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Post by va3pinner on Feb 9, 2016 17:31:11 GMT -5
Found this link on the WhiteGrass web page. New gates and new rules for accessing the Sods during Winter. Makes sense to me. One of my first trips up there many years ago I nearly got snowed in at the South Prong trailhead. Met the rescue group coming up the mountain as I was trying to get down............. I thought my VW Beetle was a tank and could go anywhere. parsonsadvocate.com/dolly-sods-area-winter-road-closure/Published On: Tue, Jan 26th, 2016 Headlines / Local Stories | By Parsons Advocate DOLLY SODS AREA WINTER ROAD CLOSURE Petersburg, WV – USDA Monongahela National Forest. Monongahela National Forest officials will soon install an additional gate in the Dolly Sods Area to ensure motorists do not drive into this area during the winter. A legal seasonal closure order on Forest Roads (FR) 75 and 19 will also be issued, allowing law enforcement citations if necessary. The new gate will be located near Laneville Cabin east of Red Creek Trailhead, where motorists travelling from State Route 32 can continue to access the trailhead and turn around before the gate. Additionally, Grant County will be assisting the Forest Service by moving their gate that is currently located on FR75 near Jordan Run road approximately 1.5 miles west where the Forest Service boundary intersects FR 75. The formal legal closure will prohibit motor vehicle use on FR 19 between Red Creek Trailhead and Jordan Run Road; and between FR 75 beginning approximately 1.5 miles west of Jordan Run Road and FR 19 during winter months when inclement weather, snowpack, or ice is expected to prohibit safe passage. Vehicles stranded in snow, weather related accidents, and search and rescue efforts for missing motorists have all occurred in the Dolly Sods area over the years as people underestimate the effects of deep snows and high winds, as well as the challenges of driving on steep, unplowed roads. These situations lead to putting first responders and tow vehicle drivers at risk as well. The harsh weather also contributes to difficulties in maintaining roads adequately, especially during spring freeze and thaw cycles. Allowing vehicle use too early in the year damages the driving surface and increases maintenance costs. To counter these problems, Forest officials have seasonally closed Forest Road (FR) 75 across the top of the Sods for many years. These additional physical and legal closures are aimed at resolving winter issues on the other sections of road in the area. Closures will be implemented by mid-January and will remain in place until conditions allow for safe passage, normally in mid-April or early May. Cheat-Potomac District Ranger Troy Waskey noted that “while this area of the National Forest will be seasonally closed to motorized vehicles, non-motorized uses are still available and visitors are encouraged to take advantage of winter opportunities to hunt, fish, hike, snowshoe or cross-country ski.” Forest officials worked closely with Grant, Tucker, and Randolph Counties to ensure private landowners are not affected, and with local 911 center directors and first responders to ensure their concerns were taken into account. They also considered current hunting use of the area, which this closure is not expected to affect.
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Post by va3pinner on Feb 9, 2016 17:38:01 GMT -5
And this is probably what inspired the closures, even though this event was not in the Sods but Spruce Knob during the blizzard!
Crew rescues group on Spruce Knob January 25, 2016 By Mike Snyder - For The Inter-Mountain , Inter-Mountain S
HARMAN - Six young men from the Eastern Panhandle set out Friday to have a good time on Spruce Knob, but their excursion ended up in a life-and-death emergency in the middle of one of the worst blizzards to hit West Virginia in years.
Harman Fire Chief Jerry Teter, 61, received a call from Whitmer resident Ronnie Armentrout at 10 a.m. Saturday that six boys were stranded by high snow above Spruce Knob Lake. Ethan Turner of Grant County was able to contact Armentrout by phone, advising him of their plight.
The youths had three vehicles and all were stuck in deep and drifting snow. They had spent Friday night in their vehicles and were tired, hungry and desperate.
"Them boys would have froze to death. They couldn't have walked out of there," Teter said.
"They were 14 miles past the lake, surrounded by forest and snow depths of 4 feet, somewhere near the Pocahontas County line on Spruce Mountain, miles and miles from any help.
Teter explained the situation to Randolph County Office of Emergency Management Director Cindy Hart, and it was determined that the Harman VFD's Snowcat, along with fellow volunteer John Dearborn's 'Cat, were the only way to reach the marooned men.
Teter, Dearborn, Armentrout and Todd Raines, another Harman VFD member, set out for the approximately 20-mile rescue up the snow-filled national forest road up Glady Fork to the lake.
Forging through blinding snow and bitter cold with only one 'Cat's heater working, they came to Turner's Jeep, stuck deep in the snow. Turner and a friend had made it 9 miles above the lake in an attempt to reach their three pals, who had phoned them for help after the deep snow had trapped their two vehicles.
Teter said it would have been impossible for a helicopter to have gotten through the raging winter storm. The Harman men had food and 25 gallons of gasolene along to aid the young men if they could make it to them.
After they reached Turner, the rugged Snowcats had to keep plowing on over drifts up to 5-feet thick for 5 more miles into some of the densest and most remote forestland in the state. They finally reached the other vehicles, which were 5 miles farther up the buried road from Turner's Jeep.
"They was dug deep and out of fuel 14 miles back (past Spruce Knob Lake)," Teter related. "One boy had shoes on, but no socks. They were real cold and hungry. It was snowing hard yet. We seen their (vehicle) tracks with a foot of snow covering them, but the tracks led them to the helpless youths."
The rescuers gave food and fuel to the stranded men, and although Turner's vehicle had chains, he had a frozen throttle cable and had torn up the differential in his Jeep. The Harman men and the youths then started back toward Whitmer, the nearest town.
As darkness fell Saturday night, they made it back to the lake, when Harman Snowcat's communication equipment failed. They had been in contact with the Elkins COM center every half hour and were now cut off. At about the same time, their 'Cat ran out of fuel, because of their having given extra gas for the three trapped vehicles, two of which followed the 'Cats, one of them towing the third.
Dearborn, who builds ski lifts throughout the U.S. and Mexico, now began the rescue of the rescuers with his own 'Cat. He started pushing the Harman 'Cat from behind for the treacherous 10 miles to Whitmer, which they reached several hours later, traveling around 4 miles per hour.
Waiting on them was a Harman ambulance, driven by Scott Shomo, a physicians assistant, and his wife, Donelle, Teter' daughter, a registered nurse. The men were treated, one having a small amount of frostbite, but they refused to be taken to the hospital and drove off back to their homes.
At 11 p.m., Jerry Teter was back home, worn out, his feet were wet and cold, he ate, showered and said he slept like a dead man.
On Sunday, Teter, having helped save six lives the previous day, now had to rescue his cattle, which were trapped in deep snow on his farm near Job. This time, two National Guard hummers helped the chief - who also is the Harman mayor - reach his cows with plenty of hay bales to spare.
But it was still not time to rest. Two people were stranded on Allegheny Mountain, cut off a mile from U.S. 33 by deep snow. With the help of the Guardsmen and their Hummers, they were able to break through the deep drifts that had left Anita and Jimmy Varner unable to get out.
On the cattle rescue and the aid to the Varners, Teter was assisted by another Harman volunteer fireman, W.D. Mullennex, 36.
Mullennex explained the role of volunteers like the Harman fire crew, "If the neighbors can't help out, we got problems. We're too small a community to rely on anybody. We have to help each other, or we may never get help."
Teter said people ask him how he gets time to do everything, like drive school bus and do mechanic work at Midway Motors, besides all of his other responsibilities. He grinned at this and then said, helping others as he and his volunteers do, "It's just fun. We have a blast doing what we do!"
The Harman Snowcat also lost its differential on the rescue trip as well as the 'Cat's rear door, which bears the motto, "WE'LL GO ANYWHERE THAT'S NEEDED."
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hikeer
Senior Member
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Post by hikeer on Feb 11, 2016 22:27:58 GMT -5
That's a shame, I enjoy getting up there in the winter to hike/snowshoe. Moving the gates practically to the bottom of the mountain on both ends pretty much shuts off access to a good portion of the Sods all winter, with the exception of what can be reached from Red Creek trailhead or Canaan.
This is primarily the fault of drivers who follow their GPS that tells them to take a shortcut over to Canaan Valley. In the last three years I've seen multiple vehicles on FR 19 that had absolutely no business being up there. I really don't understand the thinking of folks who don't seem to think that turning around might be a good idea when they hit unplowed steep mountain roads with foot deep ruts through the snow. It's just amazing how truly clueless some people are....
The tow truck guys won't like it, they've made some nice coin the past few years going up to tow people out!
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Post by arfcomhkr on Feb 13, 2016 11:57:00 GMT -5
I'm still trying to figure out where those guys in the Jeeps were. "14 miles past the lake". That would put them closer to 33 if they went that direction past the lake and Spruce Knob, and down closer to 28 if they went down 112 way. Doesn't sound like they were over by Laurel Fork, but you never know. Doesn't sound like they were back Whites Run either. So, I have no idea where they really were.
As for the gates at the sods. I wonder if they're going to shut out those people up FR75, there's a development of cabins up there from Jordan run about 2-3 miles or so below Bear Rocks. There's also a couple of Cabins pretty Far up 19 from Jordan Run now too.
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vdeal
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Post by vdeal on Feb 13, 2016 20:18:29 GMT -5
Arf,
Agreed, I don't see how the 14 miles past the last makes any sense. It's only 7 or 8 miles to the turn off to Spruce Knob and less than 2 miles to the top. It's about 11 miles down 112 to 28. If they went past the Spruce Knob turn off back down the east side towards Simoda it wouldn't make any sense to come up the Glady Fork side. The fact that they were supposedly on the Pocahontas County Line would seem to indicate that they were on 112 and we have a classic example of journalistic exaggeration. Still seems it would have been better to come in off of 28 instead of up Glady.
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vdeal
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Post by vdeal on Feb 13, 2016 20:41:03 GMT -5
I understand that the gate will be just past the Laneville Cabin. There aren't any cabins past there. On the Jordan Run side I would suspect the gate will stay the same. Per protocol the USFS should issue a new MVUM for the area also.
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Post by arfcomhkr on Feb 13, 2016 21:18:53 GMT -5
I understand that the gate will be just past the Laneville Cabin. There aren't any cabins past there. On the Jordan Run side I would suspect the gate will stay the same. Per protocol the USFS should issue a new MVUM for the area also. There saying they're blocking the roads up from Jordan run side too. There's a good bit of private property behind where they're talking about. "The formal legal closure will prohibit motor vehicle use on FR 19 between Red Creek Trailhead and Jordan Run Road; and between FR 75 beginning approximately 1.5 miles west of Jordan Run Road and FR 19 during winter months when inclement weather, snowpack, or ice is expected to prohibit safe passage."
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Post by va3pinner on Feb 13, 2016 22:59:13 GMT -5
I hope one can still park at Laneville Cabins and enter via Red Creek. I've wanted to take the old high water route to Little Stonecoal and up to Dunkenbarger as a winter trip some day. Or just hang out around Red Creek if going solo. I have entered from Whitegrass or Timberline area.
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Post by arfcomhkr on Feb 14, 2016 7:33:27 GMT -5
It's a shame that some people have to screw it up for everyone else, but that's how it goes now days. We've done some winter camps in the MNF. Take the trucks back, set up camp and day hike sort of thing. I'm getting too old to hump a winter weight pack much anymore. So we load the trucks with enough gear,food,water, ect to tough it out a while if we have to. Obviously, we try not to go when the forecast is calling for the worst snow of the season like those guys did. But you can still get surprised back there. I've seen a lot of crazy stuff over the years. Saw a family try to take a mini van around the Canaan Loop road once, among other things. They literally destroyed it.
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vdeal
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Post by vdeal on Feb 14, 2016 7:49:33 GMT -5
Va, the way I read the article it seems like the gate will be past the cabin since they say that you can access the trailhead and turn around. I believe the FS road doesn't start till after the bridge anyway.
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vdeal
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Post by vdeal on Feb 14, 2016 7:55:15 GMT -5
Just checked the maps and there is the private Dolly Lane right across from the cabin parking lot that accesses the private cabins down alone the South Prong so the gate will have to be after that.
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Post by va3pinner on Feb 17, 2016 20:30:43 GMT -5
Just checked the maps and there is the private Dolly Lane right across from the cabin parking lot that accesses the private cabins down alone the South Prong so the gate will have to be after that. Sorry about the late post! But that's what I kinda thought, probably right at the bottom so you can't drive up the hill. One could still park there, cross back over the bridge and follow the old abandoned high water route over to Little Stone coal and up that way. Or the ski lift a Timberline. I kinda like the lazy approach!
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