May 9, 2005 | Day 43 | Miles: 12.2 | Total Miles: 487.5
End: Thomas Knob Shelter, Tent
Danielle:
Sunny and hot
Another warm and sunny day out on the trail. Wow! And a beautiful day of hiking. We went up and through a lot of nice meadows and open grassland, and the woods were all flower-blanketed. We're back into the wood sorrel, trout lilies and trilliums. Makes for some pretty walking. We knew we were taking a short day so we enjoyed the walking and had a nice hour-long lunch at a spring. Then we dropped our packs and took the side trail up Mt. Rogers (5729 ft.), the high point in Virginia. It was only a mile round-trip. The summit is wooded so it wasn't very exciting, but it adds to our high point list. 6 done :-) ME, VT, NH, VA, TN and MA. Alright :-)
This shelter is up at the edge of a field with great views out into the valley and hills below. Very nice.
Ryan:
sunny, warm
i hiked without my knee braces today! no pain...well, only a little...but, it's the at. it's supposed to hurt.
what an awesome spot we're at! great view, great weather...just awesome. i really don't have anything to complain about today. we even added an extra mile to go to the summit of mount rogers, the highest point in virginia...it was completely wooded with a rock. oh well. tomorrow, we're headed through grayson highlands state park to wrastle with the ferral ponies...i know what we're having for dinner. speaking of dinner, we still have too much food, so i'm going to eat a bunch...
May 10, 2005 | Day 44 | Miles: 14.9 | Total Miles: 502.4
End: Hurricane Mtn Shelter
Danielle:
A lovely mix -- overcast, hail, rain, sun
A lot to talk about today...
First, we have now gone more than 500 miles. Yeah! Not quite 25% there but close. Pretty cool.
Second, we went through the Grayson Highlands today before lunch. Gorgeous open grasslands, interspersed with rocks and low brush. Plus there are ponies! They roam free through the park in small herds. We saw one herd at the beginning of the park, then ran into a herd right on the trail. We skirted around them, then stopped to look at them for a bit. One of the smaller foals came right up to Ryan's side and nuzzled his hand. Looking for food, I know, but so cute!
Thirdly, as we were coming down from Pine Mountain, we heard thunder and it started to get louder and the skies got darker, and it hailed pellet-size hail on us along with a downpour of rain. The trail turned to a stream. It was quite an intense half hour storm. Yikes. We were soaked! But luckily the storm cleared out quickly and we got a little sun to dry things out a bit.
And lastly, as we hit the last road crossing for the day, we ran into some trail magic. Wow. Soulman and his wife, Andy, were there in their RV handing out goodies. Soulman hiked in 2000, and they drove over from Indianapolis to share some magic with the hikers. They filled us up with cookies, crackers and cheese, bars, fruit, soda and chili with macaroni (I got yogurt and a piece of pie instead.) Yum!We've been hiking on and off today with Tank and Willow. I think I mentioned them before--they're 2003 hikers who are out for just a section tis year. We have found out more about them--they are hiking just through Trail Days (a big fest in Damascus this coming weekend that they'll hitch back to) and then they are going off to bike from Portland, OR to Portland, ME. They met on the trail in 2003 and have been together since. They're very cool and we've enjoyed hanging out with them. They might hike the 100-mile Wilderness when they're done with biking, so maybe we'll see them then. Now we're at a brand new shelter. There are 10 of us here and it's thundering again, so we'll all cram in for the night. Should be cozy! :-)
Ryan:
overcast, sunny breaks, strong pm thunderstorm
another interesting day on the at. we hit what people consider one of the highlights of the trail - grayson highlands state park. it's sometimes called the montana of the east, vast open grasslands with rock outcroppings. beautiful. plus, there are ferral ponies. the ponies are cool. one of them came right up to me, licked my hand and let me pet it. pretty cool experience. it was overcast for most of the day, but then it eventually started to thunder. then it started to thunder really loud. then the lightning started. then it rained. then it rained harder. now, picture the hardest rain you've ever seen...now double it. now and hail. a lot of hail. it hurt...quite a bit. the brochure mentioned nothing about hail, and we've seen a fair amount. the good news is that it started when we were only about a mile from a shelter. of course, it stopped just before we got to the shelter. at the shelter, we found tank and willow curled up in their sleeping bags...they missed the rain and hail. i never liked them. (actually, they're great, but in this instance...not so much. they met on the trail in georgia in 2003, hiked to katahdin together, and have been together ever since. after we left the shelter, we had a mellow downhill to a road crossing...where we found trail magic! a thruhiker from 2000, soulman, and his wife decided to hang out for a few days feeding hikers. mmmmm...dr. pepper and chili. now, we're in a brand new shelter...it's overstuffed with people, but at least it's new. best of all, we hit 500 miles today! only a few more miles to go...
today's song - 500 miles, the proclaimers
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