Hi y'all,
Here are the details for the Sept. 16-18 Dolly Sods, WV Hang / Backpacking Weekend. The hike dates are Friday - Sunday. If you have any pre-hikes or post hikes planned, please post the details on this thread. Others may want to join you.
This is our second group hang in Dolly Sods. For anyone new to hammock camping, this is a great chance to get together with other hangers in a beautiful wilderness area, not just for camping but to test your hammock gear for backpacking -- with a choice of short hikes or longer if that's your style. Great learning opportunity.
See attached trail map for parking at Red Creek Campground and Friday & Saturday night camping spots. This site has more maps and info. A printable pdf high resolution trail map here.
WEATHER LINK. Pay attention to weather reports. Any weather, any temps, any time at Dolly Sods.
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I’m describing this as a freestyle hiking and hang event. It’s freestyle because I’m giving you the camping/hang spots for Friday and Saturday night. How and when you get there is up to you and your hiking buddies. The large number of backpackers who have shown interest in this trip has limited the camping spots where we all can hang. Right now we have approximately 25 hikers intersted. Where we are hanging can accommodate this and more hikers if necessary. So we’ll repeat one spot from last year and add a new camping spot for Saturday night.
Both spots have very direct routes and are less than a few miles from Red Creek Campground. Or you can take circuit routes and start from different trail heads and make the hikes pretty much as long as you want. (Post on this thread if you think you need a shuttle ride to help you do the hike that you want. We’ll help out as much as possible.) This is a very flexible plan. Even if you don’t come to the Sods until Saturday, you can still meet up with the group easily at the Forks by starting out at Red Creek Campground.
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Friday Night Campsite: Meet at west side of Blackbird Knob on Blackbird Knob Trail. This is the intersection of Blackbird Knob Trail and LEFT FORK of Red Creek. There's camping on both sides of the creek AND plenty of water. Water needs treatment. See attached map. The most direct route is to start by the Red Creek Campground, follow the Blackbird Knob Trail 2.5 miles to the intersection of Blackbird Knob Trail and the left fork of Red Creek. There are a number of ways to get to this spot using various trails. Planning an indirect hiking route is highly recommended to see more of Dolly Sods if you are coming in early on Friday.
Saturday Night Campsite: Is at the Forks of Redcreek. Again you can take a short route to the Forks from the Friday night campsite, or you can do a longer route if you want a longer day of backpacking. See attached map. Water is not a worry. Just make sure to treat it.
Sunday – It's 3.3 miles to cars at Red Creek Campground taking the Red Creek and Blackbird Knob Trails back out. You can have a leisurely morning or get out pretty fast. Although it’s a rather short hike to the campground, be warned the Red Creek Trail is a long up before it meets up with Blackbird Knob Trail.
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Remember if the weather is nice there will be bird banding taking place across the road from the Red Creek Campground. This is a must do. Also take time to see the view from Bear Rocks. Last year people were still berry picking along the road at this time of year. Maybe we’ll have the same this year.
Some veteran DS hikers will be around at the Red Creek Campground or at the parking area across the road from the campground to meet and greet hangers coming in on Friday. Don’t drive through the campground. Park across the road and walk into the campground. It’s not that big and it will be easy to find other hammock hangers. We’ll hang around until early afternoon to meet and greet and then we’ll be off to the first camping spot. We’ll be easy to spot. We have Hammock Forum stickers on our vehicles.
That’s it. Hope to see you there!
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