Date: 2013-10-12
From: Dickey's Gap

To: Lost Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 34.1
Weather: overcast clouds

*10/10 up also!Today I am thankful for the way the trail brings people together. Yesterday we met some of the most unexpectedly neat people- four college kids from North Carolina State. I had literally seen no one but Houston and my grocery store benefactor Blue Sky for several days, but as we began the two day ascent up Mt Rogers, Virginia's highest peak, both yesterday and today I could not walk a quarter mile without running into college groups on fall break, scout troops, families, and old men out for the weekend. There were people everywhere! It was strange and a bit unnerving, until it dawned on me that it was the Friday of a holiday weekend and we were approaching a major state park. We arrived at our destination early and spent an hour feeling like a museum exhibit as group after group passed by asking questions about our hike. (Somehow they all knew we were thru hikers, whether it was appearance, worn gear, or smell...) The last group was 4 young men who were staying at the same shelter, despite the warning signs of aggressive bear activity. They built a huge fire, informed us that they had tons of food and invited us 'over for dinner'. We cooked red beans and rice with peppers, onions, garlic, and sausage and we feasted like royalty, with cheesecake for dessert. That's right, they brought no-bake cheesecake mix and we were in heaven. They turned out to be the sweetest, most generous, and fun group of guys and entertained us with poetry, songs, scripture, and stories. We stayed up until 10:30 enjoying their company, before cramming into the shelter, where we stayed dry and warm through the rain that pounded all night.Today was an eagerly anticipated day, as our location was such that exactly 500.0 miles remain until springer. By the end of the day, we will have hiked 1700 miles, which we're pretty proud of, so we celebrated with hot chocolate on the damp and dreary morning. Also, we were entering Grayson Highland State Park, most famous for its wild ponies which I was very adamant about petting. The park was packed despite the drizzling rain and engulfing fog, but we still managed to score some sweet pony pics and many pony puns. We spent the day walking through mist, chilly and wet with only 20 yards visibility in any direction. It was what I would imagine purgatory feeling like- walking into endless white, unsure of what is ahead, on either side, or of any elevation change. I watched as the fog swallowed my companion whole and spit him out moments later. I couldn't even tell that we were ever at nearly 6000 feet. Yet we were practically giddy as we marched through the hoards of people and remained in high spirits all day. I could hardy contain myself when we somehow managed to get stuck in a cow stile (which are passages through fencing that allow hikers to enter/exit pastures but not cows). At the same time that my backpack got snagged on a fencepost yanking me onto my butt, Houston tripped over the cow bar and got wedged between the rails. It was a while before composure was regained enough to extract ourselves under the bored stares of the cattle inside. We also ran into two bow hunters out and stopped to chat archery for a bit, and I was reminded that hunting season is nigh upon us and its about time to start dressing like an orange traffic cone. The day and section hikers were amusing, and provided major ego boosts as we breezed by them. Tonight we share the shelter with 6 others again, and dried out our clothes over the fire (they smell like a chimney now, but believe me, it's an improvement) as the rain starts back up again. I shall dream of the sweet potato fries and ice cream that await us in Damascus tomorrow, as well as the novelty of a shower and clean clothing. Here's to surviving tourists and playing with ponies!