Old Rag

Sunday morning, we woke early and broke camp. We were on the road by 8, arriving at the trailhead for Old Rag around 9. Despite our early start, the parking lot was already almost full. Old Rag is a very popular hike! Our initial 7-day admission receipt allowed us to hike Old Rag without paying another fee. From the parking lot, we walked down Nethers Road for just under a mile to the end and got on Ridge Trail to begin our ascent. The Ridge Trail wastes no time in heading up. For a couple of miles, it was switchback after switchback as the trail aggressively headed up the mountain. Although it was still fairly early and not too hot, this portion of the trail was very strenuous and we took several stops to rest and cool off from the humidity. Soon, the densely wooded trail gave way to the rocky open sections that Old Rag is so famous for.

It would be about a mile to the summit and it was almost all rock scrambling. Although the going was slow, this was an exceptionally fun scramble and made the strenuous hike up Ridge Trail all worth it.

We climbed up, over, under, and through the giant boulders and rocky outcrops along Old Rag.

At some points, we had to squeeze through a narrow chasm, at others we had to jump across a ravine. The hike was tremendously fun and very beautiful.

Some of the rocks we navigated around were positioned in such a way as to seem to defy gravity, looking like a giant dinosaur egg perched precariously on the cliff.

Soon, we made it to the summit of Old Rag and stopped here for lunch.

It was a brief lunch, however. Looking to the mountains in the distance, we could see storm clouds rolling in and it seemed likely to rain.

Old Rag is not a great place to be in the rain as wet and slippery rocks would be treacherous. So we quickly ate our lunch and continued on Saddle Trail, down from the summit and past Byrds Nest 1 Shelter and Old Rag Shelter. At Old Rag Shelter, we had a quick bathroom break at the privy and just as we were leaving, it finally started to rain. Fortunately, we were past the steep and rocky sections of the trail and now on an old fire road. In a short ways, we turned right on Weakley Hollow Fire Road and took this back to the trailhead. It rained pretty heavily the whole way back to the parking lot, but I wasn’t going to complain. The weather forecast had indicated rain the entire weekend and this was the first rain we had actually gotten. And hiking on a fire road in the rain isn’t so bad. Rock scrambling and hiking steep, rocky trails in the rain would have been dangerous and we were fortunate to have avoided that. Back at the parking lot, we changed into dry clothes and started making our way home. We stopped for dinner in Richmond at Mexico Restaurant for our usual post-hike dinner of fajitas and Mexican beer and then finished the drive home.