Four hours forty five minutes we were hiking today, a nice shorter day after yesterdays mammoth hike/day. It was a damp start with light rain and drizzle for the first couple of hours. My brolly came out again today! It was very warm and humid so I was glad of my umbrella rather than wearing waterproofs which would have made me more wet with sweat than rain. The sun came out midday though and it was very warm again .
It was a couple of shorter ups today with two longer downhills dropping 3000ft in elevation down to Hot Springs, a small hiker friendly town, although we're a couple of weeks early for the true start of hiker season. As we were nearing the town we could see glimpses of civilisation from the woods, our first town since Hiawassee. We were hoping to stay at Elmer's hostel but it wasn't open, drawbacks of being one of the early bunch of thru hikers. We opted for the local motel instead which is reasonably priced and has decent rooms. We're staying in Hot Springs for two nights, taking our second zero day tomorrow, my knees and Nigel's heels need the rest after The Smokies.
After checking in and showering we headed for the launderette to get our smelly clothes washed - we got all the cleaning jobs out the way first! Nigel bought some Super Feet insoles from the outfitters whilst waiting for our laundry to help with his aching heels. Next on the list was to eat! We went to the Smokey Mountain Diner and had their daily special - Crispy cooked chicken with red skin mashed potato, sweet corn and biscuit/corn bread, delicious. I followed that with lemon meringue pie, I was very very full! Hiker hunger = eyes bigger than my belly = belly ache! Nigel was sensible and just had a coffee.
The weather turned really cold and windy in the afternoon, a cold front coming through overnight with snow in the mountains and below freezing temperatures, we're glad we're out of the Smokies! We returned to our warm motel room to watch TV and sleep.
We have been unable to get a phone signal or find a WiFi spot yet in Hot Springs to upload our blogs and touch base at home, will try and find somewhere tomorrow, there must be WiFi somewhere in town?
Glad to see you back online after a few days. I was becoming concerned that something happened. I am really enjoying your accounts as you move northward.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the previous lead on an umbrella. I had forgotten that I had a go lite umbrella, but I went ahead and ordered a silvered one anyway. I do remember aching arms after carrying it all day during one rainy spell. Have you run into that yet?
No aching arms yet, we've been lucky only had two hours of rain Max at a time. Glad you're enjoying our blog.
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