Old Rag Mountain Revisited - Mid April T rip

“It looks as if it is a repeat of the October Shenendoah hike to Rocky Top....Gem, Y2, Bison, myself, and now ENS! Bearmag and Ewker, you should definately join us! I mean, come on now....you get to hike with....ME!

BTW ENS, congrats on meeting a cool bping chickee. They are hard to find, or so I am told. :)”

“well, we have to see. She seemed interested. I'll need to work my mojo and get a second date with her.”

“ENS has cursed himself. For future reference - never hold high hopes after a first date.

You get more sutherners, scorch & lyra and i'll conside it.”

“BM, if embear and myself show you will have enough southerners on this trip.


Bison, you said 9-1/2 hrs from Nashville...dang I can get to Florida faster”

“Ewk - it took me 8 hours to get to the southern entrance of the park. The central entrance & then to the trailhead would be 9-9 1/2 hours. Yeah, I can get to FL in 6 1/2 hours.....

BTW - I am flying up to DC and then driving down with Bison.”

“Um, yeah, but then again, who wants to go to Florida?”

“Where's Ewker??????????????”

“I am right here BM..where are you!!!”

“he's making a BM”

“Just finished.”

“Bearmagnet, what did you want?”

“why haven't you signed on?”

“I haven't decided if I am going yet. 9.5 hrs is a long drive. If I do come up I probably couldn't leave until I got off work Friday evening.
I haven't read the thread that much. Is everyone meeting Friday night or Sat morning”

“I'd guess we'd meet Saturday morning. 9.5 hrs is nothing, ask Gem, she does that kind of drive all the time. You don't want to be a wuss compared to Gemini do you?”

“I need nightime low predictions. thanks.”

“only a maybe huh bearmagnet?”

“Nightime low in April, not really sure, not too cold, maybe high 30s - low 40s.”

“Average low for that date for Sperryville is 37.”

“Teehee! Old Rag...”

“Y2 - that's the biggest commitment I've made to date! LOL!

I might be able to deal with lows like that. Or I might freeze to death. I have lightweight/midweight fleece at best, Capilene thermals and only polyester T's and pants between the two

Any thoughts?”

“Well when it's getting toward the day's low at 3am or so I'm usually in my sleeping bag, that helps alot.”

“It won't be that cold in Shen in April.”

“what is the closest town to the trailhead so I can get an idea on where I might be going”

“the closest town is Etlan or Sperryville, VA.

It was cool last year for this trip, but definitely not cold. Pretty much perfect backpacking weather. You want it to be on the cool side for this trip with all the uphill and climbing we'll be doing.”

“yall meeting at the Old Rag trailhead or off skyline hwy”

“the Old Rag Trailhead is at the bottom of the Blue Ridge, but meeting at the trailhead is a good idea. We should meet at the lower parking lot and then shuttle cars to the parking lot at Cedar Run/WhiteOak Canyon trailhead and then hit the trail. We'll need to get to the trailhead early (7ish) as Old Rag is a super popular place to hike and once the lot fills up, they allow no more hikers. Plus, the earlier we start the more solitary our hike will be.”

“only about 4-5 hrs from me...”

“I am going, I am so going!! That's gonna be a nice trip, not gonna miss it.

scorch...pleaz go!! pleaz!! don't get sick!!
last edited: 2/07/05 8:42:56 PM”

“it's gonna be an ice trip? i've never hiked in VA... i don't know what the weather's like around those there areas....

will i need my crampons? i think i'm signed up as a maybe right now...”

“hahahaha...scorchy I change it. the "n" was attached to the "a"... Not "an ice trip", but "a nice trip"

see...one freakin letter and the complete sentence changes.
last edited: 2/07/05 8:47:27 PM”

“LMAO

ok then no crampons.

i'm a very good maybe right now”

“it'll probably be in the 50's during the day and 40's during the night.”

“It looks like a fun trip, the scenary looks nice, too bad its so far away from Wyoming. I noticed alot of trips that sound neat here are far away :-( lol.”

“I bet you have no shortage of sweet scenery out there in Wyoming though.”

“Yeah, we have alot of scenary and big mountains fortunatly, but "the grass is always greener on the other side" lol. But there are alot of cool things here in Wyoming.”

“If you are a backpacker in Wyoming you'd be wasting your time and travel dollars even thinking about coming to Virginia or anywhere else in the East except for Maine or New Hampshire. The scenery and trails here aren't going to be very impressive at all if you live in Wyoming.”

“Really? Ive kind of heard that about the east, its just not as great (at least parts of it) because there are more people, smaller mountains and such, but the pictures (whoever took them) sure are nice :-), Wyoming is a pretty good place though, I love the trails and mountains here. Ive never spent much time in the east, but from what Ive heard it is alot harder to get away from other hikers. Well, thanks for the advice, I guess the pictures are kind of decieving lol.”

“there are a lot more hikers in the east so solitude is harder to find. I love the eastern mountains though. I love the mountains in North Carolina, Tennessee, New York and New Hampshire. And you have states like PA that has great trail networks. The west and east is really apples and oranges. I think they're both great. I haven't hiked out west yet though.”

“I havnt hiked in the east yet, but from what ive seen alot more people hike over there (not to mention what you have said and the population statistics), But seeing some of those places in the east would at least be a nice experience, it sounds kind of like the Black Hills...relativly small sized mountains (nothing above timerline) and alot of weaving trails and people.

My favorite place out here is the Big Horn mountains, they are big but not the biggest, its kind of easy to find solitude, especially if you go in August, October or later, I didnt see one other hiker when I went in October, but im planning a trip up to "Bomber Mountain" and "Cloud Peak" this june and july, you guys can come but you have to find your own transportation out here lol.”

“"I haven't hiked out west yet though."

EarthNsky
9:28:09 PM
2/07/05

hence your perspective. We don't have "mountains" in the East. We have little hills that we pretend are mountains.
Look at it this way, Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak in the East. Jackson Hole, the valley floor, is higher than Mt. Mitchell.”

“Yeah, from what ive read Harney Peak, small day hike that is also the highest point in South Dakota is higher than anything east of the rockies and west of some mountians in France. How high is MT. Mitchell? I think my towns elevation is 5,400 feet, Harney peak is 7 thousand some.”

“Mitchell is only 6684, it'd be merely a bump on the plains in Wyoming.”

“Mt. Mitchell is 6684 feet. There are places above treeline in the east in NY, VT, ME and NH. Places in WV, NC, TN and VA come with in a 500-1000 feet of it.
last edited: 2/07/05 9:45:05 PM”

“Lol, yeah it is!!! Im sorry, I didnt know it was that bad there lol. But part of it is the starting elevation... the mountians here can start at 5,000 feet (elevation of the plains) so they dont have as far to go up before they seem big (13,000 feet etc...) your guyses mountains start at pretty much sea level which is kind of unfair. That is assuming they calculate mountain heights from Sea-level. I think ill stay in Wyoming and the west for my hiking lol.”

“I remember when I was a kid the first time i went above treeline I puked all over untill I went lower :-((, but thankfully it hasnt happened since, I go above timberline all the time now.”

“How do you pronounce Katahdin?”

“Bison, why the hell you knocking our mountains here??? I know you are itchin to get out west, as I am, but there are still some very very beautiful places here.

Komkeen, you definately have to come to the east. It is very different from the west. Lots of greenery, flowers, beautiful fall foliage and animals.”

“Bison slammed by embear!!!”

“I never said they weren't beautiful, but you you can't say they're dramatic like the mountains out west or that there's any comparison to be made between the wilderness experience in the East and that of the West, there just isn't any, everything in the West is bigger, that's just the way it is.

I'm knocking our mountains here because they're puny, they're not mountains, they're hills. We don't have wilderness here, we have little tiny areas that are set aside.
last edited: 2/07/05 10:05:02 PM”

“That would be the great thing about going east... the greenery and such, thats one thing that is kind of depressing about the Wyoming...after the first few weeks of blooming everything dies lol. I would love to see the east, the only time ive been to the east is when i visited Washington DC, we didnt do any hiking but it looked very nice, we ended up having to drive home because of 9-11, at least I got to see a few things in the east while I was there, it is a nice looking place.

YWe have some beutiful things here too, we dont have the greenery you guys have unfortunatly, but I posted some pictures in my album of the Big Horns you can look at, the prettiest parts are the highest up I think.”