Dolly Sods and the Meter Maid

We spent Saturday afternoon rambling around Bald Knob and some of the areas above, behind and below the overlook area. The weather held out for us, and we spent the day poking around the valley trying at one point to take a trip down a trail in the Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately, the trail only went a few hundred yards before disappearing into beaver ponds and bogs.

As we traveled north past Red Creek Campground, the meter maids became obsolete. The unmarked and largely undocumented region must be foreboding to the casual adventurer. While many people on the web have mapped out the informal network of trails in that region, they are not in wide publication when compared with the maps and guidebooks that cover the Southern Dolly Sods region. It isn't fair to blame overcrowding in wilderness areas on a guidebook, but it does make me hesitate to distribute maps that I was given that cover the northern area of Dolly Sods. Part of my heart wants to keep that region wild and uncrowded. The area in the north of Dolly Sods remains a glorious exile. To be safe, it requires some basic skills in map reading and compass use (or for the techies, a $400 GPS). Easy routes marked on the maps frequently reveal themselves as boggy moats protecting red spruce sheltered boudoirs.

I will make the maps available, check back later this week. If people have the skills, the ethics and the perseverance, I think they deserve to have information to help them ramble the hills. For those who take the information and turn back, they may gain a deeper appreciation of the term WILDerness.