Date: 2016-04-06
From: Lemon Gap

To: Hot Springs
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was a chance to hike together again. Whenever we¢re staying in a trail town (where the trail goes directly through the town) we have 2 opportunities to hike together without paying extra shuttle fees. In either case, we hire a shuttler to take us to an access point on the trail that¢s a hikeable distance from the town (either north or south of town) and then we hike back into town. Today, for example, Dan was our driver again, and he picked us up at our motel and drove us to the trailhead at Lemon Gap (where we finished yesterday) where he dropped us off. Then we spent the next 4 hours hiking 14+ miles NoBo back into Hot Springs and our motel. We¢ll have one more chance to do this (on Friday) when Dan takes us out to Allen Gap and we hike SoBo back into town. We started just a little later today, so the sun was up and the drive out was more interesting. Dan told us quite a bit about himself and the countryside along the way. He is from Connecticut (I couldn¢t find a trace of an accent), spent a number of years in the Air Force until he retired and then settled in Asheville, NC. For a while he and his brother ran rafting tours in the area. Then he said one day they realized that there was no outfitter in town and they decided to start a business. From our perspective, their store, Bluff Mountain Outfitters is one of the best on the trail. You can find virtually anything you need and they have good quality stock. Anyway, now I could tell you a great deal more than you would want to hear about Hot Springs. It certainly seems that he knows a lot about the town and the 685 folks who live here. I spent most of my youth in a small town and I don¢t think that¢s unusual.Back to the trail: cold start, high 30¢s I think - warming eventually into the 50¢s. The wind on the ridges and the windward side of the mountains was fierce. So we had to make continuous gear adjustments, gloves, arm warmers, etc. The first half of the hike was a lot of climbing, Mt. Walnut and Bluff Mountain were both over 4,000 ft. The second half was mostly descent, a lot of it through rhododendron groves and we were not as exposed to the wind. Overall we were pretty quick today, faster than usual at under 20-min miles. We both agreed afterwards that we should slow down and take it easy; unnecessary speed invites strains, injuries and so forth.We made it back into town in plenty of time for lunch at our favorite Smoky Mountain Diner. The meatloaf was so good yesterday that I ordered it again. Cleaning up after the hike and getting things ready for tomorrow¢s hike took several hours. Then finally it was time to relax a bit at the Spring Creek Tavern. The town seems to be full of hikers. All shapes and sizes, some looking fit and trim, others looking haggard and exhausted.Tomorrow we hope to hike a section to the southern end of this stretch. We hope to drive to the Standing Bear Hostel just off I-40 and park the car there. We have tried to arrange a shuttle ride from the hostel to Brown Gap. Then we would hike together back from Brown Gap to the hostel, and drive back to Hot Springs. When we talked with the shuttler earlier today, they were optimistic that they could accommodate us, but we have to talk with them again this evening to confirm the reservation. Otherwise we will have to do an alternate section.PS: The shuttle is confirmed, so we will hike the Brown Gap to I-40 section SoBo. When we finish this, we will have hiked all of the AT from Springer Mtn to Hot Springs, except for 5 hikes in the Great Smoky Mountain Park. Next we¢ll work on the Hot Springs to Erwin, TN section.