Date: 2016-07-05
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Miles today: 9.0

Last night around 9:20 we had a roaring rain/thunderstorm. It was so loud on our tarp that I had to stop reading out loud because I'd have ended up yelling. The crazier part is that we could still hear fireworks! I guess they do them rain or shine... or raging downpour.I cried for the abandoned puppy caught in the thunderstorm. I hope that it hid under someone's RV down at the Hurricane Campground. I cried for the abandoned cat. I cried for all of the abandoned animals. I cried because I was scared a tree was going to crash down on us and kill us. I said, "I'm sacred." And Steven put his arm around me and said, "I'm scared, too." And we lay in the darkness, huddled together in our non-waterproof tent hoping that we wouldn't die. Finally the rain abated and I fell asleep to the sounds of distant thunder and fireworks. In the middle of the night, Steven shook me awake. He thought there was an animal sniffing around the tent. I couldn't hear anything except the rain and wind. I had a very difficult time falling back asleep.We woke around 7:00. It was dark! The clouded sky plus the tarp made it so. Count wanted to drive to Damascus to get new rubber tips for his trekking poles, and to get food at the grocery store. Going there made me car sick - and *I* was the one driving! Going over ridges isn't the greatest. Plus the speed limit here is almost always 55 mph - where I don't even feel comfortable driving over 45 mph. Another reason to not move down here.We finally made it up to Grayson Highlands State Park. We filled out an overnight parking slip at the entry station. We then went to the visitor's center... and then the park at Massie Gap. We took the Rhododendron Trail to the AT. It was cold, misty, and windy, so we started hiking in our raincoats. That didn't last very long. We got warm pretty quickly. The going was a bit rough over the rocks so we didn't travel too quickly. I was hoping to see ponies, but we were going in the opposite direction of whinnying. Oh well. I still had my hopes up, but they were lowered. It started to rain, so we had put ourr coats back on, but Count got hot again, so he stopped to take it off. I saw a hoof pring in the dirt and I said, "Evidence of ponies!!" I looked down the trail and a pony was peeking at me from around a bend! I said, "Hi!" in a high pitched voice and she put her ears back, so I spoke to her in my normal voice and she continued grazing. Walking down the path I saw a foal lying next to her on the ground! It was trying to roll upside down, but wasn't too successful. I took several pictures and then it fell asleep! PRECIOUS!! (can you tell I'm excited by ponies?) It was shivering a bit and I wondered how he had fared in the storm last night.We had lunch in the Wise Shelter, but saw no more ponies. We hiked up Stone Mountain which was gorgeous. The sun came out and it became quite hot. I commented about the huge varyance in temperatures since I had to put my sweatshirt on only a couple hours before. The Scales Livestock Corral was neat and we hiked up Pine Mountain to its summit at 5,000 ft. Then down, down, down over wet and slippery rocks. It rained for about 10-15 seconds at one point and then stopped. We took a break at the Old Orchard Shelter and made the final descent to our camp.The woods seemed so dark and moist today. Combining that with the highlands and Stone Mountain was very reminiscent of Maine. Slow going, wet, yet very beautiful. We hope to see more ponies tomorrow and we hear that longhorn cattle are around Grayson, too!I left my headlamp in Steven's car by accident this morning. I just hung our Luminoodle plugged into our Brunton charger (thanks, Cairn Box) and our tent is SO BRIGHT! Today I'm feeling homesick and overall sadness. It probably is from the weather and sleeping in the tent in the rain and never feeling completely dry in this humidity. But I miss the cats and just being at home. I also miss the luxury of pooping without having to dig a hole in an appropriate place. Maybe I should look on the bright side and say - hey, when I have to pee, I just pee! Not in my pants. No. This journal entry went downhill fast.I lift my eyes to the hills...Count and I just killed a package of peach rings. HA! Once again we are being serenaded by a thrush. <3