Day 1 Monongahela National Forest

I chose for this trip to pay a visit to the Monongahela Nation Forest in West Virginia.  I plan on dispersed camp in the Mower Basin for seven days. The first three I would be solo and on that Friday my partner in crime would come to camp.

I went to the primary camp site, and it was occupied. I had four other camp sites chosen and continued to the other four. I found that other campers were on the other spots.  I went to the last one and found it to be open.

In setting up camp I found two piles of bear scat. One pile was clearly fresher than the other, but still two piles!

The attached photo is the last dispersed camp site. It was a little over a mile from the other site. I was dispersed camping in the Mower Basin.  You can drive right up to your camp site, but don’t be fooled, this is primitive camping. You need to bring everything with you and take it all out with you.

I had made food for the trip, and it was under ice in the cooler. I brought with me also two cases of bottled water and 6 one-gallon jugs of water for showering. One thing that threw me for a loop was the number of flies there were present at the campsite. There re a lot of flies so many flies you need to be prepared. The flies will leave you alone after a few hours buts unnerving to witness.

I got the screened gazebo set up and moved onto my tent set up. I set up a tarp over my tent area so that even if it rained, I would have a dry place to sit. I would be able to enjoy the views of the camp site.

After I got that all set up it was time to run into town and pick up firewood.

I drove out of the forest and one hour later I would find the place to pick up the wood.

I loaded my Subaru and headed back to camp.  I brought with me a plastic trap, in case it rained I would be able to keep the wood dry.

I then realized I had not eaten and decided to heat up some turkey meatloaf.  I broke out my fuel cannister and the stove.  I do need to add that I found a fresh pile of bear scat at our camp site when I got there.

That means I prepared food away from the sleeping tent. That also means I would wash dishes in a different location from the cooking location and the sleeping tent.  I also would hang the trash in a treeaway from all the above forementioned.

I did this in the hopes the bear and other little furry visitors would be less likely to show up. I also brushed my teeth away from camp.

All this seems like a lot but in all actuality it’s a safe way to be.  

On my way to my tent to call it a night I looked up at the night sky. I chose this area also because it’s one of the darkest places east of the Mississippi River. It has a Bortle Rating of 2. You can read about the Bortle Scale here https://www.handprint.com/ASTRO/bortle.html

I could see the Milky Way Galaxy from Horizon to Horizon. This was what I really was after. I don’t have the camera equipment to take images of the Milky Way to show off her true raw beauty, but memories are enough for me now.  The other reason for coming to this location was also to take star trail photos. I did get that opportunity, but heat lighting along with cloud cover made that tough too. Its also important to point out that we go outside to enjoy the outdoors its not “us” who are in-charge of what happens to us.  I hope you enjoy the photos attached below.

This would be my first night here and it will turn out to be one of the quietest nights of my life in a long time.  The crickets were the music that lulled me to sleep. I do t recall falling asleep really but all I recall was my head hitting the pillow and it was lights out.

Day 1

I was awoken in the morning by a snorting deer stomping its hooves to the point where I believed I could hear it stomping.  I laughed out loud and yelled “good morning to you too”.

I dragged myself out of the tent and proceeded to heat up coffee for breakfast.  I did not see any new evidence I was visited by any uninvited guests. The trash I hung in the tree was untouched and there was no evidence of tracks or disturbed grass where I brushed my teeth either.

This would be my first sunrise at camp and mother nature was not disappointed. She painted her canvass effortlessly with pastel pinks, reds, blues, and various shades of white. The overnight low was in the 50’s and a dense fog bank had settled into the valley.

I hope you enjoy the following photos and videos from this moment attached below.

The water started to boil in the kettle, and I put together the coffee. Then I would turn my attention to making oatmeal.  The oatmeal I premixed was basically a candy bar with oats in it lol. 

I finally got to set down and further enjoy the scenery and the moment that I was being a part of.

There was a slight breeze out of the North-Northeast and it was nice and cool.

I started to think about what I was going to do today since I came down a day early. I came down a day early because I was afraid of setting up camp in the rain. For all of us who have set up or torn down camp we know it’s not fun at all. It’s wet and gets everything else wet and not forgetting it weighs more!!

Let’s get back on track here with what I was going to do today.  Well, I wanted to hike but which one means how many miles did I want to do. I choose to do the Loop that was a combination of Lumberjack, High Meadow, and Seneca Creek Trails.  I look at these trails on my Garmin Base Camp mapping program. I knew that the final grade and last leg of this loop would be a brutal slow burn accent.

The bottom of the gorge was at an approximate elevation of 3148’ and the end was at 3953’ elevation. Now that does not sound bad, but I made no mistakes, but I did not know or research how many creek crossings I would have to in this last leg of the hike.  So, the last 5.58 miles was a real treat fest.

I started this hike late. I started at noon, but in preparation for this I packed my headlamp. I also packed 3 liters of water and snacks.

I kept my pace of 2 mph and while I will not set the world on fire with that pace it’s a pace I am comfortable with. This is also the pace I used to complete my 17-mile hike months earlier.

The start of the trail was wet on the Lumberjack Trail (LJT) and would end wet. It was plagued by stinging nettles so be very aware pants should be worn.  There are dozens of springs leeching out of the mountain side.  This is part of the Spruce Mountain in the Allegheny Mountains.

With all the springs comes bugs, but the bugs were not as bad as the nettles. We all need to pay close attention while hiking because you could miss something amazing.

I was walking on this single-track trail and found a few railroad spikes. I also found a few remnants of stone walls. These just appeared as I was hiking the trail they popped up like magic. I don’t know what structure they would have been used for. The age of the rocks looked to it would predate the area becoming a park. I will attach photos and videos below to show you what I am talking about.

The other magical part of this would be seeing three blue cray fish!! Yes, you read that right I saw three blue crayfish, crawdads, or mudbugs! I had no idea they would be this high up on a mountain. 

I was hiking down the trail and saw something blue. My brain was automatically thinking about who threw trash on this trail and then I saw it move. My body locked up to a dead stop. My brain took a few minutes to recognize and process what I was seeing.

I had assumed that the trail was drier than their habitat and maybe they came up on the trail to warm up maybe. I am not a biologist but that is my guess.  I found them at an elevation of 4035’.

I created this loop out of three trails and after the section of the LJT it would lead me to the High Meadow Trail (HMT). Here is where I saw how a horse had been through here recently and pushed back some brush. Meanwhile after I saw several wild black berry bushes and what I believed to be elderberries I pulled out my bear spray.  The last thing I need to do is surprise boo-boo eating his or her dinner! So, I had my bear spray out going down the trail until it opened. I will add a video below showing how narrow the trail was and seeing a bear here could have happened!

What I did not realize is that the fun had not really begun yet. Unknown to me when I got down to the banks of Seneca Creek I would need to do 5 creek crossings. Now this would have been nice to know about going on the hike.  So, you can just imagine how frustrating it was with only myself to blame.

I am extremely fortunate that the creek was not high and not crossable. If it had been so I would have had to go back to the way I came or take a chance again to cross it. This would have been really dumb of me to take a chance.

When you don’t know how many water crossings you need to do you will never know if you’re on the correct bank.

I kept pushing myself and at one point I stopped taking off my GoPro and putting on my headlamp. This was thought of from the start knowing I would not start my hike until midday.

As I hiked up the mountain and made a vertical accent of 805’ in 5.58 miles. It does not look that bad and it was not, but being at the last leg of the hike and the sun had set it was worrisome.

I just kept thinking you are fine and praying I did not have to cross the creek anymore.

When I finally reached the trailhead, I hiked 13.3 miles, traversed Seneca Creek five times, and hiked out of gorge of Seneca Creek.

It was 1930 when I arrived back at the trailhead and it was so late even the owls were saying who! Lol Like “who in the hell would start a hike this late?”.

Beaten and battered I pointed the Subaru to camp.  I arrived at camp an hour plus later.  I heated up water to heat up the meatloaf. Since I did not have a skillet, I figured out I would eat the turkey meatloaf like stew. That meant heating up enough water to make the meatloaf hot. I placed the three pieces of meatloaf in individual baggies. In doing this it allowed me to breakup the meatloaf inside the baggy. After I did this, I could then pour the crumbled meatloaf into the small pot.  I then poured hot water into the small pot and put it onto the burner. After the water started to boil the water, I pulled the pot off the flame. That second dinner out at camp was such a mouthgasm!

After dinner and washing dishes, it was time to take care of myself.

The other part of this journey today would be taking a field shower at night. The temps plummeted and the water was in the 60’s. So, needless to say it was a shock to the system and if the wildlife did not know I was there they would know after I hooted and hollered after every rinse of my body as I washed off the soap. Lol

I went to bed and barely recalled zipping the tent shut. I do remember grabbing the bear spray and air horn before passing the heck out!