We awoke to Nathan's alarm followed by his voice in our tent telling us to get up. It was still dark at 5am and we got up and packed our bags, had some breakfast and got in the car.
The sun was rising over the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east as we drove Skyline Drive out and around them to get to our trailhead an hour away.
We reached the parking lot for Old Rag and had a mile to walk on paved road before we reached the official trail start. It was a pretty exciting looking start.
The trail wove through the woods, over rocks and switchbacks along the ridge as we slowly ascended the trail. It was steep. The whole way. We took a break at an overlook and then trudged on.
Suddenly, the rocks got much bigger and we had to climb through crevices on boulders to follow the trail. We could see off the side of the mountain at all times now and it was getting fun.
Some of the passages were narrow and awkward to get around, but that just means exciting to us.
This looks a lot more precarious than it is. There were a lot of low bridges and tight areas to crawl through as well as some long reaches that made me and Ryan happy to have long legs and arms.
After a premature celebration at what we thought was the top, we came upon this sign that pointed us to the actual summit.
We climbed on top of some of the biggest boulders on top of Old Rag and had a seat to take in the scenery.
The views were amazing and it was nice to sit and rest for a while.
We were able to get phone service, which we hadn't had since we got there so we took advantage while we lounged on the big rocks.
The views were different in all directions and just awesome wherever you look. I was getting the idea that, while amazing, all the view in Shenandoah were relatively similar, but this summit takes the prize for best views in any given direction.
We found some nice areas to lie down for a while. Nathan and I crawled under big rocks for a while before climbing up on top of them and Ryan spent his time taking in some sun.
We spent a good amount of time up there and then descended on a big fire road, the opposite of yesterday. We also met up with a fellow hiker preparing for a trip to Alaska and doing this trail twice! He was very talkative and a little strange, but his company helped the hike down go a little quicker. I think.
What better after a long hike than some hot pizza? It was a nice little pizza place in a grocery store. The 'za was tasty and the Gatorade was wonderfully refreshing.
We grabbed a firestarter log from the general store and even then had trouble starting the fire. Not sure what our deal was. Eventually it got cracking, but by then it had started to rain and we took cover under the tarp and watched for a while.
Ryan and I retreated into the tent and left the door open to enjoy the fire a bit before zipping up and lying down to read for a while as Nathan stayed outside. Sleep came easy that night.
We awoke to Nathan's alarm followed by his voice in our tent telling us to get up. It was still dark at 5am and we got up and packed our bags, had some breakfast and got in the car.
The sun was rising over the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east as we drove Skyline Drive out and around them to get to our trailhead an hour away.
We reached the parking lot for Old Rag and had a mile to walk on paved road before we reached the official trail start. It was a pretty exciting looking start.
The trail wove through the woods, over rocks and switchbacks along the ridge as we slowly ascended the trail. It was steep. The whole way. We took a break at an overlook and then trudged on.
Suddenly, the rocks got much bigger and we had to climb through crevices on boulders to follow the trail. We could see off the side of the mountain at all times now and it was getting fun.
Some of the passages were narrow and awkward to get around, but that just means exciting to us.
This looks a lot more precarious than it is. There were a lot of low bridges and tight areas to crawl through as well as some long reaches that made me and Ryan happy to have long legs and arms.
After a premature celebration at what we thought was the top, we came upon this sign that pointed us to the actual summit.
We climbed on top of some of the biggest boulders on top of Old Rag and had a seat to take in the scenery.
The views were amazing and it was nice to sit and rest for a while.
We were able to get phone service, which we hadn't had since we got there so we took advantage while we lounged on the big rocks.
The views were different in all directions and just awesome wherever you look. I was getting the idea that, while amazing, all the view in Shenandoah were relatively similar, but this summit takes the prize for best views in any given direction.
We found some nice areas to lie down for a while. Nathan and I crawled under big rocks for a while before climbing up on top of them and Ryan spent his time taking in some sun.
We spent a good amount of time up there and then descended on a big fire road, the opposite of yesterday. We also met up with a fellow hiker preparing for a trip to Alaska and doing this trail twice! He was very talkative and a little strange, but his company helped the hike down go a little quicker. I think.
What better after a long hike than some hot pizza? It was a nice little pizza place in a grocery store. The 'za was tasty and the Gatorade was wonderfully refreshing.
We grabbed a firestarter log from the general store and even then had trouble starting the fire. Not sure what our deal was. Eventually it got cracking, but by then it had started to rain and we took cover under the tarp and watched for a while.
Ryan and I retreated into the tent and left the door open to enjoy the fire a bit before zipping up and lying down to read for a while as Nathan stayed outside. Sleep came easy that night.
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