Day 36
Start: Hot Springs, NC
End: Spring Mountain Shelter
Miles Hiked: 10.6
Miles on AT: 286.1
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Today got off to a slow start. There’s always so much to do in town and so little time. We were supposed to leave where we were staying around 11am, but didn’t end up leaving and getting to town until around 1 pm. I still had to eat lunch, buy socks, and send a Mother’s Day card. We probably got back on trail a little after 2 pm, much later than I would have liked.
Storms were brewing, and across the river I could already see the rain falling from the clouds above the mountains. I didn’t want our first day back on trail to start out wet. In our favor, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction from where we were headed, leaving a sliver of hope for us.
The initial climb out of Hot Springs was a bit rough; when I get on trail, I need time to warm up, and there was absolutely no warm up to this climb. However, the views were incredible. As we continued on, we got a few sprinkles, but nothing more. The trail was lined with bushes of flowers as though it were a garden path. So beautiful!
We passed by a pond and took a brief rest before moving on. After passing over highway 70, we got trail magic – yay! This was trail magic no. 3 for me. A man named Onamasamas (or something along those lines) was handing out ice cream bars from his awesomely painted RV. He’s a regular trail angel and has been doing this for years. We’re lactose intolerant, so we opted for bananas and were appreciative of the magic and conversation.
At the top of our second climb of the day, we took a blue blaze up to a fire tower. Godspeed, a hiker I’d met at Fontana Dam, had set up camp there, so we chatted for a bit. The blue blaze was definitely worth it! The cloudy sky expanded in all directions, with towns and their sparkling lights saying hello. We didn’t spend too much time up there because it looked like it was going to rain at any moment.
After getting down, there was a bit of a debate between the Janitor and I as to whether to push on to the shelter or find a nearby campsite. The seemingly imminent rain combined with the setting sun and falling temperatures would have made it prudent to stop. But, we decided to go for it and be hardcore hikers. We didn’t want to have to hike those miles tomorrow, so we made the push.
It was a mad dash to the shelter with few stops. We made it to the shelter dry and with time left before full sunset, however a number of hikers were already snoring by the time we arrived. I didn’t have the patience to cook dinner after the stressful end to the day. Luckily, I packed out my leftover pizza for lunch, so I ate that along with a few other no-cook items in my food bag.
Now I’m in my sleep clothes with my new socks on ready to sleep after a long day.
And that’s day 36.
A version of this post originally appeared on TheTrek.co.