Date: 2014-04-25
From: Walnut Mountain Shelter

To: Hot Springs N.C.
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: light rain

We pushed pretty hard yesterday because they were calling for a 60% chance of rain today. I told myself last night that if I woke up early and it was not raining I would take off early. It was raining a little bit before daylight so I packed everything that I could inside my tent. The rain stopped so I took down my tent and took off for Hot Springs before 7:00. I prefer hiking by myself early in the morning, I can let my body loosen up and I enjoy listening to the birds in the woods. As you go up and down the different mountains in the AT the scenery changes. You will see different types of flowers depending on the elevation and the types of trees change also. You might see different kinds of pine trees or then it switches to mixed hardwood forest. The animals are still pretty scarce, I'm not sure if that will change as I hike north. It sprinkled off and on as I hiked down, you would stop and put on your rain gear and then the sun would pop out and you had to stop and take the rain coat and pack cover back off. Todays hiking group Shamrock, Dustin, Rambler, and Wild Turkey soon caught up with me and pushed ahead to town. I like to stop and take lots of pictures as I hike, the quality may not be that great but I will treasure them anyway. This morning was a warm Spring day the season is following me north. We had 10 miles in by noon and took a break for water and a bathroom break. I like to rate the privies on the trail, giving them 1-5 stars. This one was going to be one of the lowest scoring ones. When the waste is just below the lid it is hard to give it more than one star. You also feel uncomfortable that ther is no buffer between you and things that might be lurking below. This one also looked like they only had one sheet of plywood and they had to decide how to divide it up to protect the user. If you were 6 foot or taller you would be exposing yourself to the outside world when you squatted. Anyway, they at least had a rake so that you could get some leaves to hasten decomposition of waste. More about privy ratings at another time. We had about 3.2 miles left and most of it would be going down into the river valley below. My fellow hikers decided to run the last 5K so I let them leave me behind, I had more pictures to take anyway. When I came out of the woods on the edge of town there was a hostel. I asked a couple of hikers coming out of the hostel in which direction was Main St. I knew that Hot Springs was the first town where the trail went right through town. They led me down the wrong street and later I had to backtrack to where I left the woods and walk down Main St. so that I wouldn't skip any white blazes. Earlier in the month hikers skipped 1.2 trail miles between the Fontana Lake Marina and the Fontana Hilton Shelter. They were anxious to get a shuttle into Fontana Village for food and liquid refreshment. They then got a shuttle to the shelter and missed a nice hike along the lake, missing several white blazes. Everyone is " hiking there own hike" a popular saying on the AT. We were eating lunch at the Smoky Mountain Diner when the rain finally cut loose. I have gone on record that I will not eat a hamburger or cheeseburger until I get a free one due to Trail Magic. I have just missed some either getting there too early or too late and other hikers are quick to kid me about that. I think that in town they even order the biggest burger on the menu to test my resolve, but so far I'm still waiting on my first burger on the trail. After lunch we tried to find a room or even a bunk but the town was full of hikers, most of them getting into town the day before. We ended up pitching our tents next to the river, at least we got a shower, which did nothing to keep the flies away. Everyone else plans on staying in town tomorrow so they were ready to go let off some steam in town. I wanted to leave tomorrow so I did laundry, bought some food at Dollar General, charged up my camera and phone, and made phone calls back home. I went to bed about dark but car traffic through the campground and trains rolling through town made it hard to sleep. So much for tent camping in town. I will be ready to get back on the trail in the morning, the weather will be great and I get homesick while sitting around in town. I heard someone say that 50% of thru hikers don't make it through the Smokies so my odds of finishing are getting better. Mailman