Monday, July 24, 2023
By:
Old Rag Mountain
This week was relatively scars in number of vibrant experiences, therefore I decided to diverge from my usual format (list of experiences) and try something different.
During Sunday of week 8 I visited Shenandoah National Park and hiked an Old Rag Circuit trail, a trail about 9.4 miles long and elevation of 2400 feet, it took me 8.5 hours to complete. That was the most difficult trail I had a chance to visit so far.
The trail started with a gradual ascension, some rocks, some roots, but overall, an easy terrain. Further, the trail started going steeper uphill, until it reached the first lookout. Lookout was the first place where I could see other mountains and valleys around the Old Rag, the views were beautiful. When I reached the outlook, I thought: “Huh, is that it? The summit? Well, that was easy!”, little did I know that that was the start of the most difficult and long part of the trail: the rock scrambling. I read a bit about rock scrambling before preparing, but what I saw on the trail was far beyond my expectations. I needed to use all my hands, feet, elbows, knees, and hips that I had just to barely make it on some rocks, upper buddy strength required for this trail was greater than my own. In a couple places I needed to jump across the bridge between two boulders (a task beyond my current skills and confidence), those were the points where I almost turned back. Honestly, I was scarred quite a bit doing the rock scrambling, the chance to injure myself (or fall of the mountain and subsequently become permanently disabled or die) was never so real to me. But I am sure I remember things more dramatically than they were. After the rock scrambling part, I have finally reached the actual summit (it was marked as such, so I am sure it was actual summit), I saw eagles fly underneath me, the raining cloud, all the mountains in the view were lower than me (or so seemed), that was a breathtaking feeling. With that the hardest part of the trail was over, or so I thought. Due to my insufficient experience, I made another mistake: not taking enough water (usually people take 3-4 liters for this hike, I had only 2). When I descended the mountain, I was completely out, I had no filter (river water may not be suitable for drinking, especially without boiling), nor there were any places I could refill, furthermore I had about 3–4-mile hike back to my car. Fortunately, the terrain was mostly flat, but I was exhausted, and the lack of water was very uncomfortable and was slowing me down. While I am almost 100% certain that I would made it safely to my car without getting severely dehydrated, I came across some people who were refilling their wetter in the river nearby (they did have filters) and they were generous enough to give me some water. With the water refilled the rest of the trail was not especially hard. After I got back home, I experienced possibly the most satisfying part of the trip: getting in my bed. I definitely overexerted myself, but I had the best time.
Daniil Ivannikov