Date: 2017-10-06
From: Wilson's Creek shelter

To: Taylor Valley, Damascus
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: scattered clouds

When we reached the heart of pony territory, we came prepared. Thanks to Dirt's grandfather, we had a supply of apples.But it turns out that while the Grayson Highland ponies were happy to accept apples, there was something else they craved and knew that thru-hikers had in plentiful supply: sweat. About a nanosecond after the apple was eaten, one of the ponies went straight for my legs and started licking off the salt from eight(!) days of accumulated sweat. Ewwww! (For the pony -- it was the closest I'd had to a shower in a week)This experience was bookended by two sessions of Dirt family trail magic. We started the day needing to do a "one by 10" -- one mile by 10am -- to meet with Dirt's grandfather and swap 90% of our packs' weights for apples. And we were being picked up by Dirt's mum and Ricky that afternoon and being taken to their comfortable hilltop home for several nights of sleeping indoors, hot showers and all the other accoutrements of civilisation. Back at the shelter this morning, the benefit of Sacha missing his afternoon nap the previous day came in him sleeping through until 7am. As any parent will attest, this is the Best Thing Ever. The previous day he'd woken at 5am -- an hour and a half before first light -- and would not go back to sleep.I headed off with TG, Q and Sacha, going slowly up the hill, but joined Team KRT when they headed past so I could dump my pack contents with Dirt's grandfather.The weather was perfect bluebird skies and the fall colours were the best we'd seen yet. Like Dirt's mother and new partner and cousin, her grandfather seemed nice too and we looked forward to meeting all her family over the next few days.Within a few miles, some random hikers going the other way told me that TG and Q were ahead of us and we caught them up when we converged around a group of ponies who we plied with apples. We even found the long-horned cattle that had eluded us the day before.We headed away once more and hiked another few miles, with Sweetblood carrying Sacha in the baby carrier to give Q a break. A feature called Fat Man's Squeeze could be easily navigated without even slowing down, which proved that the difficulties in the South are either waaaay easier than in New England or that "fat man" has a very different meaning to people in the South than elsewhere. (Both may have had some validity) Soon after this, Team KRT pushed on to lunch at Thomas Knob shelter while I stayed with TG and Q, who were heading back to their car via a short cut before then, as they had lunch at a series of idyllic grassy terraces among some pine trees.This was even nicer when we discovered there was another group of ponies enjoying the terraces. After another lesson on what it's like to backpack while parenting -- in this case, learning that white tufts of toilet paper from previous LNT failures are like gold to inquisitive toddlers and thus demand constant vigilance -- I headed south and TG and Q headed home. It was definitely more relaxed hiking with them for a couple of days. It was hard to believe that 11 years had passed and I hope it won't be another 11 years before I see them again.I caught up with Team KRT at the next shelter then took the side trail shortly afterwards to Mt Rogers, the highest peak in Virginia. The summit experience was less than exciting and I only realised I'd reached it because the trail suddenly ended in the middle of a forest and while looking for where it continued, I saw the trig point in a rock. But it was also the second last highest state peak we'd do on the AT, after previously tagging the highest points of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey. After here, there was just Clingman's Dome, the highest in Tennessee and the overall AT highest point, which is yet another sign that this epic journey is actually coming to an end.After that we hauled along, aiming to meet Dirt's mother Scarlet. I was hiking alone at one point when the trail left a section of forest. There was yet another group on ponies sheltering just into the shade, which is where I discovered their predilection for licking hikers' sweat.Perhaps because of this, I completely missed the AT's counterintuitive turn uphill and started following a different trail that headed straight ahead. I would have worked this out fairly quickly from spotting the blue blazes, but I was saved from getting as far as that by a random hiker I'd been chatting to on the trail shortly beforehand. He caught up as I was about to head in the wrong direction and he helpfully pointed out where the AT actually went. Thank you, random stranger!This was the end of the highlands' pony zone, which helped us make fast time along a series of rolling hills and down to a parking lot where Scarlet and Ricky were waiting for us in two cars. After 40 minutes of driving along obscure back roads, we ascended a truly scary driveway to their home.Now we're showered, dressed in clean clothes, sated with an enormous spaghetti dinner and kicking back with some craft beer.Life is good.AT fact of the day: The random hiker who saved me from a navigational snafu at the final group of ponies turned out to be only two degrees separated from me. I'd chatted to him briefly on the trail before the ponies and, after asking where I was from, said he'd spent quite a bit of time in New Zealand, including working in a private 3000 acre nature reserve on Banks Peninsula called Hinewai Reserve. I told him I'd been to the reserve and met the founder, Hugh, with whom he'd worked. Now we're one degree of separation apart.