4/18 OMG Ponies!

21.2 miles hiked today, 508.7 miles N
Troutdale Baptist Church AT Hostel

Last nights worries were ill placed. Despite the banging of the roof I slept great. Bowser saw ponies by the Thomas Knob water source last night but I was too tired to look. I was pleased to find they were still there this morning. The Forest Service puts them up there to keep the grass down. They were soo cute. I took a whole bunch of photos of them. They even would eat right out of my hand. So cool! There were about 6 ponies. After that it was a overcast but very beautiful hike in the highlands. The ground was generally rolling and grassy with small rocks all over and large rocky spikes sticking up every so often. It is hard to describe but imagine a mountain range which has been buried to within 100 feet of it's tops and that is roughly what it looked like. The plant life was largely grass but there was occassionaly trees and scruby brush that added character. This gave a view that it has been written reminds people of Montana. The tempatures dropped below freezing last night and that made for fast progress in the morning as the snow was hard enough to walk on. I ran into another herd of ponies, about 15, that were feeding along the trail and horseing along. Again I spent a lot of time playing woth these and taking pics. Around noon I entered the trees for most of the rest of the day with only occasional balds giving views. Since I needed to make it to Troutdale before 6PM this was a good thing to keep me on schedual. The weather warmed to a comfy 60 and the snow started to melt. The creeks along the way were all running high on the last bits of snow and that made for more wet trail. In the end I made it on time. In Troutdale I got a shower at the hostel and had dinner at Jerry's, the site of the old Troutdale Trading Post which I was looking for. Jerry turned out to be real nice and very interested in helping out hikers. He let me use his computer and I helped him find a supplier for some the more sought after hiker supplies. Back the hostel I just discovered they have heat. Yeah!