening. We got a nice spot at the end of the campground that was nicely removed from the others. When we pulled in, there was a deer browsing by the picnic table.

We set up camp quickly. We still had enough daylight to do something useful with the afternoon. We decided to hike the Blackbird Knob trail, which started right at the campground. After spending most of the day in the car, it was nice not to have to drive to the trailhead. The trail started on a primitive boardwalk in a marshy area. From there we passed through a dark grove of spruce with some nice campsites. Then we entered a rocky area with some nice views of the Red Creek valley and the rolling hills of the Dolly Sods wilderness. We hiked through some nice fern filled woods and reached Red Creek. We rock hopped the creek and hiked up past some more campsites. We climbed a hill and reached a meadow. From here we left the trail and climbed up toward Blackbird Knob. The hillside afforded some nice views of the wilderness to the south. We hiked back into the woods, and soon thereafter we reached the meadows on the summit. The whole mountain was a mixture of meadows and open woods. In the forest, we found some trees that appeared to be aspens, but were probably just birches. Most of the meadows were full of blueberries. Saucony had fun here, too. She flushed a whole flock of turkeys before we headed back down.

I had planned to get up early Sunday, but I just couldn't do it. It was still cold out there, and I couldn't get out of the sleeping bag. I finally got up after 7 and started working on blueberry pancakes. Christy had picked a whole bag of blueberries while hiking the Quehanna Trail in Pennsylvania, so we decided to put them to use.

After breakfast we broke camp and drove up to Bear Rocks. We reached the trailhead on a wide open plain. Ahead of us were the outcrops of Bear Rocks. To the west were the meadows of upper Red Creek. To the east were waves of mountains extending into Virginia. We hiked up a faint path through boulders and blueberries. The walking was fairly easy, but there were a few places that required some scrambling. We reached the summit, and the view was even better. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and there was no haze. We enjoyed the views for awhile before moving on to the next hike.

We drove to the Wildlife Trailhead. The hike followed a pleasant path through woods and meadows. We had a nice walk, but for once we didn't see any wildlife. After an hour of walking we reached a junction with the Rhorbaugh Plains Trail. We hiked it out to the cliffs overlooking Red Creek Gorge. The view here is truly spectacular. Across from us were the cliffs of Breathed Mountain. The gorge of Red Creek stretched out ahead of us, slicing through the steep walls of the plateau. The vista brought to mind the view from Shortoff Mountain in the Linville Gorge wilderness.

We enjoyed an early lunch, the warm sun, and a cool breeze. It was difficult to leave, but we had a long day ahead of us. We hiked out on the Rhorbaugh Plains Trail. We passed through an endless tunnel of rhododendron that reminded me of home. We also passed some nice campsites and a couple of small meadows. We climbed one pretty good hill before arriving at the forest road. From there we walked a mile and a half back to our car. There was some traffic, so this part of the hike was a little tedious. It was worth having the opportunity to hike two different trails though.