Dirk's Rambles

I woke up at 5:30 am (May 3rd) to the clopping of ponies' hooves. Very shortly after that I was able to make out in the dark a pony approaching the shelter. I announced to the shelter the ponies were there. Immediately , four people jumped to their feet with their cell phones to take pictures.

Eventually, six ponies showed up in short order. One was a colt not more than a couple of weeks old. Everyone was excited to see them. Selfies and other types of pictures were being taken. One ...

Got an early start this morning, hitting the trail at 7:30 am. Was only doing 12.4 miles today, one of my lesser days lately. Did well for the first hour and a half until I hit Whitetop Mountain. The trail was covered with rocks, both loose and protruding. Plus it was about 2,000 feet of "up." I had to go slow.

There were two trail magics today, my first since I've been back on the trail. One was at Whitetop Mountain. A couple who hiked last year had cookies, fruit, water, ...

Left Crazy Larry's Hostel this morning at about 8:25 am. My stay at his hostel was very good. He treated me and the other guests very well. He has a mixed reputation but I found him to be hard working and eager to make people happy. He cooked breakfast for us each of the two mornings that I stayed. morning I wasn't hungry at all and didn't eat lunch until 1 pm.

The hike today was 16 miles. There were a couple of relatively small mountains but nothing serious. We parelelled a bike ...