Old Rag -Jennie Pahl

This past weekend my parents decided to enlist me to go with them on a hike up to Old Rag. My parents and I have taken this hike before, but they wanted to get my newly-wed brother and his wife out of the house they just bought since they have been consumed with remodeling it, and as my boyfriend, Wade, would say unfortunately my mother dragged him into it too. The first time I hiked Old Rag my step-father told me it was an easy two mile hike and would yield awesome views. I was a sucker and nieve. A two mile hike with them ALWAYS turns into twelve...LITERALLY...NO LIE, which is fine when you are prepared for a twelve mile hike and not a two. So my first time on this hike about two years ago was agony. After about the first mile I had silver dollar sized blisters on my heels, and it started to pour down with rain. The only thing I really vividly remeber was complaining about being hungry and then stopping for lunch to find out all my parents had really packed was two bottles of wine and crackers. Much to their surprise I have NO tolerance and got completley drunk. The last of my memories on old rag was running down it with no shoes, falling a few times, and waking up in my bed the next morning with cuts ALL over my feet, legs, and arms. Needless to say my family learned a good lesson on this trip we only need one bottle of wine for the three of us..not two. So I started off this hike thinking it was going to be hell again, because I figured if I complained when I was drunk goodness only knows what its like sober. The six of us got out of the car in a field a mile from the trail. We began to walk uphill for about two miles passing little quaint country houses that were built along a stream. We finally reached the trail and began our trek upwards. Around two miles into the hike we neared the top where the trail began to go over rocks. I being the clumsy one fell quite a few times and have plenty of battle wounds to show. Parts of it were ridiculously difficult where we all needed a hand jumping up to follow the trail over the top of a 5-6ft rock and jumping over gaps and down between rocks. It was quite fun though. After about another mile we reached the summit where we stopped to eat lunch. This time it comprised of Wine, gardettos, and homemade subs (my parents are complete winos and there is no such thing as a meal without it) Never-the-less after lunch we started down the mountain. Everybody at this point was a little more enthused. My mom, sister-in-law, and I decided to race to the overnight shelter a little ways away. We took off with a bang and ended with some heavy breaths. At the shelter we stopped to admire the view of land that looked as if it had never been treaded upon below. As we looked off to the left you could see a few roads and farm land. It was quite fun to be hiking again (I was born in roanoke and my mom and dad used to take us on excursions every weekend...it was kind of like taking us to the playground) We finished our three mile hike down with the guys after they caught up. That left us on the other side of the mountain. From there we walked an additional four miles back to the beginning of the trail. It was hot and the stream ran alond this four mile fire road we were following, so I decided to instigate a water war. It kind of just turned into everyone jumping in and splashing, which was deinitely refreshing if I do say. We then walked the two miles back to the car and went out to stuff our faces. Hiking old rag again was definitelt much better the second time, and I am glad that my family did it together. We all got to bond and see some breath taking views at lunch. It was a fun challenge that left us all exhausted!