Day 33 May 16 - Grayson Highlands Park
Day 33 May 16, Days miles 11.8 AT Mile 504.2
Stayed in Wise shelter
Hiking time 6.5hr
Pass plus/minus - 0
Critter Rescue - 4
So the day started early because it was super windy and raining overnight and I had been up from about 3:30 am so we got up around 5:45.
We had to sleep with our food as there were no decent size trees to hang it in. It was near a road and far from any regular camp sites so felt pretty good about doing it. We ate, got our sleeping gear packed up in the tent and when it stopped raining we got out and got the tent down and packed up and off we went.
It rained off and on all morning, and at about 3 miles we got to a road with a trash can and a bathroom! Also there was a guy in the parking lot giving out trail magic donuts! Thank goodness there was a bathroom or there would have been no donut for me!
We were socked in the clouds and moving on we walked through a field filled with cow patties, lots of them. at the end of the field we went into some woods and ran into a herd of cows who slowly moved off the trail for us.
It was seven miles to the first shelter we planned on stopping at for a snack, before reaching it we saw ponies! They were standoffish but one had a colt with her and another mare looked pregnant.
It would then be 5 easy miles to the Wise shelter which we were pushing hard to reach early so we could get a spot in it as the weather was to be rain all night with 30mpg gusts. Unfortunately it was harder walking and took a lot longer, it looks like your in Scotland, the terrain.
There was a small Crack in the rocks we had to squeeze through, called Fat Man Squeeze.
We had to cross two fences before were were officially in the Grayson Highlands state park so the ponies we saw must have escaped! Unfortunately we didnt see any more ponies close up.
Stayed in Wise shelter
Hiking time 6.5hr
Pass plus/minus - 0
Critter Rescue - 4
So the day started early because it was super windy and raining overnight and I had been up from about 3:30 am so we got up around 5:45.
We had to sleep with our food as there were no decent size trees to hang it in. It was near a road and far from any regular camp sites so felt pretty good about doing it. We ate, got our sleeping gear packed up in the tent and when it stopped raining we got out and got the tent down and packed up and off we went.
It rained off and on all morning, and at about 3 miles we got to a road with a trash can and a bathroom! Also there was a guy in the parking lot giving out trail magic donuts! Thank goodness there was a bathroom or there would have been no donut for me!
We were socked in the clouds and moving on we walked through a field filled with cow patties, lots of them. at the end of the field we went into some woods and ran into a herd of cows who slowly moved off the trail for us.
It was seven miles to the first shelter we planned on stopping at for a snack, before reaching it we saw ponies! They were standoffish but one had a colt with her and another mare looked pregnant.
It would then be 5 easy miles to the Wise shelter which we were pushing hard to reach early so we could get a spot in it as the weather was to be rain all night with 30mpg gusts. Unfortunately it was harder walking and took a lot longer, it looks like your in Scotland, the terrain.
We had to cross two fences before were were officially in the Grayson Highlands state park so the ponies we saw must have escaped! Unfortunately we didnt see any more ponies close up.
We saw many hikers but all going southbound and talking with some we were concerned there would be section hikers not going far or just going to the Wise shelter cause it's in the park to see ponies. We also saw a couple women that stayed at the same inn as us in Damascus and they were southbound as well and they told us the shelter was a mile away and when they went by there was no one setting up to stay, yeah!
We watered up before shelter and arrived to find a few people packing up to head out, we were the only ones at that point planning to stay! We made such good miles yesterday we decided to just do 12 miles today and stay dry tonight. It was forecasted to pour all night with high winds. We spent the afternoon drying our gear and enjoying eating our hot meal at a picnic table.
Later on two groups did show up and ended up 7 of us in the shelter. The first 2 showed up and got settled in around 5pm and we started to wonder if the weatherman was going to be wrong again and it would stay dry tonight. But by 7pm it started to rain and we just decided to go to sleep.
We watered up before shelter and arrived to find a few people packing up to head out, we were the only ones at that point planning to stay! We made such good miles yesterday we decided to just do 12 miles today and stay dry tonight. It was forecasted to pour all night with high winds. We spent the afternoon drying our gear and enjoying eating our hot meal at a picnic table.
Later on two groups did show up and ended up 7 of us in the shelter. The first 2 showed up and got settled in around 5pm and we started to wonder if the weatherman was going to be wrong again and it would stay dry tonight. But by 7pm it started to rain and we just decided to go to sleep.
Another group of 3 showed up in the downpour, they were soaked. We shuffled over to make space and we all watched it pour outside.
Comments
Post a Comment