September 2017

OLD RAG MOUNTAIN

This year, Sylvia and I are tackling some of the most challenging hikes and scrambles remaining in the Southern Appalachians in an attempt to ratchet the bar up to a higher level. After all, if we can’t measure up to the mountains in our own back yard, then how can we hope to be ready for the much steeper prospects of the Alps, Dolomites and Patagonian Andes, to name but a few?

In April we had done the quintessential Carolina/Tennessee Hike – Mount Leconte – to prepare for our adventures in Peru. Now, with an eye toward bigger things next year, we set out to attempt yet another of the South’s “Must do” hikes – Virginia’s Old Rag Mountain.

Long considered the best hike in Shenandoah National Park, Old Rag has a reputation as being unparalleled both in scenic views and in challenge. It is also not without its dangers…with over a mile of intense boulder scrambling, this is not a trail for novices, nor for the faint of heart.

From Skyline Drive, Shenandoah NP

Even getting to the hike is a challenge. Though located entirely inside the National Park, the trailhead itself can only be reached by driving a considerable distance outside of it…nearly 10 miles South of Sperryville, VA, which is in itself seven miles from the Park's Thornton Gap entrance. To stage for the Hike, we stayed overnight in Mathews Arm campground, a 40 minute drive from the trailhead. 

Despite its remoteness and formidable reputation, Old Rag is a popular mountain…maybe THE most well publicized hike in Virginia. As proof of this, the NPS parking lot off state route 601 often fills to capacity on summer weekends despite accommodating 250 vehicles. We chose to hike on a Monday in the ‘tweener’ season of late September, hoping to avoid the crowds, and we were entirely successful. Instead of sharing the trail with hundreds, we shared the mountain with only a few score, and these well spread out. For most of this hike we were quite alone.

We were less successful in avoiding the summer heat…fall had begun, but somebody had forgotten to tell the weather. We started off in buggy heat that seemed to be about 80 degrees in the valley, though it was probably less.

Challenges aside, nearly half this trail is a road slog. The old and inadequate parking area has been closed, forcing hikers to  walk an additional three quarters of a mile (both ways) down a mostly non-scenic rural road. Where the black top ends, the Old Rag trail breaks sharply uphill to the left. Straight ahead at the same junction, the Weakley Hollow Fire Road comes in. Along this mild road hikers will close the loop on their return, some hours hence.

The next two miles on dirt/rock are a steep but uneventful uphill climb in the trees. The only things of note on this section, beside the bugs, are the increasing number of trailside boulders…a reminder that soon, the trail will be nothing but boulders. At about three miles in, the real fun begins. A steep and uneven rock stairway takes the hiker up past a sign proclaiming a no camping zone…and here the first of the rock scrambles appears, a long and steeply pitched cracked slab of granite, atop which is a very fine view from a ledge down the mountain's more populated front side.   

Leaving the ledge, the notorious scrambles intensify, entering perhaps the most challenging one of all…the one that more than any other makes the clockwise direction the advisable way to do this loop. A 10-foot deep crevasse yawns between slabs of solid rock, affording only sketchy handholds. This plagued us for a few minutes and caused me to drop my head-mounted GoPro down onto the rock, but they do make those things to last…this one certainly survived the fall none the worse for wear.

Exiting the crevasse, the trail makes its way around the backside of the mountain, affording one stunning view after another. But you won’t have much time to look at them because for the next mile, you will be grasping, leaping, crawling and straining your way across broken terrain. You cannot just walk this trail…each and every challenge must be answered differently. Among the highlights:

• A granite slab leaning precariously against a cliff; the trail goes directly through the keyhole between
• A short traverse of a claustrophobic cave through the rock (I had to crawl, but shorter hikers could probably duckwalk)
• A narrow chute, directly in the middle of which is lodged a massive multi-ton boulder. Recalling the film 129 hours, the anxious hiker is forced to go straight underneath this hanging obstacle
• After this comes an startling, gravity-defying rock formation that looks like an upraised fist
• And after this...more balanced rocks than ANY other trail I have seen east of the Rockies

The Old Rag Trail tantalizes with at least two false summits before throwing the final challenge at you…a long, white-knuckle ascent up a boulder strewn defile, dead in the center of which is an inconveniently placed block. For me, this proved to be the most formidable obstacle of the day; the weight of my pack, combined with the unseasonable heat, a dwindling water supply had worn me down.  Not helping either was a comical (for anyone but me) episode where my foot became stuck for five minutes in a crack (Sylvia, cursing my ‘lack of flexibility’, impatiently seized it with both hands intending to pry it loose before I convinced her that, no, I really needed both feet for this hike.)

The only place I have seen more strange and unusual rock formations than this is in Utah.

Sylvia posed next to a pair of very unusual formations, one of which uncannily resembles a human being with a GoPro sticking out of his head.

After several minutes of flopping about ineffectually, I finally took off my pack and hurled it up and over the obstacle. Then, and in gazelle-like fashion, I executed my patented ‘full granite body slam’ method of bouldering. Sylvia, to shame me, was able to step lightly through in just one minute to my ten, again cursing the ‘lack of flexibility’ of the gazelle ahead of her.

 The blazes at times are hard to follow, and they always seem to take you in  the least convenient direction.

Amazing Old Rag Mountain...note the almost pristine wilderness views, very rare in the Blue Ridge

Fortunately for us, the 3,284 foot summit was just ahead. There we lingered on the expansive granite slabs, resting and enjoying 360 degree views almost to ourselves. Here the intrepid climber is rewarded with something rarely seen in Virginia – mountainsides and valleys almost completely unspoiled by development. The backside of Old Rag looks out into the lesser seen interior regions of the National Park, and only those few who venture far from Skyline Drive and the park’s more popular overlooks will ever see them.

A rare moment on the trail when  Sylvia was not being obstructed by a large object such as her husband.

Just as with my earlier visits to the Smokies, I was disappointed by the very noticeable amount of haze in the air, which greatly detracts from the views. The proximity of both parks to heavy industry and coal fired power plants in the Midwest makes this the case, and it seems worse in both spots than it does in the middle regions of Virginia and the Carolinas, perhaps because of the prevailing winds. I am not sure if it is my imagination or not, but the pollution problem seems to have gotten much worse than the first time I laid eyes on the Shenandoah valley almost twenty years ago.

 The summit of Old Rag  -- not the highest mountain in Shenandoah NP (or even close.)

Sylvia has found her husband to be brimming over with energy as usual. 

After resting and hydrating we were back on our way, but not keen on doing any more rock hopping. Fortunately for us, the scrambles were over. From the summit the Saddle Trail makes a relatively uneventful exit from the mountain. It’s long (5.2 miles from summit to parking lot) and the first two miles are steep, but it’s just a regular trail, nothing that requires any of the gazelle-like rock flopping I am known for. In less than an hour, the Saddle trail takes you past a pair of day use cabins (one has a privy) and comes out on the well-graded Weakley Hollow Fire Road. From here, it’s another hour's basic slog out

The road was actually passable to vehicles and one did in fact pass us, which turned out to be driven by the caretaker of the Old Rag Shelter. She very kindly stopped and offered us a bottle of water (much needed) before continuing on down the road.

Though the walk out itself is uneventful enough to be called boring, about a mile from the blacktop we got our last bit of excitement of this day. As we were walking along Sylvia suddenly shouted, “What’s that!” I looked up just in time to see, just two hundred feet ahead, a large, black shaggy form go loping across the trail and into the bushes. I was about to cry, “Bear!” when a second, somewhat smaller black thing came running behind the first, and that one was followed by yet another. It was a mother bear, and two cubs! Probably they had come down to a nearby creek at the end of the day for water, and bolted uphill into a rocky area at the sound of our approach.

There was no time to get a picture and no chance of following where they went, even if we were mad enough to try. We kept on walking…no pictures, alas, but we will have the memories of this encounter to treasure. (It marks the only time in twenty years of hiking that I have actually seen a bear WHILE hiking, as opposed to running across a road or through a high powered lens at a distance. Whatever the reason, bears are FAR more easily seen in the south than in New England. I never saw a single one there!)

All in all, this was one of the best days in the outdoors either of us can remember, and we strongly recommend it to other hikers, as long as they are fit, experienced and well-prepared. No actual rock climbing skills are needed here, but this is a level above being just a ‘hike.’ Anyone who is not ready for this challenge may be in serious trouble, and the NPS does undertake many treacherous rescue operations from the mountain every year.

We do offer the following pieces of advice:

Avoid the trail in bad weather. If it rains, don’t feel the need to be macho…there are 500 OTHER miles of trail in Shenandoah NP to enjoy.

Try to do this on a weekday. Crowds milling around the tough scrambles and viewpoints would have really detracted from the experience.

Don’t take a heavy pack…go as light as possible.

Be prepared to stow away trekking poles in the scrambles. Or, if you don’t absolutely need them, don’t take them at all.

Take as much water as possible, this is thirsty work. Minimum 2 liters…more if you can.

Do the trail in the clockwise direction. The obstacles seem to be a bit less insane this way, and you save the easy road walk for the end. 

Once in the scrambles, it is probably better to push on to the summit than turn back…it’s all downhill from the summit.

Finally, if you are a novice hiker who has seen this or another trail report or a video online, our advice is to tackle something a bit less extreme first. The Alum Cave Trail in North Carolina, for example. Or, McAfee Knob.

We saw bears, but alas, this is the only wildlife we filmed on the return leg of the trip.