Today was one of those days that remind me why I came out here to hike all this way. It was chilly, but I saw the sunrise this morning!
From there, it was up and up to the Grayson Highlands-one of the gems of the Appalachian Trail. The high country surrounding Mt. Rodgers was once used as grazing land for early settlers and ha been maintained as open fields ever since. It is a quite magical place. 
The best part? To keep the area open like it used to be, the park service still has to graze it. To do this, they use wild ponies and longhorns.
The ponies are so used to people that you can even snag a few pets if you’re lucky.
The ponies are wonderful, but the best part of my day was getting to see my dad, Papa Blueberry, and my dog, Happy. Yes, he took his surprise day off from work to not only drive 7 hours round trip to hike with me, but also brought me my favorite BBQ from home!
By evening, I caught back up with the thru hiking crowd and we enjoyed an amazing sunset over open fields.