Parents visit III, back to the ponylands

Sunday morning we had the usual for our continental breakfast: OJ, coffee, waffle, donuts, fruit cup, and then headed back to the trail, passing by a dozen little rural churches with filled up parking lots.

All three of us trudged up the service road to return to the Appalachian Trail at Massie Gap. We found the ponies immediately.

[My stepdad and rockstar pony, Grayson Highlands, May 2.]

[This baby pony was sleeping and couldn't be bothered.]

It was another 10-mile day for Mom and I in the highlands, making it a 20-mile section for her. That's no small feat for someone without much distance-hiking background. Although she did admit that hiking was more demanding than she'd expected.

At the end we started noticing messages written in the mud. One included my stepdad's initials: Had he hiked in and scratched them into the trail? One further down said "7 min 2 go". The message proved accurate, and indeed it was he who had left them. That night it was Chinese buffett for dinner and another night sleeping like a rock.

The day also saw me pass the 500-miles-from-Springer point. That means I'm 1/2-way done with the souther half of the AT, and 3/4 of the way done with my AT hike!

Onto middle Virginia, then Trail Days.