Date: 2016-05-23
From: pond campsite

To: camp before grayson highlands
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: few clouds

Day 42- May 23, 2016It was raining when i woke up this morning; 6 am and I couldn't get dregs to wake up. I tried for a few minutes without success so I went back to sleep. I figured he would eventually wake up with the light and then get me up. We weren't in any rush to get anywhere and the rain would make us slow to rise regardless. At about 7, he woke up and I was partially awake. We stayed laying down telling each other it was time to get up for the next 30 minutes. Finally, the rain seemed to slow and we crawled out and got ready to leave. I unfortunately stepped in poo in one of my camp shoes for the second time and grudgingly tried to clean it off for a bit. We packed up and left camp, walking around the small pond we circled yesterday. Then we were off. The hike wasn't too challenging but we had a hefty uphill not too far in. We came to the first shelter where we saw Heavy D, who carries a 65lb pack. We chatted with him for a bit and continued on. At one point, in the rhododendrons, we stopped to put in headphones and get our audio books started until we heard a loud shuffle in the brush beside us. We froze and then dregs told me to keep moving thinking it could be a bear. We then both saw it, a young doe up above us on the hillside. It looked at us and then slowly creeped around and down the hill down to the trail. It froze in the path behind us, glanced back at us for a moment, and then pranced down the trail in the opposite direction from us. It was a really cool moment that almost passed us by. We continued on with excitement from the close encounter and made our way up a large hilly pasture. There, cows grazed up and down the trail. Two calfs stood in the middle of the trail and wouldn't move until we walked up to them. After the cows, we caught back up with Heavy D and passed him. I saw two more deer on our way up a mountain and we passed many south bound section hikers and slack packers. The scenery very much resembled the smokies again with beautiful mossy trees and boulders and many many small waterfalls and springs. It was a rock scramble for a while and the path was more like a small muddy river for the most part. We ate lunch at a tent spot and then once out of the woods, it opened up to a hilly rocky open area. The trail took us through large boulders and we had a rear view of all the mountains around us. It was stunning. We passed the next shelter and decided to keep going. We got to an open field and to our delight, a heard of wild ponies appeared. The trail went right past them and as we approached, two bold ponies came over to us. We had heard that they like to try to lick the salty sweat off of hikers so dregs stuck his hand out to the one we called Fabio, because of his flowing mane. Fabio licked at his hand delightfully and then I put my hand out too, he came over to me and l put my had out as well. It was scary and awesome. I didn't want him to bite us and we didn't want to encourage this behavior too much, but we couldn't resist the friendly pony. We continued on and started looking for a flat campsite. It was hard to find but eventually we found a beautiful spot to set up camp. It was that last site before the Grayson Highlands state park. We could see multiple herds of ponies from our site and have a great view of the surrounding mountains. Dregs gave me a back and foot massage which was wonderful and we set in for the night. I'm excited for tomorrow and seeing more ponies.