Another adventure in the Dolly Sods Wilderness, WV

My son and I decided to take a 4 day trip second half of spring break and try to make it to the Lion's Head summit atop Breathed Mtn. There are 3 ways to get to the top. The hardest is a near vertical cascade of large granite boulders in the front, which hides 2 false summits before the final peak. The easiest way up is a trail that goes back behind Breathed Mtn. I had planned on the easy way. But, when we stopped at the front to take a break, and looked up the boulders he says "Dad, I want to go up here!". I said "are you crazy"? He was serious, so we gave it a go. He had my old ALICE pack with ~40lbs. I upgraded last year to a FILBE and was at ~75lbs with extra water as we were planing to stay the night up top where there is no water. There were a few places where we had to take off packs and hand them up, but we made it to the top. It was a no-brainer to NOT come back down the way we came and so we strolled out along the easy trail. To make sure I comply with the subject of our forum...If you can't see it I'm wearing my Remington Rand 1911A1 in an M7 holster whilst sitting atop the Lion's Head. Happy Easter, friends! I'm a bit sore, but it was epic and I couldn't be more proud of my son. We each found our limit, and exceeded.
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Well done both.

Ah, when I was younger. Nice pictures of beautiful country, thank you.

I see why they call it "Lion's Head". Looks like the Bigfoot behind you in the trees acquired himself a pair of shades. Nice country.

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Originally Posted by Low & Slow

Looks like the Bigfoot behind you in the trees acquired himself a pair of shades

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LOL nice catch.

Family!!

Laer 42rocker

I thought that looked like a Rhodo: West Virginia state flower it says: Dolly Sods

As for the "Canada Mayflower"; no idea where that came from!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Low & Slow

I see why they call it "Lion's Head". Looks like the Bigfoot behind you in the trees acquired himself a pair of shades. Nice country.

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Just a grumpy ol' bar.

That wild rhododendron is no joke - absolutely no way through it. I've done some off-trail adventuring in the sods as well and when you get to it, you pray going around doesn't take you up too high, or to a dead end. Some of the "trails" are heavily choked with it, near impossible to follow. There are lots of moss flats all over the area, and satellite shows them crisscrossed everywhere with game trails. In the more accessible flats we always find numerous turkey feathers - In fact we heard many turkeys when hiking in along the blackbird knob trail. I've tried several times to get back into some of the off-trail flats to scout for turkey, but I always get thwarted by rhododendron every time. There is one we found a reasonable way through to a moss flat loved by turkeys, but I'll let you all find it on your own ;)