Date: 2005-05-07
From: Campsite

To: Wise Shelter
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: clear sky

When I passed through this area I last year I really liked it and I was looking forward to it again today. We were going to go into the Grayson Highlands today. The terrain there reminds me so much of the "Big Sky" country of Montana. The sun was out and it looked like it would be a great day. I mentioned to the girls that we should all meet up at Thomas Knob Shelter and head into the Highlands from there. They agreed and Poet and Serenity started out. Free asked if I was walking or strolling today. I said strolling. Walking meant I would be setting a quicker pace and today was a stroll day. I left and soon caught up with Serenity and Poet. I passed them and kept on going. There are certain days when every fiber of your body seems alive and this was one of them. I just couldn't keep the smile off my face! Around ten I came to a nice rock area and decided that it would be a good place for a break and to wait for the rest of the crew. I broke out my book and my second breakfast and settled down. After awhile the four of them came by. Poet said, "Is this a PO break"? I nodded and in unison their packs came off. (PO stands for pack off, POBO stands for pack off boots off). We were sitting there when I group of five people came by. Phil Shelton led the group. He is a naturalist and was conducting a nature hike. They spent about an hour there with us and we were fascinated by the stories he told and the information he gave us. One thing that struck us all as interesting was about the birds. Back in the 40's and 50's it was the norm for naturalists to carry shotguns, loaded with birdshot, and shoot the bird in order to study them and figure out what sub-species they belonged to. We all thought this strange, especially in this day and age. We asked if they were worried about damaging the body of the birds when they shot them and his reply was,"Shoot them easy". We did chuckle at that. Thank you Mr. Shelton for spending time with us and thanks to his group for sharing fruit with us. After we left them we moved on to Thomas Knob Shelter where we had lunch and saw our first batch of ponies. About eight ponies and one colt. You can get pretty close to them and we did so. The area around here is spectacular! By far, the prettiest section of the trail so far.We moved on after awhile and entered the Grayson Highlands. Again, we ran into another herd of ponies that were fairly close to the trail. From what I understand there are around 150 or so ponies total in the Highlands area. We went through Fatman's Squeeze, a crevasse through the rocks and continued on until we hit Wise Shelter. Snowman was already there. He is from Wales and I love listening to his accent. We ate and as we were finishing up Break and Linux came in.Break yells out,"Cuppa Joe, we have decided to reinstate you into GLGE because of the go easy miles you suggested we do through this area. Ten miles of some of the prettiest country we have seen".I waved my hands in the air and shouted,"Woohoo, I'm back".For awhile there I had been worried. She was not bending to the groveling and I had even tried bribery. I knew Break liked natural peanut butter and while in Abingdon I bought a jar for her. She told me that it wouldn't work either! Later, we all sat around the fire and talked of the day. It is a good group I am with and it is nice to have Break and Linux back, at least until someone's pace changes again. We will be losing Serenity and Poet in a few days due to various off trail commitments but we will rejoin with them soon. As a matter of fact, the way their schedules and our hiking pattern is we will meet them exactly where they will be getting off. Tomorrow is another short day so we will have lots of time to play.