Favorite Places - #1 Grayson Highlands

We couldnt decide on a #1 favorite place that we walked through on the trail but it is definently between 2 places. The Grayson Highlands was an area near Mt. Rodgers which is the highest peak in Virginia. After you make that climb you descend slightly to the Highlands area. We stayed in a really nice shelter that night on our way to the highlands and had a beautiful view of the sunset. After that the area is comprised of about a 5 or 6 mile stretch through open grasslands at very high elevations (for the east coast) of over 5000 feet. We had beautiful views the entire time of the surrounding mountains. There were large rock outcroppings that we walked over/through along the way including "fat-man squeeze". ALong the edges of the grasslands there were spruce/fur trees that filled the air with an amazing fragrance. Perhaps one of the neatest aspects were the "wild" ponies that were released in order to maintain the grasslands. They were very friendly (most likely from being fed by hikers) and would even approached us as we made our way through that amazing area.

Picture of Ponies


The Shelter where we sletp in the Highlands - we were visited that night by some poines at about 3 am that came up in between the shelter and the picnic table


Some lovely rocks


Walking through "fatman squeeze", one of the rock formations


Family of wild ponies


Brian and his magical pony friend


Some more pretty mountains

Mt. Rodgers to Tilson Mill (Reed Creek)

It had been quite rainy during this time period, but we were very fortunate to have had nice weather on our way through the highlands (it rained the day before and the day after). On our way to Partnerhship Shelter we came across another giant rattlesnake in the trail - the woods weren't too dense so we were able to walk safely around it.

Partnership shelter is located right beside a ranger station which means a few things: a nice clean shelter, a normal toilet, a phone to order pizza from, and running water with showers (cold contrary to popular belief). Jess and I polished off a couple of pizzas and a large order of bread sticks then slept like babies after a fellow hiker played the banjo for us. Here is a picture of the shelter.

We made our way to Groseclose Virginia at Va. 683, U.S. 11 which is little more than a few truck stops and a old motel called the Relax Inn where we picked up a package and got back on the trail. This day ended up being a really interesting. A section hiking civil war re-enactor known as rebel had been shadowing us for a few days and we really wanted to lose him so we ended up hiking way faster and farther than we wanted to. He tried his hardest but in the end we distanced ourselves enough so that it was basically physically impossible for him to catch us (sorry rebel but you were not our style). We ended up hiking about a 24 mile day (which is a long day when you include our re-supply) to Reed Creek where we figured it would be easy to find a campsite.

The Tilson Mill at Reed Creek.
To our dismay the trail follows a narrow corridor through private land and cow pastures so there weren't many places to sleep. We were tired and getting desperate so we ended up knocking on a strangers door to ask if they had a place for us to pitch a tent. That's where we met one of the sweetest Virginians ever - Jonan Tilson. She was a widower and the owner of a farm. We asked if we could camp out and she told us that we were more than welcome, but she had a tobacco barn that we could sleep in if we found it more comfortable. We took her up on her offer and camped out in the barn, bathed in the creek and drank from the Tilson family spring. What a sweet ol gal.