Wild horses couldn't drag me away...

Day 31 - 5/13/10
...from the trail. It sure was tough to leave though, you could easily watch them for hours. It's amazing to see them in the wild. But I'm jumping ahead.

Woke up to a little condensation on the outside of my tent, but everything was dry on the inside so I was still able to get going rather quickly. Zendawg (he told me this is the spelling) and I were on the trail by 7, but he flew ahead and I didn't catch up until 1 o'clock. It started out being a very foggy day, no visibility further then 10 feet, but by 12 it had changed to full sunshine. I was very lucky because it cleared up in time for me to catch some great views up around Mt. Rogers and the Grayson Highlands. It was similar to many of the balds I've seen although it wasn't completely clear-cut. Rockier terrain too.

Around Mt. Rogers is where I saw the ponies. Actually I heard them first. Off to the side of the trail, up the hill, came a loud whinny. I turned to look and up through the fog I saw them. I dropped my pack and ran up the hill with my camera for pictures. They weren't even the slightest bit afraid of me, and actually sort of ignored me. After a quick glance they went right back to eating grass. One small foal did come up to me, probably thinking I had a snack for him. Sorry buddy. I headed out after 10 minutes, and within another 10 arrived at the first shelter, Thomas Knob. I stopped to talk with some hikers who were eating breakfast, Neal was there, then after going another mile I saw more ponies. I dropped my pack again and ran over. There were more foals in this group, I even saw a few napping on the grass, probably dreaming about oats and hay and apples, and of course Trail Days.

After that I had very little uphill the rest of the day, but like I said it was rocky so I was going slower than normal. I caught up to Zendawg, he was sitting off the side of the trail with another guy named Red Stick. We hiked together the rest of the day right up to VA 603. My original plan was to make it to Troutdale, which would be 50 miles out, but I realized if I did that I wouldn't make it into Damascus until dark, and that was if I got an easy hitch. It seems like every decision I've made on the trail is the right one, because within 10 minutes Braid and Cruiser (the two thru's I met the day before) pulled in to pick up their truck they left there. I think it was meant to be so I'm glad I didn't try for Troutdale.

I got back in to Damascus around 4:30 and set up my tent at The Place. Rainer and Dewlap were there and they said some people were looking for me, someone named Paul Bunyon. I didn't recognize that name, but I was pretty sure it'd be Keith and City Squirrel and some others. I was hungry so I hit up this free BBQ that the Baptist church was having, hot dogs and chili and sodas, and then I start toward tent city. I'm walking along and sure enough I bump right into Keith, who is in fact Paul Bunyon. It's funny neither of us had trail names when we last saw each other, all the way back at the NOC, around mile 135. So anyway after that I was all jazzed up, getting to see everyone again. I also saw Hand Me Down and Hot Wing (Davey), two guys I had started with on 4/10. I'm glad I came back because this really is a huge trail reunion. I imagine it's what a high school reunion might feel like, but just worse smelling.

They all were going to this other free dinner, so I waited until they finished up. We picked up some beer to enjoy around the campfire, then I headed back to tent city with them. It's all the way in the woods, but it's huge. Hundreds of tents. Several "communities" with peculiar names like Riff Raff and The Boneyard, which is called that because their firepit is in the shape of a giant dog bone. I'm happy with tenting at The Place though because tent city is a nonstop party. It's fun to check out, but to be living in it is a different story. Being at The Place is like having the best of both worlds, close and in town, but not far from the craziness that is tent city either. So I caught up with all my old trail buddies then I headed back to my tent for a good night's sleep around 12.

As you can guess I wrote this in the morning, partly because I wanted to use the library computers and load some more pictures onto the blog. I started a new album, so make sure you navigate to all my albums to check out the new one. You can see my photos of the horses.

I've already enjoyed many of the Trail Days activities so far, but I will post about all that later. I might compile my entire TD experience into one post because I'm going to stick around until Sunday morning and enjoy all that I can here. Anyway I'm having a great time, but after this it's time to get serious again and head up to Maine.

Total miles: 504.2