First of all these pictures are
incredible. Feel free to leave compliments with Jeff
the photographer. This
was my third trip to the Dolly
Sods Wilderness area. It was Jeffs second and the first time for
Chris and Jay. This shot
was taken at Bear Rocks located in the
Northeast corner of
the Dolly Sods wilderness area.
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This area is one of my
favorites in the Dolly Sods Wilderness. It's riddled with
beaver ponds and streams. Just another amazing feature in
the odd landscape of Dolly Sods.
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So our backpacking
trips usually involve some kind of "story". Here's where this
story begins. Of course it's May and has been raining
like
any other spring. Hiking in we didn't have too many
problems with stream crossings and high water. Hiking out was
a different story. It
started to pour the night before when we
went to bed. It poured all night and was still drizzeling for
most of the morning. We hiked down
to the river (Red Creek) anyway. Even
though the trails were now streams headed in the direction we were
headed, we trodded on. It was at
this point we realized we
made a bad decision. The river was huge. We stood here in awe
at its fury. You could only hear it's mass roaring
over the rocks
around us. So the
adventure (story) begins...
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Well it doesn't begin
just yet. Jay had to hang out for a photo. To check out
a comparison of the river between now and my trip 11/03,
click here.
Now the story
begins...
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Our cars were parked on
the other side of this raging beast. Jay actually tried wading
through it with a rope tied to him. The water was
waste
deep and washed 10' downstream before he got 3' across. We decided
the safest thing would be to bushwhack up stream until
we found a
suitable place to cross. This was the most
suitable place.
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As soft and fluffy
as the white material looks below these logs, it's actually
pure fury. Nature in all her rage.
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Crossing the log for us
wasn't the hard part. Getting the dog across was the real
challenge. Once we had ourselves and our gear across,
I
went back with jeffs empty pack (his is the biggest) to try and haul
the dog across. He wasn't having it. We struggled for a
while trying
to figure out different ways to get him
across. I think we finally spaced ourselves across it and
handed him from one person to
the next.
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Though the
pictures ended here, the adventure did not. Once across the
creek we had to bushwhack our way back to the trail all the
while
knowing we had another creek crossing to
make. The crossing in the pictures above was over the left
branch of Red Creek. We still had
to make the right branch crossing, knowing it was a two stage
cross.
When we got to the second crossing we found a couple
and their dog stranded. They had been there all day waiting
for the water to go down.
In that time, it had only gone down
6". What was ankle deep water the day before was now waste
deep. Luckily the current wasn't quite
as swift as the
areas we crossed further down stream. We started by getting
ourselves and our gear across first. Over the second stage we
strung up some rope to help balance and catch ourselves as we
crossed. The couple was so impressed with the way I carried
CJ across
they asked
me to carry their dog across, which was similar in size. It
all worked and everyone was safe, but did I mention the thunderstorm
rolling in? As if the stream crossings weren't enough,
another fierce storm was racing across the area. Thunder and
lightening was crashing
all around as we finished the crossing
and headed up the last stretch of trail. Luckily (sarcasm) the trail
opened up to field just as the lightening
hit its worst and hail
came pelting down. Ten minutes later we were at the cars and
the sun came out. By the time we stopped at the Pizza
Hut
in Keyser, Wv for pizza and beer it was just another story
for us.
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