October 13
Miles: 23
Total: 1696
Sights: wild ponies
Today was one of the most beautiful on the trail and we hit a pretty great milestone to boot. We hiked through the Grayson Highland Parklands today, which we had been excited about because everyone we hiked with during the first part of our trip told us all about the wild ponies. So we weren't really expecting the incredible views and unbelievable ridge walks that we got, not to mention some very well graded trails - I can't remember hiking up to 5400 being so easy!
We also happened upon really cowboys in action! On some of the balds they keep cattle and we happened to be hiking by while a big group of horsed cowboys were rounding them all up to move them for the winter. The trail literally went through the coral, which we couldn't find at first because a huge horse was standing in the way. A cowboy had to point it out for us. Awesome.
From that point on it was just an amazing day and some of the best weather we've had in a couple of weeks. It was so sunny in fact that Jamie got a sun burn; however, since he was wearing a bandanna at the time only a select portion of his head is burned with hilarious effect. Anyways, as I mentioned before the views were simply stunning and 360 in a lot of places. This place is not unknown to the locals though - we haven't seen this many day hikers and weekenders since the White Mountains in New Hampshire. When we got to the wild ponies (which are kind of mean, by the way - one of them bit Shannon and another one tried to kick Jamie, landing on his foot in the process), it seemed that we were the main attraction as a lot of people were really interested in what we are doing and had lots of questions (and of course stories about all the things that can kill us out here, people love telling us all about things like that). Quite fun!
OH, and we also hit another milestone (gotta love milestones, they really help break up the trip mentally), only 500 more miles to go! Oh man, how often do you hear that one? Only 500 more miles! Seriously though, that doesn't feel like much and we'll hit the 1700 mile marker tomorrow.
This has been one of our favorite days of the trip and it was very much welcomed after all the bad weather we've had of late. To top it all off we found a really great hillside camping spot with a great view of the sun going down over the mountains. The colors stayed out while we enjoyed dinner.
I feel like today was hard to explain in words so we'll include lots of pictures, maybe that will help. Well, off to bed! We are going to try are hardest to wake up around 5 tomorrow so we can hightail it to the famous trail town of Damascus. We are 20 miles out so we want to get a good jump so we can enjoy town for the maximum amount of hours. We're actually planning on taking a 0 day there on Monday which has been the carrot for these two ponies! Good night!
Miles: 23
Total: 1696
Sights: wild ponies
Today was one of the most beautiful on the trail and we hit a pretty great milestone to boot. We hiked through the Grayson Highland Parklands today, which we had been excited about because everyone we hiked with during the first part of our trip told us all about the wild ponies. So we weren't really expecting the incredible views and unbelievable ridge walks that we got, not to mention some very well graded trails - I can't remember hiking up to 5400 being so easy!
We also happened upon really cowboys in action! On some of the balds they keep cattle and we happened to be hiking by while a big group of horsed cowboys were rounding them all up to move them for the winter. The trail literally went through the coral, which we couldn't find at first because a huge horse was standing in the way. A cowboy had to point it out for us. Awesome.
From that point on it was just an amazing day and some of the best weather we've had in a couple of weeks. It was so sunny in fact that Jamie got a sun burn; however, since he was wearing a bandanna at the time only a select portion of his head is burned with hilarious effect. Anyways, as I mentioned before the views were simply stunning and 360 in a lot of places. This place is not unknown to the locals though - we haven't seen this many day hikers and weekenders since the White Mountains in New Hampshire. When we got to the wild ponies (which are kind of mean, by the way - one of them bit Shannon and another one tried to kick Jamie, landing on his foot in the process), it seemed that we were the main attraction as a lot of people were really interested in what we are doing and had lots of questions (and of course stories about all the things that can kill us out here, people love telling us all about things like that). Quite fun!
OH, and we also hit another milestone (gotta love milestones, they really help break up the trip mentally), only 500 more miles to go! Oh man, how often do you hear that one? Only 500 more miles! Seriously though, that doesn't feel like much and we'll hit the 1700 mile marker tomorrow.
This has been one of our favorite days of the trip and it was very much welcomed after all the bad weather we've had of late. To top it all off we found a really great hillside camping spot with a great view of the sun going down over the mountains. The colors stayed out while we enjoyed dinner.
I feel like today was hard to explain in words so we'll include lots of pictures, maybe that will help. Well, off to bed! We are going to try are hardest to wake up around 5 tomorrow so we can hightail it to the famous trail town of Damascus. We are 20 miles out so we want to get a good jump so we can enjoy town for the maximum amount of hours. We're actually planning on taking a 0 day there on Monday which has been the carrot for these two ponies! Good night!
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| Not the pony that bit me. |
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| This pony stepped on Jamie. |
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| Our Campsite on Whitetop |
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| The cattle and the cowboys |
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| Sunset from our whitetop campsite. |
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| Just us |
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| 500 More miles! We're practically done! That's nothing! |
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| A beautiful view from the Grayson Highlands. |
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