Day 48-Early Morning Visitors

May 5-16.1 miles-Thomas Knob Shelter to Hurricane Mtn Shelter Campsites-AT mile 515.1

I wanted to dedicate this day to my grandson, Grayson, but the weather was so miserable that I don’t think he would want this day dedicated to him. But, you’ll see why I was going to dedicate it to him. 

The time was 6:15am. I awoke to the sounds of snuffling, and a nose pushing on my tent wall. Then a tongue was licking my tent. I peaked through the mesh between the tarp and the floor of my tent, and saw this. 

Yep, those are hooves. 

The ponies had come to visit! I unzipped my tent, and discovered I had two pony visitors. The one who was licking my tent, and this one. 

As they moved off, I got out of my tent and could see they were over by the bear box. I grabbed my jacket and my phone and went over to get some more photos. 

This is the one who was licking my tent. 

The area is known for its wild ponies. They are managed by a group called the Wilburn Ridge Wild Ponies Association. They round up the ponies once a year, make sure they are healthy, and sell some if the herd gets too big. One of the other hikers got a photo of a mama and her foal. We didn’t see the foal. 

The ponies wandered off, and we set about packing up for the day. It wasn’t raining, but we knew it would, so we packed up pretty fast. We were ready to go by 7:15. As soon as we’re we’re ready to go, it started raining. 

We had just a short distance to get to the 500 mile mark. 

Guthook says I made it! Almost halfway to halfway (in other words, almost 1/4 of the way done (but not until we go back and do the Smokies).

Flat Will did too. Before we got to the marker, I said to Sure Foot, “What do you want to bet the marker is made of rocks?” Sure enough! 

Speaking of rocks, yesterday’s rock bonanza continued. We had planned to go 16.1 miles today. I thought if it was all as rocky as what we were going through, we’d never make it. 

Went through this “tunnel”. Thought it was the “Fat Man Squeeze”, but turns out it wasn’t. 

Had to climb over these rocks and down the other side. 

After climbing up this side. 

Rocks...everywhere

Ah yes...this is the “Fat Man Squeeze”, a tunnel of rock the AT goes through. 

Inside. 

We had some brief respites from the rain, but eventually it just kept raining. Oh, and there was thunder and lightning too. 

Today was a day I had been really looking forward to because we were going through the Grayson Highlands State Park. I’m so glad the ponies came to visit this morning, because we didn’t see a single pony in the park. 

The weather made for a rather miserable hike through the park (just two miles of the trail).

We made it to Wise Shelter about 10:45. We stopped for a snack along with the 5 other hikers that had been camped at Thomas Knob Shelter last night. I asked the one gal where they were headed tonight. She said Old Orchard Shelter. I looked at SF and said, “At this pace, we’ll probably end up there too.” It was 6 more miles to Old Orchard. 

As we continued hiking, we got up to a grassy bald and I to the fog. But, the rain stopped! We came down off the bald, and much to our surprise came to a camping areas called “The Scales” that even had an unlocked vault toilet! 

“The Scales” got its name because the cattle ranchers used to bring their cattle down to this place to be weighed and sold. 

We passed through a gate on the other side, and continued on the AT. We came across these fine specimens.

Okay, not a pony. 

Definitely not a pony! Check out them horns!

Since it was still not raining, we stopped for some lunch (and even took off some rain gear (only to put it back on later, but it was nice while it lasted). I kept thinking I could hear people coming. It was just the cows. 

We reached Old Orchard Shelter. I’d told SF that if we got there by 2:30, I voted we continue on, especially if it was still raining. Setting up in the rain is no fun, and the group of five was in the shelter. Well, we got there at 2:45, and it wasn’t raining, but we decided to have a snack and move on. 

I’m so glad we did because the majority of the remaining 4.7 miles was on good trail, not nearly as many rocks. We still had one more climb of 2 miles, but it was mostly good trail. Then a mile of downhill, and we were at the campsite for the Hurricane Mtn Shelter. The shelter itself is .1 up a side trail. After dinner, we took our food bags up to the bear locker. The shelter looked nice, maybe even no mice. If I was going to sleep in a shelter, this one might be okay. But, we had already set up our tents. 

So, although I didn’t get to see any ponies in Grayson Highlands State Park, I’m happy I got to see them this morning. I’m also really pleased and surprised we made it 16.1 miles. We managed to set up before the rain. As I write this, it’s not raining, but it did for a brief time. I suspect there will be more rain. We don’t have as long of a day tomorrow, so if it’s raining in the morning, we might be able to wait a bit to see if it stops.