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Splash Splash

Somewhere along here, one of the guys gets on me about my river sandals. I said or thought to myself jokingly, he is putting the hex on me. I'm a little peeved about my sandals, as the Walmart did not have the shoes I wanted. (old type basketball shoe) I then go 25-50 feet and strain my ankle. Maybe that pole got stuck in a hole or the rock was sloped the wrong way. This two pole thing is one too many for me to keep track of. The strain soon goes away. Good. Also about this time I discover that my glasses fog up every time I drop down to the warmer than air water.

This is a boulder? 10' tall stuck in the middle of the stream thing. It must be a boulder since the only ones are in the stream.

One of our Snack Breaks

John, get moving.

Hey, what is happening, there is light upstream and soon overcast is showing through. Are we finally getting up the hill? The group is running away from me. I see them, but can not tell what route they found, so I'm finding my own way. Of course now, I can not take those short cuts they miss as I wander around route finding. Oops, that is a 25 foot waterfall down there and I am crossing at the edge, one slip and..... Would I stop or go over the next one too? Never mind a fall from any of these will do you in. Revert to the old habit of 3 point climbing, brown water everywhere, test every fast water step; some are too deep to test and too brown to see. (That is less than 2.5' in fast water on my white legs.)

On the return trip we use the official trails. They will leave me on the trail I know. I say to myself, I better offer the keys to my riders, they may need them before I get there. They say what for? I reply to Murat you might need a change of clothing AND it might rain too. I think, I might as well put the hex on them too.

Wading across Red CreeK. Very cold - May 1994 I prefer a stick.

Later at the parking lot one of the guys said, "How did you know it would rain? I keep quite; I'm not really that old to say it was in "my bones". Hey hex's work. MMMM,

This is great I'm warm and it is pouring. I met a group of people coming up the trail. Lead by a women in a poncho, with such a smile and a twinkle in her eye that if I had had an eye blink camera, I could have sold a cover photo. Maybe not, with the downpour there might have been too much rain. Another group is lead by two guys, they look bored or somewhat unhappy, followed by a very unhappy women. Let's see here. Is that an attitude problem "you have to go on this trip scenario", or is that impossible big bag over her shoulder not waterproof. I see the thought "where am I sleeping tonight?".

Cranberries near Bear Rocks 9-1990

This bag thing keeps my mind going for some time. The more I think of it, the bag looked like some kind of gauze. Maybe a white linen tablecloth made into a laundry bag and that white pillow is most likely a trash bag. Nice, no supporting Wall Street around here.

Finale:

Back home Sunday 2:30 AM having left Friday 11 PM with no sleep. I had thought it was Thursday. 40 hours on 2 hours sleep.

I discovered that a sandal sole had peeled, no wonder one foot seamed to do better than the other. Usually the stream is clear with not much water. The day before it rained very hard flooding several communities that were downstream from strip mines and clear cuts.

Oh! Thank heaven for West Virginia.

West Virginia Highlands Conservancy is an excellent site for Dolly Sods information as well of the other highlands areas. Their trail maps are hard to read on the site, but prints great because the scale is set for printing.

Forest Service The Monongahela National Forest list Dolly Sods as one of their specail places.

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