Date: 2016-05-06
From: roarig forks shelter

To: laughing heart hostel
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Dregs here,We have been in Hot Springs NC for what feels like a week to me. Today is Sunday I think and we arrived at 4pm on Friday. We took our second zero mile day yesterday and it felt great! We will hit the trail this afternoon after we have some lunch at the Hostel. We woke up Friday morning and it was just as cold as it was the night before however it wasn't raining! We still have yet to pack up our tent in the rain but our time for that is surely coming. It took us a long time to get moving but eventually we made it back to the trail. In our shivering morning packing session, Chicken Hawk, Funfact and I decided to hike 18 miles into Hot Springs and stay inside for the night.As far as terrain was concerned it was an easier day than most. It took quite a while for us to warm up. A few miles into the day we ran into some day hikers who informed us that there was some fresh fruit trail magic not to far ahead and also that the forecast for rain had changed to 70 degrees with only a 30 percent chance of rain. Needless to say this news was quite the mood lifter. We stopped for the trail magic and Funfact quickly caught up. We hiked with him for most of the rest of the day. There were some very cold and windy spots on the ridge line before we really descended into town. The descent was very tough on Chicken Hawks toes but she was strong and pushed through knowing we had about a day and a half of rest coming our way. We passed quite a few hikers and strolled into the Laughing Heart Hostel at about 4pm. We found a spot in the bunk room and set up. I hung all the wet stuff out to dry and we had hot showers! This hostel is wonderful, very clean with lots of amenities. They actually provided soap in the showers! As soon as we showered Chicken Hawk, Funfact and I headed into town for some real food. We start some laundry before we left and a nice hiker named Fox agreed to pull it out when it was done. I had an awesome burger and we ran into Marty who joined us while he had his dessert! He is now known as crash due to an accident he had at the Fontana Hilton where he fell of the top bunk. After dinner Crash invited us to the tavern for a beer on him. We walked further into town and had a drink with Crash and Simon and a bunch of other hikers who's names I'm sure I will learn later. We left at 930 because we wanted to be back before the hostel quiet time. We got back and all the lights were on and everyone was just preparing to head out. They were mostly quiet coming in at night but one hiker stumbled in and loudly asked a dark silent room if anyone was sleeping....in the morning we all found out about a police officer giving hikers a really hard time. One hiker was picked up for having an open container, he was arrested and had to pay $2000 bail likely ending his hike. The officer gave a British hiker a bunch of grief for not having his passport on him while he was clearly coming home from the laundromat. Still another hiker was stopped for J walking. Lots of people are upset about it.For our zero day we had an excellent breakfast with friends new and old. I woke up early and let CH sleep. We met Friar Tuck and Reptar and Hi tech. After breakfast we went to the outfitter to get Chicken Hawk some different socks to try and fight the blister problem. We grabbed a package from Chicken Hawks mom at the post office and it was full of goodies! Thanks Mom! After that it was back to the hostel for Rest and relaxation. I did some minor gear cleaning and organization. The plan for the evening was to head back to the outfitter for a shirt for me( mine is itchy) hit the tavern for dinner, dollar general for resupply, hostel to drop it all off, then back out to the hot springs to soak in natural hot mineral water at 10pm. Dinner was excellent with basically the same crowd except for a different guy from the UK that I named The Ambassador . Resupply was low so we will need to check back on the way out of town. The hot springs we very relaxing but very similar to being in a normal hot tub. When we got back everyone was at a camp fire but we were to tired.A good nights sleep was had and we are waiting for a picnic to start soon. I miss the trail. We plan to do 11 miles to the first shelter.