My sister and her friends Doris and Liz arrived in the early afternoon at St Marks hostel.  The rain was coming down pretty hard so we elected to stay there Thursday night and head out in the morning.  We had a great time drinking and hanging out with other hikers as they piled in during the course of the evening to escape the weather.  We met new friends Dancing Bear from Germany, Speedy G from Brazil, Pots from Wisconsin, as well as Doc, and Smiles.

We hit the trail Friday morning by eight and enjoy amazingly perfect weather all day.  The terrain was fairly gradual with the exception of a fairly steep 500 foot climb in the afternoon.  There was a little bonking after that climb before we completed 13 miles and finally found a perfect stealth camping spot.  We just barely squeezed four tents into an overlook and caught a really nice sunset before retiring at 830.  The only bad part about the spot is the caterpillars that keep dropping on us from the overhead trees.  Kinda gross.  

Tomorrow we will pound some ibuprofen, dial it back a little, and hike on.  Happy trails.