What a great city! The AT actually passes right through it! The first thing we saw when coming off the trail was an awesome display from the Hot Springs 4th Grade class where they used different letters to write about things on the AT -- my favorite was "S is for Sticks!" (photos coming soon). Now settled in for a night of Survivor, our residence for the night is half a mobile home situated right on the banks of the river. Not only is this a great and friendly town, but tonight is their annual "River Fest!" We are taking a quick break at the library to catch you up on the happenings of the previous several days before relaxing our tired feet for a few hours! Since we last blogged...
We survived the Smokies! Wow! Some people get lucky and have a great experience wandering through the majestic Smoky Mountains... and some people get pelted with rain and hail the entire time. We were glad to see them go, but know that they are probably awesome if you are able to look around, versus keeping your eyes directly on the trail so as not to slip and fall or step in a muddy pile of muck.
Anywho's, we met some interesting characters the last few days. One, Eric, works for awalkinthewoods.com and is very knowledgeable about the area. Some of the things we learned from Eric:
A) The coyotes in the park (like the one that Jeff saw) actually contain the DNA found in Grey Wolves, which explains why they are much larger than ordinary coyote's and appear more grey/white in color.
B) Its lichen season! Anyone else out there excited about moss???? No???
C) Russell Field shelter (the one with the cage that we stayed at days back) used to get visited by over 10 bears a night... in 2009! They actually had to shut that shelter down last year because of how frequently bears stopped by. Add to that the fact that one of these bears invented "tent surfing," whereby he would jump into the air and land directly in the middle of the tent, smashing it flat. The park service tried to catch him doing this by setting up a "dummy tent" and camera, but the bear was too smart... all they ended up with was a couple pictures of the bear and a picture of a flattened tent. LOL.
I'll skip talking about the day where we hiked in the rain and hail... HAIL! MAN!
We reached the famous Max Patch, a huge natural bald in the middle of the trail, yesterday. Awaiting us at the top was hiker Mucho Gusto. He met some friends at the top and was spreading trail love in the form of chocolate chip cookies made with duck eggs and ghiradelli chocolate --- that was seriously the most delicious cookie I have EVER had in my LIFE! Much thanks to Mucho Gusto. He is a fan of the trail and says he does something like that every year for the hikers -- his website is http://www.trailhound.com/. The top of Max Patch seemed like walking on the moon -- great views on all sides! On the top we met a nice couple who's daughter is the first female bike cop in Connecticut, stationed in New London -- small world! The father had thru-hiked the AT in 1986 and said he still had his certificate. When we reached the bottom of the hill we stopped at a nice grassy area to air out our tent in the hopes it would dry off. There we were passed by a local hiking club that was there to see Max Patch. Joker, an avid hiker, is 77 years old. He said that he is bipolar and has hypermania during the months of April & May. Rather than taking drugs his doctor prescribes, which has nasty side effects, he chooses to hike to get it out of his system. He joked around with us a lot and said that his daughter says its not "hypermania," its "hiker mania." After letting us in on those details he told us that Erwin, TN is a great place to retire and we should think about it for the future... lol. Too funny! This day was so pretty we just kept hiking. Our plan to hike 16 miles turned into 20 miles, and would have been 23 straight into Hot Springs had the sunlight not left our sights. We arrived at Deer Park Mountain Shelter at dark and set up our tent & cooked by headlamp. We were camping by two guys, Jason & Evan, who we hadn't seen since we camped at Cheoah Bald over a week before. 20.5 miles was a loooooooong day, but it was a great day. Today we woke up and had only 3 miles to get ourselves into Hot Springs. After a great breakfast, showers and some clean laundry, we are ready to head out again tomorrow! We should be to Erwin, TN in about 5 days.
Hope to update some photos later... having some trouble at the library here! :0)
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HikeStrong 2010 - Jeff & Aly
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