Date: 2008-04-22
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: none (zero day)
Miles today: 0.0

We heard at breakfast this morning that bear cables are being installed at the shelters where the bears have been causing problems. Glad the Forest Service is on it.I headed to Bluff Mountain Outfitters after breakfast and my boots hadn't come in yet. Wayne, one of the owners, said that he'd call Montrail after they opened at 11:00. As we waited, Crabby made a case for zeroing today because of the wait on my boots and the fact that his knee was really killing him. I couldn't see pushing him to do the 5 miles or so we had planned to do this afternoon with his knee problem, so I agreed it was best to zero today and do a full day tomorrow.It turns out that Montrail never shipped my boots to the outfitter, so I asked Wayne to cancel the order. I might switch to trail runners in Damascus anyway, and I think my boots will be fine until then. Wayne sold me some Freesole (basically good rubber cement) to patch up the failing parts of the boot. I'll put that on today and let it set overnight. I'll see if the outfitter in Damascus can help me deal with Montrail. Once I found out I wasn't getting new boots today, I stopped at the local hardware store to see if they had anything I could borrow to smooth out one of my lace hooks that's been shredding my laces. The hardware store lent me a small file and I think I'm good to go.Crabby bought a six pack of some decent beer and we sat on a bench outside our motel room like locals. I did some gear repairs and did a bunch of miscellaneous stuff I've been meaning to get to. While we were outside, Strider and Tracer came to us with grim faces. They had just found out via email that there was a death in the family a couple days ago. They have to go home to Minnesota and they're not sure whether they'll be able to make it back to the trail. Tracer is pretty torn up about it. I feel really bad about their situation and I really hope they'll be able to make it back and catch up with us at some point. Speaking of catching up, Crabby has to leave the trail for 5 or 6 days to be in his brother's wedding two weeks from now. We might be in Damascus by then, or at least near it. My hiking partners are dropping like flies. When Tara meets me in Shenandoah National Park, we'll probably zero and do less miles than I normally do, so maybe Crabby will do a little catching up then.New Song kept coming over to give us things she won't need now that she's getting off the trail. She gave me a whole bottle of glucosamine, which is kind of expensive. Sweet.I went to the library to update my journal on their computer. The library's next to the school and I noticed that the school is called Hot Springs School...it must be a single K-12 school. It's so funny to be in these small towns after living so close to Boston. There was voting taking place at the library when I was there and I overheard someone saying that 4 people had voted yesterday and 2 voted today. Nice.We have to carry 6 days worth of food to get to our next resupply in Erwin, TN. I picked up a bunch of stuff at the Dollar General, but I still have to get a few more things in the morning. The Hillbilly Market closed at 6:00 tonight. I think everything but the Paddler's Pub closes by 8:00. I was talking to Tara around 9:00 on a pay phone tonight and noticed that the gas station across the street (the only one in town) was already closed.