(Whitetop Mountain Campsite (mile 492.7) - Stealth Campsite (mile ~506))

I woke up at about 7:30am this morning. I took my time getting out of my tent only to realize that I needed to dig a cathole - like, immediately. After breaking down my tent, I ate breakfast at a small fire with Simple Man. We both agreed that today was going to be something special. I was only planning to hike about 12 miles to a campsite just beyond the boundary of Grayson Highlands State Park. I didn’t want to feel rushed today. I wanted to take my time and stop at every beautiful view, admire every cool tree, and make quick friends with all the ponies. I was also excited to get rid of the whole pound of carrots I had packed out from Damascus😂

Notably, the trail would also be passing Mt. Rogers today. The tallest peak in Virginia was accessible via a half mile side trail. Unfortunately, the peak is completely forested and doesn’t offer any views. I figured I’d probably check it out anyways. Afterall, I’ll be hiking in Virginia for the next 500 miles or so. I might as well bag the tallest peak while I have the chance.

I started hiking a little after 9am. After 2 miles, I reached Elk Garden trail head, a popular parking area for day hikers and weekenders visiting Mt. Rogers and the Grayson Highlands. After crossing the road, I passed through a cattle gate and into a stunningly green pasture. The trail quickly summited a small hill with beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding meadow. The trail left the meadow and began climbing the Elk Garden ridge. I was immediately struck by the beauty of the forest. The trees, moss, rocks - everything was so vivid. Today was a Sunday, so as I climbed the ridge, I passed many groups returning from their weekend excursions. I passed two groups of Boy Scouts and what seemed like maybe a college sports team. I hoped this meant that there wouldn’t be many people in the Grayson Highlands.

I listened to my J+AC playlist this morning. Two standout tracks were “You Make Me Smile” by Mamalarky and “Can I Call You Tonight?” by Dayglow. Both songs are fun, lighthearted, dreamy pop tracks with a healthy serving of psychedelia. The songs blended well with my fantastical surroundings and established major positive vibes.

I found myself fascinated by the seemingly rhythmic pattern of decay across the surface of this rotting tree

After about 3.5 miles, as I was approaching the Mt. Rogers spur trail, the trail emerged from the forest and I spotted my first ponies! A pair was standing in the middle of the trail. The first was a mottled brown and white while the second was a solid chestnut. They were both curious, and approached me without much hesitation. I assumed they expected snacks, but when they started incessantly licking me, I realized they were after my sweat. Hikers must serve as reliable salt licks for these ponies😂 I sat with my new friends for well over an hour as I fed them carrots and helped them reach their electrolyte quotas. Sitting on a rock next to the trail, I watched lots of hikers experience the ponies for the first time. Reactions ranged from joy and excitement to discomfort and mild fear as the ponies approached each new potential salt lick. Simple Man, most of the Little Hotties, and Lighthouse all passed along.

Eventually, Katie and Jasmine showed up. I hadn’t seen Katie and Jasmine since the day after 19E. They had left trail around Hampton to spend time with some college buddies. I offered them carrots and warned them that the ponies did a poor job distinguishing carrots from fingers. I held up a couple bloodied fingers to prove it.

I quickly befriended the residents of the Grayson Highlands

At this point, I was nearly saturated with pony saliva. After we ran out of carrots, the ponies started chewing on the straps of Jasmine’s pack and we decided to move along. A quick jaunt around the bend brought us to the Mt. Rogers spur trail junction. Katie and Jasmine had both been to the summit before and they warned me that it was super underwhelming. This insight, combined with a fear that ponies would eat my pack if I set it down, discouraged me from taking the side trail.

We continued another ~0.2 miles to Thomas Knob Shelter. Behind the shelter, we found a nice view where we chilled and ate lunch. Katie busted out her battery powered radio, which seemed to only pick up pop country stations. She explained that some hikers had started calling her “Retro,” presumably in reference to the radio. She seemed unsure if she liked the trail name, and at this point, I’m not sure if Katie or Jasmine will ever have trail names in my mind.

We hiked on and soon encountered the 500 mile mark! Pretty cool, I must say😁

Just beyond the 500 mile mark, where the AT meets with the Pine Mountain Trail, we encountered a jagged rock scramble which treated us to spectacular views of the surrounding highlands.

The next half mile routed us over a couple more rock scrambles, each treating us to wonderful views. As the trail began winding down the Pine Mountain ridge, we encountered the “fat man squeeze,” a claustrophobic rock tunnel that gives a brief impression of spelunking. It’s possible to route around the squeeze, but of course we had to give it a shot. One of my water bottles briefly caught on a rock, but otherwise, I fit through pretty easily.

At mile 501.5, the trail finally passed into the official boundaries of Grayson Highlands State Park. Almost immediately, we spotted another group of ponies. These ponies seemed much less interested in hikers. Still, we tried to approach the group. We took the hint to get lost only after Katie got too close and one of the ponies gave a half-hearted warning kick.

More ponies! Unfortunately, this group had little interest in us :(

The terrain flattened out along the Wilburn Ridge and I stopped to send a message to AC while Katie and Jasmine hiked on. The next 2 miles or so involved a lot of pleasant downhill, good trees, and small stream crossings. I stopped at Wise Shelter near the park boundary for short break and found Katie and Jasmine amusing themselves with the shelter log.

We hiked out of park and started looking for a good campsite. About 2 miles later, we found a lone pony standing in the middle of the trail. At first, the pony didn’t want to move, then it decided to mosey on down the trail ahead of us for a couple hundred yards. I kept my distance as we followed behind slowly. I managed to avoid earning a hoof-to-the-face, and soon after we found a stealth campsite near a trickling water source at a little after 7pm. The pony hung nearby while we set up camp and ate dinner, sadly it seemed entirely disinterested in interacting with us.

Lots of landmarks today. Grayson Highlands, ponies, and 500 miles🥳

Look at the ponies! Such adorable creatures… shit, it just bit me!