no idea if this is the right spot to post this.

last year i painted myself into a less than ideal corner in VA where for 12 or so miles between laurel creek and niday shelters the choices for water are a cow pasture and dropping nearly a mile off trail to scoop cap fulls of water at a time out of a little tiny pool at sarver hollow.

in retrospect all the information i needed to avoid this was staring me right in the face, but i just didn't make a big even enough mental note about it until it was too late i guess.

i'm hiking hot springs to damascus soon, can anyone think of any similar spots in that stretch one should be particularly careful about?