Date: 2006-03-30
From: Hot Springs

To: Little Laurel Shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: clear sky

The climb out of Hot Springs paralleled the broad French River and was much more beautiful than the noisy decent into town. Maybe I¢d have a different opinion of Hot Springs had I been doing a southbound trip. I stopped for my second breakfast at a little pond which was created by a small concrete dam. Somebody knew I was coming because there was a bench big enough for me and my pack in a sunny location next to the pond. I included the 2 Cadbury Eggs Robert had sent me in my menu. As I ate, I saw some people across the pond and wondered what they were doing. I got my answer a little bit later when I came across a forest service truck parked along a service road. I could now see that they were doing controlled burns. I could smell smoke for pretty much the rest of the day.Now, most of the time the spacing of the white blazes, which tell me I¢m on the right trail, are perfect. Every once in a while, you¢ll see some that are ridiculously close together or, as in this case, you¢ll be left peering, shielding the sun from your eyes, up and down the road in search of the next one. It was a little bit of a road walk and I eventually found the next bread crumb. I always have a moment of panic when that happens.Today, the monotony of walking finally got to me. I even tried pulling out my MP3 player to help pass the time, but there were still a couple of times I sat down for a break and had a very difficult time getting myself back up and moving again. I tried to cheer myself up by reminding myself that I was going to see Robert in a few days. Just like the last time I was in a funk, it was really hard to pick up my spirits and my legs. Just then, I found an apple someone left on a fencepost. It was delicious, but it still didn¢t cheer me up. In the end, I decided I need a day off, so I think I¢m going to zero (take a full day without hiking) the day Robert leaves.I stopped at a shelter for lunch where I saw my first hikers of the day. They were comical hikers King Solomon, Cave Beaver, and Captain CC, who were just about to finish up their week long hike. They left and I ate my lunch. I had just finished checking up on where all the other hikers were in the trail journal in the shelter, when Snake, whom I ¢d met early in the Smokies, walked up. He looked as tired and worn as I felt and he said he wasn¢t sure where he and Pebbles were stopping for the day. I had a schedule to keep so I moved on.It was an incredibly long day. I ran into those section hikers again at Allen Gap where I inadvertently missed a couple hundred yards of trail. They wished me luck, and I decided that missing those couple hundred yards wouldn¢t make me feel like less of a thru-hiker, so I kept going forward. Up the next big hill, my knee started hurting, so I sat down to wrap it and take the first Ibuprofen of my whole trip. I think I jinxed myself when I told King Salomon that I hadn¢t needed any so far. Needless to say I was feeling pretty low when I finally hobbled into the shelter. Luckily a father with three children were in for the night as they finished up their fourth annual spring break trip. The kids cheered me up as I ate my dinner and homemade brownies and even though I slept in my tent due to my persisting fear of shelter mice, I felt much better by the time I drifted off to sleep.