With 4 days of clouds and rain behind me, there is nothing in the forecast but blue skies. This is the day I've been waiting for. Today I have the pleasure of the company of two great friends, Sue and Jim from Roanoke, VA. We pushed this hike back several days in order to wait for the right weather. If your section hiking this section of the AT and have the luxury of planning which days to hike which sections, I highly recommend waiting for a nice day for hiking through Mount Rogers and Grayson Highlands. In fact, Sue (or Runtrails) lists day 32 as her favorite day on her entire 2,175 mile journey. After meeting Lynn and me at our motel, we drove to Fox Creek to drop off Sue and Jim's vehicle. We then drove our car around to Elk Garden where Lynn took our picture.
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Sue then took a picture of Lynn, Madison, and me.
We said good bye to Lynn and Madison as we headed off.
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As we walked up the first hill I said, "It's so beautiful here."
"It's gonna get even better," said Sue.
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Sue and Jim pass through our first stile of the day.
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Entering the first of two wilderness areas we would go through today.
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It was great having Sue there to help identify plants and flowers.
Of course, I can't remember the names of any of them.
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Knowing that there were wild ponies up here,
we got a kick out of the sign reading 'No Horses'.
"How do the ponies know to keep out of certain areas. Can they read?" Jim joked.
"No," said Sue, "that means equestrians."
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About 4 miles in, we saw our first herd of 'wild' ponies. We walked slightly off the AT as we walked by a blue blaze or two over toward the herd of about 18 ponies and colts.
I put 'wild' in quotes because they are only semi-wild. The ponies are very used to people. The ponies were originally brought here to help keep these bald mountains bald by grazing. Once a year there is a roundup, and the ponies are checked out by a veterinarian. The size of the herds are also monitored. If the herd is getting too big, some of the colts are auctioned off.
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If you don't startle them, you can walk right up to them. I knew you weren't supposed to feed them, but I later learned that the park prefers that you don't pet them. I'm guessing to try to keep them as 'wild' as possible.
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This little guy can't be very old.
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We weren't in any big hurry, but we did have a lot of ground to cover today. We walked across the field back to the AT. A little further up the trail we came to the trail junction that leads to the top of Mount Rogers.
Mount Rogers is the highest point in Virginia. There is no view from the summit. It's much prettier further down which is why the AT doesn't go over the top. I had told Sue and Jim earlier that I'd like to take a detour to the top. It's only about a mile out of the way roundtrip. I just can't be this close to a state highpoint without tagging the top. I knew there was no view from the 5,729 foot summit, but I thought there would be at least a sign stating that we were at the highest point in Virginia. Nope. We looked around for a couple minutes. Jim found the highest point using his GPS. We called it good and headed back to the AT.
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After a few minutes back on the AT, we neared the Thomas Knob Shelter.
The privy for this shelter was nice.
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Thomas Knob Shelter
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The shelter was kind of crowded so we walked around back and found a scenic spot to take a break.
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We could see the top of Mount Rogers from there.
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Next we hiked through Rhododendron Gap where we had an awesome view.
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This area is so beautiful. I took about a 100 pictures. I had so many pretty pictures, I had trouble deciding which ones to show in today's journal entry. With a lot of work, I widdled the number down to 'just' 44.
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As pretty as it was, I'm sure it is even more beautiful later in the year. The bushes and non-evergreen trees don't have their leaves yet. Mid June is supposed to be the ideal time to come when the rhododendrons are blooming.
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Looks like some hikers ahead playing with another herd of ponies.
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Time to get through "Fat Man's Squeeze".
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Looks like my lean and fit ultrarunning friends didn't have any trouble getting through.
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More views ...
... and more ponies.
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This stile separates Mount Rogers Recreational Area from Grayson Highlands State Park.
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We finally got a smooth section of trail so my ultrarunning friends took off.
As Jim would say, "We have a race in 6 days." This was good preparation for our Capon Valley 50k (31 mile) race coming this Saturday. It will be my first attempt at an ultramarathon.
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Next we reached Massie Gap. If the weather is nice later in the week, I'm going to try to bring Lynn up here via Massie Gap to see the ponies. We've got to go past Old Orchard Shelter, so we've still got about 10 miles to go.
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Looking back to where we were a little while ago, Wilburn Ridge
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Don't you just want to come here?
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We entered back into the woods and crossed a creek.
I led the way for a while and missed a turn. A couple minutes into the wrong trail I noticed that I hadn't seen any white blazes recently. We voted to continue for a few minutes but then the trail petered out. We backtracked and found where I missed the trail. We lost about 10 minutes roundtrip. Jim's GPS recorded every extra step. This detour, a couple other minor ones, and the extra mile up to the summit of Mount Rogers account for today's bonus mileage.
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More ponies. This time right on the trail. Looks like they are traveling sobo today.
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I don't know how this pony could see a thing.
Jim and I brushed his/her mane out of the way.
At least he/she will be able to see for a little while.
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We saw about 6 or 7 various size herds of ponies today.
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Taking our last break, this time at Wise Shelter.
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Sue crossing another creek.
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Entering our second wilderness area of the day.
Sue hadn't really paid attention to the name of this wilderness area on her thru hike in 2005. That's because she hadn't yet had her experience at a different Little Wilson Creek. Read about her adventure at Little Wilson Creek in Maine on Day 141 of her journal.
Now Sue has a memory of this Little Wilson Creek. Somewhere around here she took a nasty spill and banged her elbow real bad. You can tell she is an ultrarunner, the first thing she said was that she was just glad it wasn't her knee.
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Next we neared 'The Scales'.
This area is called 'The Scales' because years ago cattle
were brought here and weighed before they were sold.
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What a terrific day this has been!! We still had five miles to go. We had passed all the scenic views and all the ponies, so it was time to make our way out. We hardly stopped at all during the remaining five miles. I snapped a quick picture at Old Orchard Shelter catching this thru hiker eating either a late lunch or early supper.
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The trail coming down was rockier than Sue had remembered. Jim and I had fun teasing her about that. Jim took a minor spill and strained his neck a little. So Sue fell and Jim fell, am I next. I already had a pretty good fall about 5 days ago so I'll pass. We managed to make our way back to their vehicle. We were hoping to go out to a barbeque restaurant but Lynn found out it was closed on Sunday. Lynn did her homework and found us a great Mexican restaurant for supper. Special thanks to Jim and Sue for driving all the way down here to hike with me!! You made this a day I'll always remember! Thanks.
