Dolly Sods Wilderness, WV

[ssgross]

A window of time opened up last minute today, but I've had my ruck packed and ready all winter long waiting for it. After hiking in and crossing lower Red Creek, I'm going to continue on up to spend the night atop Breathed Mtn, and catch the Sunday morning sunrise at the Lion's Head.
38.994807527055876, -79.36461133710215
Window in the weather opened up last minute too. It's freezing rain right now through tomorrow early afternoon, so the hike in will be wet and slick, then a dreary evening with a low of 19F. Radar looks like the sky should clear out well before sunrise, but this place can be pretty unpredictable.

I'll see you all on the other side of the weekend, hopefully with some good pictures of the sunrise.

EDIT: Oops. I should include something milsurp related to follow the rules - I'll carry a 1943 Ithaca 1911a1 in an M7 holster.

[ssgross]

The short headline is...I didn't make it to the top.
It was pretty rough going on the way in. What trail there is consists of constant steep ups and downs. Follow red creek a bit, then up to a crossing of one of its many feeder streams, then back, down to red creek, rinse and repeat. On the way in, the rain was steady but not quite freezing except in a few places. Every step was on wet tangled roots, sharp rocks, or soft mud.

I was by myself, so I took it very slow. Lots of places overgrown with wild rhododendron and only the narrowest of paths through...if you can find it. That peak off in the distance above is my target, breathed mountain. It has rocky overhang called the lion's head.

There are two ways up, both require crossing red creek which was very swollen from all the rain. The first, up a trail following stonecoal, would have only been about 4 miles total. The second is 2 miles longer, crossing red creek a mile further up. When I got to the first crossing, it was gushing. I could get 3/4 across, but then would need to leap across a waist deep pool onto a rock now a few inches under water. Everything was slippery, and the landing likely more so. After scouting for an hour up and down for a better crossing, finding none, and being alone, I chose to press on and try the longer route.

I've crossed here before. It was ankle deep water most of the way, plenty of rocks out of water at the deeper spots, and a memorable large, almost perfectly square, rock in the middle marking the spot. Well, the marker was just underwater, making it waist deep next to it. As I scouted for another crossing up and down, and started thinking about getting wet, the rain lifted and an afternoon fog rolled in. It got thicker and stayed the rest of the day.

I'm not opposed to getting wet. I had plenty of dry layers with me for the cold night ahead, but only one pair of boots and with everything soaked around me, I would have no way to get dry once I made it to the top - not to mention the risk of slipping. Being alone, I made the safe call to stay on my side and make camp. Lion's head would have to wait. I found quietly loud waterfall to camp next to. Oh...and I hadn't seen or heard a soul all day, nor would I until I was almost back to the truck.

The temperature started to drop as I put on a pot of coffee. I ordered a weather report to see what was I was in for.

At about midnight the skies cleared in what seemed like an instant, and the inside of the tent lit up, then dark, then bright again like a spot light. I went out to pee and was greeted by the brightest full moon I had every seen, dimmed only by the occasional low fog clouds moving through the valley just overhead. The picture I snapped does not to reflect more than 1% of the beautiful reality taking place.

I got out at what my notes said would be sunrise and put on a pot of coffee and further enjoy the solitude, but it was dark where I was, nestled 1000 ft. down in the valley. As I sat and sipped, developing numbness in my hands and feet made me easily decide to wait until the sun shone over the peak to break camp and hike out. Boy was it worth the wait!

The hike out was much easier. All the slippery rocks were dry, and mud was frozen over hard giving plenty of grip. At the last decent back down to red creek, I turned around take a good look at what I missed, if only to fuel my desire to get back here.

You can just see lions head off in the distance. Here it is from the same spot, with some zoom.


Almost forgot...my companion for the trip (yes I know the holster is a repro)

That's my attempt at travel writing. Don't worry - I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon!

[Sapper740]

Even though it was illegal in Canada to carry a handgun I always carried an S&W Model 29 whenever I was backpacking in Bear or Cougar country. It fit nicely in my armpit in a shoulder holster and was invisible under the layers of clothing. Thank God I now live in a country with common sense gun laws and can carry everyday.

[ssgross]

There are plenty of blackbears in the sods. Never seen one though, but come across plenty of scat and prints. I always open carry on trails, especially when going out alone, more to protect against any two-legged animals than anything else. Usually I carry a repro SAA 45 colt. Fits in the same m7 holster and any passers bye's eyes are immediately drawn to it. Mountain lions have been long gone. There is a persistent argument about about whether there are any. Every few years a local will report seeing one. Forest service swears there aren't any. "Sightings" notwithstanding, everyone's best guess is that if there ever were any, they were wiped out on or before the end of the logging era. 1910-1930 there were many severe wildfires that cleaned out the whole area. These fires killed off all the native grasses in the high meadows on the northern end, and then washed out the rich soils to the point where the mosses took over and now it's all a large peat bog up there. It's like walking on a waterbed. Took my daughter there last summer. We found not less than a dozen turkey feathers in the one mile of bog we skirted around. Further north there are plenty of pools and ponds formed by beaver dams. Any trail on a map can vary half mile or more in reality from month to month as the beavers make lakes and ponds at the otherwise hop-over stream crossings. I have unfortunately not seen any ducks, geese or other waterfowl. Maybe they don't like the altitude of these otherwise perfect pools? (3500-4000ft)

[browningautorifle]

Even though it was illegal in Canada to carry a handgun I always carried an S&W Model 29

I'm with you there...but would rather carry something a bit longer. I'd want to make sure I didn't flinch it off the rails when time came.

[Sapper740]

I'm with you there...but would rather carry something a bit longer. I'd want to make sure I didn't flinch it off the rails when time came.

I heard that. Backpacking in the off season with a long arm always presented the problem of an over officious CO accusing one of hunting out of season which was my main reason for carrying the revolver although I still carried the revolver during hunting season since my two favorite areas to hunt were the Shulaps mountain range in M.U. 3-17 (prime Cougar habitat) and the Flathead Valley in M.U. 4-1 (prime Grizzly habitat). Something was always within reach, even when dropping a deuce.