Day 34 – Hot Springs, NC to Spring Mountain Shelter 

“By the time we got into Tulsa Town,

We had eighty-five trucks in all.

But there’s a roadblock up on the clover leaf,

And them bears were wall to wall.

Yeah, them smokies were thick as bugs on a bumper.

They even had a bear in the air.

I says, callin’ all trucks,

This here’s the Duck.

We about to go a huntin’ bear” – C. W. McCall

Scattered rain showers between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., then a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Woke at 7:00, but went back to sleep till 8:00. Finished yesterday’s blog including the retrospective. Studied the map for today. I have 11.3 miles, two big mountains, one medium mountain, and lots of rain in the forecast. Only doing short miles today because of the rain and a planned late start. Since trail runs through town, I plan to have a big breakfast on the walk out of town and immediately do the first nasty climb. Figure 10:30 ish. 

Trail Days starts today in Damascus, and lots of people are leaving to shuttle up there. Big 3-day festivals with thousands of people just isn’t my thing. This is a HUGE event on the AT. A lot of people just hike to Trail Days and are done after that. Sort of a big section hike with a party at the end. The NOBO bubble will thin out a lot after Trail Days and Damascus. 

https://www.visitdamascus.org/traildays.html

I am switching to brand-new socks. Wonder how long these will look so nice 🙂

Grabbed a last shower, packed , and walked to the diner at 9:00. Goodbye Laughing Heart!

Had a good-sized breakfast at the Smoky Mountain diner. Nice mural in the entry.

Done with breakfast and on trail at 10:15. No rain yet! Trail really started 1.3 miles from the hostels. Road walk to that point. Time to climb this.

Trying a new pack load out. Food bag horizontal in the middle of the pack to place the weight lower.

Good view of the actual hot springs resort. This was also used as a POW internment camp in WWI.

YouTube video of the French Broad River.

Had a nice chat with an older LASHer. Met her at the hostel a couple of times. She is slackpacking this week and making her way north. I may meet her again in Erwin. She plans to go as far as southern Virginia. Topped off water at 12:50. Had a pair of Twix bars before moving on.

YouTube video of the dam and pond.

Chatted with a trail maintenance crew who were just wrapping up for the day. They looked hot, sweaty, and tired. It hasn’t rained, but it’s quite humid.

Took a break at 2:15 at Tanyard Gap where the trail crosses US Routes 25 and 70. Chatted with a nice lady out walking her dog on the trail. Had some cell service, so texted with Dana. Back on trail at 2:30.

Surprise blank snake on the trail.

I had my first bear encounter just before camp at 5:20. A very big mama and three cubs. She sent the cubs up a big tree when she saw me. I messed up the videos. Instead of 5 minutes of amazing video of her and the cubs, I ended up with about 30 seconds of video. Still a very cool experience!

YouTube video of mama bear and cubs.

Made it to Spring Mountain Shelter at 6:15. I met Lone Wolf on the trail. He passed me just before I got to the bear. He’s a nice guy from California. Chatted a bit. 

Finished eating, getting water, and settled into my tent at 7:20, and the rain started. Good timing for me!!

Talked to Dana for a while. We settled on meeting on Thursday night, May 30, in Damascus, Virginia. I should get into town around 5:00, and Dana will leave home around 3:00 and drive down. We will drive to Abington, Virginia, for the weekend, and I’ll get back on the trail Sunday at noon.

Today was a good day. The first 2/3 felt easy-ish. I am getting used to the mountains and more fit. The last 1/3 was more uphill, and I was ready to be done. The double zero helped my knee, but it always takes me a day to reacclimatize to hiking.  

Technical Notes:

• Coffee: 75
• Meat omelette: 900
• English muffin: 150
• Twix x 2: 250
• Snickers: 250
• Chicken curry: 850
• Dehydrated chicken: 170
• Water liters: 2.4
• Miles: 11.3
• Time: 8:44
• Elevation gain: 3815 
• Calories consumed: 3200
• Calories burned: 5000