Old Rag day-use tickets sold out: what are the options?

Shenandoah National Park does not run a single ticket release for Old Rag. A total of 800 day-use tickets are available for each date from March 1 through November 30, split into two separate releases: 400 go on sale 30 days before the date, and the other 400 go on sale 5 days before the date. If the 30-day release for a given date is gone, the remaining 400 open up at the 5-day mark, so checking back closer to the hike date is the first real option. Source: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/faqs-oldrag.htm

Tickets are sold through Recreation.gov, facility 10088450, for $2.00 each, and every person in a group needs a separate ticket regardless of age. This is in addition to, not instead of, the regular park entrance pass.

If both releases for the date are fully booked, the park's own trail map shows a route onto the mountain that falls outside the day-use ticket boundary: Weakley Hollow Fire Road. The ticket requirement only applies to hikers using the Saddle Trail, Ridge Trail, and Ridge Access Trail, the trails highlighted on the park's Old Rag area map as the Day-use Ticket Area. Weakley Hollow Fire Road sits outside that highlighted zone on the same map, so it can be hiked without a ticket even during the March-to-November season. Source: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/upload/oldrag_roadtrail.pdf

This fire road approach will not substitute for the rock scramble that makes the Ridge Trail famous, since that scramble sits inside the ticketed area, but it is the park's own documented way to reach the mountain, Old Rag Shelter, and connecting trails like Robertson Mountain Trail without a ticket.

There is no officially documented waitlist, standby line, or day-of release beyond the two scheduled windows on the park's FAQ page, so planning around the 30-day and 5-day release times, or choosing the untracked Weakley Hollow Fire Road corridor, are the two confirmed paths when a date is sold out.