Mt. Rogers VA and ponies, ponies, ponies

[Ed'n Lauky]

It was time for a little more high pointing so this time we decided to do Mt. Rogers the Virginia State high point. Mt Rogers is the highest point east of South Dakota that doesn’t have a road to the top. It is roughly the height of Mt. Jefferson. First thing in the morning my wife drops us off at Grayson State Park and Lauky and I get ready to take off.

I had heard that wild ponies had been introduced to the ridge area to keep the vegetation down. I was hoping to see some. Barely 20 minutes into the hike we saw our first pony.

We took the AT spur up to the ridge to connect with the AT trail. The views from the ridge were magnificent.

As I said I was hoping to see some ponies. Did we ever. All told we probably encountered between thirty and forty ponies. Some from a distance and some right on the trail. They weren’t aggressive, but one mama made it clear that Lauky was not to get too near to her youngster.

We passed through numerous gates which would permit hiker passage but keep the ponies from passing through.

Shortly before reaching the spur trail to Mt. Rogers we passed by a shelter that was located right on the trail.

Off in the distance we could see Mt. Rogers. Is that it??? What a difference a bit of latitude makes. It could hardly compare to Mt. Jefferson. It was in fact a bit of a let down, but the hike up to it was well worth it.

We took the half mile spur to the summit. The views disappeared and we passed through a tunnel of trees. On the way in we passed a fellow from Alabama. He looked at Lauky and drawled “Man your dog is beautiful, he should be on TV.

The climb to the summit was very easily done. Lauky posed for a picture then we headed back.

On the way back it was getting toward mid-day and the ponies settled down to rest

On the way back we also encountered a couple of groups on horseback

We arrived back a little after noon. My wife met us there and we had a picnic. We then packed up and drove a couple of hours to Kentucky to the high point at Black Mountain. The last part of the road was bad but we made it and ran into some more high pointers up there. They took our picture then we headed back to our motel in Marion VA. All in all a great day.

Total miles 9 (5 up, 4 down--took a different trail down)
Total elevation gain excluding PUDS 1700'

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[Puma concolor]

Nice report and pics. Mount Rogers is a fun hike and the ponies are cool to see. Very strange to hike up into the trees after being in the open for most of the hike.

 

[gaiagirl]

You had me at ponies!!!! Second only to dogs in my book ..... Fantastic pictures and nice description of a wonderful adventure. Thanks for sharing!

 

[peakbagger]

Even though the ponies are not supposed to be fed, many tourists break the rules as the open areas where they graze are accessed by a state park road, so the ponies tend to hang around in case something falls out of a pack. The ponies are not truly wild, they are managed to maintain a stable population.

A general note is the area of the AT north of Damascus up to Mt Rogers and out to Atkins Va is one of the nicer parts of southern Virginia. In addition to the AT, there is the Virginia Creeper trail which is a very long rail trail through some very rugged territory. There is a also a patch of the North Country just south of Mt Rogers, to us its just a spruce fir forest we hike through most weekends but it is one of the farthest south occurences of this type of terrain. The local ramps are also a somewhat pungent but tasty wild plant prevalent in the area. The trail town of Damascus is just south of this area and shuttles are availlable whihc makes it a nice place to do a section of the AT.

 

[TrailwrightBratt]

Nice report thanks for sharing.
Peg and I have been there twice. Once in the rain/snow and was still enjoyable and the other perfect weather.
Yes the summit was a little disapointing but the hike is beautiful until the spur where you enter the Forest.
You have whet our appetite to hike from the park next time. We did it from the Konnarock side on the AT. Easy hiking but NO ponies either time. Plenty of signs of them.
How did Lauky react to the ponies?

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

Thanks for all your comments. The ponies were definitely the highlight of the hike, however, however, had there been no ponies the views all along the open ridge would have been the highlight. The ponies are definitely cared for but may be listed as wild in the sense that they have never been trained or ridden. They are not aggressive but I wouldn't get too close to a young-un with the mama near by.

How did Lauky react to the ponies?

Lauky was on very good behavior. He watched,alert with the tail erect, but he never barked or tried to go after them. He seemed to be as fascinated as I was by them.

 

[Snowflea]

I remember during my thru-hike being woken up by the ponies sticking their heads into the shelter... Also eating M&Ms while walking down the trail later on that day and being followed by ponies, who would intermittently block the path in attempts to score M&Ms. Since I was a starving thru-hiker, I wasn't sharing.

Thanks for the memories!