Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 45, Saturday, 4/30 – I hiked through the Grayson Highlands today with Genie, Splitzy, and Birthday Sandwich. It’s beautiful landscape here, and there were a lot more ponies. It really is neat to see the ponies. They graze along all day and will come right up to hikers.

I’m surprised the Grayson Highlands isn’t a more popular tourist destination. There are so many children obsessed with ponies that I would have thought families would have jumped at the opportunity to see them in a natural habitat. Maybe people don’t know that this place exists.

It was slow hiking today, there were many great excuses to stop, take pictures, and enjoy the day. Here we are stopped for lunch and refilling water.

We hiked with Dillan after lunch today. I met Dillan before Damascus, and thought I wouldn’t see him again because he typically hikes big mile days. Turns out he got Giardia and had to take 3 zeros in Damascus. Then I ran into him again yesterday and we hiked for a bit together before trail magic. Again, I thought I wouldn’t see him again. He got a slow start to the day, so caught up with us after lunch. It’s funny how the AT works. You can keep running into people you never think you’ll see again.

The original plan was to hike a 16 mile day, but we decided to continue hiking. Mom, Dad, and Martin are meeting up with me at Dickey Gap, so it made sense to push to the meeting place. I experienced more sadness towards the end of my hike today, same reason as before.

I hiked 21 miles to Dickey Gap Campsite (mile 520), and am camping with Genie, Splitzy, Dillan, and Birthday Sandwich.