After a cool, crisp pre-autumn drive, I arrived at the base of Old Rag Mountain at about 12:00. I planned on both doing some photography and some fishing, and using Old Rag's 3700 foot summit as a warm-up training for my Mount Mitchell (6900 ft summit) trip in November, so I didnt try to streamline my pack. In fact, I just put a lot of crap in there I didnt really need. It probably topped out at a moderate 30 lbs.
Got on the trail at 1230 and then stopped almost immediately to take some photos of a garden snake crossing the trail. Strange to see him out considering the temps had dropped so much...Darwin had a name for this one...
Got moving again and started hitting the "steep" terrain. A quick reference of my map and compass and I was able to triangulate my exact location on the trail, which was significantly further than I expected to be...instead of my anticipated 1mph speed, I was actually moving closer to 3mph. Looking at the Topo, I couldn't figure out why everyone talks about how bad this hike is...in fact Robertson Mtn (2 summits to the northwest) seemed to be much steeper than THIS!
Then I reached a lookout point that allowed me for the first time to see the summit of Old Rag and understand what all the fuss is about. I saw nothing but giant boulders covering at least the last half mile of the trek...and I saw little dots of people moving along them. Judging from the scale, I decided that the summit was probably gonna be a pain. But before I got there, I took a couple nice shots of the valley.
As you can see, I was about 2 weeks early for the fall colors...Finally got to the beginning of the last leg that takes you to the summit. And this is what I saw:
I immediately realized two things: 1. this was going to be one of the most fun hikes I had ever done and (2) this was going to be one of the most painful hikes I'd ever done! If not for the pack, it would have been relatively a breeze...just a lot of quick bouldering and hand-over-hand climbing in quick bursts. But the pack added a whole other level of strategy...it did its very best to throw my balance off both going up and going down these boulders! Add to that the wind once above alpine was a significant problem...to where every once in a while it would catch my pack really good and whip me right off the rock face I was trying to navigate.
After a relatively short but grueling trek, I reached the summit to find a jerk talking on his Iphone...I wanted to grab it from him and throw it off the mountain...it was messing with my Chi. But i gave him an ugly look and made a colorful comment only slightly under-breath and moved on.
At this point, the highlight of the trip occurred. As I rounded yet another boulder with the wind howling so loud that I couldnt hear my own footsteps, I came face to face with 3 deer. When I say face to face I mean FACE TO FACE...we were less than arm's length apart...but neither of us had anywhere we could go so we just faced-off! I backed up slightly, slowly grabbed my camera and got some of these pics while the deer, clearly having been fed by 1 too many hikers, sat there and struck a pose. not only that, but when I finally decided to move on, I turned to head down the trail and they cut me off!
Not wanting to rush the experience, I just sat there and enjoyed watching them as they continued to forage until another group of hikers came along. Typical hikers that hike for the motion but never take the time to actually experience the hike walked all the way up to where I was before realizing that their path was blocked by the deer. At this point my nice zen moment was clearly over so I moved on. Funny enough, I walked past the deer and I was the one that moved over on the trail...the biggest deer just stared at me and I think fully expected me to pet her or give her food...when I walked by and did neither, the deer proceeded to follow me down the trail!! It was a good two-tenths of a mile before they finally got bored with me and darted off into the trees. The whole experience was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me on a hike...
The hike back down was uneventful and more boring because it was on a fire road. But I took the opportunity to cut back across country, which added 3 miles to my trip, but gave me the chance to stop by one of my favorite trout fishing streams in the SNP. By the time I got there, I didnt really have time to fish as I had to be back in DC around 7 for dinner with Lisa...so I just broke out the stove and made a quick cup of coffee and chatted with 2 other hikers that meandered by...another duo of geniuses, they had no map, no compass and no clue about where they were or where they were going...I politely explained where they needed to go and showed them on the map, then packed up and headed home.
Aside from the stupid IPhone guy and the traffic on I-66 on the way back, it was a perfect day that gave me well-needed "quiet time." My knees were killing me Saturday, but it was well worth it! Look forward to going back in 3 weeks and making a weekend out of it...maybe Lisa will go this time.
