Hello folks! Carl the nomad here with more exciting pictures and stories. Though this entry really doesn't qualify as "road trip" material, it was a great day and I wanted to share it with you.
So, today's adventure was a trip up Skyline Drive with my friend Kristin to explore Old Rag Mountain. Before I go any further, here are the requisite cloud phots from my beautiful Shenandoah Valley along with a couple of shots of my monster, Gonimus Prime (his real name is Kaegogi, and for those of you who are interested, Google it hee hee).
From my Front Porch A Balmy 85 Degrees, Right Before a Downpour
I am a huge fan of dramatic weather; be it thunderstorms, tornados, sandstorms (not so much these as everything gets gritty) and typhoons. No much of the latter going on here, but we do get our fair share of yummy thunderstorms! Here is my companion on the porch...
This monster has many names....other than the aformentioned ones, he is also known as Chunky Monkey, Jackass Sockpuppet, Wafflechops, the list could go on ad infinitum....Yep, I am a little off, but that's the deal! So, on to today's adventure....
I met Kristin in the little town of Elkton and she brought me a Starbucks! Thank you thank you thank you! We drove over to the local park and left her car there. I got a little geeky and explained to her what contour lines on a topo map are all about and we discussed today's hike. Our goal: to ascend Old Rag Mountain and see the natural staircase. A little background is in order....folks, put on your geologist hats and get out your rock hammers....
So, about 1 billion years ago or so, the land mass on earth was a supercontinent, meaning that all of the land was joined together with a surrounding ocean. So, as the techtonic plates collided to create this land mass, heat and pressure were generated. Under this part of Virginia there was a magma chamber. As the heat and pressure intensified, the magma was forced up through the earth's crust where it cooled and solidified slowly. That's just a taste, my rockhound friends, more to follow on that.....
So this was the first motorcycle ride for Kristin and I tried to be gentle. This new beast is mighty fast, yet well mannered when required to be. After explaining the leaning techniques and such, we were off. We headed up onto Skyline Drive, which is part of the Shenandoah National Park. The speed limit is 35 mph and, this being a federal park, one is wise to adhere....The road is mildly twisty and it was a comfortable jaunt. It got a bit nippy for a bit, but we both weathered it well. Along the way, we spotted a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road and people running up to a certain spot. "Oh no!" I thought, someone has driven off the road! Nope, just a bear sitting on a rock; at least I thought it was a bear. Oh well, onward.....
After traversing about 30 miles of Skyline Drive, we headed down-mountain to the town of Sperryville. Trusty GPS was not along for the ride, so I used an atlas for navigation. Before long, we came to an intersection with another highway. As we were sitting there trying to figure out which way to go, an elderly woman in a Mercedes stopped to see if we needed assistance. I told her were looking for the Old Rag Mountain parking lot, to which she answered with very explicit instructions. The last thing she said was "take some water" with a concerned tone. She HAS to be someone's mother; so much like what my mom would say! Charming!
So we get to the parking lot for the mountain and head out. The sign at the parking lot says that this is a strenuous hike, but from what I can seen, it isn't too bad. Here is a photo of the begining....
Though hard to see from this photo, those trees are growing atop a bare rock. Kind of cool I think. Anyway, the path was pretty gentle for quite a while. As we headed upward, it got a little rockier. All around were huge boulders that had obviously tumbled down the mountain at some point. Some as big as schoolbuses. I would have loved to have been around (at a safe distance) when this occured!
As we headed skyward, the trees changed from lush, verdant hardwood to pines and gnarly stuntd foliage. Here is a shot of the view from about halfway up....
And here is a view of where we had yet to go.....
And here is Kristin, ain't she a darlin'!( though at this point she was probably thinking "you @%$^&! I thought this was supposed to be a hike!")
From here the path became quite a bit more strenuous as the sign at the base said it would. No more walking leisurely through the woods, it was time to scramble over rocks. Instead of a path, the "trail" was over huge slabs of Rag granite. Here is a typical view of the trail at this point.....
Here's what it looked like from the other side of this little obstacle....
Yep, instead of walking up a trail, we were reduced to climbing slabs of granite, sometimes using opposing footholds to leverage ourselves upward. I am not a mountaineer, but I am sure there is a name for this. Onward we go!
Here is a view of the verdant valley below....
As we climb higher, the terrain gets rougher. At this point in the day, Kristin and I both agree that perhaps we should head back. Looking over a draw I saw folks negotiating the trail in front of us and it looked like it got even tougher so we took a break and headed back down. Here is the vista from our break spot...
And the last shot.....
So, back to the geology...The last three photos show the Rag granite, which is over a billion years old. There is something mystical and magical in touching something that old for me. You can tell that it cooled slowly because of the large feldspar crystals. If you see a rock that has large crystals, that's what's up. Rock that is uniform in appearance and not sedimentary, is usually volcanic rock that cooled quickly. If any of you have been to Hawaii or other basaltic lava fields (May I suggest Craters of the Moon in Idaho), you will see solidified lava that is dark, uniform in appearance, and full of pits. The pits are from gasses that were trapped in the lava as it cooled. That park, Craters of the Moon, is worth the trip! I'm getting a little ADD here, so back on track...Sorry. So this depost of granit erupted through the earth's crust and was eventually covered with sediment as this became part of an ocean as the continents divided and went their separate ways. As is true with other mountain building processes, the sediment eroded away and this harder granite was left exposed. An interesting observation I made today was the difference in smoothness between the granite and other rocks. The granite was rather rough (there was a lot of scree laying about), but the sedimentary stones and igneous volcanic rock was quite smooth. End of geology ramble......
The trip back down was uneventful, though it seemed like it was longer going down that going up for me. It was a nice feeling to see trusty Constance waiting faithfully for us in the parking lot. We headed for home...
The ride home took us over the Blueridge through some pretty good twisties. As Kristin had done exceptionally well riding on the first leg, I decided to turn it up a notch. We hit some corners leaning low and it was good! We ended up back in Elkton, where we said our good byes and I headed home.
A truly wonderful day,,,,,,,,
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