Old Rag Mountain hike

We aimed for a 0730-0745 departure, successfully left by 0745, and as we approached 66 around 08, we knew we'd be early--the folks meeting in DC were doing so at 08, then headed to Sperryville by 0945. (Indeed, we arrived first at the Emporium, around 0920.)

After the crowd had gathered--only one of whom had been on the Fall '03 hike, plus the organizer, Bob McKinless, whom I'd met before. Off to the mountain we went, and over the mountain we hiked--in much nicer weather than the grey/chilly of the Fall, around a troop of Boy Scouts, and encountering a dog who turned out to be lost--one of the girls called the owner, who had no idea her dog was halfway up a mountain. (Unfortunately, the call was placed from the top of the mountain--perfect reception! Fortunately, the dog showed up again near the bottom of the mountain!)

The weather was great, if a bit warm; my hiking socks and backpack worked well; I took many pictures; the hike down the back-side of the mountain (saddle trail and fire road) are kind of boring and harder than one would expect hiking downhill to be; I should've brought more water, and apparently Christina shouldn't have had the particular juice drink she chose earlier--didn't agree with her. :P

The drive back was uneventful, though we're both beat. Ordinarily, I'd take a nap, but Nathan's improv troupe's premiere performance is tonight, so we'll be going to that at 9 instead.

And several minutes ago, we heard a "hello" from the floor--Lucy had climbed off of her cage and up the stairs to join us! :)

Improv!

Drove up to Alexandria and its packed streets--cars and people, apparently the Ghosts Tour thing is quite popular on warm Saturday nights--to see Nathan's improv troupe's premiere performance. A good chunk of the audience was Nathan's friends and family, but hopefully it'll have a larger draw in the future. It was pretty funny, particularly the "long form" play involving a nun, an auto accident, and alcoholism, though shorter than I expected at 45 minutes.

The Springfield Interchange, particularly the 495W-95S bit, sucks a lot, as do the drivers using it on this Saturday night.

Home, ate, crash sleep.