Weird night. Woke up in the middle of the night to the weird section hiker screaming at someone: "are you a thru hiker? ARE YOU A THRU HIKER?" and an unknown hiker saying "yeah I'm a thru hiker but you need to lower your voice...you're raising my blood pressure and that's one of the reasons I came out here to begin with". I'm not sure what was going on but it was really strange.
Got up in the middle of the night to pee and the two section hikers were sitting at the picnic table, smoking cigarettes and drinking tea. So strange.
It is really incredibly pretty here at Grayson Highlands, even with overcast skies. The ponies are cute and unafraid. The terrain is varied but pretty easy.
Went through "Fat Man's Squeeze" - one of the Boy Scouts told us about it last night. OWL said - do you think I'll make it through fat man squeeze ok? And the kid thought *real* hard and finally said, "you'll *probably* make it but there's a trail around it if you can't". Well, you would have had to be a giant fat man to not make it through! It was pretty neat to walk through the rock to the other side.
Speaking of Boy Scouts, we were walking and heard someone singing a song. There were 3 kids up on a rock, singing a song that went something like "chicken in a biscuit, chicken in a biscuit, dipped in mashed potatoes....poTATOES!". Sounds pretty good....
We stopped at Wise Shelter for lunch - mile marker 500.0! In anticipation of the event I downloaded the proclaimers song, and much to the amusement (or dismay) of the section hikers eating at the picnic table, I played the song and OWL & I did a fancy dance in the shelter. (Before you ask: no video exists of this dance).
Started to rain a bit when we got to the corral. There were longhorn cattle with calves in the next section we walked through. Be careful, M80/Trooper/Willow!
Got to the shelter - Torch, Rango, and All The Way are here in the shelter. All The Way has a stick named "Stick With It". Hammer, Mallet, and Half and Half are here too, hammocking. Supposedly there is trail magic (cheeseburgers and beer) a few miles up, but it is supposed to rain for the next few days and I would rather be here, warm and dry for the night, than risk not having a spot at the next shelter
When I went to get water I talked with two of the ladies from the section hiking group; Blue Blaze & Fran the Snake. They are section hiking as part of a group, The Virginia Creepers. They started at springer seven years ago and pick up every year where they left off the year before. Pretty neat - I admire the hikers who are doing this a section at a time. It is a big commitment to thru hike - but now I am definitely a creature of the trail. I think it would be even harder to come out year after year after year, starting over with fitness and feet, and hike a section at a time.
After dinner we heard someone yelling, "Trail Magic coming your way!!" - one of the Virginia Creepers came up to the shelter with a few pieces from a giant WARM chocolate chip cookie! It was so delicious! The fact that it was warm was so completely unexpected - I'd say it's the best trail magic yet. Bill carries a backpacking oven that runs off a canister stove - and he cooks something nice for dessert every night.
exciting to see my trail name (Rango) somewhere!
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