Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Roaring Plains

I made the long drive back into the Roaring Plains of West Virginia for the first time in several years. Other covers closer home had kept me satisfied for awhile, but the call for a wilder type of hunt led me back to these high mountain haunts. The birds were there, but as usual they used the thick spruce-rhododendron cover to make good on their escape route and although Hattie has several productive points I was never able to get off a shot. Hope you enjoy the following pictures of my adventure. The pipeline is the path to the top of the plateau. Pushed through in the early 70's, it prevented this area from becoming a wilderness area. So while the Dolly Sods wilderness area gets overrun by backpackers looking for the wilderness experience this 20 some squaremile area, which is just as wild except for the long pipeline scar running through it, gets few visitors.
A view of the pipeline on top stretching eastward.

The mountain holly were a bright red against the green spruce background.


A windswept hawthorn, a living testament of the harsh weather that rules this land.



Springs abound in this high mountain plateau.




Hattie working through some open cover.





The walk back to the truck.














Hattie at the end of the hunt.

2 comments:

David said...

Great post and pics. We hunted the pipeline on Saturday. We flushed a few but were never given a good shot. As soon as we got back down to the gate, and I took the shells out of my gun the dog bumped a double from the treeline across from the gate... haha.

Thanks again for the tip. FYI- we flushed two more graveling up along 75 on the way back to Red Creek Campground.

Greyphase said...

Hey Dave

Glad to hear that you moved a couple of birds. You don't get many easy shots while hunting the Sods.

Rick