Dolly Sods this weekend

[veteran]

QUOTE=GrubbyJohn;910860]josh where is the start of the trace trail?[/QUOTE]

Barboursville, WV

http://terraserver-usa.com/map.aspx?...=8&fc=ffffff99

The Kanawha Trace Trail begins near the junction of Merrick
Creek and Mud River. For the first 1.5 miles, the trail follows a paved road.
The eastbound route is marked by a yellow blaze with a white rectangle above and below it. The westbound blaze is white with yellow rectangles.

The best starting place is where the trail exits the right side of the road and
enters the woods, beginning a short, steep climb to the crest of a small ridge.

[Hikes with a stick]

Just came across this thread... My wife and went to Dolly Sods on the weekend you were going to go last year, and it was awesome! It did snow, maybe 4" or so. But due to the ground being warm, the snow melted off of the trail, but it stayed on all the leftover vegetation and trees. It made it look like a winter wonderland, but the hiking was easy because the snow melted off the trail by early the next day. We were not the only ones out there either...

[10-K]

Bring the extra gear you need and stick to your plan. Some times it rains and some times it shines.

That's me too. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night...

Though I did get a bit freaked out in NY this past December.

[Namtrag]

Just resurrecting this thread because we had a similar situation last week (weather forecast-wise). Our meetup group had planned to go to Grayson Highlands on July 4th, but they had flash flood warnings, and high chances of rain for the whole weekend. We ended up going to Dolly Sods as an alternate. The forecast was for a 40% chance of rain each day, and we had one shower for 10 minutes on July 4th when we first started hiking, and again that night. On Friday and Saturday, no rain, and on Sunday, it rained right after we finished our trip. So it just shows how the forecast never seems to be correct for the Sods!

Beautiful spot, muddy in places, but the blueberries were just starting to ripen (we got some ripe ones in areas where the sun heated the bushes more). We had great campsites, and swam in Red Creek one day with our tents pitched on the banks.

My favorite place to go so far in my short backpacking career!

[marshbirder]

What's the camping situation like at Dolly Sods? I want to go out there for a weekend next month to watch the hawks migrating through. I see Red Creek, but it's pretty small. Can I camp anywhere in the wilderness itself? That may be a really stupid question...

[Namtrag]

You can camp anywhere in the Sods. If you go to Midatlantichikes.com and poke around his WV section, he has all the camp sites marked on his maps

[marshbirder]

You can camp anywhere in the Sods. If you go to Midatlantichikes.com and poke around his WV section, he has all the camp sites marked on his maps

Thank you!

[Gravesbrock]

Watch out for the bombs