Date: 2021-09-02
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Around Town
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: heavy intensity rain

I slept better in the rain and wind two nights ago than I did last night here at the hostel. No particular reason that I could cipher, just put it down to the vagaries of the human condition, I guess. Quiksilver and I went to the Smokey Mountain Diner for breakfast and lo and behold - he finally found a place that served apple pie ala mode!!  He¢s been on this kick since I got back on trail 450 miles back but had been shut out in every town we¢ve been to and now he finally scores it for breakfast. What a triumph of the human spirit and a stirring testament to the power of faith and perseverance. Afterwards we killed some time at Dollar General while waiting for the Outfitter to open. We also wandered through an awesome small town hardware store and marveled at how much product they stuffed into a small, wood-floored store. There¢s not much in the way of commerce in Hot Springs, but what they do have here is dripping with quality. Bluff Mountain Outfitters opened at 9:30 and we were perusing their wares at 9:31. I was in need of a new food bag to replace the one I had that was now sporting a giant mouse-chewed hole. I also picked up Nuun electrolyte tablets and some blister tape. Quiksilver filled out his list as well. I did forget to get a new pack liner as mine was leaking badly, leaving an inch of water at the bottom of my pack yesterday, but Quiksilver grabbed one for me later in the day. Back at the hostel we were able to avail ourselves of the clotheslines out back and got all of our gear strung up to dry. I taped three small pinholes in my rain tarp that hadn¢t leaked yet, but better safe than soggy. Between my wet gear and the water that was in my pack I probably hiked in to town about 2 pounds heavy. Witnessed an interesting encounter just after noon when a man from New Zealand  stopped into the hostel. He had hiked the AT in 1981 and had stayed here at Laughing Heart. The new owner, Maria, took him up to the lodge to look through the old hiker logbooks that had been kept  by the previous two owners. The man - trail name Luigi for reasons I don¢t know - was able to find the logbook he had signed 40 years ago. He was quite emotional, reading entries from four decades ago and remembering people he had met and hiked with. He said he has kept in touch with two hikers all these years. Pretty cool. Mid afternoon, Lamb¢s Ear (Quiksilver¢s better half) arrived and after she settled in we walked back to town and poked around again before heading over to the Brewery for dinner and some oat sodas. When we got back to the hostel, she offered her sewing skills learned as a surgeon to help me try and repair my pack. Zpacks had overnighted a sewing repair kit to the hostel and Lamb¢s Ear stitched things up for me. Fingers crossed, it¢ll hold for another three weeks and 275 miles. I really don¢t want to buy another pack at this point. Tomorrow we¢ll be climbing out of town, going from 1336 feet here to 4680 feet over Bluff Mountain. I¢m curious to see how many hikers we meet over the next four days of Labor Day weekend. The weather looks promising.