Date: 2015-09-25
From: Standing Bear Hostel

To: Hot Springs NC
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: light rain

I made it! ?? 300 miles in 25 days. From Springer Mountian GA to Hot Springs NC. I last left you from Standing Bear Hostel. Man, was that authentic. It is the second oldest Hostel on the trail. It's a sad story. The owner passed away in March from pancreatic cancer. His wife took it over and is doing a great job taking care of hikers. Lumpy, the care taker is a piece. He is a real Hillbilly! Overalls, beard and accent! He even has moonshine to share. I believe I have more hair on my chest now. Lumpy gave me a home made peach pie for my birthday.When we left Standing Bear we went to Groundhog Creek Shelter. It was only 8 miles so we got on the trail at 11:00 am. We got to Groundhog at 3:00 and set up. By 4:00 the other hikers showed up. We ate dinner then we had my birthday party. At Standing Bear I bought 4 packs of Nutty Bars and a candle. A Nutty Bar is a penut butter and chocolate covered wafer. We all got whistles and minnion tattoes (provided by my wife) we sang happy birthday to me and went to bed.Trail bedtime is from sundown to sunup. So now it is from 8:00 am intil 7:00 pm. We usually get up at 5:30 am, eat and pack then we are on the trail by 6:50 am.Well the next day we did 13.5 miles to Walnut Mountain Shelter. The miles are easier now, so 13.5 is a light day. We got in to camp about 2:30 pm. It was a beautiful day. It was sunny with a little breeze. We stopped to take a bunch of pics. At this point I have about 525 pics. I uploaded the first 450 to google drive. If you would like to see them ask Della and she can send them to you or when I get back I will arrange them and title them and make them available. Not much happened at Walnut Mountain except we saw a beautifully spectacular sunset. I will post those on my Facebook later tonight. Overnight it started to rain. I am glad we stayed in a shelter. We met a group of south bounders with varied experience. Listen to me, I talk about other hikers with all my four weeks of trail experience. Actually, I have gained a bunch of trail experience. I have been told that after tell weeks a hiker earns his AT PHD. Well it continued to rain into the morning. We started at 8:00 am and after hiking for 2 hours it continued to rain. We did not put our rain gear on. It was too nice and we decided we were not going to stop at Deer Park Shelter and instead we hiked into Hot Springs. Hot Springs is a cool little trail community. The AT passes right through town. You gotta check it out online. You come off the trail to Laughing Heart Hostel. That is where we are staying tonight. Then you walk down another part of the AT and you end up on a sidewalk that has nice AT placards all the way through town. When you get to the end of town you make a right and you are back in the woods and back on the AT. We stopped in the town welcome center and there is a great little lady there that loves to talk about the history of Hot Springs. We had to cut her off so I can take Della there tomorrow. It is next door to the public library. The people down here are on permenent vacation. So at one store we asked what time they opened and the lady said probably someone should be there at 11:00 or 12:00 or so but someone could be there maybe at 10:00 just stop by sometime. There are no hours posted anyplace. The Hostel we are staying we have been here since 2:00 pm and have yet to see anybody who works here? Laid back is an understatement for this place.Well I'll journal tomorrow after me and Della finish our hike unless she is up to a overnight stay in a shelter then it will be Sunday.Good night all.