Return to Old Rag Mountain

It's Memorial Day weekend, so there was no organized hike this week. I decided to plan my own hike to Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. Old Rag is described by most as a "strenuous" hike because it not only involves hiking straight up a mountain (with an elevation gain of about 2,500 ft over the course of 2 or 3 miles), but there is a rock scramble for the last mile before the summit, where you sometimes need to pull yourself up onto boulders and hop over wide crevices in the granite.

I made sure to take some experienced Old Raggers with me. All of us had hiked it at least 4 times before. Carey, Ellen and Shayna did Hike for Discovery with me in Yosemite 2 years ago, and Patrick has been my trusty hike buddy throughout 3 seasons now. I knew I could count on him to boost me up in places where I would need boosting... or at least make fun of me when I did something goofy (like rip the seam in the seat of my hiking pants -- yikes!). Here's a picture he took of me scrambling up a steep rock:

It was a beautiful day for hiking, though it quickly got warm when we were heading uphill. It was also a very popular day to be hiking -- I had never seen the parking lot that full before. A lot of people (couples, families, hike groups) passed us on the way up. (Of course, we passed them on the way down, but that's another story.) I just bought a new DSLR camera in preparation for my trip out west, but wanted to test it out (in terms of functionality and weight since it’s quite a bit heavier than my old point-and-shoot). I stopped a lot to take pictures of my fellow hikers, flowers and trees along the way.

It took us about 4 hours to get to the top, not including the break for lunch partway up and looking around at the summit, then about 2.5 hours to get back down the back side of the mountain and back to the parking lot. Here's a picture of the gang at the summit:

I feel like I am almost ready for the Rockies. Just 2 more weeks to go!!