Day Trip: Hiking Old Rag

“The number of blogs and websites about this hike attest to its popularity.
The number of search and rescue missions each year attest to its danger.”

-National Park Service brochure

A hike on Old Rag Mountain is neither for the faint of heart nor the faint of physique, which disqualified me on both counts. 

But I insisted on hiking this 3,291-foot beast anyway for a number of reasons: because it’s there; because I needed the exercise; and because I needed something to write about for my next Patch article. So, noting the NPS’s disconcerting admonishment above, I was off.

With fellow Viennaite Dave Jennings, I got an early start out of town on a recent Sunday morning, and made it to the mountain, located just inside of Shenandoah National Park a few miles from Sperryville, in about 90 minutes.  The parking lot is a little over a half mile from the trailhead where the hike begins, so there’s a little shlep before the big shlep.

The trail starts at the base of the mountain, where we began our ascent on an 8.8 mile loop that would take us up one side of the mountain to the summit and down the other side to end up back where we started.

The first segment, the Ridge Trail, is a steady climb through mostly deciduous forest.  It was a very cold morning, but I quickly warmed up -- this is a workout. This stretch of the trail is wide, but big rocks poke up through the ground everywhere, and abundant gnarled, twisted roots mean that if your mind wanders off the path, your body may quickly wander into twisted ankle territory.

I prefer wintertime hikes like this.  With the foliage down, you can actually see the forest, the texture of the landscape, the steam beds and gullies, the leafy forest floor, the innumerable  carcasses of fallen trees, decomposing and returning to the earth, thereby playing a vital role in the forest ecosystem.  And when I stopped walking, and listened, it was silent.  Profoundly silent, unlike any other time of year.

THE BASICS
Miles driven from Vienna, one way:  75
Time, one way:  Expect a trip of about 90 minutes from Vienna, assuming light traffic.
 Be sure to leave early in the morning.
Best Route: I-66 to exit 43A, US-29 South.  Stay on 29 until you merge on to US-211 in Warrenton.  Continue West on 211 until US-522/Berryville Pike.  Near Sperryville, take Ft Valley Road/VA -231 to Peola Mills Road, and then to Nethers Road.  Nethers Road ends near Old Rag’s lower parking lot.  From here, you have to walk .7 miles to the trailhead.
Best for: People that are in good shape. Older kids will enjoy this, but given the length of the hike, and the intensity at some points, younger ones will not.  And nervous parents won’t want their kids wandering too close to the sudden, sharp drops.
Length: Allow five to six hours for a leisurely hike, plus time to and from Vienna.
Bring: Plenty of water or Gatorade, and energy snacks.

Best During: I’m a fan of winter hikes. The bare trees mean better views, you work up less of a sweat and there are no bugs.  Regardless of the season, though, part of the preparation for this hike is checking the weather forecast, and ensuring that there is no precipitation on tap.  If there is, don’t go. Repeat: don’t go.
But Wait, There’s More: For a map of the Old Rag loop, and hiking trails in the surrounding area, click here. For the National Park Service’s brochure, including a safety video, click here

 

Shortly after reaching the 2,800-foot mark, the forest gives way to boulders as the trail snakes between, over, and around them.  This phase of the hike involves some serious hand-over-hand scrambling.  Sequentially numbered blue blazes come in  handy in trying to stay on the path.

There are no steps carved out of the rock, nor are there railings (or rope ladders), so at several points I had to build up momentum to hoist myself up and over to the next rock. Here, it helps if you are hiking with someone more nimble and dexterous than yourself.  Which I was, and which at one point saved me from a twisted knee on a particularly tough climb over a large boulder.  We also had to squeeze through some narrow passages between the giant rocks. Post-holidays, my expanded girth didn't make this challenge easier.

Along this stretch, there are dramatic vistas to both the west and east.  Despite some haze, we still had beautiful views of the Blue Ridge, and at several points stretches of Skyline Drive were visible to the west.  Toward the east, a rolling landscape of fields and hills dissolved into foggy dimness.

We continued over a moonscape of boulders as we neared the summit. The giant rocks seemed to be dumped here and there, as if plunked down by the arbitrary hands of the gods (or, just reminiscent of the scenery in those old “Roadrunner” cartoons).  The largest of the boulders -- some the size of Vienna ramblers -- are found at the summit itself, along with a spectacular 360 degree panorama.

Once we reached the summit, our first priority was to eat.  We then soaked up the views, the chilly air,  the velvety breeze. The contours of the surrounding mountains were visible through the bare trees, with the hilltops and treetops forming undulating, parallel, lines. And again, it was quiet.

After the rest, we started our descent.  One quirk of this hike: you really need to do it as one long, one-way loop.  As hard as the boulder scrambles were on the way up, they’d be that much harder on the way back, as would squeezing two-way traffic through the narrow crevasses.

The first leg of the descent down Saddle Trail is steeper and narrower than the ascent, but offers some great glimpses of the Summit and its boulders from below. Near the bottom, the trail slopes gently downward over the last couple miles of the hike. For part of that, it straddles picturesque Brokenback Run. Partially frozen on this day, its waters pulsed beneath translucent ice.

Some hikes leave me sore the next day; this one left me sore before we even finished.  No matter: while strenuous, the hike was unquestionably worth the effort, and worth whatever aching muscles the body will offer in retribution.