Date: 2008-03-15
From: Hot Springs NC

To: Hot Springs NC 
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Day 27 ¢ Saturday March 15 ¢ Hot Springs NC ¢ Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 271.7Had a great relaxing day at the motel visiting with Brakeman's parents. We ate a ton! Mr. Brakeman sat and watched Brakeman make a Dagwood sandwich, with a pleased smile on his face. Brakeman almost got sick from eating too much though! They brought us a picnic lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit salad, chips, and brownies. For dinner we had bratwurst, German potato salad, more brownies and fruit salad. We definitely needed all the food. Brakeman now weighs 132.5 pounds, which is probably about 12 pounds less than his starting weight. Grasshopper weighs 105 pounds, which is probably 3-5 pounds less than her starting weight. We definitely needed to refuel our bodies. While Mr. & Mrs. Brakeman took an afternoon nap, we hit the laundromat in town. We wished we had our camera with us. There was a sign posted on the wall that said something like this: ¢Hikers, it is a management requirement that clothes be worn while you are doing laundry.   A towel wrapped around you does NOT meet the requirement. Your cooperation is appreciated. Thank you.¢   Pretty funny. At the laundromat we met Lone Wolf, a previous section hiker. He told us all about the trails in this area, which he knows very well. He also gave us his phone number in case we need assistance up the trail! Lone Wolf, who is a farmer probably in his 30s and who has lived a good bit of his life outdoors, confirmed for us that the animals that we heard capture the wild boar a few weeks ago were indeed mountain lions. They sound like a wailing woman. We now have learned the sounds of another animal! We forgot to purchase dinners for our next segment, so once Brakeman¢s parents were done napping, we headed out for a tour of Hot Springs and a stop at Dollar General.   As we exited Dollar General, we saw Virginia Slim across the street hiking into town!   We ran across the street to greet him, forgetting that we needed to look both ways for traffic before doing so. Luckily the car stopped before Brakeman ran into it!   How quickly we forgot simple life habits. Back to Virginia Slim ¢¦ he just hiked 18 miles into town and was quite concerned because the fall he had on the ice the other day has obviously injured his back. He said he's having quite a bit of pain in his back and also trouble with an apparent pinched nerve going down his leg. He's hoping to get some medical attention in Hot Springs; I'm not quite sure how easy that will be. Hot Springs has a small medical clinic but they don't even have a drug store in town. We¢re not sure if we'll see him again but we wish him the best and hope everything is OK!Back at the motel, we weighed our backpacks one more time because we really did not feel that the scale at Springer Mountain was quite right. Brakeman's pack, without fuel or food or water weighs 16 pounds. That does include the pot, pan and stove.   Grasshopper's pack without water is 20.5 pounds.   This includes the new tent and poles that we picked up at the Outfitter at Walasi-Yi Center.During our stay in the cabin, in addition to all the food that Brakeman¢s parents brought, we also enjoyed Mr. & Mrs. Grasshopper's care package of M & Ms, Oreos and trail mix. Because of all the wonderful food that Brakeman¢s family brought, we sent some of the care package food back with them to include in future food drops to us. It's amazing how many pounds of chocolate and Oreos one can eat in one sitting. We are most proud of ourselves!!We'll head out tomorrow morning around 11:00 as we have just an 11-mile hike, but all uphill. We should be in Erwin on Thursday. Goodnight from Hot Springs.P.S.   Grasshopper is showing no signs of a bladder infection. Good deal!