Saturday April 27

Left shelter at 845ish..the boy scouts that tented here last night  are very polite and inquisitive. BSA TROOP 3 from Goldsboro, NC. They were telling us about all the cool stuff ahead on the trail as they hiked in from the north. One boy felt fairly sure that I would fit through  "fat man squeeze" and not have to go around...he did think about it before he answered...
Through Grayson highlands park today: more"ponies" (really just short legged horses that were used in the mines, saved from the glue factory by the workers after the advent of machinery to pull the carts up and out...)
More boy scouts, too. These were standing atop a rocky out crop singing a funny song full blast: "chicken in a biscuit dipped in mashed po-TA-toes".
Lunch at wise shelter..here, zag and I celebrated (with song and dance) walking 500 miles! "I would walk 500 miles" by the proclaimers...
Long horn cattle to walk through/around after scales Corral. Got to old orchard shelter(505.9) at 330. We leapfrogged with A group of older section hikers from Virginia (the Virginia creepers) all day and they are tenting here tonight. They brought us leftover fresh baked chocolate chip cookie after dinner..yum.
The nice boy scouts were here when I arrived. I let that one know that I made it through fat man squeeze with NO problem.
In the shelter tonight are AllTheWay (he's the guy that bought the custard and a did laundry together at Damascus), rango & torch (brothers from Rhode island...they don't know big Yank, but do know about that beer that he carried). Hammer , mallet & others are tenting. Supposed to rain tonight and all day tomorrow. To trimpi shelter tomorrow.
pics: zag & I with the ponies; an interesting piece of wood I found; long horn on the trail;