for the Labor Day weekend my family and some friends went backpacking in Dolly Sods, West Virginia. (by 'family' I mean wife and 2 dogs, btw)

We started out late on Friday and all piled into the Subie... it was a tight squeeze, but the 6 of us made it ok - thankfully the fuzzkids are comfy in the trunk! After a leisurely drive and the overloaded Subie wheezing up Rt. 28 and forest road 19, we pitched camp in the dark close to the road... but were too tired to take photos.

The next morning we broke camp and drove back a bit to the trailhead parking area. Here we are getting started:




Dolly Sods is a rocky, high-altitude pleteau with sweeping vistas and flora usually found much further north in Canada. Stunted spruce, heath barrens, grassy meadows and bogs dot the valleys and ridges.... really, it reminds me the most of backpacking around Denali State Park in Alaska, but I've never been further north into Canada than Niagra Falls... but that's another story...

We started out down Blackbird Knob Trail:






The odd name comes from one of the early homesteading families - the Dahles. Sods is apparently a name for a meadow, but it could have just stood for sodden... because there was plenty of that too!



The entire area was used for bombing practice during WWII, so there are signs posted around showing live ordinance that has been uncovered over the years. It's not common, but apparently still shows up. This is one of the signs:



We continued hiking along the ridges - I'm not sure what the little table is.





The trails continued to be a bit wet!



But there were some very scenic resting spots.



We had to ford a stream to find a not *too* soggy campsite...


at which point I whipped out the tripod that I carried all this way (no wonder my pack felt like lead!) and took a bunch of pictures of the sunset (next post).

Nice shots. I've been told that little table is a universal symbol for "danger" which doesn't do a lot of good, because nobody knows about it, and it's all too easy to accidentally build. I confirmed this once, but I'm unable to find a reference with google at the moment. I think the only time I've ever seen it was at the entrance to an abandoned mine shaft. It's supposed to be a single flat bar with ends extending slightly past its two shorter "legs" so if the one you photographed was originally put there to mean that, I think it's been added to. Or it could just be hikers having fun!

This reminds me of walking a wooded trail on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula with my Golden Retriever - German Shepherd cross. She put on her brakes and would not go any further down the trail. I was confused becsuae she was generally such an obedient dog.

Later I found that a bear had her den just a bit further down the trail. My dog was a lot smarter than I was...

I was recently reading some amazing Journeys threads and it reminded me that I'd taken some photos. I got to thinking that I'd post some of my journeys, starting with Dolly Sods last year... and then I did a quick search - I'd forgotten that I even started this thread! Oops!

Anyway, John, thanks for the rock sculpture explanation - this was on a ridge with a steep drop off behind this sculpture, and the slope was full of loose rocks like the ones pictured. It could have been that when the trail was made the danger sign was erected and the first hiker added a stone to it, etc. I've also seen (on other hikes) little ones shaped like men, but I think that's just people having fun.
rpcrowe - we've been lucky that we've never encountered a bear with our dogs on the trail. They stay on the leash until they're tired, then at that point they stay on the trail ahead of us about 20 yards or so. They're good dogs but our Chocolate lab developed a limp on our last backpacking trip and the vet can't figure it out. Happens every time she goes out for a walk or run now, so this may be the end of backpacking for her. She really loves it, too.

Now, for that second post I promised eleven months ago!

After fording the creek we set up camp in the only dry spot around (well, the only one left - there were three other groups of travelers)


Then I took my tripod out to catch the sunset. It was very pretty, I shot bracketed shots and made my very first HDR landscapes:














I kept shooting after the sun went down.... my wife says I don't know when to stop. She's right.




After a while I thought I'd gotten all I could from the river and sunset and the fog was getting a little chilly, so went back to the fire.


The next morning we hiked out. Dobbins Grade is an old railroad bed. You can see it very clearly on Google Maps

It is always a soggy mess.


We pondered how to hop across the squishiest parts


But ended up cutting across the tundra back to the Forest Road... and then dirty and exhausted headed back home.


Now you know the rest of the hike! I'd actually recommend steering clear of the northern sections of this trail. It's not very fun to wade through mud with a heavy pack.

I love these two! Good work!

Originally Posted by ForceGhost I love these two! Good work!

Thanks!
My first real dive into Photomatix. It was pretty but didn't look much like that in person. I may have pushed the saturation a bit too much in some of those HDR shots!

Overall excellent HDR work. One usually establishes what they consider a threshold of adjustments. It all comes in time using HDR techniques but these are very nice images especially the early and late daytime shots. I use HDR with bracketing in many such situations. Excellent work thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by red_zone Thanks! My first real dive into Photomatix. It was pretty but didn't look much like that in person. I may have pushed the saturation a bit too much in some of those HDR shots!

I second ForceGhost. I've seen a lot a bad HDR, but I think the effect you achieved is quite beautiful. The color palette is especially pleasing to my eye. Thanks for lugging the tripod around.