Dolly Sods weekend excursion

Greetings! This was one of the last weekends my girlfriend, Madison and myself would have before the semester came underway. The unbearably hot and humid weather I live and worked in northern Virginia was really getting to me. So we decided to go someplace as high in elevation as possible, someplace I had never been to (even after living in West Virginia for 4 years!)

Dolly Sods Wilderness Area is quite unique in that it is a plateau that sits above Canaan Valley in West Virginia at an altitude of 1,219 meters (4,000 ft) and is a nice 21 C (70F). Having been told by others how keen this place was for backpacking, we went for that purpose. We parked amongst a surprisingly large number of other cars, but most seemed to be day-hikers. We started down the trail at around 4pm and not a few hundred meters from the road we ran into this deer, just relaxing and nibbling on some grasses on the trail.



We were able to get perhaps 10 meters away from this thing before it casually walked away. I am a firm believer in the proper gear for the proper sport and usually half the fun is getting the sweet gear (-: In the photo below, Madison is borrowing an old school rucksack of mine and we had to rig up this huge sleeping bag to it (not exactly ideal).

I recently bought this pack for Madison: http://www.deuterusa.com/products/productDetail.php?packID=Futura34SL&sub=hiking&tert=futura. The Deuter Future Pro 34 SL, it is perfect for her because not only is it a women's sized pack for her stature, but it is just large enough for weekend backpacking trips and just small enough to be the largest size one can take as a carry-on for the airplane. It also includes numerous small pockets for gear stowage and an active ventilation system for the back.



We hiked until we reached camp that evening and then went for a stroll up higher to try and catch a glimpse of the sunset, this was as far as we got and saw.



As you can see, Dolly Sods has a landscape more characteristic to further north. It is part of the eastern continental divide and the Allegheny Front which forms a border allowing storms to sort of stall in the area- giving it ample snow in the winter (more than 4 meters!).



Walking around we noticed this peculiar blue hue to all the vacinium herbaceous shrubs around, sure enough there were blueberries absolutely everywhere! The next morning we woke up and wandered around for a half hour to collect those wonderfully fresh berries shown below (-:



Although backpacking is fun, sometimes it is waiting for the water to boil, myself just chillin at our camp site.



We followed Red Creek for a while as it meandered amongst the young Red Spruce trees and shrubbery, it is quite a clean and clear stream!


In the photo below you can see the nicely silhouetted


The photo below is a nice representation of the bog-like conditions and dense vegetation coverage. Walking off the trail takes considerable effort due to both the blueberry bushes and the thick hummus layer.


It was a brief trip to Dolly Sods- I look forward to returning soon, especially when the snow has arrived (-: