Date: 2013-04-23
From: Whitetop Mountain Road

To: Wise Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: clear sky

Chinmusic wanted to sleep in today so said he'd arrange a ride for later in the day. I slept like a rock but was wide awake by 8. Took a shower and went to the outfitters to pay them and thank them for their understanding. Walked to Food City to buy some apples because I knew we were going over Greyson Highlands with the wold ponies today. It's about a mile one way and I tried hitching but no one picked me up. I have such terrible luck with that. Got all my stuff and went to Mojoe's, a coffee place that I'd heard had good wifi. Worked on my journal but uploading pictures takes forever so I didn't get caught up on many entries. Got some green tea and a sandwich. The tea was awesome but the sandwich I had to force down again. Stomach is still not right. A man by the name of JB came and picked us up when he got off work. Fred Bear decided to come with us to do the 20 mile slack back to town. We didn't get on the mountain till 2 but he's super fast. We got to the first shelter and the guy there said we had just missed a pony. I thought they were only on the Greyson Highlands but I guess there's a few different areas that have ponies. Another 1/2 mile and we stopped at a couple guy's campsite because the pony was there grazing. I was so excited! I threw it some apply pieces but it was too wary of me to come close enough to touch. Another mile in and we crossed a stile (gate) and there was a herd of about 10 ponies there. One I got to come up and eat out of my hand. I cut apple pieces for it and it let me pet it! It got distracted licking Chin's arm and I got a great picture. While it was busy with him I petted and fed a little foal that had come over. It was the cutest thing! And it didn't seem to have learned the fear that the older ones had. The bigger one chased it off because Chin had made it stop licking him and he wanted to rest of the apple. The trail was really rocky up and over Mt. Rogers. I believe it's the last time we see over 5,000 ft in VA but I'd have to check. We officially entered Greyson Highlands and there was a sign warning not to feed the ponies. Oops. I'd already packed out the apples. Not long after, we came to a herd of about 15. I dropped my pack and poles and got out my camera. A pony came over but bypassed me for my pack. When I went over to try and keep it from chewing my pack it turned it's back to me and kicked. I screamed because I was damn close to those legs and had to get out of the way quickly. As I circled my pack trying to get to either it or my poles, the pony turned with me keeping it's back end in my direction. Stupid smart pony. It grabbed the bag of apples out of my pack and started mowing down. At that point I had yelled to Chinmusic to come help me and he ran over and used his poles to shoo the horse away. It continued to circle and try to find an opening and Chin made me laugh when he growled and dug his feet in the grass at it. At this point the rest of them came over and suddenly we were surrounded. It was more than a little intimidating. I grabbed my knife and cut pieces as fast as I could, throwing the pieces for away from me to keep some distance. Chin guarded my pack. At one point they all closed in and I realized I was too far from Chin. I was worried they were going to start kicking each other in competition and I was going to get caught in the middle. I had no more apple at that point I was just trying to get out of the pack and avoid all their back ends. I made it safely and when I got back over to my pack I realized I was bleeding. In my haste to get the apples cut up I had nicked myself in a few places. Nothing serious. I'll tell you though: lesson learned. Don't feed the ponies. And if you did bring something, just give it to them and give them space. Don't try to cut it up. Duh.The other herd had been so much different. Much more wary. My theory is that people come to the Greyson Highland National Park to see the ponies more than the surrounding areas. So they're more used to people - and more used to being fed. I had packed out an apple for me to eat as well but when the horse got my bag he bit/slobbered on all of them.Chin and I got out our head lamps because we weren't sure if we were going to make it to the shelter before dark. We make it right at 8:30 and really only had to use our head lamps past 8:45. There were two people already asleep in the shelter so we were quiet. I slept in the shelter and Chin set up his tent. I do prefer my tent but packing up is faster in the morning if I don't set it up. This was one shelter I wanted to sleep in anyway. It sits at exactly 500 miles.