Beginner Backpacking at Dolly Sods, Wv

OVERVIEW

Come stretch your legs in West Virginia. We will hike in 1-2 miles Friday night, camp out. On Saturday, we’ll hike 8-10 miles to our second campsite near Red Creek. We’ll plan on getting to camp early so that we can make a nice, big fire early since it’ll be dark early and rather cold. Sunday, we’ll pack up, hike 5-7 miles out, and then head home.

The Dolly Sods Wilderness Area is a great place to try out backpacking. The area is relatively flat, so you won’t be stressing to climb mountains with a heavy pack… There is some variation, but it is on the order of 50-200 feet at a time. (As opposed to SNP where often you drop down from Skyline and then have to hike back up 1000-1500 feet to the car.)

That said, it’s late in the year, and the Dolly Sods is usually at least 10-20 degrees cooler than Charlottesville. Also, we’ll be on a plateau, so it collects water well meaning that at times, we’ll likely get wet and muddy. Because of that, you will need/want warm, non-cotton clothes.

The plan is leave Friday around 5pm. I’ll modify this depending on everyone’s schedule. (Leaving earlier would be nice.) If we leave earlier than 5pm, we might shop for dinner on the way. We’ll likely be back quite late on Sunday. Depending on the exact time, we may stop for Sunday dinner on the way back.

Club provides:
-A ride there and back again. (Gas + 30% for drivers)
-Hot food and drink. (Saturday Breakfast – Sunday lunch, some snacks, hot cocoa and tea, great coffee if I’m feeling nice;))
-Gear. (Backpacks, sleeping bags, tents, headlamps, water filter, cooking stuff.)

You provide:
-Warm, warm clothes, strong preference for non-cotton (meaning no denim, no jeans).
-Good footwork. (I recommend good shoes and wool socks. Oh! A spare pair of shoes for the car is a good idea. We’ll likely cross water from time to time, so Crocs might not be a bad idea.)
-Rain gear.
-Things to eat on and with.
-Water bottles/containers. (At least enough space for 2 liters.)
-Toiletries (We’re not going to shower, but you don’t want to get a weird nickname because you smell like the onions from your Friday dinner sub.)
-Monday for Food on the way there and back.

You can earn your Completely Unofficial Meritorious Badges (CUMBs) of Being Really Cold, Starting a fire, and Telling a good Ghost Story.

The weather looks like there’s a chance of rain on Sunday; if things change, we may re-evaluate things. Drivers get off the waitlist first.

Notes: There is a game on Saturday, so we can’t leave cars at Bonnycastle. The signup deadline is Wednesday at 3pm, so that I can sort out stuff by 5pm so that you can know to get gear at the Wednesday gear room. More e-mails about that, etc.