Dolly Sods North Backpacking

15 miles...if you don't crap out and kind of accidentally skip 1.5 miles. Woops.

Hanging out outside Seneca Rocks, ready to get an early start on the trail in the morning.

While I love hiking, I'm physically limited, so there's not a lot of backpacking in my life. But I really love getting out to the woods with only the pack on my back. Still, choosing an easy trail (little elevation gain) is key. I had actually picked out a loop south of this one, which was a little scary (poorly marked, lots of river crossings) but this one came up and I went for it. Watery one next time!

The loop we did followed a couple different trails, mostly on the ridges of the mountains. It was a great trail for newbie backpackers, or me and my slow self. It could be done by someone more experienced as a day trip. So we set off down the dirt road towards the first forest spot.

And I immediately questioned whether is was all a good idea.

After crossing a little stream and going a bit into the woods, only a hiker would understand "Wanna take off your legs?" Also, don't site on a pile of ants to remove pant legs.

About the halfway point we stopped for lunch. There was a great view of a lake (which I would get closer and closer to as I kept hiking). Not far off that was a nice set of rocks. You know I love rocks. Played on those a bit before continuing on.

Queen of the mountain!

 

Just about the time I was started to tire, we came to the river. This was the point we HAD to get to on day one, in order to not cry over day two. I learned my limits pretty well on my first backpacking trip, so I knew I wanted to get more in the first day in case I was at all sore. At the river we stopped to rest, stuck our feet in the water and cooled off a bit. Crayfish abounded (even crawled over feet) but we didn't catch any for dinner. We did refill our water and then tried to get back on the trail. It wasn't too bad to find, but definitely took a few missteps.

This is when we missed out on some miles. I thought the trail down to some mini falls was option, not a part of the loop mile count. As I said, I was getting tired, and wanted to stop soon. So 2 miles from the river was a campsite that would mean only 3.5 miles on day 2. The great plan was to get to camp, chill, and go back for the falls in the morning, giving us about a 5 mile day. So when we came to the side trail we just kept on going.

I was beat when we got to camp. There was much laying in the grass doing nothing. Then hunger set in and I had to eat. But soon after it was sleep time. Nothing like 9-10 miles to put you to bed right at sunset. A thunderstorm was coming anyway, so good thing I was tired.

In the morning we ended up having to skip our backtrack to the falls. The skies were pretty gross and I wasn't sure it was worth the risk to get caught in lightning on a ridge. So it was a shorter day/trip than expected, but still pretty nice. Of course the rain from Sat night made the short day a bit longer. Everything was a wet mess. The 2nd day was mostly through a little marshy valley...except it had become a swamp in the rain. A lot of the trail was actually a creek now. We had 2 river crossing and a million "oh lord I hope there's ground somewhere under this water" moments. I got in mud nearly to my knees a few times.

Highly recommend this trip for the casual backpackers.