Date: 2007-04-26
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

So the roosters started again around 5:50 a.m., so I got up, shut all thewindows and turned on the AC in our cottage to drown out the constant crowing! LOL Persistent and I headed out around 10:00 a.m. and oh my gosh, my pack was SOheavy due to having 6 1\2 days of food in it. Gadget and Scribe decided Scribebest see a doctor about her ankle. She'd been in a lot of pain for a long time.They were forecasting thunderstorms and rain today. The sky looked prettyominous. The trail goes over a bridge headed out of town, then it goes over theside railing and follows along side the French Broad River. It is reallybeautiful to hike next to a huge river like that.And then the trail turned left and started UP. Meanwhile, Persistent was reallynot feeling well. I always know it's really bad when she tells me to hike infront of her going uphill. LOLWe start up and shortly into it, she was really unhappy because she was feelingso bad trying to hike up these hills with her chest cold. I felt really bad forher, and I told her if she wasn't feeling well, we needed to just go back totown. She was pretty upset, but kept hiking on.We got to a pretty lookout about a mile out of town, and a nice hiker named Jakeshowed up. He was quiet, and although he never said, I had a feeling he'dthru-hiked before. We all stood there and watched 2 huge hawks floating andsurfing in the air, which was full of energy from the storms in the area.Persistent was still struggling, but again, she kept hiking on. The trail waspretty steep in places, and although I was going slow (as usual) I kept stoppingto make sure I saw Persistent coming up behind me.Finally, I stopped about 2 miles up and Persistent dragged in. Jake was thereas well. I asked Persistent how she was feeling, and she said horrible. Shesaid she felt like she was going to pass out coming up these hills. As we weretalking, it started sprinkling. I told her that she needed to listen to her gutand if it was telling her to go back to town and rest more, then that is what weneeded to do. Jake agreed as well, there's no sense in hiking out of town ill,especially when thunderstorms are in the forecast.Persistent finally admitted she felt like she should go back, so I said alright,that's what we'll do.So about 2 miles out of town, we turned around and headed back into Hot Springs. On the way down, we saw our biggest snake yet, at about 18 inches! It was allblack, and laying across the trail. I stopped the moment I saw it and got mycamera out. It slithered a bit down the hill (off the trail) and thenPersistent bent over to get a good pic and her extra memory card went flying outof her camera bag and landed right next to the snake! LOL Then I bent over toget a closer shot and my cell phone flew out of the baggie I had it in, and itlanded even further down the hil, next to the snake! Oh man, we were messes. The snake finally disappeared under the leaves, so we retreived our stuff andheaded down.As soon as we got back into Hot Springs, Persistent went to the outfitters andbought more medicine. We ran into Gadget and Scribe, and the verdict onScribe's ankle is tendonitis in her achilles, and a sprained ankle. We decided to go to the Alpine Court Motel, where there was a huge crowd ofhikers. One of them ran up to me, and she goes,"You're Certain right?" I saidyup. It was a woman named Sylvan. She said she'd been reading Persistent andmy journal, and was hoping she'd catch up. Well, she did! LOL She was reallynice and it was cool meeting her. In the group was another hammock hanger whosaid he's converted 5 to hanging in his group! I told him I just got eye rollsfrom my friends. LOL Scribe, Gadget Persistent and I went and got some lunch, and now Persistent andI are in our room, and she's getting some much needed rest. Apparently this weekend is TrailFest here in Hot Springs. We might end upstaying. I know tomorrow the rafting store here is asking hikers to volunteerto do a 3 hr free float trip down the river and help clean it up. I think Iwant to do that. It seems like a nice way to help out, and a cool way to seemore of this beautiful part of the country. We'll see. I tell everyone that safety and health take priority over all things out here. On our way back into town, Persistent told me she appreciated me being willingto come back with her. I told her it wasn't a deal, and that she needs tolisten to her body. The trail will be waiting for us when she's better.~Certain