Hands down, this is my favorite day on the trail so far. We woke up to a gorgeous morning and left camp around 9a. The entire trail was beautiful. Even the parts of it that were totally submerged from the rain couldn’t keep my spirits down. The weather was totally the opposite of yesterday. It was sunny and clear the entire day, we didn’t have a single drop of rain. Most of us even got a little burnt. Even as bright as it was, it still wan’t too hot.
We hiked up a few miles to the first shelter. We knew we were in wild pony territory because we had been seeing droppings for the last half of a mile or so. As Lotus, Warthog, and I were getting near, Kirby ran over to give us a heads up that there were ponies at the shelter. There were six in total; one stallion, three mares, and two foals. The ponies were super friendly. They loved to be scratched and would lick the hikers arms because of the salt from their sweat. Little known fact about me – I’m kind of afraid of horses. These ponies were certainly the highlight of my day, but I was a bit nervous around them. Especially when the one mare would get snippy with the other. We stayed way too long at that shelter, not wanting it to end. Finally the ponies left so we did too. There were more to come. We hadn’t even entered the portion of the park known for it’s ponies.
We had fantastic scenery while we hiked on. We climbed up to the top of some boulders and got group photos. We went through a section called “Fat Man’s Squeeze”, a sort of short slot canyon. I refused to look at the walls as I walked through. I expect they were covered in spiders.
Finally, we entered the Grayson Highlands State Park, a 4(ish) mile long section of the trail where the ponies are extremely prevalent. You are not allowed to camp during this part of the trail. Without fail, we saw more ponies. Of course we had to stop and say hello. We lost a lot of time to ponies today.
A little beyond that last stop we hit our 500 mile mark. We all lined up. Atlas played The Proclaimers, “I’m Gonna Be” and we danced across the spot singing, “And I will walk 500 miles…”. It was awesome.
After our celebration, we sat there and ate lunch. The last several miles of the day were equally fantastic. We hiked near streams, saw a garter snake, more ponies, and long horn steer. I accidentally fell. That’s what happens when you are too busy looking at ponies instead of where you are putting your feet. Warthog said it was a graceful fall. I twisted around and landed half on my backpack. As I was going down I thought, “Oh crap! This is is!” Thankfully, no major injury. Just my pride and ankle were the tiniest bit sore. It was a pain that quickly went away.
After we saw the steer we got to a flat meadow with a pit john, fire pits, and great views of the hills around it. We were about three miles short of our goal, but the site was too nice to pass up. Plus it was getting late. Snow Monkey, Wonder Woman, Kirby, Warthog, and I were the first ones there. Lotus and Atlas arrived as we were setting up camp. Warthog collected firewood. Kirby and Snow Monkey checked out the water situation.
The meadow is surrounded by fencing with gates in it. At first we thought it was to keep the steer and ponies in. Then as we watched a cow and her calf walk around the fence, we realized it was really to keep us in. The cattles could access all of the land around us. Our view tonight is of the rolling hills, the steer with their calves, and the ponies. We watched a calf and foal bounce around a bit playing together. It’s was a perfect evening. The golden sun adding the kind of glow that is the essence of summer. The guys even got in an impromptu game of frisbee with a disc they found in the meadow.
The sun fully set as we ate dinner near the fire. Maybe an hour later we noticed a glow on the opposite mountain ridge. Now the moon was rising. We all stopped and watched as it came up over the mountains. It is full tonight and bright enough to cast a shadow even. The spring peepers are singing their frog songs and the crickets are joining in. We heard hooves pound against the ground as the ponies ran down the hill and alongside of the fence. The sounds of nature surround us, creating an incredible chorus and I get the honor of being in the audience. Today was a good day, one that I expect will be darn near impossible to beat.
– ansel