10 Miles of Solitude
- Aug 1, 2017
- 3 min read
On Tuesday, July 4, 2017, Justin and I decided to hike Old Rag. Now Justin and I don't hike any serious trails around us. We typically hike Sugarloaf which a hill compared to Old Rag. We got a little lost before evening arriving at the parking lot for Old Rag. We made one wrong turn which brought us up close a personal with a mommy and baby black bear. So, we turned around and figured out we needed to go left, not right. So, we parked and paid for our permit which cost us $20. Make sure you arrive early, we arrived around 7:45am and the parking lot was 75% full already. After getting ready to head up the mountain we walked about .8 miles up to the entrance of the Old Rag trail. I'm not sure how to explain pure beauty, but it started from the moment we arrived. The smells, the vegetation, just amazing. The incline started almost immediately. During the two and half mile hike up we saw beautiful vegetation, a black snake and rocks. The hardest part was yet to come. I'm talking about the rock scramble. When we arrived we were a bit confused. I guess we were expecting more. We climbed up the first set of rocks we came to had an amazing view. So, we stopped for a minute to take it in.
After a quick snack and that breathtaking view we continued up the mountain. We didn't make it very far before we found a new amazingly breathtaking view. We took a few photos and moved on. Remember when I said I thought the rock scramble didn't seem like much? Yeah was I wrong... We hadn't even gotten to the rock scramble.
This is the point in every tough moment where you ask yourself, "what did I just get myself into?". Seriously, what did we get ourselves into? We had never done anything like this. So, here it was, a puzzle. What was the next step? How do we do this without dying? Oh did I mention I had a throbbing headache?? Oh no? Well it was bad. Thankfully we met a family who had hiked Old Rag a few times and knew exactly what to do, so we tagged along and made new friends. We climbed down in between two large rocks and moved on. Thankfully the family overheard Justin and I talking about my splitting headache, so we paused and they offered me some Advil. We then moved on, climbing over, under and through rocks and boulders. It's a good thing I had some upper body strength, since I was a bit too short to jump up onto some of the rocks.We made our way through a small cave a further up the mountain.It took us about an hour get through the rock scramble before reaching the top of the mountain.
So remember the breathtaking views we saw at the beginning of the rock scramble? Forget them and keep moving. Those views do no justice for what you will find when you finally make it to the top. It's just more mountains and nature. I can't even describe how beautiful it was, just look at the pictures. After spending some time enjoying the view, mother nature decided to show her face and give us some rain. So, we headed down the mountain. The hike up the mountain was about 3.8 miles and the hike back down is around 5.1 miles. It may have been long, but way easier than going up. Honestly I preferred going up. The trail was not very steep or windy. We met more nice people on the way down. What was suppose to be a 8.9 mile hike was over 10 miles. 10 miles of beauty. 10 miles of challenges. 10 miles of a good time.
Would I do it again? Of course I would. If your ever in Virginia and want a great day hike, then this is the place for you.
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