Old Rag Revisited - A Shenandoah NP Trip Report

“Hey Scorchy....missed ya on this trip...it would've been nice to talk to ya about your fave American Idol....you know the one...it begins wit a C....i'm glad ya had fun elsewhere though....

ooooohhh....I know what I fergot to do on this trip.....Yo Gem.......Did I ever tell ya that Carrie is hot? Well....she's smokin' hot!

BTW....its sorta weird....but I was on this trip but then I feel like I wasn't....kinda hard to explain....but when I saw those group pics without my ugly mug in it to ruin it all....I realized I missed out on a portion of this trip that I wish I had been part of.....anywho....it would have been nice to hang out wit ya'll at the restaurant....but....I did promise my little lady that I would go bike riding on Sunday....and we did!

Embear.....you figure out what a "turlet" is yet?”

“halfway done Trip Report:
http://gabriele.com/tr/old_rag2005.html

it's a work in progress though...so ignore the errors. takes me a while to finish without errors...but that's pretty much it. I think...unless I forgot something...”

“Stratusloop...I thought the same thing. Sort of strange...we talked a little more, but still not really. The group wasn't as big so... you could've walked your ass over to me and talk to me about the C dude from American idol. HAHAHAHA...and about the what's here name...oh Carrie from the hair salon comercials out of the 80's.
hahahahahaha”

“Gemini, first you eat snoopy and now you're grilling brats?”

“stratus, one day when we hike together again i'll smack you for saying that C is my favorite idol : P”

“hey...that's what was writting on the package. I can write it in german" Bratwurst!!

sometimes I feel like grilling my brats... kids...come to mommy...”

“Finally back from the office. Now I shall make some dinner and then post some pictures.

And btw, yes, HOI is the definition of Trail Magic to say the least. We can't thank you enough. Rock on, dude...”

“[url=http://community.webshots.com/album/319630394iKRrth]My Old Rag/ White Oak Canyon Pics are up![url]

here is a teaser: White Oak Canyon Falls
”

“Gem - good trip report - the name of the restaurant in Madison was the Pig and Steak”

“I got to the trailhead at 6am after traveling all day friday and straight thru the night from Springfield, IL. It was hellacious, but I survived.

I tried to nap in my car, but I was too stoked to climb Old Rag. I thought about finding the friday night campsite, but decided to hang out at my car.

Bison arrived at 715 and we shuttled my car over to the Cedar Run trailhead.

We geared up and met the others at the upper trailhead and hit the trail around 9.

It's a climb right out of the gates on the Old Rag Ridge Trail

stay tuned”

“opps - correction - the name is Pig 'N Steak”

“Thanks HOI, there some serious slackers here in the pic department.

what's up embear and phantomsoul??
I saw yours ENS, I peeked.”

“it was a good trip”

“I don't know what the deal is, I downloaded like twenty five pics, and only six appeared. WTF, I'll figure it out later.

* I reached my max with the free membership dangnabit.
last edited: 4/11/05 9:03:08 PM”

“link!! link!! link!!!

upload them to this site or onto photobucket...or hey...even better get a second webshots album!!”

“ Alright, alright -- take it easy. Pictures are currently uploading...”

“Hey now Gem, I just might do that! Thanx your Dorkness! ;-)”

“Grrr.... U so lucky I luv ya man!!”

“Back atcha! ;-)”

“My pics are currently uploading. Patience my dear, patience.”

“you grab mine, I grab yours.
hahahahaha”

“embear must've fallen asleep while uploading her pics. grin. ;)

hey...what's here webshots url? why don't i have you in my favs?”

“okay...i found embears pics.”

“Nice pics ENS and Phantom! What a great trip, I'll be reminising(sp?) about this one for a while.”

“Sorry guys - my computer froze up last night and I was too lazy to try to do it all again. But, here are my pics now.

http://community.webshots.com/album/320649918wcRJHx”

“great pics everyone. HOI very cool of you to do that.”

“Gem - from your blog "Strangely enough TechnTrek's language changed the moment the guys arrived. LOL. Yupp, I noticed that too. You can cuss if you talk to me TechnTrek! I don't mind!"

Ha! I think I was just getting more comfortable - unwinding after the long drive, etc. Nothing to do with you being a woman. #&%!$ no!”

“Those are great pics Em!”

“Just finished scanning everyone's pics. Man, took me right back to the mountain. Thanks for posting, everyone.”

“We started up the Old Rag Ridge Trail. There are many switchbacks going up the mountain, but the trail is graded. There are some nice views and scenery along the way. Two thirds of the way up the mountain the scrambling starts and it's pretty much a scramble the rest of the way.

We stopped a few times and regrouped before the scrambling began. Once we got to the scrambling we kept the group together. As always, the scrambling on Old Rag is alot of fun. The weather could not have been better.

We got to the summit around lunch time and met up with DLookout and stratusloop. On the summit we hung out for a while, had lunch and enjoyed the views and spring weather.

After about an hour and a half on the summit, we descended Old Rag via the Saddle Trail. Elevation drops pretty quickly on this trail, but there are no scrambles. There are a lot of little pointy rocks though.

When we arrived in Weakly Hollow we all stopped and took a break. Some of us filtered water. Bison and I downed some EMS goo. By the time it came to climbing the Old Rag Fire Road, I was feeling really good and hiked up the mountain as fast as I could. Halfway up, I stopped and waited for everyone to catch up and had some more goo and water. We then continued up the mountain.

Shortly after passing the Corbin Hollow trail and rounding a corner I saw HOI at the crest of a hill. I yelled back to the group "HOI" and everyone started cheering "HOI"!

We continued up to him and then continued to the campsite just off the fire road on the Corbin Mountain Trail.

HOI informed us of the food and beer that he had hiked in and we were all so excited.

When we got to the campsite, HOI handed us a beer and it was the best beer ever!

Everyone set up there shelters. I set up my tarp and it took longer for me to set up my tarp than it did for everyone to set up their tents. My set up was funky, but it lasted the night.

We got a fire going and roasted the Brats and they were good!!!

We hung out around the wood stove grill until it got dark and I went to bed. It didn't take long for me to conk out. I'm not sure how long everyone else lasted.

I slept all through the night until I heard, "Ranger! Anyone awake? Ranger here, anyone awake?" Oh #&%!$!!

I crawled out and said I was awake and she started asking about the wood stove and how we're not supposed to have fires. She then said she would let it go cuz it was not on the ground, but that we were still breaking the rules. She then turned and said, ya'll can go back to sleep and started back. She then stopped and started shifting through the ground. "Are these your beer cans?" ummm uhhhh, I didn't say anything and gemini stepped in, "no bearcans here, only phil has a bearcan, none of us have bear cans." She was clearly PO'd. Bearmagnet to the rescue and with some smooth negotiations, she went on her way.

It was only seven and everyone was just starting to wake up after all the ruckus. I decided to take a short hike to the summit of Robertson Mountain.

It was a short 1.5 mile hike to the summit from camp and very nice. The views were great, but I somehow missed the miew of Old Rag. Dang!

I hiked back to camp and everyone was packing up. I was the last one packed and then we continued on our way. DLookout and stratusloop descended via the Robertson Mtn trail.

We continued up the fireroad towards Skyline Drive, but took a left on the Limberlost Trail before reaching it. It was just a short stretch on the Limberlost trail and we then got on the White Oak Canyon Trail.

It was quickly obvious that spring was in full on. There were flowers poking up every were and things were starting to get green. Very nice, I really was missing the color green.

We hiked past all of the waterfalls and took each of the views in. The waterfalls in White Oak Canyon are awesome and some of my favorites.

When we got back to the trailhead and started throwing our packs into the trunks of respective vehicles, we observed HOI coming towards us in the parking lot, carrying a full plastic bag!! What a guy!

He had cold sodas for all of us. Thanks so much. That was so good and what a way to end a hike!

The trip closed with a yummy dinner at the Pig N steak in madison.

Word”

“BS I know you took more than six pics”

“Took my a while, but here are my pics.

http://community.webshots.com/album/321291183XxGHiU

*Great TR ENS!
last edited: 4/12/05 7:43:01 PM”

“Coming into camp, totally exhausted, dehydrated and starving.

The last thing my body needed was beer.

The first thing my mind needed was cold beer.

HOI was a Godsend.

Hey Ruby, wanna "backpack"?

Backslacker - your "descending the cre-vass" photo should be titled "ascending", no?
last edited: 4/12/05 7:52:53 PM”

“great shots BS - yeah ascending on the descending”

“Nice pics BS.
Hey BM! you made it!!”

“OK OK sheesh....give a slacker a break huh? ;-)”

“LOL! Yes, I made it. Trip back into DC was so much fun with the Cherry Blossom Fest going on.

Great pics/TR's y'all.

I'm sorry I couldn't do this sooner and more sorry that I can't get out with y'all more.

It was an extremly pleasant experience.”

“I was great to meet you BM, now I can put a face to all your sillyness. lol”

“It was really great meeting y'all. And it was nice "meeting" ENS & Embear outside of a bar for the first time, also.”

“yupp..was nice meetin' ya BM!
Hope to see you on more trips.”

“Maybe in the Smokies someday? I need to get a digital camera. I missed some great shots up Old Rag.

BTW - Nice Tat, Gem. ;)”

“u would love the smokies.
yeah...get a dig. cam...and remind me to hike behind you or way ahead of you. ;)”

“For all those who did not get my reference to the Norge repairman - here is the script to the SNL skit: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/78/78anerds.phtml
I think this was from the fourth season of SNL, first show.”