Virginia's mountains are old, so by traditional standards, our mountains are more like large round hills. Still, there are some peaks to summit if you're looking for a little climbing. One of the best in Virginia is Old Rag Mountain. We parked about 8:00am and started the hike around 8:30. The linked article explains the progression of terrain, so I won't repeat all that. What I will do is post a few photos. The weather was thankfully comfortable. Not very warm and actually just a little cool given the time of day and the elevation. It wasn't quite foggy, but it was completely overcast and we could tell the clouds were hanging low over the mountains.
As you make the early climb through the switchbacks you see bunches of boulders like this.
We didn't see much wildlife like deer or even birds, but we did find this salamander right along our path. We pointed it out to other hikers passing through and then moved it off the trail to hopefully avoid being trompled.
There's a great overlook when you first transition from hiking the switchbacks to starting the rock scramble. Obviously this is just under the clouds, it's clear we're going to be climbing up into the whiteness shortly.
This shot was pretty much the best view of the day, and still a ways from the summit. There's a somewhat large open section of rock where you can look out over a populated valley dotted with farms spread out over the rolling hills. Looking out over all land made my heart feel lighter in a way I can't quite put into words.
Some of the best sights were the large boulders in inexplicable positions. Here's one of our group passing by a boulder.
It's difficult to describe the rock scramble and it wasn't easy to take pictures of most of it. It's usually about squeezing through narrow gaps or trying to hoist yourself up onto rocks in some awkward un-anchored position. I do have this photo of another group of hikers ahead of us navigating one of the open areas.
Finally, a shot from the summit toward some other part of the mountain not quite the summit. Obviously, visibility was low. Once we got to the top, we found an open area of rock and collectively collapsed and started eating lunch. It was probably a little after noon by this time, so probably just shy of four hours to get to the top. Though we couldn't see much, it was nice in a different way to be embraced by clouds. We felt like we were in our own pocket universe, cut off from everyone else. Not lonely, but kind of peaceful. We felt like we were truly away from everything else... except maybe for all the other hikers who were up there as well.
Check out the complete set to see the rest of the experience.
