This Summer ended in a grand adventure to a place we never really heard of before and never expected to wow us as much as it did, especially being on the east coast of the United States, you don't see such vast wonders this side of the Mississippi! Dolly Sods, West VA got its name from the Dahle family who were sheep herders on the 'sods' of this land. I am guessing a sod is a flat plain like area (which you will learn about later) but we came up with a new meaning for SODS. Dolly Sods will get its name The Sods from our experience, you will learn this later as well.
Day 1: We arrive at The Sods at 2am in the morning, late start no? After a nice 3 hour or so drive listening to our adventure mix, including 'battlefield', and some Coast to Coast mystery AM radio we finally park the jeep in the parking lot at the beginning of the wilderness after a very long and bumpy dirt road, no Camaro's can make this journey, Jeeps only! We grab our gear (see gear log below) and head off on the first trial in the valley of the mountain range, Red Creek trail. Warning...LIVE BOMBS! (WHAT???) We go about 1/2 mile in and set up camp by Red Creek in the darkness. No fire tonight because we went straight to bed.
Isaac set up his one person Eureka tent, Joe his North Face 2 man tent and I slept in my Eno Hammock with a tarp covering it from rain but was a tad short. Let me elaborate on this subject real quick, in an effort to minimize packing and keep cool in the SUMMER I packed my hammock in thought that this would be awesome in the weather and experience of backcountry camping. It indeed was an experience, a great one, but at the time, exhausting because of the temperature drop at night to...FREEZING. I did not get much sleep the whole time we were there.
We woke up about 8-9ish and had a Clif bar for breakfast and looked at the sights for a few minutes until we looked off at the mountains in the background and saw huge black clouds forming...As usual not expected! We ran back to the camp to pack up but it was already pouring...(luckily I put my hammock away when I woke). I stood half bent over under my tarp until the rain past, about a half an hour while the Root Brothers got some more rest... a man and his dog and little son walked by just to go to the creek for a bit and they left.
We got packed up eventually and back on Red Creek Trail. This was an awesome trail... waterfalls along the way, owls, no people, complete seclusion in this vast wilderness. One thing to note is that there is NO UNDERBRUSH AND OVERGROWTH AND WEEDS AND POISON IVY AND THORNS AND NASTY BUGS!!! There are bugs like beetles and such but not annoying bugs. We stopped and made lunch on the creek where it meets Big Stonecoal Trail, some people here day tripping but did not see them but for a pass by. Then headed back up Red Creek Trail. The first waterfall was pretty cool nothing special but as we walked up this incline onto the mountain side we detoured down another trail to follow the sound of water, needless to say this waterfall was amazing! It was one of those magical ones with the hidden area behind the waterfall itself. Pics were taken and a brief head shower in the cold and refreshing bath of the falls. After pressing on through the trail by Red Creek the scenery started to change to something straight out of Lord of the Rings. Four-Five miles later we past Breathed Mountain Trail onto an old railroad bed (still part of Red Creek) to where the creek forked. We crossed the creek and went to the point of the fork and found the perfect place to camp, just us and the wild.
Camp 2 is dubbed Middle Earth for the awesomeness of the landscape and setting and props. What do I mean by props, well there are the coolest fire pits made out of huge stones and around them were stone chairs. The grass was soft and green and the water by the camp was soothing as it rushed over the rocks into a pool where we bathed and swam and found a Jacuzzi area that was so relaxing! Same sleeping situation, colder here this night as it was closer to the water than the first camp. After we set up camp and everything set to dry out nicely from the mornings rain and we explored the land around us, built a fire, swam in the creek, cooked dinner, listened to music, talked, hung our food in a tree across the creek from us, relaxed and then night fall and sleep, except me…. Freezing in the air.
DAY 2: The morning came and Joe wakes up and pokes his head out and I look over at him and say “how did you sleep?”, sarcastically. Though he was a little cold, he did get sleep for his better shelter decision.
We got packed and ready to go, breakfast, refilled water from the creek with filters, and headed on back to Breathed mountain Trail.
As we set out back on the trail North West, we heard the sound of a crazed bear to our North East and in crossing the creek back toward Breathed Mtn Trail the bear was at our North and getting louder…but we kept pressing on. Breathed Mountain trail is not a typical trail that side winds back and forth or takes an easier route up a mountain, this trail goes straight up to the top, no holds bar, or sissy stuff here. We get half way up and STOP! The bear is getting closer and now directly to our front, though we can’t see him/her, we don’t want to…but we continue as the roars continue to the East and are no longer heard.
Reaching the top of Breathed Mountain trail we figured a nice mountain peak and over look, but we were wrong but not disappointed. This is most definitely the oddest place ever, we are in the plains! Blueberry fields forever and pine trees along the outskirts of the plains. WHAT!? So crazy, this must be the sods in their literal sense of the word. The trail continued though the Blueberries and the big blue sky. We see our bear friend’s paw prints in the mud fresh as can be. After the plains were pine forests and cool campsites and then more plains, but this is COTTON! COTTON FIELDS! Another landscape change, crazy!!!
Heading on we get to Big Stonecoal Trail and headed back South on the other side of Breathed Mountain.
(other sites:huge pines and ferns, b&w forest, sand dunes and lake, odd people with stolen dog, snake, etc. ) then we got to camp 3, by the water and in the pines, set up camp and took our small packs up with food to breathed mountain and lions head overlook. Sweet waterfall on the way, looked like a jungle, different trees, came around the trail to the mountain but went off trail and faced climbed boulders all the way to the peak, cooked our meal and watched the sunset, headed back and night fell, got back to camp and built a star shaped fire pit pointing north with art drawn on the rocks. We sat around the fire for awhile and then headed to sleep.
This night, no sleep again, coyotes came into the camp and howled next to my hammock, scary but no worries.
Next morning we had breakfast and packed up, we saw more people this day. A deer came and gave us a visit in our campsite.
Final trail not so great but met back at red creek trail and then back to car. We ran to make it back at exactly 3 but last 100m I tripped on a huge root and ate the dirt. Pretty funny.
Gear list:
Corey-
• Head- buff, Bole sunglasses
• Hands: tech4o watch
• Torso- TNF vapor wick tshirt (2) and TNF wind/rain jacket (name of product?), fleece vest
• Legs- Exofficio boxers, TNF convertible pants, TNF cargo shorts (both nylon)
• Feet- smartwool socks, TNF trail shoes, flip flops
• Water:
o Nalgene 32oz with neoprene sleeve and sip cap
o Camel bak 3liter with filter adapter mouth piece
o Katydn hiker water filter
• Backpack: TNF Terra 65
• GSI Pinnacle Dualist cook set
• Light my fire spork
• Flint stick/fire starter blocks
• Rain cover
• Rain cover
• Eno doublenest hammock, bugnet, tarp, rope, quik biners pegs
• Compression sack clothes were in
• Army poncho liner
• Camp seat
• Iphone and speakers
• Lord of the Rings book (bad Idea)
