Old Rag Mountain

Washington Monument

To get ready for the CT, we have been trying to hike and walk as much as possible. For the last 3 months we have been living in Washington DC for a work assignment which ends in two weeks. When we first arrived in March/April we would be walking 5-7 miles just doing touristy loops around the National Mall, monuments, cemeteries and museums. I remember coming home just wiped out! We are staying in a place with a straight-shot commute to my work of 5 miles, so I tried walking to work and biking to work when the weather allowed, which has really only been a handful of times so far. (Its so humid here, I usually show up all sweaty and gross which does not make for a good start to a work day). Our rental is 1/4 mile from the C&O canal so we have spent some time walking the flat trail and veering off onto the more rugged/trail like path of the Billy Goat Trail. In the beginning, it was about getting quantity of miles, not so much quality of miles.

Abe

National Cathedral 

In order to kick start our training for reals, we headed out to Virginia about four weeks ago to do a (well known and very popular) hike called "Old Rag Mountain".  My journal entry of the experience:

Sunday May 10, 2015

View from the (almost) top of Old Rag

I am so proud of us! We did a hike called "Old Rag" in Shenandoah N.P. that was 8.8 miles long, 2500 foot elevation gain and rated "difficult" with an expected completion time of 7-8 hours. We did it in 5 hours! We got passed a lot but it was kind of more of a leap frog thing where we passed them, they passed us and so on. It was such a pretty hike with some amazing views. The scrambling portion was a bit more involved than I expected but in a way, kind of fun. Mothers Day Sunday, busy day.

See the rock in between? We had to walk under that!

Enjoying the views.