The Grayson Highlands, north of Mt. Rogers, may be the prettiest spot on the east coast. The first 4-5 miles of today’s walk were incredible, strolling amongst ponies in a landscape closely resembling the grasslands of Montana. Please check the photos of this place, then come visit! Wow!

I’m still feeling real strong with no injuries to report, so had no problem walking from 7am to 6+ pm today. Burning Boots and J-Bird have to pick up their dog in 6 days, so took off early this morning to attempt a number of 20+ mile days. When Green One & Rockhound decided to camp after about 18 miles, I pressed on today. Since I was unable to find any established tent sites, I’m camped 50 ft. from the highway within a quarter-mile of the gap. It’s my first night camping alone after 40 days on the trail and I’d rather not be listening to traffic out here. Distance from roads equates to safety. Regardless, I’m looking forward to a good nights sleep and hopeful for an easy hitch into Troutdale in the morning to get our mail drop.

One other notable spot today was a natural rock tunnel just south of Grayson highlands call “Fat Man Squeeze.” Rockhound cracked us all up last night by renaming it “Fat Man – Go Around!”

The evening birdcalls and barred owl calls were heard at midday today but are silent now. They must need to reset their clocks! The first whip-poor-will call I’ve ever heard just came floating through the gathering darkness at 8:30pm. Very cool!

[Writing at about 8am the next morning while waiting for Green One]
OK—the whip-poor-will got really annoying. All night? Maybe it called only while I was awake? There were some beautiful wood thrush calls first thing in the morning, however…