Date: 2014-05-12
From: Lost Mountain Shelter

To: Old Orchard Shelter
Miles today: 23.2
Weather: broken clouds

Today I crossed the 500 mile mark! I got an early start this morning because one of the people in the shelter was loudly packing up at 6am, so I also got up and got ready. I was hiking by 7am. I've been looking forward to today's hike since I started 42 days ago. Today's hike was also my longest of the trip so far. I left camp with a noticeable limp because of my raw and blistered pinky toe. The first 5 miles of the hike took me over Buzzard Rock, which is a beautiful grassy bald, littered with large rocks.A lot of today's hike was out of the woods and through large meadows. The trail descended off Buzzard Rock and then went up to Mt. Rogers, Virginia's highest point, at 5,729 feet. A shelter was located just off of Mt. Rogers, where I took my shoes and socks off and took a long break. This was only 12.2 miles into my day, but I was already exhausted for some reason.Now, for the reason I've been looking forward to today's hike - wild mini ponies! Mt. Rogers and Grayson Highlands State Park, which the AT goes through, has lots of wild horses roaming around, and they are very small. For the next 5 miles, the AT went through beautiful, but very rocks, meadows. I saw a lot of ponies and even played with some. The foals were usually scared of humans, but the adult ponies loved the human interaction, and loved even more to lick the salt off of my sweaty clothes. I spent quite a while petting and playing with the ponies, but eventually had to hike on. The trail then went through a narrow rock tunnel that had a cave-like entrance, and was affectionately known as Fatman's Squeeze. It was very cool to hike through. After this, the AT got very rocky and dificult. Grayson Highlands State Park has a lot of large rock outcroppings and the people who routed the AT saw it necessary for the trail to go up and over each one. I was getting pretty tired of going up and down rocky trails for no reason, but did it anyway because that is the AT and I'm hiking the damn AT! At 6pm I arrived at Wise Shelter, which is just after the 500 mile mark, and I saw Hemlock and One. We all decided to push another 5.9 miles to the next shelter. I was already exhausted, but went anyway. The next 5.9 miles were dry (meaning no water sources), which really sucked. A lot of times I don't carry water so my pack is very light, but today that came back to bite me. I was very dehydrated and ended up finding a tiny trickling stream and drank about 8oz of water. I would have filtered more, but it was barely trickling and I had to get moving because it was getting dark.The last 2 miles were down a very rocky mountain. I don't know why the AT is so rocky. Sometimes I think the local trail maintainers put rocks there to be assholes. Who knows! I hiked the last 1/2 mile in the dark, using my headlamp. Finally, at 8:55pm, I reached the shelter. I quickly pitched my tent, filtered water (and drank a lot of it), and ate a granola bar. I'm too tired to cook dinner. I'd love to make it to Partnership Shelter tomorrow, but that is 24.7 miles away, so I doubt that'll happen.I have been very frustrated at times today, and came close to tears on occasion due to the combination of frustration and pain, but I made it almost 24 miles, so I am happy now that I'm here. Goodnight from mile 506.4!