Old Rag Mountain

Over President's day weekend, Andrew came home from West Point and brought two of his friends, Shawn and Shen, with him. On Saturday, the weather was actually really nice (we've had a really warm winter!) for a February day, so we decided to go ahead and hike Old Rag. It's something I've wanted to do for a while now, so I was pretty excited. Gray and Andrew hiked it about a year ago together, and this time around Derek was home so he came as well. Gray's girlfriend, Stephanie, also came along, and Suzanne and Rachel came too. Everyone had a really good time. I was surprised Rachel did as well as she did on the hike, because it's a little bit rough at times. Going up the "mountain," it's only about 3 miles, but there are lots of rocks to climb in and around. The rock scrambles were definitely really fun and sometimes a little challenging. Coming down the mountain was a little bit anticlimactic, because it was easily downhill, no rock scrambles, and eventually was just a long dirt road, but it was still an awesome time! The hike was eight miles, total.

The car drive there--It was about an hour and a half from Fredericksburg.

The roads and view from inside the car on the way there.

When we got to the mountain it was about noon, so we hiked a little bit until we found a good lunch spot. This rock area worked out perfectly. As you can see, Suzanne was already pooped out :) We just ate some simply peanut butter and jellys, but they were pretty good.

Haha, Suzanne and Andrew's faces. Suzanne looks nervous. One of the rock scrambles we climbed down.

Took a picture just like this two years ago when Andrew graduated high school.

Shen, Shawn, and Andrew

Some good lookin' sisters.

Shawn and Suzanne. Shawn ended up helping us all up a few of the harder rock scrambles... good thing he was there! And he helped make fun of Suzanne a time or two, which is always a good thing in my book :)

Happy to have reached the summit!

Gray and Stephanie ended up staying back a little on the hike, so the rest of us finished a little bit early. Notice the variety of shoes on this hike: actual hiking boots, normal tennis shoes, and three people wearing vans.

Shen and Andrew

Just a picture of the view we had. It was so pretty, but once we got to the top, the wind was blowing and we weren't moving anymore it was COLD!

Here's the group--all nine of us at the end! Such a fun hike.

Andrew and Gray took a similar picture to this one when they hiked last year, and so it was only proper to replicate it. Last year they had thrown their knives into the tree and they stuck right in, but since then they both got new knives and didn't want to ruin them, so they just placed them in there :)

After the hike was over, we piled back into the car, and most people zonked out. Andrew took all of us stinky teenagers to his grandparents' house where they gave us some awesome dinner! It was a great weekend.