My Little Pony

The last 5 or 6 days have been pretty spectacular.  Pain has been bearable and we had enough food (too much really) to not be hungry.  We also met new friends and pet wild ponies!  Grayson Highlands State Park is a section in Virginia of rolling hills and open pastures.  The ponies are used to keep these open areas from over growing.  There are about 75 of them in the park.  Beacuse this is a popular state park, the ponies are used to people (and used to people feeding them) and will let you walk right up to them. Some of them behave a little better than others.  The hiker known as Half-life let a particular pony get a bit close and it enjoyed licking the salt off of his legs.  The pony followed Half-life for a while trying to get some more salt.  Most of he mother ponies didn't seem to mind when people approached the mares.  It was a little disturbing to suddenly hear a whinny jn the middle of the night though.  But even without the ponies, the views are spectacular.   The trail is a little rocky, but the elevation change is relatively minimal. 
Just outside of the park the white blazes approach a large rock formation that looks formidable but when you see the figures up there, they seemed tovlinger a while, making it seem as though the view is great.  Upon closer inspection,  hikers had to take a blue blaze trail to get up and over this rock.  Our friends, Cookie-Monster and Grilled Cheese, called down and told us that the blue balze would meet back up with the white blaze and the view was worth the climb.  So, we made the climb up to the amazing 360 view of the rolling highlands.  Climbing down... was a scramble.  For those who don't know, a scramble is when you have to use not only your hands to keep balance, but you have to jump and move quickly through places to avoid hirtig yourself.   Basically you use your momentum to get you from one step to thenext rather than just stepping.  The climb down was pretty steep, I had to literally get on my butt a few times to get down!  I have decided that anytime a hiker is stepping on the blazes, they are in for a tough (but fun) time. 
The wildflowers are continuing to bloom.  We came across a stand of Pink-Ladies Slippers.  Hundreds of them, all bunched under a small cluster of pine left over from the timber age in that section.  I was sad to see that someone had dug one up and didn't even bother to put the earth back the way it was.  The flowers require very specific conditions to grow, and removing them is very bad form. 
At some point while cruising along through the woods, I was startled by a strange hissing and screaming sound.  I was suddenly attacked by a Pterodactyl!!!  I barely got out of there with my life!  Haha just kidding, it was a grouse who had chicks that I startled and I guess got too close to.  She did attack pretty viciously though. 
When we reached our stopping point, we reached the Partnership shelter.  This was just behind the Mount Rogers Welcome Center outside of Marion, VA.  The shelter is two stories and even has a shower that is "warm" in the warm months.  Hikers can even call for pizza delivery from the visitors center.   Needless to say, there was an obscene amount of pizza consumed that night.  Kris ate an entire large by himself!  He was pretty proud.  We met some British guys wjo were taking a tour of the states startig with a hike to the half way point on the A.T.  Even though they were Manchester United fans, they were great guys ;)  Steady-Eddy and Fuzzy had never had s' mores before so we made sure that in the 1, 000+ miles they were hiking, they had a proper camping experience.  
The people on the trail never cease to amaze me with their pesonsal stories and kindness.  The people are what makes these woods close to home.