Date: 2006-04-16
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Hurricane Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 14.9
Weather: broken clouds

Happy Easter! Never have I experienced an Easter Sunday like this. First holiday away from my family and I was sad about that, but the day took care of my homesickness in a killer way. This might be in the running for the best day yet. I haven't fully calculated that yet. But I'll have plenty of time to think about it during 20 miles of hiking tomorrow.We woke up early and as I headed to the privy I caught the sunrise over the mountain with an almost full moon still over it. It was windy and I was barefoot and in shorts, but it was a great sight first thing in the morning. Spongebob poptarts just did the trick, nothing better to go with a sunrise and a barefoot stroll to the privy dodging pony piles on the way. I'm trying to walk around barefoot as much as possible now. Somehow, I have this crazy idea that it will strengthen them a bit..but it hurts after a long day of hiking, you have to walk really soft and slow. I can't wait to see what other great ideas I come up with as the months go on.Our hike basically kicked off in the Grayson Highlands State Park. By far on of the prettiest places I have seen yet. It in no way seemed as though we were in Virginia. It resembled something more along the lines of out West. And with the early morning light it looked perfect. Not too many trees, lots of rock scrambles and the coolest thing of all, the ferral ponies. The Grayson Highlands were one of my mental check points, a little "Sweet, you've come this far!" So I was pumped up for it.After about an hour hiking through the highlands with no pony sightings, only poop sightings, I began to get a little discouraged that we might not see them. But, I looked out over a ledge we were on and spotted a mess of them down below all along the trail. I think I was overly excited, but I enjoy being easily amused!Once we got down there we walked into 3 of them in the bushes. Got a million pictures, then moved on to another herd. We stood among them and Swansons pulled out a snickers bar. The crinkling of the wrapper did the trick, and one little brown one came right up to us waiting for a snack. He did not think much of the snickers bar. However, I did gt to pet him and he signed a few autographs!These little ponies were a cool change of pace. We snuck close to a mother and her new little baby, but mom got a little annoyed when I crept too close for a few pictues. Fuzzy little foals, definitely my first experience with baby ponies/horse.We probably could have wandered amongst the ponies all morning, but we moved on once other hikers started to hike in. We had only hiked about a mile when, again, I almost stepped on a snake. Not a big one, but one we later found out was a copperhead. All the wildlife was amping us up for the morning. And it didn't stop..hours later after taking the wrong trail for almost a half mile before realizing it, we happened upon a baby Garter snake. This little guy got mad at me for trying to move him safely off the trail and gave me trekking pole a good bite, before moving off into the brush. Tough little guy, no bigger than a blade of grass.So, sunrise, ponies, gorgous landscape, and two snakes...couldn't get better, but it freakin' got better.11 miles into our hike we stopped a VA603 for lunch. As we all settled in the dirt (well, only Granite, Yeti, Sparrowhawk, Swansons and I) for lunch, a truck pulled into the parking lot and a girl jumped out and started walking towards us. She was like "Hey Kurly..Swansons!" And at first we were like what, who is this? Then we saw passed the real world clothes and cleanliness and saw fellow thru-hiker "Tree Girl" who has been about a week ahead of us for awhile. Her parents were down visiting for a couple of days and they were out doing trail magic. She thought that the parking lot at the 500 mile mark would be perfect. Perfect Place..They had a spread..a total Easter feast.Coolers of soda, turkey, ham, lettuce, tomato, mayo, yellow mustard, bananas, oranges, apples, homemade brownies, snickers, baby ruths, and mars bars. It was a sight. We hung out waiting for the rest of the gang to show up and ended up staying over 3 hours. Thumper, Snake, Pebbles and Bugs came in and it was a party. 3 sandwiches, 1 brownie, an orange and 3 Dr. Peppers later I was feeling about as good as if I had just had Easter dinner with my family. Tree Girl's parents were incredible and talked to us for hours about everything. The, before we left, they stocked us up with doggy bags and Tree girl turned on the song "And, I would walk 500 more..." it was corny but awesome, very good ending..Way to ring in our 500th mile! With only 2 miles and change left, we headed out slowly one by one. And as if the day couldn't get any better, we came to a brand new shelter! Even smelled new! It was perfect and fit all 8 of us almost perfectly. Only problem is we are all now so pepped up on caffeine that we can't sleep. Good thing we all barely know each other, there are lots of great stories to be told about everyone's life, and that is just what we are doing...I never thought I'd have to have a conversation about what our real names are with people I see and basically live with every day. Out here you can hike with someone for weeks and never know their actual name...All in all, a perfect day. I hope my family had just as good an Easter. Oh, and Mom, the Easter bunny did come for all of us this morning, and he left each of us a cadbury egg!   (Thanks Pebbles!)