Friday, March 26, 2021

Day 26, Thursday March 25, 2021

 

1 Chronicles 1 - 12

NERO (near zero miles) day.  Deer Park Mountain Shelter to the Laughing Heart Hostel in Hot Springs, NC.  3 miles hiked.  275 total AT miles hiked.

Got up early to a cloudy morning and headed for Hot Springs, trying to beat the rain.  Hot Springs is the first town that the trail goes right through.  Just made it as the day long deluge hit later that morning as we ate breakfast. 

Arrived at the Laughing Heart Hostel around 9 and secured a room for the night for $30, a very reasonable rate.  We dropped our packs and headed further into town, seeking out the semi-famous Smoky Mountain Diner.  We met up with Blizzard and V8 and had breakfast.  I had the largest Country Fried steak I’d ever seen (along with biscuits and gravy, bacon, and hash browns).  I ate every bite.  Did I mention that I’ve lost about 10 lbs so far despite packing away 3000 - 4000 calories a day?  Amazing what 7 - 8 hours of strenuous activity carrying 35 pounds on your back.

After breakfast we went back to the hostel a d checked into our room. Large, roomy, and comfortable.  We were able to shower and do laundry, as well as reorganize our gear before heading back out.  That afternoon we did a resupply at the local outfitter and Dollar General.

Now laden with trail food (tuna, spam, fresh PB and jelly, dehydrated meals, crackers, and Snickers), we headed back to de-package and repack the food.

I also filled a box of things I’m sending home, including my chair, which broke a support strut and is no longer stable.  I lightened my load by a couple more pounds. Rick is sending a box home as well. We’ll stop by the post office on the way out of town tomorrow.

For dinner, we ate at the local pub the Spring Creek Tavern.  I had BBQ pork sandwich and the largest serving of tater tots I’ve ever seen.  Town food is always a treat after multiple days on the trail.

Tomorrow we’ll head out around 9, drop our packages and head on up the trail, with an 11 mile hiking plan for the day.

Until next time...









1 comment:

  1. LOL you are going to need to do some extra miles to walk all that food off. That looks good. Praying for you Mike, enjoy!

    ReplyDelete

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