Solo Camping The West Virginia Mountains

[@toddossman201]

Travis, my two sons and I ran into you this past weekend at Dolly Dods. It was really great to meet you both. I hope you had a great weekend.

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

@@toddossman201 It was nice meeting you on trail, make sure you hit Lions Head next time!

[@SunlitAdventures]

dolly sods never gets old! great video.

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

My favorite place to go within reasonable driving distance for sure.

[@ronosmianski812]

Another great Dolly Sods video in the books!

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

Yessir, thanks for tuning in.

[@mattkreitzer5622]

I am definitely planning on going there some day soon. I live in Canton, Ohio so it is about a 5 hr drive, but it looks worth it for sure!

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

Definitely worth the drive!

[@zafiradaima]

The Sods is about 4 hours from where I live, it's on my bucket list, I just need to get some backpacking experience first. I've day hiked up there many years ago. Born in WV and spent summers up there as well as lots of hiking as a young adult.

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

My best advice is to just go. Dolly Sods is super dry right now so you don’t have to deal with the muddy bogs. Weather is very temperate, you can pack 3 season gear and be perfectly fine. DS offers a ton of loop options with the longest ones only being 22-25 miles. It’s pretty easy to plan an overnighter there or a chill 3-day trip. Don’t wait, just go!

[@zafiradaima]

@@Bacon_N_Backpacking I'll have to try to plan a short loop. Hopefully tropical depression Debby doesn't wreck to much havoc. Maybe later this month would be good. I do have cold weather gear except for the tent.

[@BryceNewbold]

Yooo!.. that Dobbin overlook campsite flat enough for a tent?

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

How much of an angle do you like to sleep on? lol. I don’t know that it’s 100% flat in a given spot, but there were some areas where it would be “good enough” for most people I’d say. There were spots you can tell people had placed tents before there. I’ll go watch the footage again and double check for you.

[@BryceNewbold]

@@Bacon_N_Backpacking haha. I guess I prefer very little angle. I'll try to watch it again and look more closely, but I know that cameras tend to lie. 😄. Appreciate it👍

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

@@BryceNewbold Going back and looking again, the eastern side of the campfire looks pretty flat. I doubt it’s perfect, but probably good enough that your whole body won’t end up in the foot box 🤷🏻‍♂️ Don’t mind the lack of trees, I’m sure it never gets windy up there 😬

[@GarryCollins-ec8yo]

I did the Seneca Creek Trail this weekend and ran into 3 young men from Ohio that were just getting into backpacking. I recommended Dolly, North Fork Mountain and your channel.

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

Good looking out, how was the trip?

[@GarryCollins-ec8yo]

@Bacon_N_Backpacking very easy, very flat, about 400' over 5 miles. Tons of water and tent sites. Numerous shallow swim holes. Family and work has kept me out of the woods for a long time so I picked this easy trail to get back into it. Enjoyable. Yours is another great video.

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

@@GarryCollins-ec8yo That’s the same Seneca Creek trail that’s right below Spruce Knob, right? If so, that’s a beautiful stretch of trail.

[@GarryCollins-ec8yo]

@@Bacon_N_Backpacking just west of the Spruce Knob turn off.

[@DissiDan]

Yeah, hit up the triple crown loop in my backyard of Roanoke, Va. Id like to see a play by play on one of my checklist hikes. I hear it has some challenging water management issues as well as crossing through private lands in certain regions that might make it difficult to find campsites. There are a few videos on it but oddly people only mention the tough logistics and never really explain in detail where they are and how they worked around them. Might be a fun one.

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

I didn’t think the Triple Crown was very hard to plan. I have a video up of it on the channel.

[@DissiDan]

@@Bacon_N_Backpacking Oh you do? Yeah I'll check it out. Well in that case (if you haven't already) try the Great Massanutten trail. It's a 71 mile loop around the Blue Ridge. As soon as I heard of it I immediately added it to the bucket list. It's right in my back yard and I wouldn't mind seeing how others fare on it first.

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

@@DissiDan I’ll put it on my list. If I’m doing 70 mile hikes I’m probably going out west though lol

[@mrjones8256]

What's that overnight oats recipe? That sounds like something I'd try

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

3/4 cup overnight oats, powdered milk packet, freeze dried strawberries packet, one packet of yogurt covered raisins, 1 oz pumpkin seeds - if you have room you can throw in a scoop of vanilla protein powder or something. If you do that you’d probably have to lower the volume of something else to fit more water.

[@DissiDan]

My wife and I ran into a hiker when we were just beginning Rocky Ridge and we asked him how far it goes on this way, he said "It's almost over for you already". It went on seemingly forever after that encounter. It's a tacit rule out there to always provide accurate advice, don't be that prick.

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

I mean that’s a subjective statement. Rocky Ridge is probably about 1-1.5 miles of the bad rocky stretch. That whole section takes maybe 20-30 minutes. A lot of backpackers hike 12-14 hours per day so 20-30 minutes would be a relative blip in the day. I can see it from both sides.

[@scottplumer3668]

Do you have to camp at existing sites, or are you just encouraged to?

[@Bacon_N_Backpacking]

It’s a federal wilderness, you can camp wherever you want as long as you follow the minimum guidelines they have in place such as distance from the trail, water etc. With that being said, using an existing camp is easier. They have catalogued 350 existing sites at Dolly Sods, so I guess there’s no point in further disturbing the landscape when there has already been plenty of that. The main issue with Dolly Sods are the sheer amounts of people. I planned on camping at Red Creek, I bet there’s 20+ sites there. I also bet they were all full, because all the ones I could see from the trail were taken when I hiked out in the AM