Backpacking in Dolly Sods Wilderness - Monongahela National Forest, WV

Some experiences can't have stories do them justice. This is one but I will try and shed some light on the experience as much as I can. For this being my first backpacking trip perhaps my view on the experience is a little different. Given that I have nothing to compare it to directly it makes a powerful impression on myself. I think the background information will show my perspective better if explained, so bear with me.

I have been wanting to get in to backpacking for the past three years or so. I have never had the opportunity to do it, though. One thing I have really wanted to do is bring a ham radio along with me on a trek. I really enjoy ham radio and combining that with the outdoors seems like the two go hand in hand just perfectly.

This past summer I got a Yaesu FT-857D specifically because it is a compact, go-anywhere radio. I also bought a nice backpack - an Osprey Aether 70. I just happened to get a deal on the pack that I couldn't pass up, so I splurged a little and got it. I had been looking at that pack for over a year anyway - I just didn't have a trip planned to use it so I didn't "need" to buy it.

My step dad used to hike the Appalachian Trail when he was in scouts. We have talked a few times about possibly getting out on that trail sometime. We recently were talking about it again this Fall. Getting a trip planned and the logistics worked out is going to be a challenge, however.

In the mean time, since I am a student at OSU I figured I would see what the university has to offer for special interest groups on backpacking. I really didn't find anything that was specific to backpacking, but I did come across the OSU Mountaineering club. They get in to anything outdoors, not just mountaineering - mountain biking, kayaking, hiking, rock climbing, slack lining, bouldering, snowboarding, skiing, etc. If it is a physical activity outdoors there is a group there that does it! This sounded pretty cool to me, although I am mostly interested in backpacking.

I went to their meeting a week ago last Monday and joined. During the meeting a few people were talking about trips and activities they had planned. One guy said he had a backpacking trip to Dolly Sods that weekend. That really got my curiosity up. I was already familiar with Dolly Sods as Andy over at Outdoor Source had told me about it last year. He said the two places that are close and good to go to are Zaleski here in Ohio and Dolly Sods in West Virginia. The catch is Zaleski is easier and Dolly Sods is more advanced.

The guy in the mountaineering club that had the trip planned said "this isn't a beginner backpacking trip". So, I was a little concerned with it. I expressed interest and we went over a few items such as gear and the terrain. It sounded doable to me, but I wanted to really cross my T's and dot my I's. I went home and researched things a bit more. I checked the weather and talked with the guy (Dave) some more online. I just wanted to make sure that I was as ready as I could be, terrain and walking aside.

After evaluating the scenario I decided to go. What I was up against is this: I had a potentially awesome trip right at my fingertips, it would fit in my schedule, and from here on out this year the weather is just going to go down the tube. I didn't know (and I still don't) if my step dad and I would be able to work a trip out. Since this trip was planned and there was a group going already it was just too easy.

Before I get in to the trip itself I will say that it was an incredible experience and I would most definitely do it all over again. That said, if I really knew what I was in for I doubt I would have gone. It was the most brutal three days I have ever had. Since pictures can paint a better picture of the trek I will be a little more brief on my story and let the pictures speak.

I was meet up with the group at Dave's apartment Thursday night, go to Walmart to stock up on food, sleep over at Dave's Thursday, and leave at 7am sharp Friday. Everything went to plan there. We took a bit more time than our directions said to get to Dolly Sods - about 7 hours total. The last hour and a half to two hours was all state routes - mostly winding through the mountains.



After the long drive we parked the cars, gathered our packs and were off in to the wilderness. This is the Rohrbaugh trail head next to the Dolly Sods Picnic Area (south eastern part of the park).


That's me in the green jacket on the right, Brian (OSU mountaineering) next to me, Dave (OSU mountaineering) on the other end with the HUGE pack, and Alex and Julian (friends from Miami university) in between.

The first thing we did as we hit the trail was fill out a log entry.



Then it was on to Red Creek for camp one.





This is where the difficulty starts to set in. I haven't mentioned anything about our packs yet. Briefly - we were all over 40lbs. Dave and I at least were over 50. Before I left the house my pack weighed 41 pounds with no food, water, or a few other little things. I never got a chance to weigh it again so I am just guessing.

This is a good example of the type of environment we were in. This part of West Virginia is really rocky. I would say 95% of our trip had something to do with stumbling, slipping, and tripping over rocks. The fresh blanket of foliage doesn't help with visibility and grip, either.



This outlook is about a mile and a half to two miles in on the Rohrbaugh trail. We all took our packs off and enjoyed the view (and cooled off!). This is a really cool outlook. I hung my camera in a tree and set the timer with a 4-shot sequence. It worked out pretty good!



Coming down the mountain (about a mile to the right of the previous picture) towards Red Creek on the Fisher Spring Run trail.



Looking down whats left of the mountain to Red Creek - you can see the rocks in the river through the trees.



Luckily there wasn't much water flowing. This made it easy to cross Red Creek. People say the water level will rise quite fast with any rain. All the water flowing out of the mountains gets dumped in here.



Setting up Friday night at Camp 1.



Here are some better daylight shots of Camp 1 from Saturday morning.


Bear bag - food and all smelly's in the black bag, trash in the white bag.


The tent with the blue/green tarp as the fly is mine. More on this later, but it is NOT the tent for this kind of trip!!!!


View from across Red Creek. You can see we had quite a community for being in "the wilderness".


Heating up bacon over the fire. Yummm.

As I said earlier, one thing I wanted to do was bring a radio along. Here's my setup at Camp 1. I took the top cover off the tuner to save some weight. I figured taking the cover off the radio wasn't exactly worth it. I would have shaved about 1.5lbs, but I would rather add 1.5lbs than loose my investment in the radio.



Here is my NorCal doublet set up outside. I tried to get this up after nightfall so I didn't do too good of a job, but it worked.



This is what you do if you feel "hot spots" - where blisters feel like they are forming. You put duct tape on the area so the tape takes the rubbing and not your skin. It seemed to work OK. However, later the same day my left heel started getting hot and I didn't treat it - mistake. Now I have a blister the size of my thumb that has to heal. The two spots I taped up on the trip didn't get bad at all.



Here we are starting the grind on day two. We are heading up the Breathed Mountain trail here. What you don't really get here is the perspective of the incline or the distance. You can see the type of ground we were hiking on - more rocks covered in leaves!



Taking a much needed break hiking up the mountain looking back down the trail.



Taking a picture break to enjoy the view after our climb. It is pretty cool to go from looking up at mountains on all sides to looking over and around the mountains in just a couple hours. It's quite a hike, but it is a pretty cool sense of accomplishment. Granted, these mountains aren't very high. That isn't to say it is easy, though!



Looking out over the sods along the Breathed Mountain trail, heading North West.



This is where we turn around and head back. This is the furthest point we will be from the cars. It is the intersection of the Big Stone Coal, Breathed Mountain, and Blackbird Knob trails in the North West corner of Dolly Sods Wilderness (the south section of Monongahela).



The first two pictures on this post were also taken here. If you noticed, the one with the map has a marker saying "you are here".

We headed down Big Stone Coal trail back towards Breathed Mountain. Here is our lunch stop. We ended up spending a couple hours here, probably more time than we should have but the sun felt WONDERFUL!


That's my monstrosity of a pack in the front.

Here we are using Dave's filter pump to stock up on some water.



We did a quick hike up to the summit of Breathed Mountain. We stashed the packs here and just grabbed a bit of water for the climb.



The view from the top wasn't all that great compared to some of the other views, in my opinion. The slope down wasn't very steep so the trees are blocking more.



Another good group shot - taking a break at the camp site on top of Breathed Mountain. This would be a cool place to camp, but you would have to haul all your water up.



I didn't get a whole lot of good shots between here and Camp 2. Instead of taking Big Stone Coal to Red Creek to Fisher Spring Run back to Rohrbaugh we took a short cut to save some time so we could get to camp before nightfall. Fisher Spring Run would take us a mile east of our camp only to hit switch backs going back up Rohrbaugh a mile back. There is a significant elevation climb to get to camp two no matter what. Dave looked at the GPS and figured we were pretty much right in line with the camp site, give or take a couple hundred feet each direction... and 500' elevation. So, our short cut was to climb 500' or so straight up the mountain side to Rohrbaugh which would take us right to camp. I know it sounds hard, but as the saying goes "it's easier said than done". Try it some time - strap on a 50lb backpack and walk 500' up a mountain full of rocks, roots, downed trees, brush, and all that coated in leaves. The only blessing was that the rocks and roots gave you a place to step so your feet werent 60 degrees off of where your body was all the time. The trees also gave something to grab ahold of to help pull yourself up, or grab if you started falling.

Here we are back up to Rohrbaugh trail. A litte further and we're at camp.



Camp 2 set up.



Here we are enjoying a nice warm camp fire before our brutal night.



I did say that I checked the weather. It was supposed to be in the upper 30's Friday night and upper 20's Saturday night - which meant it would be below freezing. This is a big part of why we packed so heavy. I packed what I thought I needed to get through those cold nights with. My sleeping bag is by no means a cold weather bag, nor is my tent a cold weather tent. In fact, I don't think my tent would even rate as a 3 season. It does not zip shut - the door is tied and the window in the back has two Velcro tabs - one in each corner - that keeps the flap shut. It doesn't keep cold drafts out.

This was most definitely the worst night in a long long time. I was sore from my previous two days of hiking, I was laying on a hill and bumps, and I had to layer up with just about everything in my bag to stay warm.

This is what Sunday morning looked like. I got up at least an hour before everyone else. I just couldn't wait to get out of my tent, get the fire going, and warm myself up!!! I was so uncomfortable that even if I was warm I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway. The cold on top of it was just hell.



I was smart and kept my pack in my tent. As you can see, not everyone did that - or even bother to cover them up.



The first few minutes of sun flowing over the mountain tops. By the time everyone else started getting up the shade line on the mountainside in the foreground was twice as far down.



The crew slowly getting up. Brian sitting by the fire and Dave by the tents.



Part of our water supply frozen solid over night.



This is the last group shot we have before we get back to the cars. The sun was bright so the picture looks blown out a bit. I had the camera sitting on a low rock also, I couldn't find a place good to hang it in a tree so the rock had to do.



Finally we make it back to the trail head! We signed out in the log book and then it was back to the cars. We did 17 miles in 3 days - 7 on Friday, 7 on Saturday, and 3 on Sunday.





So thats it for my adventure. I really did have a lot of fun. It was an eye opening experience. I did suffer through it, but because of that I learned.

Here are a few of the things I learned about backpacking.

For one, and it is a big one, the right gear goes a long way! I was somewhat prepared in that I had enough gear to get by, but I need to make some improvements. I need a better tent, sleeping bag, and I need a few specific articles of clothing - base layer, better pants, jacket/coat, etc. Cold temperatures aren't anything to screw around with at night, and nor are your underpants when you are hauling 50lbs over rocky mountainous terrain.

It is possible to cover a lot of ground fast. Racking up a 4mph average speed over the terrain we did took some work, but it was possible. A few rules: keep your head down and pay close attention to where your feet go. Be prepared to have your feet slide, stumble, and get caught in something. Don't ever take a trail for granted - it can throw all sorts of curve balls. Having a walking stick or two (or trekking poles if you want to get high tech) can be a blessing. When you stumble on a rock it acts as a third leg giving you something to transfer your weight to and keep you from falling or rolling an ankle.

Think through your trips! This includes gear, food, and procedures. Know what you are going to cook and how you are going to do it before hand. Know what you are going to wear and when. What you wear at camp may need to be much more insulating than what you wear on the trail. Even if it is cold don't wear much on the trail! It is going to come off anyway, so save your sweat and time and take it off before you start.

Even if you wake up as stiff as a board, get up and move around. Don't think about the pain and it will go away. Advil, Ibuprofin, or if you have anything even more powerful, can really go a long way to keeping you comfortable. I took advil before our treks each day and it helped.

Don't let pain stop you. Unless you sprain an ankle or break a leg you should be able to move. The only thing that slowed or stopped me was a lack of energy. Even when my legs and hips hurt, as long as I had the energy to go I did. Going up steep inclines is my weakness. By breaking it up and resting every so often I could do it. That's the important part. It doesn't matter how you get to the top, just get to the top!

Blisters aren't any fun, but taken care of they can be delt with and allow you to get through a trip. I used duct tape and got out alright. I should have used more (on my left ankle). Other blister-prevention methods (moleskin or similar) can be used. I am not sure what the best route is yet, but as long as something is done that will be much better than nothing at all.

Don't fear nature! It is there so take advantage of it. Be careful and have fun!