Old Rag Mountain

Hey everybody!

Last week before the heat wave hit all of us here in DC, I took a Wednesday off and escaped to the wilderness for a bit. A friend and I traveled about 2 and a half hours south of the city to go hiking at Old Rag Mountain in the Shenandoah Valley. We arrived at 10 am and were happy to find only a few parked cars. I've hiked a couple times before but had no idea what to expect from Old Rag. I very quickly realized however, that our day was not going to be a walk in the park.

Old Rag Mountain is pretty distinct because it stands away from the other mountain chains in the Blue Ridge. After hiking up a steady incline and switchbacking for a solid 90 minutes, we reached the base of the rock scramble. From this point on there were boulders to climb over, crevasses to squeeze through and absolutely stunning views of the Shenandoah. On the left we looked over a valley with smaller hills, farmlands and houses. To the right was an endless chain of green mountains and a skyline that seemed to blend into all that was below it. At 3,291 ft we had climbed to the summit of Old Rag and took a hard earned break.

The entire loop is about 7 miles and was super challenging but so rewarding. It was an incredible way to spend a day away from the craziness that is DC and to just hang out in nature. If you like exploring and adventure, I would highly recommend this day hike. You could even turn it into a weekend of camping if you bring your tents! Just remember to have lots of water and some way to snap a few pictures of the scenery.  

Keep enjoying the summer, and go play outside! 

Alexa 

Lesson #005: Sometimes you just need to de-stress with some chalk and an empty street.

"Art Therapy" coats H St., in the heart of GW's campus.

Lesson  #005: Sometimes you just need to de-stress with some chalk and an empty street.

Good morning, Colonials and future Colonials (I’m looking at you, Class of 2016, Class of 2017, and Class of 2018)!

One of the coolest qualities about GW is that, even with annual traditions, for one reason or another, while you may miss an event the first time around, you can just as easily witness that event. This past Tuesday, the GW Chalk-In proved to be one of those events that I was lucky enough to catch this year that I simply overlooked last year.

Take a look at this video of last year's Chalk-In!

The Chalk-In is an event where the University shuts down the block of H Street in front of Kogan Plaza and Gelman Library shut down for no other reason than to give students the opportunity to write on the street in chalk.

The occasion serves a purpose: provide a stress-free zone for students to escape to in the midst of final exams and the end of the semester. Anyone, students in particular, have the opportunity to write and draw to their heart’s content, often as music plays and as some of the University’s top performance groups set the mood in Kogan Plaza with some light-hearted entertainment. It is certainly a sight to behold, especially in a city, where running to catch the next metro train or speeding off in a cab are more commonly seen than students sitting in the middle of the street with not a care in the world.

Here are the two other pictures I took of Chalk-In 2012:

I happened to take this picture and didn’t even realize until after that the Twitter handle of GW’s most notorious Tweeter, Dean of Students Peter Konwerski, was right there on the sidewalk. He really IS everywhere.

The Chalk-In is University-provided self-expression at its finest, making way for a temporary H Street art-gallery composed of works by the GW community alone.

In the words of Dr. Seuss: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Truer words have never been said and the Chalk-In is one of the many annual opportunities to get your mind off of work for long enough to just "be" carefree.

Stay spirited & stress-free,

Matt

mtscott@gwu.edu