We return to our adventures in Seneca Rocks, WV. I flew out of Dulles and our plan was to go straight to New River Gorge to climb, until we realized we had to pass through Seneca to get there. The last time we were in Seneca was at the beginning of our journey. We happened to be there last year at the beginning of climbing season. The local climbing shop had an event. This time by chance we were there for the end of the season event. It was a chili cook off, they did a raffle and had a video about climbers doing a big wall climb - a Yosemite climb that was 32 pitches and took them 5 days to complete.
Another difference between last time and this, we were trad climbing. We did some top rope climbs last time. This time Matthew lead us up some nice, easy, very exposed 5.4 climbs. The first one was a two pitch climb (Conns West). The second day of climbing we did another 2 pitch climb (Ecstasy Junior), which took us to another climbing area and we did a 1 pitch climb (Humphreys Head). Our last day climbing there we did a 3 pitch climb (Skyline Traverse), followed by a single pitch 5.5 (we think, not sure because the info was limited in the guide and it had a pretty tricky 5.7 move).
At the top of Conn's West looking down
Selfie on the peak
Rappelling back down
starting on Ecstasy Junior
view of Ecstasy Juniors first pitch
Happy at the top of EJ's first pitch
Matthew at the top of Humphrey's head (taken by a friendly climber we met that day)
me about to rappel down
Hanging on the side of a cliff on the Skyline traverse as we rappel down, we had to do two rappels to get back on the ground.
We took a few days to explore Dolly sods, we never did last time and I kept hearing how beautiful it is. We ended up doing 3 days hikes, about 10-11 miles each. The first day in the northern section was cold, even snowed some but it was, as expected, beautiful. Oh, it was also very wet from a recent rain and hey, it's called Dolly SODS for a reason. The second day it was cold but the trail was not as wet. Our last day it was supposed to rain so I wore my new rain coat to test it... well, it rained about 20 minutes after we finished hiking. Ended up being a gorgeous day to be out, and much warmer than expected.
Dressed and ready to go, we just wanted to show off our gaiters
I thought this showed nicely how soggy it was
Lunch time!
Snow on the trees
We made it to the New but perhaps a little late. As I mentioned the climbing season kind of ended so the temperatures and weather is not ideal for climbing any more... depending on the day. We ended up getting one day of climbing in the New, pretty disappointing. Furthermore, we did one climb during the only warmish part of the day. We'll just have to go back another time. We got hit with cold rainy days and even snow. When the forecast looked like straight rain for a week we decided to head out to the woods to hang out and hike. Oh yeah, and I sprained my ankle trying to get to a climbing area so I had to let that rest. Boo. I was pissed, I'm not a big fan of hurting myself or being idle.
waterfall on the way to the climbing area
Bridge we slept under
Only climb we did, a pretty fun 5.7
We continued East and stopped in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. We got lucky on our first day here. We found a great private campsite by a river and it was warm, high of 72f. We got to bath! And boy did we need it. It had been three weeks. Let that sink in. So here's the trouble.. it's hard to motivate yourself to bath in a river when the forecast high is in the 40's. On the up side we mainly keep to ourselves, and if we stink we are both used to it lol
Bath time!
I managed to roll my ankle, Twice. So we are taking it easy today, and probably for the next few days. We're heading to Waynesboro by the end of the week and the visiting friends bonanza begins.
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