Virginia Highlands and Ponies

[Opi]

Wasn't sure I'd do this trip report (I'm slow at this kind of stuff) but here you go.
I should warn you... there are a lot of cute pictures of ponies. And I will let the photos do most of the talking.

June 7th thru the 12th 2015
I Took my wife Cindy, my youngest boy Theo and daughter Annika on a little family backpacking trip down in Virginia.
We drove to Damascus VA parked at the Mt Rogers Outfitter's and took a shuttle to the Mount Rogers National Rec area Headquarters. From there we had about 64 miles of hiking on the AT back to our car.
It was a 5 day adventure through some pretty awesome mountains. Take a look.
Day 1 - 10.5m - Partnership shelter to Trimpi shelter area
All clean and fresh ready to go

The first day was our first good taste of the "Green Tunnel". And it was warm in the lower elevations.


Camp at Trimpi shelter


Day 2 - 16m - Trimpi shelter to Old Orchard shelter area
More Green Tunnel with pretty flowers

The first 2 days were all about the trail. Great days to really get your legs on. Not much for scenery

Almost felt like I was in a rain forest

Camp night 2. You can see the shelter in the distance. There was this 500 lb guy laying in it. Not sure how he got there but he stunk! It rained that night for maybe an hour and we had dinner with the fellow. Thankfully the rain stopped!


Day 3 - 15m Old Orchard shelter to Wilburn Ridge



Finally... we made it! near top of the Highlands.
First view of the area called the Scales

And we have Ponies!





And some cattle



Very hazy the next few days. Cooler up in the higher elevations too!


Kids are pointing to where we need to go

Serious


My Southern accent


Earlier afternoon we made the decision to hike an extra 5 miles to....


And ice cream and grape pop

At Grayson Highlands State park

We're off to Wilburn ridge. I guess we might see more Ponies!




There it is. And this is what we did the next few hours.....


Made it

View attachment 31560




She's in heaven
View attachment 31596



View attachment 31601

Don't pet the horses!
View attachment 31603


But they don't say anything thing about hugs!

View attachment 31618
View attachment 31581


View attachment 31676 View attachment 31677

View attachment 31683 View attachment 31684

Small tunnel/cave thing you go through. sorry about all the blurry pictures
View attachment 31687

View attachment 31679
View attachment 31696



Don't feed the horses!




Rhododendron Gap here we are!

No horses allowed on the Appalachian Trail?







Starting to get late





Camp night 3


She's pretty worn out for just hiking 15 miles?


This little fellow was so cute!





Again don't feed the ponies!


Here comes mom


Water sources were abundant
Next morning we slept in and played around for a while. Broke camp about 1 in the afternoon.
Here's a little taste of what we saw.




360 views from up here


Mount Rogers (highest mountain in VA at 5,729'


Camp was somewhere down there




Day 4 - 15m - Wilburn Ridge to Lost Mountain shelter area
and were off to climb Mount Rogers an extra 1 mile round trip..... got a do it!



Selfie from top of Mt Rogers


View from top of Mount Rogers..... There is none but we new that


Looking back at Wilburn Ridge


Evil ponies too!


If you haven't noticed its hard for our kids to not make a goofy faces.... every dam picture!


Coming up on Elk Garden area. No Elk


Just cows!

We were talking about how good a steak would be right about now




Heading down to Elk Park Trail Head


Toilet brake


Up on White Top Mountain


Nice flowing spring here.
Decided to play a trick on my daughter......

She didn't figure out until I showed her the picture

Top of Buzzard Rock


Looking back up White Top Mountain


Heading Down to Damascus


Trail connects for awhile with the Virginia Creeper Bike Trail


Arrived at camp day 4 about 9pm. Not much for photos after that. Pretty much green tunnel the rest of the way.
Day 5 -15m Lost Mountain shelter to Damascus


The exit from the trail.

We Made It!

All in all pretty awesome adventure. Next time I would try to skip the green tunnel parts and head right for the Highlands. It is part of the AT experience though so its still pretty cool!

Up next - 9 day solo in the Weminuche Wilderness Molas pass to Wolf Creek

Featured image for home page:

 

[Nick]

Ponies and tons of wildflowers. Awesome!

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Great report @Opi. I've been trying to get down to VA this year but got rained out both weekends. The Grayson Highlands and Rhododendron Gap look amazing. I won't be heading as far south though, planning on doing McAfee Knob, Spy Rock and southern Shenandoah. Those ponies are sondamn cute.

 

[mak1277]

Yeah, it ain't Utah, but Virginia is pretty OK.

 

[WasatchWill]

Those are some nice looking shelters. Nice looking ponies too! Saucony is one of my favorite brands of footwear too!

 

[Opi]

Thanks guys. I need to clean up the photo thing but I'll get the hang of it.

@Vegan.Hiker - That's not my last trip to Virginia either. I can see taking many trips out east in my future. I was thinking Shenandoah fall of 2016.

@WasatchWill - Tents are a Light Heart Gear Solong 6 and Tarptent Rainshadow 2 - if you were wondering

 

[scatman]

The ponies seem pretty tame?

 

[Opi]

@scatman in the 1960's the ponies were released into the area to keep the mountain balds from growing over. The ponies can handle the harsh environment. The ponies are totally wild but they do keep control of the population and watch out for diseases. They can bite and break skin! So look out there!
Not supposed to feed or pet the ponies but many hikers bring apples and veggies for them. We did not. Just feed them the grass they were eating.
They've also been known to chew on trekking pole grips and other salty gear.

 

[Nurrgle]

Sweet, I haven't spent any time in VA. Looks humid and pretty.

 

[DrNed]

That's interesting about the ponies ... Are they known for coming into camp to pilfer food?

 

[redcrowarts]

The ponies didn't bother our things but enjoyed eating the grass at 2am right under my hammock.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Opi]

The ponies didn't mess with our stuff. Probably because we didn't bring any apples for them.
But yes there are stories of gear and food being munched on.

However some coyotes came in howling and barking near our camp that evening while we were sleeping up on Wilburn Ridge and must have scared the ba geebers out of the ponies. Because once the coyote got real close I could hear a bunch of ponies start neighing and snorting and then it sounded like a stampede of ponies running past our tent. Then all was quite again as the coyotes howls got further away.