I had
gone back and forth on what to pack and chose my summer weight sleeping bags
since the lows were supposed to be in 60s…. but it was much colder and neither
of us slept wonderfully. We did sleep in. My bear bag survived any bears,
but not a mouse, it got into the bag and chewed through half our breakfast choices. I
had over packed food (after the kayak trip a couple of weeks ago) so no worries,
we dried out the dew soaked tent and sleeping bags and started back on the AT.
The first
part of the day promised 2.5 miles of steady climbing to reach the
grass covered Stone Mountain at promising vistas, but we crossed a horse
trail that cut about a mile off and followed a ridge. I was glad we did, we ran
into a herd of free range cattle and quickly made the landmark called, “The
Scales”, an old corral and stopped for a long snack and chatting up other
hikers.
It was
here we decided once again to change our plan and hike another horse trail
called the Crestview Trail, we were told Pine Mountain Trail was mainly tree
covered and the Crestview Trail, while rockier and exposed had wide open
vistas. It seemed an easy choice and in the end the right one, with in a
quarter mile we saw our first Rhododendron ponies. The Rhododendron ponies
are feral ponies that roam freely. This group was just hanging out and rolling
in the dirt.
