Date: 2010-04-14
From: Hot Springs

To: Mill Ridge
Miles today: 5.0

I got up early and started going through my stuff. Went out to breakfast and finished up the last couple of day's journal entries. Went back to the motel and finished sorting through my stuff. I went to the post office and mailed one box home and one box ahead to Damascus. I sent out 3 pounds, 12 ounces of stuff.I also mailed my journal to Mary for her to transcribe. She is the reason this is getting posted this year. Thank you, Mary!The lady in the post office was kind of rude to me. It bummed me out a little, but I shook it off.   got to the library right when it opened at 10 and went online for about 45 minutes. Opened an email from Dawn saying she was in Hot Springs yesterday afternoon to pick up Friar Tuck????? I thought Lula was coming. I couldn't get through to Lula by phone yesterday so I also left a message with Dawn asking her to call Lula to confirm that we were expecting Lula to come. I guess they worked it out.I went back to the motel to pack and chatted with Pacer while I did so. That probably slowed me down a little, but it was fun. I talked with one of the guys at the outfitter about my toe problem. He said to buy a Spenco foam insole that would conform to my foot to see if it was the Superfeet that were causing the problem. He also thought that the problem was due to the Superfeet since I have hike a thousand-plus miles in this model of boot with no problem.I had lunch at the sandwich shop. I was going to just have ice cream, but by the time I got there I was ready for lunch so I had a salad with some chicken salad on it. Then I bought an ice cream bar at the outfitter.I ran into Creepy and her boyfriend, "Mr. Creepy" and told them about the encounter with the bear.I headed out of town at about 1:15. I was full, it was hot, and it was uphill, so I was moving pretty slowly. I felt happy, though. Kappy passed me right out of town. I stood on an overlook while 25 day hikers passed me going in the other direction.A couple of hours into my hike I came across some trail magic - a can and a bottle of YuenLing beer. Wow, that really made me happy. I took the bottle, planning to chill it in a stream later.I hiked about 5 miles and at a little after 5 p.m. I came to what I thought was the water source and the campsite where I had planned to stop. I didn't like either, so I kept on going. I came up some steep steps to a pond and a dog startled me. He ran off. There was some trail magic gorp on a bench, but it had too many things in it that I shouldn't eat so I left it for someone else.Shortly after that I came across the owner of the dog. He was car camping. He told me aobut a nice campsite about an eighth of a mile down a dirt road and that is where I am now. Its about 7:30. The wind kicked up a few minutes ago and I've been hearing a lot of creaking and cracking over by my food bag. I looked out of the tent to check on it and it seems fine.It was a little lonely setting up camp without Friar Tuck. There are pros and cons to hiking with someone and one of the biggest pros is having someone there at night. So.... now I'm on my own again. I drank my beer and ate some nuts and now its time for bed. I'm heading to the hostel tomorrow.