Bourbon, Flies, and Lies

I loaded up Bess “the Outback” and headed down to West Virginia.

I want to start off by saying with all the hurricanes forecast models I knew the risks and went anyway. The way I thought about it was either is was going to have enough evergy and keep going north of the Ohio River Valley or it was going to run out of energy to climb out of the Ohio River Valley. As, fate would have it the hurricane did not have enough energy to climb out of the Ohio River Valley. It followed the valley and brought its fury with it.

I will continue to talk about hurricane Isaias throughout the remainder of the blog entry.

This would be my first trip ever since I contracted contact dermatitis. I would be primitive camping in the Mower Basin.

As I arrived at the area, I noticed that a lot of people had the same idea. I had checked out all the campsites I knew of and found them to be all occupied.

I knew this was a possibility and I was happy to see others enjoying the resources.

I finally found home for the next 11 days well it was supposed to be for 11 days, but it was cut short by remnants of hurricane Isaias. I will get into details later of why I heeded the warning signs.

The campsite had great views of the valley and the other mountain ridges of the Allegheny’s and beyond.

I had chosen this time frame because of the new moon, and this is one of the darkest places on the eastern part of the United States here are the coordinates 38.572083, -79.924741.

For more information on light pollution go here https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/

Day 1 (Thursday) I arrived at the camp site, I was overjoyed, no one was there. I set up camp and in choosing this spot at 4166 feet in elevation I knew I would be extremely exposed to the elements. The winds aloft where a playful 10-15 mph and nothing to major. The tent canopy was holding her own from the way I installed it.

I set up my tent awning which was just a tarp and then my MSR Hubba Bubba 3 season two-man tent.

The guy lines for the tent awning were staked with 8” x 0.375” spikes and were driven in with a 5-pound maul. This would prove to be so important with the 20-30 mph gusting winds. I would end up taking it down because it was too much load on the tent poles.

After the campsite was all set up, it was time to drive into town and get some firewood.

The leaves on the trees looked amazing but only maybe 50 percent of the leaves had color on them.

It was still beautiful with all the driving I did from the asphalt roads and the forest roads.

I got back to the campsite and unloaded the wood. I prepped the fire pit and dug it out to get down to a fresh dry bottom. I rearranged some rocks so that I could heat up my bath water.

I never prepare food or eat near my shelter. I also never use the facilities near the shelter either. I always hang my trash in a tree away from the shelter, but not in the same areas as the other activities.

Weather wise Thursday night was the best night. I could not see the northern horizon only in the southerly direction. This would hamper the sunrises, but not the sunsets.

On day 2 (Friday) I would choose a very small hike at the top of Spruce Knob. This would be the first legit hike since the injury.

The winds on Spruce Knob (SK) were noticeably stronger and was a precursor to that evening.

Spruce Knob was an extremely short hike and with some tiny amount of rock scrambling made is a real treat for me. As I got out on a small flat down from the Knob and was graced with one of mother nature’s wonders.

The sun had a 22° halo, Sun Dogs, Parhelic Circle, and 120° Parahelia! It has been over 30 years since I have seen one of these. It was a real treat, and I will never forget it. I hope you enjoy the artwork.

I arrived back at the tent, and the awning was really being pushed to its limits. To hold the awning in place I needed to pull down so hard on it with the guy-lines the tent posts were getting shorter by just the tension I had them in.

I choose to remove the canopy until this weather gets better.

I had some dinner and heated up some bath water. I took care of my details, and the hot field shower was amazing!

I buttoned up everything and hit the rack.