This time I was less impressed with the mountains in West Virginia. While certainly bigger than the hills I woke up to this morning camping at Long Pond, they just don’t seem the way they once did in West Virginia.

Maybe it’s because it’s my fifth trip to West Virginia and the scenery isn’t as new and impressive. Visiting Dolly Sods from the much higher base elevation from the West – namely Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge and Forest Road 80 Freeland Road made the 4,000 summit less impressive. Plus I didn’t get to the real high country – Spruce Knob Mountain area a dozen miles south.

But also looking at Canaan and Backbone Mountain from Olson Firetower made me rethink how impressive the landscape really is. Some of the peaks in that part of West Virginia while maybe high in total elevation are rather flat peaked and modest in elevation gain. I guess if I had been more around the Allegheny Front, North Mountain and Backbone Mountain from Bears Rocks in West Virginia I might have had an alternative take.

I don’t know. But maybe my dreams of the impressive hills and hollows of West Virginia where just that – more myth then reality. The truth is I see a lot of the hilltowns of Albany County or even the hollows of Schoharie County in West Virginia. The people there aren’t much different than the people I grew up knowing. The trailers, junk cars and ramshackle homestead all look familiar. Even much of Dolly Sods and Canaan Mountain remind me of parts of the Taconics and Berkshire Mountains, Canaan Heights, WV has a striking resemblance to Canaan, NY especially if you visit the high point at Harvey Hill State Forest.