Origin: Lost Mountain Shelter
Destination: Thomas Knob Shelter
Today's miles: 12.2
Total miles: 495.9
While April was mostly beautiful, albeit cold at times, May has just been wretched. We've been on the trail 10 of the 11 days of this month, and it has rained 8 of those days. We had planned to do over 17 miles today, but with another foggy and rainy day greeting us, we decided to cut it short. We're tired of hiking in this weather and not seeing anything. We're supposed to have a string of sunny days coming up, and we'd rather put in big mileage then. We'll follow our relatively short day today with 16 and 20 milers under clear skies.
We walked over more meadows today that probably would have provided nice views. In fact, much of today's walk probably would have been great in nice weather. With the fog, though, we couldn't appreciate much as we climbed Mt. Rogers. This mountain is Virginia's highest, and although the AT doesn't take us to the peak, there's a short side trail that does that I might take tomorrow morning if it's clear.
There are wild ponies in this area and we saw a few this afternoon. They are very used to hikers and aren't shy; one could smell the food in my pockets and was quite aggressive trying to get it. We'll be going through Grayson Highlands State Park tomorrow, which is supposed to have even more ponies.
Fingers are crossed that the forecast is accurate.
I hope the fog breaks. Those pics would be lovely.
ReplyDeleteToo bad about the fog and rain you have to put up with. On a positive note it must have been awesome to see those wild ponies today. Just seeing those creatures living in these parts of the country on my hike would have made my day. :)
ReplyDeleteWild ponies, what fun. We tried to see some when we were at the Outer Banks, no luck. Glad you saw them. Love you both
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