Old Rag Mountain, Shenandoah National Park (1/17/2021)
Jan 18, 2021 5:30:28 GMT -8
nickhowes likes this
Post by GaliWalker on Jan 18, 2021 5:30:28 GMT -8
Old Rag Mountain, Shenandoah National Park (1/17/2021)
Yesterday, I hiked Old Rag Mountain, one of Shenandoah National Park’s premiere hikes. The mountain features a summit ridge comprised of one billion years old granite. The views are expansive in all directions, but the price of admission is a prolonged and difficult scramble along the ridge. The hike is extremely popular, I suspect in large part because of challenge factor of the scramble.
I began the hike at 7:40am, heading up the Ridge Trail from the newly constructed parking lot and trailhead. This new section of trail was comprised of frozen mud, which was slippery enough that I put on my microspikes. In 0.8mi I joined up with the original, familiar trail. Steady uphill hiking soon had me at the start of the summit scramble. Here I met up with a slew of other hikers, none of whom were wearing any traction for their feet. Watching them try to negotiate the icy, snowy scramble when their feet refused to cooperate would have been comical, if only I wasn’t deathly afraid that there would be a serious injury. Honestly, if it had been me in their position I would have turned back and approached the summit from the far side.
First view of the scramble route
A hiker on one billion years old rock (selfie)
Summit views (selfie)
Icy potholes
Shadows
Basking in sunshine
After the summit the scramble ends, and a trail takes one down the mountain. Quite a few hikers had decided to eschew the scramble and take this side up and down, so things got decidedly more crowded. All were without traction and were walking gingerly, so I was able to pass them relatively easily. Once off the mountain, I finally encountered snow-free terrain and was able to take the spikes off. I sped back to the Ridge Trail. The final 0.8mi stretch of new trail was now a non-icy, but no less slippery, muddy mess.
Snow grooves (selfie)
Hawksbill Mountain and Shenandoah
Byrd's Nest Balance Rock
Robertson Mountain
Stats: 9.1mi, 2400ft elevation gain, 6.25hrs.
Yesterday, I hiked Old Rag Mountain, one of Shenandoah National Park’s premiere hikes. The mountain features a summit ridge comprised of one billion years old granite. The views are expansive in all directions, but the price of admission is a prolonged and difficult scramble along the ridge. The hike is extremely popular, I suspect in large part because of challenge factor of the scramble.
I began the hike at 7:40am, heading up the Ridge Trail from the newly constructed parking lot and trailhead. This new section of trail was comprised of frozen mud, which was slippery enough that I put on my microspikes. In 0.8mi I joined up with the original, familiar trail. Steady uphill hiking soon had me at the start of the summit scramble. Here I met up with a slew of other hikers, none of whom were wearing any traction for their feet. Watching them try to negotiate the icy, snowy scramble when their feet refused to cooperate would have been comical, if only I wasn’t deathly afraid that there would be a serious injury. Honestly, if it had been me in their position I would have turned back and approached the summit from the far side.
First view of the scramble route
A hiker on one billion years old rock (selfie)
Summit views (selfie)
Icy potholes
Shadows
Basking in sunshine
After the summit the scramble ends, and a trail takes one down the mountain. Quite a few hikers had decided to eschew the scramble and take this side up and down, so things got decidedly more crowded. All were without traction and were walking gingerly, so I was able to pass them relatively easily. Once off the mountain, I finally encountered snow-free terrain and was able to take the spikes off. I sped back to the Ridge Trail. The final 0.8mi stretch of new trail was now a non-icy, but no less slippery, muddy mess.
Snow grooves (selfie)
Hawksbill Mountain and Shenandoah
Byrd's Nest Balance Rock
Robertson Mountain
Stats: 9.1mi, 2400ft elevation gain, 6.25hrs.