Date: 2017-10-05
From: Hurricane Mountain shelter

To: Wilson's Creek shelter
Miles today: 10.5

We were hiking along through the Grayson Highlands wondering when -- or even if -- we were going to see the ponies.Others hiking in the opposite direction had talked about seeing ponies and even longhorn cattle but for us, we've seen bupkis. And then we saw movement under a stand of low treesIt turns out the ponies are smarter than us and have been avoiding the heat of the day by staying in the shade of the forest. There are about 10 of them, ranging full grown males -- although even they were comically short and barrel-chested -- down to whatever a pony's pony is called.There's always been a awkward distinction when cute animals also turn out to be wild and these ponies -- brought up to the highlands and released to keep the balds from revegetating -- have been wild for the best part of a century. We'd heard cautionary tales that despite looking like a species so easily anthropomorphisable that they ought to feature in a show like the Teletubbies, they need to be approached with caution. Most of them were very approachable but when one of us got to close to one of them for comfort, the reaction quickly reminded us of the need to keep our distance.But still.... ponies!This was pretty exciting for me but 20-month-old Sacha, in his mother's child carrier pack, was wide-eyed with excitement. And his mum, Cucumber Boy, became pretty excited too -- albeit for different reasons, when one of the ponies rears up at us as a warning to stay further away.It turned out that Three Gallon and Cucumber Boy -- TG and Q, as I'd dubbed them in my 2006 PCT journal -- had received my text messages the day before and, just to add more comedic miscommunication and because the universe has a sense of humour, they received them in a different order to how they were sent. But, kindhearted people that they are, they'd moved their schedule forward by a day to compensate for me getting the dates wrong and being a day ahead of when we'd originally agreed to meet. I realised all this when I reached the road crossing a few miles into today's hike and found their car sitting there. It had dew on it, which showed they'd got there the previous day. Dang! I should have hiked on to the shelter last night!I checked the front car door and it was open, giving me access to the extra cold-weather clothing I'd mailed to them to bring to me and also to the food they'd bought for me. It'd been a few years since they'd thru-hiked but they remembered the unusual calorific requirements and the stash included Little Debbie cosmic brownies, which Q assured me had the highest calorie:gram ratio of any food she knew.And there was beer! I only have to hike about seven more miles today, so I grabbed eight cans as a surprise for the other members of Team KRT when we reunite at Wilson Creek shelter tonight.It was about a mile and a half of gentle but steady uphill to get to Old Orchard shelter, where I found TG and Q just as they were packing up. Q opted to head on with Sacha hiking as far as he could before resuming his place in the baby carrier while TG and I headed down to the spring to fill up with water for the day.The easy PCT-style grade of the trail after the shelter allowed us to chat as we ambled our way towards Q and Sacha. There's something about trail conversations that make them easier than the equivalents in town, which is part of the reason why I was glad we were going to be able to spend a couple of days hiking together rather than only seeing them in the hectic environment of the Homeplace restaurant a few weeks earlier.Soon enough we caught up with Sacha, who was making his way determinedly up the trail while being watched vigilantly from behind by Q. Sacha took his place in the backpack once the trail became rockier -- and thus the consequences of a stumble more serious -- but we were still able to make steady progress uphill. Q was carrying Sacha and a few of the essentials but TG was carrying everything else. As any parent of a toddler will know, that's a LOT.They tried to put Sacha down for a mid-afternoon sleep but there was WAY too much stimulation going on for that to happen and he spent his time vacillating between stages of tiredness and meltdown -- I'm sure half the time hikers came by us, they were convinced they were walking into a child sacrifice. After it became obvious that sleep wasn't going to happen, we opted to continue.As we headed onto the rolling highlands and through The Scales, where stock was mustered and weighed back in the old days of commercial grazing, there had no sign of any ponies. Then, a mile or so later, we realised they'd all been hiding in the trees.When we finally moved on again after our pony encounter, it was an easy downhill run through forest to the shelter where we were spending the night. I put the others' beers in the cold water of the creek to chill them then went about the important tasks of keeping Sacha entertained. This was a kid with serious energy, as well as a perpetual smile.The others in Team KRT rocked up through the afternoon and we caught up on each other's news, including the dry camp they'd made the previous night that ended up being next to the nest of some kind of bird that had scared the crap out of them by having a screech that they all assured me was absolutely identical to a woman being murdered. It must have been an entertaining night.Happy Feet and OK are also here, along with Milkshake, Bog Angel and Hot Mess and a few other section hikers. It was good to give TG and Q a taste of trail life again, and particularly the extra fun that comes from being in a good group. Sacha is a pretty easy kid he is to look after, although he was getting very clumsy and stumbling through tiredness -- just like thru-hikers, I thought to myself -- shortly before they headed off to their tent right on dark.The rest of us squeezed into the shelter, where attempts to get to sleep were displaced by fits of laughter as we joked around in the dark.Life is good.AT fact of the day: Q had already hiked the AT before meeting TG on the PCT. They finished that over a couple of years and have also done a solid chunk of the CDT. With his parents having done 10,000 miles of hiking, it's fair to say that nature and nurture were both conspiring to make Sacha a hiking prodigy.