Roaring Plains West August Bushwack hike

Had a very nice bushwacking hike with my hiking pardner. The hike followed the rim of the Roaring Creek Drainage area. We had planned to hike the entire "trail" to its junction with the Roaring Plains Trail, but had to sit out a two hour rain delay first. This caused us to have to start later and set a turn-around time to start back to camp. We had no views because of fog, but I think the views would be awesome! We have decided that we must have a "do over".

The Roaring Plains West Wilderness is close to the more well known Dolly Sods Wilderness in Tucker County, West Virginia. It is not an easy wilderness to access. There are only a few "portals" to access is. One is to use FR 70 to access Roaring Plains Trail; this is a 3.4 mile walk just to make it to the trail head. The other official access site is to hike up Flat Rock Run Trail which has its trail head along Bonner Mountain Road. One can also access this wilderness by hiking up a gas pipeline (long hike) or by hiking Either Boars Nest Trail or South Prong Trail to access the above mentioned forest service road, FR70. Or one can simply use South Prong (the upper end) as a starting point, walk eastish or westish along the pipeline and cross country. This is NOT an option for the inexperienced hiker! Get a map, compass and GPS and know how to use them. It is one of West Virginia's newest wilderness areas, officially becoming a wilderness April 2009 when President Barack Obama signed the Wild Monongahela Act which was part of the Omnibus bill. If you do nothing else I approve of President Obama, thank you for signing this bill and preserving a spectacular area for future people of the world.