Sprout Day 203 (Sunday, October 16, 2016)

We hiked 19 miles today and we're staying at the campground near the Hurricane Mountain Shelter. It was a great day for us. We feel fine and are happy about that since we’ve been pushing big miles. We plan on getting up and trying to get on trail around 5:30 tomorrow and going another 19 to 20 mile day.

It's been great getting bigger miles and feeling good. Our feet hurt but that's to be expected and other than that everything else is fine. The colors have been changing as each day goes by and today especially we noticed the changing colors of the leaves, it's beautiful. There was a lot of different reds and yellows all day today.

Tomorrow is a big day for us as we will enter Grayson Highlands State Park. This park is an iconic part of the trail. Last year when we were researching the AT I remember coming across this state park and how excited we were. There's wild mini ponies that we will be waking past and word has it they are used to hikers and usually come right up to you.

We are 44.2 miles from Damascus! It's crazy were almost done with Virginia!

Day: 203
Miles hiked: 19
Total Miles hiked on the trail: 1681.3
Baby Bear: 1
Bald Eagle: 1
Bluegill: 2
Butterflies: 8
Chipmunks: 3

Cows: 24
Crawfish: 1
Deer: 20
Donkeys: 2
Grouse: 1
Horses: 15
Hummingbird: 1
Inchworm: 1
Really Big Dog: 1
Mice: 2
Moose: 2
Nest of bugs: 2
Newts: 2
Owl: 1
Rabbit: 1
Red Squirrel: 1
Skunk: 1
Snail: 1
Snake: 3
Squirrels: 12
Toads: 3
Trout: 2
Turkeys: 4
Turtles: 107
Vultures: 6
Woodpecker: 1