Dolly Sods 2018: Braving the Cold

We spent the weekend on our annual trip to the Canaan Valley. We rent a cabin very large house near one of the ski areas with a number of friends. We spend the days hiking and playing outside and the evenings eating too much, playing board games, and working on puzzles. I always look forward to the trip and the time spent with friends. This year, it was 65 degrees and raining when we arrived in Davis. Two days earlier, there was over a foot of snow up on the plateau, but two days of rain washed it all away. By Saturday morning, the temperature had dropped more than 50 degrees and a couple of inches of snow fell in the last few hours of the storm.

Saturday, we hiked up to the top of the plateau and in to Dolly Sods. It was ten degrees and the winds were blowing at 40 mph. It was also still snowing lightly. 

 Dolly Sods in a rare moment of sun on Saturday. It was not remotely warm. Any time we were exposed on the ridge, we were getting blown around pretty badly. Given the combination of wind speed and temperature, we were pretty cold.

 Rocks on the west side of Dolly Sods.

 Michael and our friends hiking in the snow and wind.

The ice-covered trail. Because of the rain the day before, a lot of the trail was covered in water. Even though it was well below freezing, it hadn't had time to freeze yet.

Sunday, we woke up to this:

That motivated no one to head outside right away. However, almost as important as the temperature number is the wind speed on the lower right: 0 mph. That is a rare, rare thing in the West Virginia Highlands.

While we were eating breakfast, we noticed that, because it was so cold, moisture was crystallizing out of the air and floating around in the sun like glitter. You can just see it in the top center of the photo above. It was magical and fascinating to watch.

Another view of the "glitter" and the hoar frost on the ridge behind the house.

Michael and I drove up to a parking area near the top of the ridge and hiked from there to the Forks of Red Creek. We figured that, with all the rain a couple of days before, Red Creek would be running high and the waterfalls would be pretty impressive. Even though it was five degrees when we started, which was colder than the day before, it was so much more pleasant. There was no wind, which never happens in Dolly Sods and it was bright and sunny.

 Hiking south along the Valley View Trail.

 Ice feathers on the trail.

 Hoar frost on a tree.

 Looking back north towards where we started.

 A wild turkey track in the snow.

I mentioned that, the day before, water covered the trail in many places. By Sunday morning, it was almost all frozen. In this case, the trail was basically an ice rink. We had microspikes on, but the ice was hard enough that they wouldn't dig in very well, so it was still pretty slow going.

The hike over Breathed Mountain was really pleasant. There are a couple of ways to get to the Forks of Red Creek, but Breathed Mountain is the only one that doesn't involve a major stream crossing. We saw seven (!) backpackers in two separate groups hiking the other direction. They had all started on Friday night in all the rain. One of them said his tent poles froze together after the temperature dropped Saturday morning.

 Fresh bobcat tracks on Breathed Mountain.

 The Left Fork of Red Creek

 Icicles on Red Creek.

 A cairn marking the trail

 The waterfall at the Forks of Red Creek. This was as close as I could get. There was so much water in the creek and no way to cross the Left Fork, let alone the main stream. If you want to see a comparison, the photos on this post show what it looked like in the summer a few years ago.

After spending a few minutes at the falls, we turned around and headed back. We wanted to make sure we got to the car before dark and we definitely didn't want to worry anyone at the cabin. The temperature started dropping pretty quickly as the sun sank towards the horizon.

 The Valley View trail in the late afternoon sun.

Michael hiking towards the parking area.

All said and done, we hiked 8 miles and really enjoyed doing something a little different.

Muddy Slog: A Quick, Wet Trip to Dolly Sods

Last weekend, we made a quick day trip up to Dolly Sods, hoping for blueberries and wildflowers. I was more than aware that it had been wetter than normal. The DC area had its wettest June on record. We received more rain during one month than we usually get all summer (As an aside, we might be to blame for that: we put an irrigation system in our garden this spring...). However, it had been a few days since the last time it rained, so I didn't think anything about what the trail condition might be out there. I would probably have chosen a different place to hike if I had known what we were in for.

We started from the Blackbird Knob Trailhead by Red Creek Campground. The trail starts on a short boardwalk. And then the boardwalk ends. Normally, that is where a standard path through the woods begins. Last Sunday, that's where the mud and water started. It never really ended. We got a few breaks when we climbed up small hills, but the whole day was a lot of slogging through mud and walking through water, hoping that you didn't misjudge the bottom. The place was hammered. We saw lots of big groups and a lot of trail damage (widening) from people trying to avoid the mud. As much as possible, we tried to stay on the path and just walk through it, but it was tough.

On the bright side, there were blueberries! There were also lots of wildflowers. Red Creek was as high as I've ever seen it, which made crossing an adventure. The falls at the Forks of Red Creek were running high, too, which was very cool to see. We had a good hike, it just wound up being tougher than we expected. The weather also held, which was good, because the only thing that would have made the mud better would have been a good downpour!

Pictures (click to enlarge):

 One of the driest places on the Blackbird Knob Trail.

All of the rain meant lots of cool mushrooms going off in the woods. I definitely need to get a mushroom reference book at some point.

This is pretty typical of what the trail looked like through any of the meadows. If you click to enlarge the picture, you can see the pools of water. Michael is in the center of the photo.

Hypericum prolificum (Shrubby St. John's Wort) on the Blackbird Knob Trail.

A large cairn on Red Creek.

A small slug on a tree at the junction of Blackbird Knob Trail and the Lower Red Creek Trail.

Blueberries!

Trees reflected in a pool near the forks of Red Creek.

Rhododendron maximum (Great Laurel) near Red Creek

Rushing water on the left fork of Red Creek.

 Our canine escort cleaning her feet off.

Small waterfalls on the left fork of Red Creek.

The Falls of Red Creek.

More awesome mud on the way out.

Lilium philadelphicum (Wood Lily) on Forest Road 75. I first saw these stunning lilies five years ago in the same place. I've never seen them anywhere else, although they do grow elsewhere. They are listed as endangered, threatened or a species of concern in several states because people like to pick them and they don't tolerate grazing.

Another, double, L. philadephicum

The view to the east from the Bear Rocks area of Dolly Sods.

West Virginia Part One: Red Creek

We spent the long holiday weekend in West Virginia with a whole bunch of friends. Since this is the third year the group has done this, I think we can say it our annual winter West Virginia Weekend. We rented a cabin near Timberline Resort and spent the weekend playing outside, eating too much good food, playing board games, and generally getting too little sleep. It doesn't get much better than that.

Saturday morning we decided to hike up the lower Red Creek Trail in Dolly Sods and bushwhack to a large waterfall. Michael and I been to Dolly Sods a lot, but mostly to the northern part of the wilderness area. We attempted the Red Creek trail from Laneville just once in 2006 the first year we lived here. Since we were new to the Mid-Atlantic, we really didn't understand the general climate of that area of West Virginia. We went in March, because, you know, it was spring (not really). Crossing Red Creek (which, anywhere west of the Appalachians would be called a "river"), swollen with snow, remains one of the sketchiest things I've done in the woods. We've learned so much since then, but we just hadn't made it around to revisiting that part of Dolly Sods.

Red Creek cuts a deep, rhododendron-filled canyon through the plateau containing Dolly Sods and Roaring Plains. The area is rugged and remote. It was bright and cold when we arrived at the Laneville trailhead Saturday morning with about an inch of snow on the ground.  The trail basically follows the south bank of Red Creek, which was partially to completely frozen. After a couple of miles, we paused for lunch next to one of the larger side streams. After eating, we left the trail and bushwhacked up to a large waterfall. We crossed the frozen stream, fought our way through the rhododendrons, crossed the ice several more times and fought our way through more rhododendrons. Did I mention the rhododendrons? The entire creek was filled with beautiful ice formations. The reward for the effort: a spectacular 50-foot tall frozen waterfall. 

We returned to the cars the way we came, fighting our way down the creek to the trail and then hiking out along Red Creek. I'm glad Michael and I finally returned to the area and really glad we got to explore it with great friends. Tomorrow, I'll post about our hike up into the northern part of Dolly Sods.

 Rhododendrons along the trail. Their leaves curl up when it is below freezing.

This tree grew over a nurse log and the arch under the roots is the only remnant of it.

The mouth of Big Stonecoal Run at Red Creek.

Frozen icicles on Red Creek.

 A cairn on the Big Stonecoal Trail on the south bank of Red Creek.

Hiking up the frozen creek.

Curled bark on a fallen paper birch log.

Water flowing behind icicles.

The waterfall that we were seeking. Note the size of the trees around it.

A fungus on a tree.

Hiking back to the car late in the afternoon.

Red Creek in the fading light.

Another view of Red Creek.