We had a late start this morning, we didn't leave camp until 9:55. It's harder to get going on these milder mornings, no need to rush about to keep warm. The last two mornings have been nice and mild, it's so nice to have some warmer weather, let's hope it continues. Today must have been in the 70's again, unseasonably high though.
It was downhill a couple of miles through the woods to start then we hit some pastureland that had several fence styles to climb over. We past Keffer Oak, a 300 year old oak tree, the largest one on the southern AT, over 18' diameter. Nothing like the old Oak trees in Sherwood Forest though. After that it was a steep uphill onto a ridge line. The trail designers definitely didn't like to put in zigzags/switchbacks in this area. The ridge line was more interesting though than some we've been on recently with lots of rocks, one the shape of an elephant. We passed Bullwinkle and Nazcar again coming in the opposite direction. They told us they had left some coke cans in the stream next to their car and to help ourselves when we got there. We also passed a sign saying we were at the Eastern Continental Divide, Gulf of Mexico 1920 miles and Atlantic Ocean 405 miles.
The ridge line got really rocky/slabby at one point which we had to walk/climb over for quite a while with what would have been great view's. There was a controlled/prescribed burn taking place in the valley below so the smoke obscured the view. It got hot up on the ridge on the rock and in the sun and we ran out of water whilst on there. We had to walk two or three miles down from the ridge before we found a stream to get some more water. We'll have to remember to plan water supplies better in the hotter weather. Another couple of miles downhill and we reached Niday shelter, I saw a lizard camouflaged on a tree on the way down. We saw a few later on too, the sun was bringing them all out.
We continued a further two and a half miles past the shelter past Craig Creek road where we collected our coke cans kindly left by Bullwinkle and Nazcar. Just after the road junction in another stream at Craig Creek by a bridge we found a load more soda cans, someone had left some trail magic so we took a couple of Sprite cans for later at camp. We stealth camped for the night at the trail bottom of Brush Mountain next to a stream arriving about 6pm. A slow day today, my knees /legs are getting tired and don't want to walk fast anymore! We have a rest day planned in three days time in Daleville and will be more than ready for it, we've not had a zero day since Damascus, day 38.
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