May 24

2 months

Had a great breakfast at the house, and got back on the trail around 11am.  Two months ago today, I was walking up the approach trail, back in Georgia!  Incredible.  Feels like it's going by fast.  But I know I still have a long way to go.  I passed the Keffer Oak early into the hike this morning.  It's this huge tree, that's over 300 years old.  Pretty cool.  After a few miles, I passed the trail to Sarver Hollow shelter, where I thought I was going to be 2 nights ago, haha!  Had some nice ridge walking this afternoon.  I passed a sign on the trail that signified the Eastern Continental Divide.  At that spot, anything flowing off the mountain to the west would end up in the Gulf of Mexico, and anything off the east side would end up in the Atlantic.  Thinking about that kind of stuff out here is so cool, but it makes you feel so small and insignificant.  Late in the afternoon, I made it up to the top of Brush Mountain.  Saw Hopper and Bismark there, who were planning to stop to camp.  I kept going and soon made it to the Audie Murphy monument.  A flag pole and a plaque honored the most decorated American soldier of WW2.  It was nice to pause there for a while to get patriotic and pay respects.  I made it to Pickle Branch shelter, which was 0.3m off the trail, at dark.  There was someone already in the shelter about to go to sleep.  The shelter was pretty crappy, and the weather was nice, so I set up my tent instead.  20 mile day, not bad.

Keffer Oak