The hike started around 8:00am on Saturday (June 8). We slept in the car at the Red Creek parking lot. We hiked up the Red Creek trail to the first junction at Little Stone Coal trail. We then crossed Red Creek and followed the Little Stone Coal trail. Off the side of the trail in the gully there was a beautiful waterfall. We stopped and I took pictures of the waterfall and some bright orange mushrooms. Eventually we reached the Dunkenbarger trail.

   The Dunkenbarger trail connects the Little Stone Coal and the Big Stone Coal trail. It was fairly flat and extremely boggy. We eventually reached a stream that looks like Stone Coal run. We stopped and rested by the creek. Dave saw some crawdads in the stream and asked me if they where edible. I said sure and we rounded up 4 decent sized ones. Dave got the water boiling and I dropped them in. We had two crawdads each. They didn't taste half bad-- however, they were too much work to make a meal. The Dunkenbarger trail continued from this point about a quarter mile where it ends at the Big Stone Coal trail.

   Stone Coal follows the creek until the creek opens into a clearing. Dave and I had lunch under a tree. As we where walking toward the tree I saw a small bundle of fur to my right. It was a deer and at first glance it looked dead. It must have been sleeping since I walked within 5ft of it. It ran away just as I was taking a picture of it. After lunch we followed the trail which breaks right from the creek. Two years earlier we followed the creek-- which is much more interesting than the trail.

   The Stone Coal trail ends at Cabin mountain where the Breadth mountain trail can be taken toward Blackbird knob. We traveled over Cabin mountain on a jeep trail. This route is more scenic since it affords a panoramic view of Dolly Sods. Now in the grassy plains we hiked toward Blackbird Knob. The jeep trail meets up with the Red Creek trail on the slopes of Blackbird Knob. We got back on the Red Creek trail and continued until it met up with the Rocky Point trail. We crossed Red Creek and setup camp around 5:30pm. We hike nearly 11 miles and were 3.6 miles from our starting point. After grilling steaks we built a nice campfire. The next morning we hiked out.