70: Bucked


G R E E N L A N D   G A P,  WV


Nine years ago, on the last day of July, I hiked one of the east coast’s most remarkable geographies.  West Virginia’s Dolly Sods are 17,000 acres of highly-elevated chilly flatness that feel more like a Canadian province than the dramatic undulations found throughout the rest of the Mountain State.  Whenever asked about favorite hikes over my forty years of tramping, that Dolly Sods visit nine years ago always enters the discussion.  


First impressions of remarkable geographies like Dolly Sods thrive in the glow of bewilderment.  Experiencing such places for the first time extracts the purest essence and builds the most robust memories.  Second impressions only serve to tarnish; dimming the glow.  If your memory bank remains full of just first impressions, a trip down memory lane will be bright and delightful.  So planning a second visit to Dolly Sods today was a questionable decision.


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On the very eastern edge of Dolly Sods is the Allegheny Front – a 4,000-foot high north-south escarpment marking the boundary between America’s ridge-and-valley and Appalachian plateau terrains.  It also generally marks the continental divide, where on one side waters drain to the Mississippi, and on the other to the Chesapeake Bay.  It’s an extraordinary edge to stand upon.  Looking east, the views out over waves of lower peaks are amazing, and to the west, the colorful plateau extends ostensibly to the horizon.  


Below this edge, a thousand feet lower in elevation, is New Creek Mountain which runs parallel to the Allegheny Front.  It’s a mountain through which gaps have been very symmetrically carved by stream erosion.  From a satellite view, Cosner, Kline, North Fork and Greenland Gaps each look distinctly v-notched; like a log being bucked by an axman.  


Greenland’s 820-foot deep gap is carved by the North Fork of Patterson Creek and is currently under protection by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) who with its partners researches the ecology of the Allegheny woodrat, which lives here but is declining in population.  Both sides of the gap are framed by towering Oriskany sandstone cliffs. The aptly named Greenland Gap Road – a classic winding ribbon with single lane bridge – weaves through the darkened gap for nearly a mile.  Though just a short distance, it’s a driving delight and hasn’t changed over the nine years since last time I drove through.   


Before heading out on this second impression trip, I contacted Mike Powell from TNC who graciously sent a very detailed KMZ file showing with extreme precision some of the interesting highlights of Greenland Gaps including the suggested place for a single car to park, where clusters of invasive species exist, all of the property boundaries, and the area where a slight hint of an old trail still exists which leads to the high cliffs above the gap.  Having spent most of my energy in Dolly Sods earlier, I confined my visit to the Patterson Creek cut area and the KMZ points of interest found there. Wandering along the shoreline and finding the spot where the sandstone cliffs curve down to intersect Patterson Creek was an ideal way of extracting the essence and bringing a holistic understanding of this gap.   


Even a short visit like mine to Greenland Gap is well worth it though.  It’s a beautiful pass and as I look up through the trees along Greenland Gap road toward the towering cliffs on either side, I conclude that this second impression is even better than the first.  By doing my homework to build a stronger understanding of its uniqueness, the memories now of this special place have only been enhanced.  There has been no tarnishing today.





LEARN MORE ABOUT TNC'S WORK AT GREENLAND GAP HERE.

Location: Greenland, WV

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