Weekend Backpacking in Dolly Sods Wilderness

hey guys so I'm here at the Dolly Sods wilderness and we are backpacking we're actually backpacking together for once and this is actually gonna be our first time backpacking with our dogs so it's kind of an experiment but this area is about three hours or so from where we live and the drive out here was absolutely gorgeous we were kind of shocked when we got out here there's probably about a hundred cars although it is Labor Day weekend and this place has become more and more popular over the years but we were definitely shocked to see this many cars so hopefully we will actually be able to find some solitude once we get out on the trail we're hoping to do a part of 20 mile loop and we're just doing one overnight so two days of hiking one night all right so we're starting at the bare rocks trailhead and heading into the wilderness and make a I guess a twenty mile or so loop around the area connecting a bunch of tracks so one of the reasons that Dolly Sods wilderness is kind of a popular spot is that it's really unique and the whole Canaan Valley and Dolly Sods area it's in West Virginia so you'd be kind of expecting like an Appalachian Mountains type of ecosystem but instead just the right factors combined and it actually looks a lot more like southern Canada like Ontario or northern Wisconsin northern Michigan type of area all those different types of plants are here it's really cool it's so gorgeous out here just came from bare rocks trail we're gonna go ahead and veered to the right we came from that direction across this beautiful meadow sad Joe keeps getting widen walk through the mud people little warmer out today than we expected so the dogs needed a break we just came off the trail a little bit and are hanging out and that's nice little stand trees these are the most amazing likens we've reached rocky ridge and the views are just incredible you you guys this trail is amazing it's just absolutely beautiful every corner that you come around it's something new normal this pink stuff is it natural it's all over these rocks so when I was doing some research to come out here and figure out what trails we're gonna do what I found online a lot of people were complaining that the trails were just you know overgrown and not marked and all that kind of stuff and so far we haven't run into that they're not glazed that's true the trails are not glazed but there are signs at all the intersections and so far I mean the trail is actually in really good shape all right so a little change of plans we had originally planned to do like 20 miles so like today tomorrow with our dogs are really slow we are not the fastest hikers but they are really slow so babe and you know you can't blame them they have never been backpacking before and they're middle-aged dogs and has a little bit of arthritis in one shoulder too so we're not trying to push him to the bar but we are gonna cut it a little bit short we're gonna find that trail Harmon trail I think is the next one and cut down that and find a camp spot and on top of that we have been hearing thunder off in the distance so I know it's coming for us it's getting kind of dark out in front of us and setting up in rain and dark isn't that much fun so I'm just gonna maybe call it a little bit earlier tonight and then honestly we are out here to have a good time this weekend or not about making miles or anything like that it's just about being in the wilderness and having fun backpacking together definitely getting some fall colors already okay so we did not beat the thunderstorm or the rain but it wasn't a heavy rain so it wasn't that big of a deal and we finally found a campsite we turned off of Harmon trail onto Blackbird Knob trail and found a campsite right after that and so now we are just getting the tent set up and getting some food cooked and I'm actually trying something new this time we bought a food dehydrator and so I've spent the past couple days dehydrating some food and you're trying a black bean and salsa stew you love's cheese sticks so he gets to carry the dog food all right good morning everyone we are getting back on the trail I just broke camp I was pretty good night last night actually having dogs in your tent keeps you extremely warm so it might have been chilly last night but we didn't know it I barely wanted even to be in my sleeping bag I was pretty toasty and they kicked me all night but other than that it was a good night up to some low-lying clouds and fog and it kind of looks like it's gonna rain today we are headed down to the creek and we're gonna fill up with water what you doing there's so much color going on here people write the Dobbins grain was kiddin we've made it out of Dobbins Great Swamp and using our state-of-the-art sequoia depth gauge reached approximately 1/2 leg we can compare in the Shire mr. Frodo so you guys Dolly Sods the wilderness is amazing we have seen just about every type of ecosystem out here there's been deciduous forests Meadows full of wild flowers and like boggy areas where you're found get your feet wet and areas of high rocky ridges where there's like alpine plants deep hemlock forests absolutely incredible so we got about a half mile road walk back to the car and that'll complete our overnight trip to Dolly Sods um we through the trip together pretty last-minute as in the day before we came out here we decided hey let's go dolly for this for the night perhaps foolishly we didn't really draw the connection that it was Labor Day and I never in my wildest dreams expected it to be as crowded as it was it's pretty dispersed ly spread out inside the park so you know it wasn't people weren't crawling all over each other but there's definitely full breath people families people backpacking day hikers a bunch of dogs which is good people are enjoying nature not so good because just in our minds we always envision dolly to be very remote wild but nonetheless awesome time we talked to a local he said you come out during the weekday you come out when the weather is bad you'll get the place almost to yourself and you'll get that wilderness experience so to be continued we will be back is very beautiful very awesome alright so in the end our Dolly Sods adventure we ended up doing about probably 12 and after 13 miles so not the 20 that we had planned but it's totally okay it was lovely out here and like my husband said we will definitely be back waiting what do you think a rocky ridge what do you think a rocky ridge speechless

Channel: LoamSeeker

Views: 4,008

Rating: 4.8888888 out of 5

Keywords: backpacking, overnight backpacking, weekend backpacking, dog backpacking, backpacking with dogs, west virginia, backpacking west virginia, dolly sods, dolly sods wilderness, backpacking dolly sods, dolly sods backpacking, wilderness backpacking

Id: Htbi5mtXGcs

Length: 16min 37sec (997 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 03 2019