A pony pony
Mare with pony.
I stopped for a snack among the ponies with Drifter. We ate quickly, watching the clouds start to break up in the sky. The vistas were great. He packed up and started off. I stayed behind daydreaming. The wind had picked up a bit, still blowing some clouds along the ground, but overall the ceiling was lifting.
Done with my dreams, I donned pack and headed on, following the footsteps ahead of me. I could see Drifter heading into the treeline far off to my left. That was weird -- I'm way up on this ridge, heading for another big rock outcropping. How does the trail wrap around? I didn't see him on this path -- was I really that tuned out? Must have been, because I couldn't see a blaze anywhere near me!
Grayson has a bunch of trails crisscrossing its terrain; the A.T. but one of them. I was on some kind of blue blaze, a half mile from my Trail. So I backtracked, found the right colored blazes, noted where I last saw Drifter and plodding down the proper path. The trail will present lessons, such as don't just follow the boot prints -- look around because YOUR trail isn't just where other people have gone. It pays to look around now and again.