The morning began with a bit of pessimism… my feet still blistered and sore, and Bear Bell’s hips hurting from the water carry the day before. We toyed with the idea of doing an on trail nero (near zero miles) day.
We descended to War Spur shelter, and decided to at least continue to the next shelter, which included a pretty significant sustained climb with no switchbacks… and it was hot and humid again. We did go to check out Kelly Knob, which was supposed to be a view, but it really wasn’t.
We reached the Laurel Creek shelter and had a good break, ate lunch, refilled water, and decided to push on for a bit more. I was able to get some Neosporin from our thru-hiker friend Starbucks last night, and I think it might have a bit of a topical anesthesia, because the pain in my pinky toes was not nearly as bad today. The feet were still quite tired though.
The rest of the day consisted of a walk through some pastures, and we passed the biggest oak tree on the southern part of the Appalachian Trail. After that was a steep… very steep climb, which we carried a lot of water since we decided we’d camp out on the ridge before we’d reach Sarver Hollow shelter, which is supposed to be about .4 miles off trail anyway.
We’ve come to the conclusion that Daleville won’t happen until Friday… we just don’t want to push our bodies that hard to get there any earlier. Since we have some service up on the ridge tonight, we called and made a hotel reservation for the weekend. We’re very much looking forward to some new footwear and some rest. The next few days are all under 17 miles, so they shouldn’t hurt us too badly. Let’s just hope the rocky sections of trail start getting a bit less frequent.
