Today was long. There was a lot of climbing involved, and that always makes things long. It was about 3500’ all told. It was a lot like hiking through Rohan, for all you Lord of the Rings people. Lots of rolling plains, fields, and boulders strewn about the landscape. Both C and I thought of Rohan independently, and then mentioned it to each other, and went ‘yeah!’. This was the Grayson Highlands area in VA. I would recommend doing it to someone who wants to see some really just striking landscape…although the Smokies still take the cake. There are also Wild Ponies roaming about the Highlands that you can meet and pet on your hike. We met a few groups of them, and some didn’t want to play, but some were very happy to swing by and say hi. So we said hi to them, and they were pretty awesome.
I earned my trail name today. For a while, Caleb and I were thinking of switching it to something that was less…incriminating. Today…well, it started at breakfast. Mom had been mailing us this really tasty granola in a large plastic bag. I got it into my head that I needed to mix it well, so that the dried milk that had fallen to the bottom would be evenly dispersed throughout the cereal. So I turn the bag upside down and start shaking. The inevitable happens, but I was able to limit the amount of cereal lost. Being horrified at missing food helps with that. At lunch I bobbled my bagel after it was loaded with Honey and Peanut butter. They normally are messy, but I stuck my fingers all over what I was going to eat. Not really a good thing, given the condition of my fingers at the moment. Not the most sanitary things in the world at that point. At dinner, I almost dumped our rice pudding stuff over. Which would have been sad times. Once we got to the shelter, we met Mother and Speed, two guys that were hiking a bit and planning on peeling off a day or two before we were. It was cool to have company again. They were both paramedics, and Justin had made it to med school, which was super exciting. He should be slogging through the remnants of his first year at ECU right about now, actually. It was cold, and there wasn’t a good place for us to set up, so we set our hammocks up in the shelter and went to bed early.
Today was full of awesome views...
A neat little scrubby tree.
So Close and C on a rock.
View...
More view...
Once again...
The trail running by a scraggly fence.
Mt. Rogers is the highest point in VA. C and I didn't want to go up, because everything we'd heard about it said that it was totally treed in, and neither of us wanted that hassle.
Me on a rock.
Caleb, ruling the world.
The Grayson Highlands ponies, and some random people up for the day from Damascus.
A mother and her colt.
More ponies!
This one was my favorite.
My hammock, set up in the shelter. It was oddly cold, for some reason.
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