Date: 2004-05-13
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Troutdale, VA
Miles today: 12.2

12.2 miles in 8 hours (not counting 4 miles of road walking to Baptist Hiker Hostel)We left before seven, mainly because of two irritating older section hikers,both women. One was excessively loud, boisterous and assertive. The other snoredlike a sawmill.The trail led us through the Greyson Highlands, huge expansesof grassy hills and high table lands scattered about with huge rockpiles. At onepoint the trail passed through a pile of boulders called Fat Man's Squeeze. Notvery difficult.We saw ponies! These little guys wereintroduced to the preserve in the 1970's to help keep the grass trimmed and thevegetation in check. Some mares looked enormously pregnant, but I saw no foalsyet.Wild ponies, Grayson HighlandsSome mountains were bald before white man came over. Probably fire fromlightning strikes, or fires set by Indians to provide good hunting habitat. Thereal "balding" happened when large-scale lumbering operations came late in the1800's. And yes, there is a belief held by some that aliens did it. We finally left the highlands, rockhopping endlessly back down into the woods. Thatreally beats up the feet. Everybody complains at the end of such days. Justas I reached a shelter at the 11 mile mark a thunderstorm drenched the woods.Nothing to do but wait it out with a big lunch and a delicious nap! Wedecided to get off the trail early because more rain threatened. So we walked (in the rain)into the little village of Troutdale, where we're staying at a bare-bones hostelrun by the local Baptist Church.Raven hitching in the rain into Troutdale We're sitting around the former sanctuary, nowbenchless, showered, while the laundry runs as we go over the day's events andmake plans. Just got back from dinner at the local country store/ gas station/diner. Troutdale is the ghost of its former prosperous self back at the turnof the last century. So far, all the trail towns are different, unlike suburbiawith its Wal-Mart uniformity. It's a delight to poke around these unique placeswhile recovering from the rigors of the trail. What will the next town be like?Wildlife seen:- Deer, ponies, cattle.- Black centipedes with bright yellow legs.- A dead vireo lying on the trail, in perfect condition. What happened? Tiny red columbines scattered about. Whole hillsides of white flowers, different from the "Spring Beauties" we spotted weeks back in the Smokies. Whole clusters of Forget-me-nots everywhere. We've seen them ever since the very start. They remind Raven of his wife Karen, since they are her favorite flower. Cast of Characters: Salt Lick from MA and his hiking partner Coyote. She amazed us with her vocalization of not one, but a whole family of coyotes, with simultaneous yips, barks and howls. Just like the coyote choruses we hear across the fields at home. She did a great owl too, even with that little gasp at the end of its call. She's going into the Peace Corps this fall.Also present, three young Virginians just out of their first year of college, out for a section hike, full of spirit and the best of attitudes: Slackpacker, Mountain Mama, and Whoopsie-Daisy. They got drenchedin today's storm and took it well. It's past hiker's midnight. Time to climbthe hill to the mens' bunkhouse (this is a Baptist facility after all) andsay... G'nite! Now-Or-Never