Wild Ponies, May 16th

Today was more like Rockginia instead of Virginia. It was so brutal on my feet and knees. My knees would keep locking or twisting wrong. The rocks were jumbled and awkward as well as all the roots everywhere. I am just dead and beat up right now. At the same time today was AMAZING!

Viking and I got shuttled back to where we had left off on the trail. We continued on a steep incline that lasted for 4 miles. That was brutal. It was also very hot today with almost no clouds.

We passed through a cow pasture.

We went over Whitetop Mountain. My boyfriend, Ken, and I had driven to the top of whitetop last fall. I didn't realize that the trail went up whitetop. I remember seeing a trail but it turns out it was the AT! That was very exciting. Ken and I had also pulled over at Elk Garden to check out the trail, we saw a sign that said AT from the road. Now this time around I hiked out from the woods and onto the road!

One of the thru hikers packed a bag pipe with him.

The trail led up through some amazing scenery the rest of the day. It went up and over Mount Rodgers, the highest mountain on the Appalachian Trail. There was a side trail that led to the sumit, it would have added an extra mile onto the day. I was just so beat so early in the day I decided not to go. I had absolutely stunning views as it was.

The trail then went into the Grayson Highlands State Park! I've been looking forward to this section for a long time because it's known for its wild ponies. There's multiple herds of wild domesticated ponies that found their way up into these mountains at some point. Before seeing any ponies we went through the Fat Mans Squeeze, a tight rock tunnel. That was very exciting.

Viking specifically doesn't like horses, he seems to dislike every animal we encounter. He wrote in every log book that we passed that he hates horses, or still hates horses. It's weird being around an animal hater when I'm an animal lover.

We encountered our first ponies! 2 adults and a baby.

Then a herd with 2 babies. I pet all of them! (Minus the babies)

We saw 2 more herds but they weren't near the trail.

We hit the 500 mile marker! I feel so accomplished at making it this far!

After getting into camp, the Wise Shelter, it's the only shelter within the State Park, we had a pony visitor! She was very friendly and went up to everyone. It was quite entertaining to have her around. She eventually wandered off but now, hours later, I'm still hearing horses not too far away. Tenting isn't allowed here, I was worried about getting a spot in the shelter but there was plenty of room! Many people decided to tent anyways, there's still room in here. After the pony coming through being very curious and rubbing on everything,  I understand why tenting isn't allowed. I bet it'll be an interesting night.

My jaw feels 100% back to normal finally!

Tonight at Wise sheltet I am at mile 502.5 with 1687.3 left to go.

Water City, May 15th

The breakfast at Woodchuck hostel was pretty great. I loved the homemade blueberry waffles with sliced bananas, syrup, and hardboiled eggs. They had a small amount of almond milk left and the owner even ran over to the store to buy a new carton of it because I'm lactose intolerant!

I woke up with bad jaw problems. I was having trouble opening my mouth. It was specifically coming from the right side at the joint. It was quite painful to chew. I'm not really sure what's going on but I think that I must have slept on it weird. It's been giving me trouble for the past few days but very mildly.

Today's stretch of trail had so many water sources everywhere! It was really pretty. I ended up slack packing with Viking. We arranged a pick up 17 miles down the trail to take us back to the hostel. On the way out an owner of another hostel was badmouthing Woodchuck. The guy just seemed really angry. Woodchuck has actually been a really fantastic place.

On my way out of town I saw the cute lil cinnamon roll cat that I want so much! I'll have to come back tonight to visit.

The trail followed the Virginia Creeper Trail for a bit then broke off for a number of miles then reunited with the VCT again then left a ways down. The stretch where it broke away makes me so angry. It was a really tough stretch that has a lot of steep inclines. It was mostly green tunnels, hiking through those are like driving at night after you've been on a road trip driving all day and you're super tired. It makes you really sleepy. Then there's also the fact that there were no views and the terrain was hard on my feet. I saw a number of hikers just skip it and continue on the VCT. It's really frustrating. I wish the AT just followed the VCT.

It was really great getting to see all these places on the trail that I visited on that trip with Ken here last October. I kept telling myself that next year I'll be here hiking this trail and here I am! Hiking the trail. I made it this far.

The laurels are starting to flower! Is nice to see a color that isn't green for once!

When we got to the road where we were to be picked up a family was just packing up their trail magic set up. We both got bananas and Gatorade. Perfect way to end our hike.

Once getting back we went to Bobo's for dinner. I was really looking forward to Hey Joe's but they are closed on Mondays. I don't think that I've ever eaten a calzone before so I ordered one. It was basically a pizza folded in half then baked. Mine was way to cheesey. I said no tomato sauce and they offered white sauce instead but it was just way too much cheese. It ended up going straight through me an hour later.

I got to see that precious little cinnamon roll again. He is just stunning. He's underweight, not neutered, male, horrible mats, he has a super soft medium length coat that's thin so there's not too much fur for shedding. He tally just needs a healthy diet and an occasional brush and I'm sure he'd never get matted fur again, it's really sad to see it that bad. The whiskers on one side of his face is covered in white paint. He's such a lap cat and purrs so much! I can touch his paws and belly. His teeth look great and he's young. Not to mention, I want him. I'd really love to take him home.

Tonight I'm in Damascus, I got to mile 486.1 while hiking today with 1703.7 miles left to go.

Boyfriend on the Trail, May 14th

This morning I had another wonderful breakfast put on by the Dragonfly Inn. They have such great taste in dishes to offer.

Ken and I got shuttled up the trail to where I had left off with Barefoot when the tornado went through. The terrain was easy but I was just tired. The heat from the van took a lot out of me, I felt rather overheated.

I've decided that Ken's trail name is Boyfriend. I signed the log books as Mishap & Boyfriend. I thought that it would be cute! Today went a lot better and I'm really happy that I got to spend some more quality time with Ken.

I ran into GI Jane and Viking at the end of the day coming into Damascus. I'm glad that there are people that I know here. It's really rough trying to make friends here. It turns out Theory, Fury, Barefoot, Bags, and Tator arranged a shuttle 120 miles up the trail to hang out at a hostel and wait for Trail Days to comes around next week. It kinda hurt. It felt like I had just been ditched by them. I thought that I was part of the group. I don't think that I'll be seeing any of them around again since they are so far ahead. I'm still on the fence about going to Trail Days. I feel like I just want to push on and focus on getting to Maine.

Before Ken left we went to Old Mill for Dinner. We had hoped to go to Hey Joe's but they closed at 5pm. The food at Old Mill was just delicious! It was really nice that we could end our day there. The last time we got to spend time together, not including the brief visit from him during my layover on the way to Georgia, was last October when we biked the Virginia Creeper Trail together. We ended in Damascus and ate at right here at the Old Mill. It was really sad to see him go. I wish I could have more time with him.

The Woodchuck hostel is more of a house that someone put beds in every room of the house and by every room I mean the family room, the open space at the top of the stairs, as well as all the bedrooms. The owner, Woodchuck, lives in his garage. He also has bunks in a shed outside and a teepee that you could pay to sleep in. The place is very unique.

Today in Damascus I'm at mile 468.7 with 1721.1 left to go.