Day: 046
Date: Friday, 09 June 2023
Start: Keffer Oak (AT Mile 678.9)
Finish: Cove Mt (AT Mile 699.5)
Daily Kilometres: 34.3 (Ascent 4544', Descent 4354')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 1178.7
Weather: Cool early then mostly sunny and warm.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Hot dogs & cookies
Dinner: Noodles and chicken
Aches: Dave - some niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: We descended to Upper Craigs Road around noon, planning to have a break and collect water there, to find a guy, Alan, all set up to provide food and drink to thru-hikers. We joined the two hikers already there, including "Grits" who we had met back in the Smoky Mts, and enjoyed conversation and a couple of hot dogs each, along with some cookies and lots of ice-cold lemon cordial. It was a very welcome treat. Trail Magic!
Lowlight: None really
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
From the moment we started hiking we were climbing and finally reached a long ridge that we followed to Bruisers Knob (3420') and a series of rock ledges with great views where we stopped for our breakfast break.
Continuing along the ridge where it had broadened a little and was tree-covered, there were a series of rock mounds/cairns, obviously human-made but apparently origin and purpose unknown. Maybe rock clearing by an early farmer, though seems unlikely on the top of a ridge.
This ridge also marked the Eastern Continental Divide in the US with all water to our left flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and all to our right into the Atlantic.
Much of the ridge was rocky or sloping rock slabs which made progress slow but there were frequently good views. Eventually, the trail descended to a road crossing where we planned to have a lunch break and found "trail magic" was being offered, which we gratefully accepted (see above).
Most of the afternoon involved transitting another long ridge, Brushy Mt, with a sweaty climb, a long flattish walk along the top and then another long descent. A point of interest along the ridge was a memorial to the America WW2 hero, Audie Murphy, who died in a plane crash nearby. It was decorated with lots of military memorabilia and US flags.
After the descent from Brushy Mt, we crossed Trout Creek meeting Jason, who apparently spends a lot of time there offering cold beers to hikers (in return for a chat). We declined the beers, but did have a chat while we took our break and collected water. Nice guy (an Air Force retiree), but we fear he needs more in his life than spending his days drinking beers with thru-hikers. While there, he did get a few more hikers come through who happily stopped for a beer.
From there we hiked another few miles up onto another long ridge in beautiful late afternoon sunshine and found a nice campsite where we stopped at 6:00pm, an early night for us, but we were unsure of what other sites there might be on the ridge, if any.
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