Date: 2004-05-04
From: Lost Mountain Shelter

To: Wise Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: clear sky

Day 51"How interesting everything is! Every rock, mountain, stream, plant, lake, lawn, forest, garden, bird, beast, insect seems to call and invite us to come and learn something of its history and relationship... No other place has ever so overwhelmingly attracted me as this hospitable, Godful wilderness." John Muir Today was unlike any other day on the trail. My senses were captivated between the landscape and the weather. Pegasus, Fire Marshal and I left the shelter in temperatures in the low 30's, again. Within minutes of leaving the shelter I was startled by fast movement to my right. I see a blur of grayish brown heading directly towards me. My first thought was the animal was a dog. I immediately went into a defensive position and at the same time made myself bigger with my hat sitting on top of my walking stick. Behind the rushing animal were two more swift moving shadows of brown. Suddenly aware of my presence, the animals turned away, revealing three beautiful deer at a full run. They continued down the valley and disappeared as quickly as they appeared.The trail passed through scenic valleys of pastured farmland separated by sections of forest. Soon we were climbing up to Buzzard Rock and Whitetop Mountain (5120 feet). Once on top of Buzzard Rock, Fire Marshal and I sat behind several large boulders to block the chilly wind. In front of us the bright sun radiated its warmth to us and the surrounding rocks. As we sat in the surround sound theater of Mother Nature, dramatic and continuous vistas were observed in breath taking color. Photographs or written word could not describe accurately the presentation we were witnessing. At first each of us would point to a particular piece of landscape to share in the joy of the new discovery. Then, in a very subtle way we became quite as each of us slip into our own private thoughts. We stayed there for 30 minutes in this splendor of beauty and then it was time to leave. Mid afternoon we began our ascent of the Virginia Highlands and Mt. Rogers, the highest land point in Virginia. We past large open meadows peppered with boulders and rocks. The landscape took on the appearance of where the Great Plains merge with the Rocky Mountains in Montana. Higher we hiked 5500ft, 5700 ft. and then to Thomas Knob Shelter, a two story structure along with a privy with a solar powered fan. What made this shelter extraordinary was the rock face behind the shelter. Sitting on top of the rocks we had a front row seat to the most magnificent and illustrious vista I have ever witnessed this side of the Rockies. I was in awe. Speechless. One by one, hikers would come to sit, no one got up. Fire Marshal, Pegasus and I stayed there for hours. We were going to spend the night at the shelter to watch the sunset if it looked promising. At 6:00 the sunset potential faded. I thanked Mother Nature for the gift, hauled my pack onto my back and headed for the Grayson Highland State Park with my hiking companions. The trail now traverses over treeless knobs and hills covered with boulders and rocks. At one point we enter into "Fatman Squeeze" a natural rock tunnel. As we descend from the squeeze we came across a herd of feral ponies grazing the day away. Just before reaching Wise Shelter we came across 4 deer taking a drink from a spring. At the shelter at 8:45. The day came to completion with a full moon, bright in a cloudless sky, rising through the naked trees as we ate our dinner. Today, my hike was in a paradise that will always be etched onto my hard drive, to be used when I return to the civilized world for the occasionally needed ¢reset¢.