Old Rag Mountain

I'm sure this is called Old Rag Hill but I'm sorry-- it's a mountain. Hilary came to visit this weekend and we went a-walkin'. It was TOUGH- but GREAT. We went on Saturday when one of the strongest Nor'easters in recent history decided to roll on in and hit the entire Eastern Seaboard... so that was fun. We woke up early and drove out to Sperryville, Virginia-- near the Luray Caverns. The countryside was beautiful, WET, but beautiful.

Old Rag is supposed to be about 8 miles but we managed to make it more than 11. What they DON'T tell you is that you have to walk 0.8 miles to and from the trailhead and if you're an idiot who can't read maps when you get tired (yes, that would be me) then you tack on another 1.6 miles by walking the wrong way to the wrong parking lot and then backtracking. Oh well.

It's a fairly steep incline. The mountain itself has an elevation of about 3500 feet with a one mile rock scramble.

When we started we were already out of breath-- we felt PRETTY pathetic, but we soon past what we called our "warm up period" and fell in with the walk. It was really lovely-- and rainy.

When we hit the scramble there were times when we wanted to channel Kramer (and I don't like Seinfeld but I think this is apropos to our situation) "stick a fork in me Jerry, I'm done" but we persevered! Let me tell you- when you have to get up close and personal with a rock (I may never bare children) in order to climb over it just to get to another huge rock you start to wonder if this is the right sort of pass time for you. But when you shimmy down a huge boulder (like 15 feet high) into a ravine and look up or manage to climb up a 25 foot rock face with a 70 degree (or so) pitch and look down- you are VERY proud of yourself!

Unfortunately, the weather was crap- so we were soaked through, well I was, Hilary was smart enough to wear water proof clothes whereas I forgot to go pick mine up! At the summit, (which is basically a big boulder that is quite slippery) the low cloud and fog made it difficult to see much of anything but every once in awhile there was a small parting and you could see for miles! It was absolutely spectacular.

Things I would do differently- leave the ski jacket at home, bring a fleece and a waterproof rain suit. FINGERLESS GLOVES!!!! My palms felt like pin cushions by the time I got back to the car! As much as I love the NY Mets- my baseball cap just didn't cut it against the rain! What else? Camelbak- definitely. We had about 4 water bottles in the one bag which we each took turns carrying. Of course, that's what we blame for initial breathlessness at the start of the hike! The bulk in the bag also made the scramble difficult in parts.

Overall, we were glad we had done it-- and VERY proud of ourselves. So proud, in fact, that we decided a night of pizza, DVDs and gin & tonic (for medicinal purposes of course) was COMPLETELY justified!

Sunday we hurt- but just sort of really hard workout achy. But my calf muscles feel like they have been replaced with immovable steel and not in a good way-- you never really realize quite how important they are until the don't work properly!

Overall A+ for effort, determination and getting it done! A for the mountain (would have given it a + if there were fewer clouds!).

I would do it again tomorrow...if I didn't have to work...and I could move my legs! :-)