Date: 2019-04-12
From: Hot Springs

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 0.0

Restful night at Laughing Heart. Our room has three twin beds and UNICEF is on the floor. I grab a shower and coffee and find Heather from Michigan bringing in trail magic in the form of watermelon, bananas, and oranges. She had also brought piles of pasta last night for those at the hostel. Her husband thruhiked in 2015 and received so much assistance she wanted to give back. I meet a couple new faces - Fuego, a young bearded guy, and Trotter a tall sixty-something woman, who is amused by my boy scout "weather rock" forecasting method (if the rock is wet it's raining, if it's white it's snowing, if the rock is swaying it's windy, if it's gone it's a tornado). Wild Card hikes in from the trail, having stayed just a couple miles outside town last night. He's meeting family tomorrow and slowed down so as not to arrive too soon. I find a pair of knock-off Crocs to use as camp shoes in the hiker box. I've always just loosened my sneakers around camp, but wet shoes make for unhappy feet, so I'll give these a try. I wear them around town all day.The tramily has breakfast at the Smoky Mountain Diner with Scrub-a-Dub, Go-Gurt, Crazy Korean, and Heartbreaker. Most of the hikers I've seen in the last week are here too. A couple dozen packs are sitting outside from new arrivals. The huge skillet breakfast is popular, but I go with an overstuffed ham omelet and biscuit with brown gravy, both of which are good. Avoid the grits.Over to Bluff Mountain Outfitter and Natural Foods for some resupply. Then back across town to check out of the hostel. Clammy, UNICEF, and Fast Lane are making noises about hiking a couple of miles out today, or maybe further. They don't feel like they need the zero day after all. But I've already mentally committed to not hiking today and reserved at Elmer's Sunnybank Inn tonight, so I carry my stuff over there, walking with Heartbreaker.Heartbreaker is a young woman who started a thruhike but decided it wasn't for her and to just hike the parts she likes, hang out, and earn some money along the way. She's headed to Erwin with Crazy Korean. She feels guilty about not hiking every mile, but thruhiking isn't everyone's thing. There are lots of ways to enjoy the trail. Benton MacKaye, who envisioned the AT, never even considered the possibility of someone thruhiking it.Scott aka Clipper (AT '18) checks me in to Elmer's Sunnybank Inn. It's a rambling Victorian and the oldest house in town, from 1840, with an historical marker out front (though no sign). I'm in room 4 where Earl Shaffer stayed during the first known thruhike in 1948, and again on his third thruhike in 1998. I'm sharing with Tin Can, who's also meeting family tomorrow. The house is huge and full of antiques and books. A parlor is used as a music room with an 1892 piano, banjo, and guitars for anyone with the chops to play. Elmer prefers you not use it for practice. Elmer is 82 and has been a minister, Duke University instructor, hiker, Buddhist, probable hippy, and chef among other things. He offers a renowned vegetarian dinner and breakfast. I successfully recruit Tin Can, Pukey, and Energizer Turtle to meet the minimum for dinner. Also here tonight are Pindrop, Bubbles, Tiny, Bash, and Kiwi.Looking for my friends I stop by Scrub-a-Dub's room at the motel. He says they did indeed hike out of town, probably about ten miles. No problem, I can do a big day tomorrow and catch them.Exploring the small downtown I visit Hiker Ministries Resource Center, open in thruhiker season for coffee, recharging, bathrooms, and conversation. A young mom named Ciara (like Sierra) and her adorable baby Ruby have cooked up a stir fry for two hikers - a girl named Two Blades and a South Korean who goes by Master Key. He started 8 days after me after thruhiking the 1000+ mile Florida Trail in 40 days in February-March. He's also done the PCT and CDT and remembers Clammy.Hikers are hanging out around the town's Welcome Center to take advantage of their Wifi. Food Truck, Wild Card and others pass through. Inside I get steeped in local history. How Warm Springs became Hot Springs when they found a hotter spring, the two centuries as a famous spa and hotel in various incarnations, logging history, the old turnpike through the mountains that allowed Tennessee drovers to drive pigs down to Asheville, and the hotel's use as an internment camp for ethnic Germans during the Great War.Lots of hikers are hanging out at the Tavern and I join them for a pre-dinner drink - Rick Flair, El Dorado, Chandler, Pukey, Caboose, Double Stuft, Crazy Korean, and Heartbreaker. Many just arrived and are staying above the bar.Dinner at Elmer's is delicious and satisfying: soup, feta salad, tempeh lasagna, pie, all fantastic. Elmer always poses a question to his diners, in addition to your name, hometown, what you did before and will do after the trail. Ours is which instrument would best represent you? Searching for something unique, I settle on the piano, an instrument I've always wanted to become proficient with which is versatile and brings enjoyment in any setting. More of an aspiration than a reflection, to be sure.It's a zero day so a little evening entertainment is called for. Back to the Tavern for a live bluegrass/mountain band, then next door to play pool with the locals. I'm still in bed before 11. Tomorrow is a hiking day.