Spruce Mountain Hike
By Don Gasper
The Highlands Conservancy trek this Saturday, August 4, 2001, was along the crest of Spruce Mountain. As we left our homes and drove through fog, we did not know what the weather would be like on top. Paul Rexrode came from Harrisonburg, VA., Larry Kaeser from Lewis County, and Chung and Young Moon from Elkins. Don and Craig Gasper from Buckhannon led the group.
We hiked the rocky trail to the 2 mile marker. The weather could not have been better. The views below were hazy. We rested often, talking of Spruce, and always in their shade where we became aware it was 10° F cooler. The only disappointment was that the blueberries were sparse. We each barely found a handful.
We enjoyed the place, the people, and the day. I return to this trail almost yearly – watching closely the trail, as one must, I feel a little of the awe Thoreau wrote about. "Nature was here something savage and awful, though beautiful. I looked with awe at the ground I trod on, to see what the Powers had made there, the form, and fashion and material of their work. This was the Earth of which we had heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night."
Trip Report for the July 28th Dolly Sods Hike
By Douglas Durham
It was a dark and stormy morning.
On July the 28th Jack Slocum led five other hikers in the Dolly Sods/Red Creek area. With parts of West Virginia already having been flooded and more flooding being predicted and with a weather forecast for severe thunderstorms and heavy rain, Jack shortened what was to have been an overnight backpacking trip to a day hike.
We started at the junction of Forest Road 19 and the Red Creek Trail (TR 514). (See page 301 of the MNF Hiking Guide. See map on page 310.) This area had been severely affected by the flood of 1985. The Trail moves gradually and quite pleasantly along the Creek. There one can see Indian pipe, a small pale white flower which does not require sunlight. After that there was a delightful old Crabtree meadow, a simple open spot left over from times past.
We hiked out approximately two miles to a stream crossing that was slightly swollen and then turned around and came back. We went out with six and came back with six.