Old Rag is a beautiful mountain on the eastern face of the Shenandoah National Park. It stands quite separate from the other mountains in the park, which as a result, affords it’s visitors very impressive views from on top of it. Personally, it was home to my first backpacking trip as a young Boy Scout, way back in the early 80’s. The last time my wife and I had been up there was close to 20 years ago. Part of our aversion to going back has been due to the fact that it has become so popular a destination, that overcrowding is a huge issue on the trails. They also don’t allow dogs up there anymore. And as luck would have it, our kids were given a random Friday off from school a couple weeks ago, so we decided to take a stab at a short trip up the back side of Old Rag, camp below the treeline, then summit first thing Sat. morning, and head back down the ridge trail to the cars mid-day. The whole trip was around 10 miles or so. While our son is a pretty seasoned hiker, the girls are still figuring out whether they like this sort of thing out or not. Fortunately, I think they were pretty thrilled once we reached the summit. Here are some pics: 
