I fortunately was given a 7:30am ride back to the trail from Mary, who looks after the Troutdale hostel. Cold morning, but trail easy enough to hike 10 miles in 4 hours, even with my heavy food bag. Lunch at shelter, aiming to do another 11 miles for a very long day through the Grayson Highlands. Trail much steeper and rougher until I reach the 5,000 ft elevation open plateau, famous for the wild ponies who keep it open grassland. The ponies originally were brought from Chincoteague. Longhorn cattle also graze here in the summer, but they had just been rounded up and taken back down for the winter. I saw two groups of ponies; a group of five was closest to the trail, and uninterested in me (no feeding allowed)
This high plains part of the state park has a very different landscape, almost western.
Clouded up as I neared Mt. Rogers, and I only got to the shelter at Thomas Knob (5,430 ft) at dusk, after a 21.2 mile day.
Wednesday was cold and drizzly to start, with light rain falling as I left the shelter. Curiously the privy was handicapped accessible with a ramp and grab bars. Long downhill in the damp in my rain gear. Take off rain pants for steep climb up Whitetop, and into cold fog and wind. Another long downhill, into pasture land. Back in woods I surprised a guy who said he was fox squirrel hunting. He thought he heard an animal downhill and was startled when I said hello behind him. I'd heard a rifle shot when I stopped for early lunch, but he said he missed. Cross highway, then more up and down until shelter at 2pm. Quick snack, enjoying chance to sit down -- which you don't do much in the wet. And downhill again until the AT meets the Virginia Creeper trail. This railbed was built to haul lumber out of the Mt. Rogers area, active between 1907 and 1927, but now a railtrail running all the way to Damascus. I remember crossing it in 1982.
This high plains part of the state park has a very different landscape, almost western.
Clouded up as I neared Mt. Rogers, and I only got to the shelter at Thomas Knob (5,430 ft) at dusk, after a 21.2 mile day.
Wednesday was cold and drizzly to start, with light rain falling as I left the shelter. Curiously the privy was handicapped accessible with a ramp and grab bars. Long downhill in the damp in my rain gear. Take off rain pants for steep climb up Whitetop, and into cold fog and wind. Another long downhill, into pasture land. Back in woods I surprised a guy who said he was fox squirrel hunting. He thought he heard an animal downhill and was startled when I said hello behind him. I'd heard a rifle shot when I stopped for early lunch, but he said he missed. Cross highway, then more up and down until shelter at 2pm. Quick snack, enjoying chance to sit down -- which you don't do much in the wet. And downhill again until the AT meets the Virginia Creeper trail. This railbed was built to haul lumber out of the Mt. Rogers area, active between 1907 and 1927, but now a railtrail running all the way to Damascus. I remember crossing it in 1982.
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