February 13, 2011 Snow Is Gone

WEEK'S BLOG STARTS BELOW
OLD RAG MOUNTAIN STEWARD'S
ANNUAL TRAINING SIGN UP!

HEY FOLKS IF YOU HAVE EVER BEEN INTERESTED IN SIGNING UP FOR THE OLD RAG MOUNTAIN STEWARDS NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT.

MINIMUM SERVICE EXPECTATION
THERE IS AN EXPECTATION THAT YOU WILL VOLUNTEER FOR A MINIMUM OF FOUR DAYS A YEAR FOR TWO YEARS BUT IN RETURN YOU WILL RECEIVE SOME GREAT TRAINING, VOLUNTEER WITH GREAT FOLKS AND HELP TAKE CARE OF A WONDERFUL RESOURCE.

ORMS's ANNUAL 2011 TRAINING WEEKEND IS SCHEDULED FOR THE END OF MARCH.

USE THE FOLLOWING LINK TO THE ORMS WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE AND THEN EMAIL mtnjedi@gmail.com.

http://oldragmountainsteward.blogspot.com/

THE WEEKS BLOG
The snow was mostly melted but the woodland trails often had about a half inch of hard slippery ice.

(Pictures can be enlarged by both double clicking and then enlarging the resulting new image.)

The parking lot had around 60 cars which is quite a few for a February weekend.

Here is a shot of the type of icy conditions that could be found on at least half the woodland trails. Folks without any kind of ice traction devices on their feet, (think Microspikes, Stablilizers, YakTrax, crampons), were having a very difficult time. Rapid slips on ice while usually funny can lead to very serious injuries. Every year there are folks who fall backwards on level parking lots or sidewalks and then die from not getting rapid enough treatment for the concussion they received when they forcefully hit the back of their head on the pavement.

A picture of a couple taking an alternate route (with about sixty feet of vertical exposure) down from the first false summit. Notice that granite exposed to the sun was clear of ice and snow.

The view from the first slab just above the Chute.

The view looking towards Sperryville from the top of Skyland aka PATC wall.

A raven above Old Rag summit.

A picture from the summit looking towards Skyline drive. Hawksbill Mountain is on the far left horizon.

Looking back at Old Rags lower summit from a slab near Byrds Nest Shelter on the Saddle Trail.

DEEP MUD
It is not unusual for Old Rag Fire Road between Old Rag Shelter and Post Office Junction to turn into very deep (4 to 6 inches) of mud for about a week during Spring thaws. It is not a lot of fun walking in this deep mud. It will suck the shoes right off your feet and or add about five pounds of mud to each foot. The good news is that the Weakley Hollow Fire Road seems to stay solid so you just need to suffer the mud until you get to the fire road junction. The other good news is the mud condition seems to disappear completely within about a week. It is interesting that this mud forms only during thaws and not during heavy rain in the warm weather. I am assuming it is because there is some layer of soil down under the mud that is still frozen leaving melt water trapped above it and once that layer unfreezes and becomes porous the muddy condition disappears.