Date: 2019-05-23
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: The Scales
Miles today: 8.4

The ponies joined us all again for breakfast, interesting how they come around during feeding time. Haha. But this morning the horses were a bit... excited? Maybe I really do need coffee, but my eyes were woken up with another sight today. Let¢s just say I know why the phrase ¢hung like a horse¢ exists now. Well the well-endowed fellow and a female pony had an encounter in front of us all. Nothing like some pony sex to start the morning off? Apparently it happened twice and I missed the first time. The ponies really get going early I guess! What a morning haha. Snowflake was teasing me because my jaw-drop was noticeable. I¢m sorry, okay, this isn¢t something you see every day. It was like a bad car accident. I didn¢t want to see it and yet I couldn¢t look away. Oh man.We shooed the ponies away and they slowly wandered off, tired I imagine from their morning... activities. I got packed up and out a bit late, but this morning it was purely because I was focused on... something else. I was awake with everyone else, but delayed by my young curiosity? I finally headed out a little bit before Snowflake. D¢Artagnan followed me for a bit and it was really awesome actually. It felt like I had my own dog and was taking him with me on my hike! A couple saw me and asked me questions about him and I was like ¢oh he¢s not my dog¢, but the whole time I was wishing he was my dog! I want a dog. Ugh! He joined his mama and I carried on. And soon enough I reached... 500 MILES!! Omg! It was so exciting. It felt so good. Better than any hundred before this! 500! It was exhilarating. Snowflake took my picture. There was that same group of guys with the drugs and the music sitting there. I headed out, but went the wrong way. There was another trail that intersected with the AT. I realized quickly and turned around. They were all happy I made that mistake because they would¢ve gone down that way too. I followed the right trail and it was pretty rocky. People have said that Virginia is ¢flat¢ and you can pump out more miles. This is false. We need to have a chat. Virginia is not flat, nor is Mother Earth. You¢re entitled to your theories, but um no. Virginia is rocky and hilly and steep. My shoes were 30 miles old at this point and they already had the front rubber part coming off. Wonderful. Thank you, rocks! Despite the rocks, this part of the trail was amazing. It was the official entrance to the Grayson Highlands and it was stunning. Talk about jaw-drop. I was literally smiling from ear to ear all day. There were more ponies grazing throughout the entire morning, and a bunch of families and tourists taking pictures. This one little girl gave me the most judgmental look. Start em young, I tell ya. Kid, I may look like poop, but you¢ll understand someday why I¢m doing this. What a rush today was. I passed through the ¢Fat-man Squeeze¢, a small slit in the rocks. My pack scraped the sides, but I got through! Lol another goofy name of a trail site. I stopped on a bench with Snowflake and the music dudes. They were all going to go to a general store from Massie Gap to get lunch and resupply. I considered it, but I wanted to press on. I had plenty of food. The only issue actually was my phone. I stupidly forgot to charge my external battery until the day I left Damascus. It needs an overnight charge and it only got a few hours. It did not have much juice at all, and it had been a few days so my phone had none either. I debated the general store simply as a place to charge up, but I knew that would take a while and I would pretty much be done for the day. I figured I¢d have to use my phone sparingly. It was hard because everything was so wonderful and I wanted to post it all and share this beauty. I had had no service at the shelter last night so I was trying to post things from last night, but my battery was running out. I decided to push on despite the battery situation. Once the trail left the Highlands, it was boring again. It was a really rocky downhill. There was a shelter at the bottom and I stopped for a break. I ate lunch and met a girl named Cali. She had gotten off trail for a month to do some traveling with her family and other things, and now she was back. She had skipped the section from Gatlinburg to here so she could catch up to her friends. I wouldn¢t want to do that section again haha. But I¢m sure she¢ll make it up and I¢m glad she¢s back on trail. She¢s very friendly and we had a nice chat. She was going to push on to the shelter and I was planning on that too. The next section of the trail was all in a meadow. It was beautiful, but so hot. It felt like walking through a desert. I was getting overheated quickly. I tried to walk through it faster to get to the shade, but it was a long stretch through this exposed area. I was completely wiped. I arrived at a place called the Scales. And I saw what looked like a bathroom! And it was!! I put my pack down and took my trash out and threw it away, refilled my hand sanitizer, and went to the bathroom. I put on sunscreen because I was planning to go on and I had been baking in the sun. I had a snack and moved down the field to a shady area under the sign, where I saw Raisin the doggo and her owners, Tugs and Tank Top. I sat for a minute because I really did still feel wiped. I think I need to adjust to this heat and exercising like I am, in it. I ran a half marathon a few years back and the heat was killer and there was no shade. It totally wiped me then too. I had not gone that far today, but I was still exhausted. And I had slept terribly so I think that contributed. Sometimes we need to listen to our bodies and know when to stop, and on the trail I find I don¢t listen enough. Doggo Raisin and her owners carried on.Salamander and her section hiker buddies arrived! They were going to camp here in the field and I started to get tempted to stay. Cali came along and sat for a bit, eventually heading on to the shelter. We watched some cows and ponies moving around outside the fence of the meadow. I pulled a ¢fish¢ and said I was staying. It was a nice open meadow and would have a beautiful sunset and stars, there was a bathroom and a trash, I was wiped, and Salamander and her crew were pretty awesome. They put up their tents and I did too. We went to find the water source. It was a small pipe in the ground. There was a lot of cow and horse poop everywhere, so were were a little suspicious about the water, but the pipe seemed to run from a good distance away. It was slow, so Peetree and Bananas filled up and Salamander and I went exploring. The area looked a lot like a beach, with sand and brush, and it reminded me of Nantucket, where I used to go with my family every summer. I¢m not a huge beach fan, but the island still has a special meaning for me. I had a great Diana moment. I heard this sound that was like rushing water and excitedly said ¢wait, I think I hear water¢. We looked over and it was a cow pissing quite the river of pee. We cracked up. Not quite the water source we¢d want! Haha. We went back and got water from the real source. We headed back to our tents and it was about time to make dinner. We saw two cars pull in. One parked on the field and set up a big tent, and the other parked across the field. There was a doggo in the back of that truck and we all got excited. The owner walked over and he was looking for a spot to place his hammock. There were not many trees here and he said he had forgotten his tent, but brought his hammock, so he ended up parking next to a small tree in a corner of the field and tying his hammock from the tree to his car. He brought us over some beers and was super nice. He said he was driving along the Appalachian Trail, but wasn¢t a huge fan of camping anymore because he was a Veteran and had had some traumatic memories. I honestly think his way of camping is still cool. I would love to drive my car up someday and camp out. As most of you know, I wasn¢t really a backpacker before this anyway. I had done three biking trips with Overland, one in Vermont, one in Nova Scotia, and one in Europe. All of them involved camping at night and carrying your stuff on the back of your bike, including tent. So I had experience with being out here, but I didn¢t really backpack. My family and I day-hiked and I still like that. You can enjoy a beautiful hike and stay in a cozy bed the same night. Who knows what I¢ll do when I get back! I can adjust to this lifestyle and really have accepted being filthy and smelly and tired, I think it just takes some adjusting. This guy seemed to have a nice set-up that worked for him! The beers were cold and refreshing. He brought two and I asked everyone how we were splitting them, meaning are we using cups or sharing the bottles, and Peetree answered in the most literal way possible and said ¢four people, two beers, we each get half a beer¢. Well duh! She realized what I meant after and we laughed and we divided the beers into our cups. This amazing man came back and brought wine with solo cups!! AND THE DOG. Her name was Maya and she was a beautiful golden retriever. He had just given her a haircut for the summer, which I hadn¢t even thought about with goldens. Pretty much everyone in my town has one and I¢ll be honest, I totally want one. They¢re such friendly and loving dogs and they¢re so fluffy and playful. I know a ton of other breeds are too and I¢ll keep my options open, but a big fluffy friendly dog is probably what I¢ll end up with. But I rarely see goldens shaved like that. It makes total sense since they shed so much. Maya was only a year old and she was running about like crazy. She¢d run over to me, then to Salamander, then to Peetree, and back around. She would come right up and put her paws on your shoulders or your arms and lick you and then run away. I was in heaven.Maya went for my food and picked up something chocolate, so I immediately told her owner and he removed it from her mouth. Phew. That will be the hardest part of owning a dog for me someday haha. I need both chocolate and the dog in my house, both are priorities. But I¢ll have to make sure to keep them far apart!! I really did think about how much I want a dog while I was sitting there. I¢ve been asking my parents since I was young. They¢re concerns were reasonable: dogs are a ton of work, they shed, you have to train them, someone has to be around to feed and walk them, vacations are hard, they¢re expensive, they have to go to the vet and will eat things they shouldn¢t or break things, the list goes on. But the maintenance is so worth it to me to have one. And especially now, when companionship is something I¢m craving, I want a dog so badly. I¢m 22 and can make that decision for myself now, but I¢m still going to live at home for a bit to make up all the money I¢m blowing on this trip haha and that means my parents¢ house, their rules. But secretly I know they both would love a dog, they just don¢t want to maintain it. I¢ve made PowerPoint presentations to them on this in the past, but I really would devote myself to it. All you friends of my parents, ease the dog topic into conversation every time you see them! K thanks! Haha. My mom told me ¢you should have a dog¢. Well woman I¢m getting one! Anyway, dog talk aside, we had a really nice time having dinner and drinks and meeting Maya. Peetree has this amazing camp chair that is two foam pads with straps in between. You can tighten or loosen the straps and lean back in it. It¢s so great and I sat in it and laid all the way back with my feet in the air. I talked about how happy I was to have met that man and his dog and how wonderful his trail magic was. Salamander said ¢this field is magic.¢ It really was a beautiful place to camp and I was having such a nice time with them all. And we had the luxury of a toilet and trash too. I was talking about how much I love privies at a shelter because I don¢t like the whole process of going to dig a hole and Salamander said ¢privies are a privilege¢ and I appreciated her pun. She¢s funny and down to earth and I really get along well with her. When Peetree and Bananas were at their tent, she asked me if we could hike together, as we had the same pace and mileage. I was totally down and said absolutely! But the only issue was that her friends were doing low mileage with her since they were visiting, and they had two more days, so I would have to slow down to stay with them, or she¢d have to speed up to catch me after they left. I was anxious about slowing down because I¢ve needed to pick up my mileage for a while and it¢s been stressing me out. But she said she¢d catch up and we¢d figure it out, so I was excited!! Peetree came back over with her LED lamp that changed colors and we chatted for a bit longer. She has all these awesome accessories like the chair and the lamp that you could only bring if you weren¢t thru-hiking, so I go back to those thoughts of section-hiking or day-hiking and being able to make camping fun and luxurious. I would really enjoy that after this trip. I¢m so concerned about weight and whatnot that I just have the essentials. Which is good for this, but I do love those fun additions. The stars had come out and it was gorgeous. I think they were better than Max Patch. The whole sky was totally covered and it was amazing. I stared at them for a while and took it all in. These are the nights on the AT that I wanted to have. Sometimes I feel like this trip is just a ¢race to Maine¢ and I don¢t get why you should stress so much. I do get that people have things at home to get back for and that Katahdin actually does close in October, so you can¢t just do 8 miles all the way to Katahdin, but you can take a few nights like these and just enjoy the beauty and the peace of nature and life together. I come back to what I said a few days ago about loneliness and enjoying the trail with companionship, and it doesn¢t mean I need people every day, but it is nice to have these times. This trail would be so unbelievably hard for me if I was on my own every day, just cranking out miles. It isn¢t a ¢race to Maine¢. The trail founders never intended for that. I read a book called ¢Grandma Gatewood¢s Walk¢, gifted to me by some lovely friends at home, and it was such a good book. And they said how the trail was actually meant to be section-hiked, not all at once. It was meant for people to come and enjoy the beauty for a little bit at a time, not race through it. But hike your own hike I guess, a phrase I¢ll get sick of hearing, but one that is certainly said all the time out here. Here¢s to enjoying the beauty of this beautiful country and footpath that was created for that. Tonight was magical.Little Debbie