Hiking on Dolly Sods, Part 1

The view east from Dolly Sods Road Overlook

My friend wanted to hike on Dolly Sods Wilderness in West Virginia. I remembered that Herb and I had done a hike on the Wilderness Trail and part of the Rorhbaugh Trail up to the spot where the rock cliffs are located, about a decade ago. I had always wanted to see the rest of the Rorhbaugh Trail, so I suggested we start our hike on the Wilderness Trail and continue to the end of the Rohrbaugh Trail, a total of about 5.2 miles according to my trail map. We each drove our own car so that we could leave one car at the Rorhbaugh Trailhead and ride together in the other to our starting point at the Wildlife Trailhead. This would save us a long walk back.

The weather was marvelous, so we agreed to go out last Friday, the beginning of Labor Day weekend. We arrived at Dolly Sods Wilderness around eleven-thirty in the morning after a long dusty ride up the rough mountain road. The clouds were just breaking up on the plateau, allowing a clear view of the mountains to the east from the panoramic overlook at the entrance. It was windy and chilly, probably in the mid fifties, and I put on my lightweight raincoat for an extra layer of warmth.

 

Goldenrod and Jewelweed at the Wilderness Trailhead.

 

We drove down to the picnic area and had our lunch there, parking my friend's car, then drove back up to the Wildlife Trailhead in my car. There were lovely wildflowers everywhere, a hint of fall showing in the foliage and flowers.

We hadn't gone more than forty or fifty paces into the forest when a ray of sunlight highlighted a whitish fungal growth up on a tree trunk... it was Lion's Mane mushroom! Thank heaven my friend is an expert forager, and had her forage bag with her. She found a stick long enough to reach the Lion's Mane and coaxed it down. If we could find a few more, we'd have a tasty supper.

 

Lion's Mane mushroom

 

We started looking around more closely--and more mushrooms began to crop up. A group of large polypore-looking mushrooms was scattered upon the forest floor. We picked a sample for later identification, not sure of its edibility. I think they may be Hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum repandem) which are considered edible.

 

Hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum repandem)

Closer look at Hedgehog mushroom.

 

The trail was impossibly muddy in places, indicating that the summer rains had been plentiful. To make matters worse, a group of horseback riders had ridden on the trail recently, and their tracks made our going more like an obstacle course.

Although it had been dry for the past couple of weeks in our area, it's obvious this plateau gets a lot more rainfall than our area of Virginia. The Allegheny Front forms part of the Eastern Continental Divide, with the western side draining into the Mississippi River Basin, while the eastern side drains into the Atlantic, the Chesapeake Bay specifically.

 

Violet-stemmed mushroom (Laccaria ochropurpurea?)

 

The quantity and variety of fungi in this forest was amazing: lots of Polypores were growing on fallen and standing tree trunks: Turkeytails, and False Turkeytails, but the Horseshoe conks on this tree (Fomes fomentarius) were unusual. 

 

Horseshoe conks (Fomes fomentarius)

Coral fungi (Clavulina coralloides?

This high-elevation forest is botanically rich in many unusual plants such as club mosses, known as ground cedar (Diphasiastrum complanatum), ground pine (Lycopodium obscurum), ferns, as well as many plants more likely to be found in New England and eastern Canada, such as red spruce and birch. We spotted and harvested more Lion's Mane, one specimen high up on a trunk required a large branch to bring it down.

 

Lady Ferns and Ground Cedar.

 

A big tree with a unusual seed pods caught my eye, and on closer examination turned out to be a huge Cucumber magnolia (Magnolia acuminata). A group of several large Mountain ashes in fruit brought seasonal color to the late summer forest.

 

Cucumber magnolia with ripening seedpods (Magnolia acuminata).

Mountain ash trees in fruit (Sorbus aucuparia)

Beechdrops, a parasitic plant that feeds on the roots of Beech Trees, were still flowering, if a bit past it. We also collected a bit of Chaga mushroom on a trunk--these black fungi look like burn scars and associate only with Birch trees. They have medicinal properties and are used in Russian folk medicine to treat a variety of conditions.

 

Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana)

 

Chaga mushroom (Inonotus oblicuus)

Everywhere we turned, there were different kinds of mushrooms. A piece of greenish spalted wood on the ground gave evidence that Green Elf Cups (Chlorociboria aeruginacens) had at one time colonized it--the elf cups are a rare sight. All these mushrooms and we had barely covered a mile! No wonder we were walking so slowly, it takes time to take it all in!

 

A mushroom with Volva--an Amanita? 

 

Spalted wood indicates Green Elf Cup colonization.

Yellow Waxy Cap mushrooms (Hygrocybe flavecens)

Eventually we came to the first of the sods--the season was too advanced to see many butterflies, but there were a few Great Spangled Fritillaries on the goldenrod and thistles. I remembered these meadows buzzing with countless butterflies and bees when Herb and I visited so many years ago, but that was in early August, at the height of summer, and now it was getting on toward fall.

 

The first of the sods.

 

Great Spangled Fritillary on Thistle

We reentered the forest, finding yet more mushrooms we couldn't identify.

 

On the Wildlife Trail.

Cluster of brown mushrooms.

To be continued in Part 2.

Another Field Sketch Transformation

 

The Ledge at Calmes Neck. colored pencil, 14"h x 10"w.

Having obtained permission from one of the homeowners who lives there, I went back to Calmes Neck the week following the Virginia Native Plant Society's excursion to do another field sketch. I wanted to capture the red Columbines growing on the rocky ledges, with the idea of doing another piece on the unique plants that are found there.

I arrived mid-morning and was given a wonderful tour of their art collection by the owners of the gorgeous custom log cabin home. After that, I walked down the hill with my gear to find the best spot for my field sketch--there wasn't any level ground, so the best I could do was to balance my portable chair between the ledge and the steep drop-off, using my feet--a rather uncomfortable position, but the best I could do.

 

My gear on the ledge.

As I began to draw I saw that the ferns and rue anemones growing nearby might make a nice frame for the red Columbines, so I included a few of those as well as some of the moss-covered rocks, to give the impression one was really sitting right there. I had to keep getting up to look closely at the Columbines, in order to properly draw their complex petals and spurs, alternating looking with sitting and drawing. It takes a lot of energy to do this--at one point my sketchbook slipped out of my lap and almost ended up going over the cliff!

 

Field sketch in watercolor, 8"w x 10"h.

 

Once I had the pencil sketch and had started putting some color down, I took my lunch break--it was around one o'clock. While eating my sandwich, I could get a closer look at the flowers of the tall Pawpaw trees growing under the cliff. A light breeze from the river below cooled the otherwise hot afternoon--too hot for April! And too dry--after I was finished and was picking up my gear a couple of clumps of dry moss peeled right off the rocks! I guess the moss will grow back eventually once the drought breaks. Despite the discomfort of my position, it was a rich and useful field trip for me.

 

Pencil sketch of the ledge - Stage 1

I generally wait a while before I decide how I'm going to develop a sketch into a finished painting; it's always good to think about it as much as possible before one commits. Pencil sketches are the best way to practice and test out ideas for a composition. I decided to include the ferns and rue anemones and add a tiny purple cliff brake on one ledge--this fern was actually farther away on another rock ledge. I decided to go with the sketch above.

 

Pen and Ink sketch on tracing paper - Stage 2

The next step was to trace my drawing with an ink pen, and transfer it to the paper for the final project. I decided that colored pencils would be the most appropriate medium for the amount of detail I wanted on this piece, and to try rendering it on a sheet of  Bristol 300 vellum finish. 

Before doing the tracing, it occurred to me that this would be a good chance to include a pollinator, and that a ruby-throated hummingbird would complement these colors well. My first sightings of  hummingbirds in my garden had taken place just a few days before, and all of these were males. I understand that hummingbirds migrate solo, and that the males precede the females by two or three weeks, to allow the vegetation they feed on to recover, as they follow the same migration paths every year

 

Pen and Ink sketch on tracing paper - Stage 3

I cut another piece of tracing paper to attach to the first, and added a hummingbird sipping nectar from a Columbine flower. At this point I noticed that the purple cliff brake was too large in relation to the other plants, so I reduced it a bit by using my copier to scale it down to about 85% of the original drawing.

 

Colored pencil drawing - Stage 4

 

Working on Bristol 300 vellum finish is a bit different from the Fabriano Artistico HP paper that I prefer--the surface is much smoother, and one has to build up the layers of color gradually. It took a while to get the drawing to this stage (above) where I could begin to develop the darker tones. But this was only half of the area to be covered.

 

Colored pencil drawing - Stage 5

 

Unfortunately, I didn't take any other photos of the intermediate stages beyond Stage 5 above. By now all the various plants and their colors were clearly articulated, and it was just a matter of deepening the tones.

A Walk in My Woods

I really miss the Virginia native Plant Society (VNPS) hikes this spring, so on 4/29 I decided to do a spring walk in the woods in back of my house, to see how many plants I could identify on my own. I usually don't go in there after the trees leaf out because I fear the poison ivy and noxious insects, but at this time of the year it's fairly safe.

There are several dogwoods in bloom that can be seen from my back yard. The big trees are mostly black and northern red oaks in their dotage, with some hickories (Bitternut and Pignut). The fact that there is a quite a diversity of plant species leads me to believe that my patch of woods is a small strip of native vegetation that was left undisturbed when the neighborhood was built, probably because the slope down to the drainage ditch is so steep.

Over the years I've managed to identify some of the understory trees. The distinctive flowers of the Witch Hazel trees (Hamamelis virginiana) are visible in the fall and winter months; there is a large patch of them on the east corner of my lot extending into my neighbor's.

Witch hazel

Another understory tree on the opposite (western) side of my lot is the American Hop-hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana). About three summers ago I noticed a particularly abundant crop of the characteristic hop-like fruit on several trees in back, which allowed me to identify them. My explorations this spring reveal that these are growing all over.

Hop-hornbeam 

Pignut

There are several hickories too--Pignut hickory (Carya glabra) and Bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis)--the nuts fall into my yard and the squirrels bring them too. There's also the ubiquitous red maples, perhaps silver and other maples I have yet to identify, bird cherries (Prunus avium), a few dogwoods, and possibly a Serviceberry that bloomed sparsely earlier on.

Further down toward the forest floor are a bunch of what I believe are Late Low Blueberries (Vaccinium vacillans)--much browsed by deer--and some shoots of bedstraw.

 Blueberries

Going down the steep slope towards the drainage ditch I found a few Lady ferns, (Athyrium filix-femina) and patches of Winterberry (Gaultheria procumbens) and star chickweed (Stellaria pubera) on the forest floor. There were also goldenrod shoots, blackberries, and the usual annoying honeysuckle vines.

Chickweed with Wintergreen

At first I wasn't sure what the plants below were, but farther down I found one plant with flowers and was able to identify it as Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum). I'd seen two lovely specimens of this plant farther up the slope a couple of days earlier, but when I started to look for those, they'd vanished. Eventually I located two decapitated stems--the deer had eaten them!

Solomon's seal

The day was so warm and lovely that I continued downhill crossing my neighbor's woods towards the creek that flows from a neighboring farm. There is a small clearing here where more sunlight reaches that can host moisture-loving species typical of our area: Golden Alexanders (Zizia aptera), Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), and Bluets (Houstonia caerulea).

Golden Alexanders

Spring Beauty

Bluets

Walking along the spongy creek bed I noticed a distant clump of shrubs and small trees with bunches of white flowers. These looked so familiar, I got closer to confirm my suspicions, and they were native Black Haw Viburnums (Viburnum prunifolium), exactly like the two planted in my yard.

Viburnums

Doubling back towards the drainage ditch, I found a plant of Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea), a clump of Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum), a Buttercup and more Rattlesnake Weed (Hieracium venosum).

Golden Ragwort

May-apples

Rattlesnake Weed

In my own back yard again, I continued through my woods toward the other end of my property, coming across lots of patches of Squawroot (Conopholis americana). This plant lives as a parasite on oak tree roots, and has no leaves.

Squawroot

I also came across a small woody plant with unfurling leaves that I thought might possibly be a native azalea, although the leaves seem a bit large for such. I'll try to keep track of this one as it grows to see if I can identify it.

Unidentified

I continued walking through the woods under the Hop-hornbeams before emerging onto the grassy hillside on my other neighbor's property for the conclusion of a fruitful afternoon exploring my woods.