There’s really nothing quite like camping on a mountain top during crazy severe thunderstorms with driving downpours. It’s quite an experience. Our setup kept us pretty dry, except for one structural failure that occurred when the ground softened up and one of the stakes pulled out, releasing a small river towards our tent. I was able to get it fixed pretty quickly, and we had no other problems the rest of the night. The weather was intense though… thunder and lightning, and soaking downpours… everything that was outside was splattered with mud that had been kicked up by the intense rain. But like I said, everything inside the tent stayed dry.
Unfortunately, however, everything in my pack ended up wet… but not from the rain. When the first downpour started around dinner time, I hastily tried to get everything under the tarp. I had also been filtering water into my water bladder, and I didn’t quite fully screw the cap back on, so all night the water bladder slowly dripped almost a liter of water into my pack, soaking my hiking clothes and knee brace. Needless to say, that discovery wasn’t the greatest start to the day. I decided to just hike in my rain jacket (no shirt underneath) and just the top part of my hiking pants, and no knee brace. It ended up being a pretty sweaty walk, as it was a very humid morning… I’m not sure I would’ve been any drier with my wool shirt on. Besides, it felt pretty good to hike bare chested with my rain jacket unzipped.
The motivation of a town pushed us to hike the 13.1 miles into Hot Springs in about 4.5 hours. We had to start the day by climbing Bluff Mountain, which put us above the fog. Looking out from the mountain, it almost felt like we were on an island, and the other peaks poking up through the fog looked like other little islands. I don’t think the pictures quite do the scene justice. The rest of the hike was mostly downhill, with a surprising amount of climbs. Just after the Deer Park Mountain shelter, we passed a tiny graveyard with just two gravestones… George Gragg and Eva Gragg. I will try to find out who they are.
We arrived in Hot Springs right about noon. This is the first of a few trail towns where the trail actually goes right through the middle of town… no need to try and arrange a ride or anything. We stopped by the Hikers Ridge Ministries, where most hikers were hanging around. It’s a pretty neat little place with free drinks and snacks for hikers, a restroom with a shower, free wi-fi… pretty much any resource a hiker might need. Due to the trail closure north of Hot Springs, there were a lot of hikers in town. We even caught up with the group we had been with before the Smokies! In fact, by the end of the day, almost all the thru-hikers we’ve met so far were all in town. It was fun to see and chat with everyone again.
As we waited for our room to be ready, we got some giant sandwiches from the Hillbilly Market, dried our stuff out in the sun in front of the hiker ministry place, and grabbed a beer at the tavern. We stayed at the Spring Creek Tavern and Inn. The inn is just above the tavern, which was pretty convenient. The room we booked was actually two bedrooms with a shared bathroom… one room with one double bed, the other room with two double beds. We ended up sharing the room with two other hikers that we had been camping with the previous few nights… Starbucks, who is a thru-hiker, and Andrew, who was just doing a section, and ended in Hot Springs. There’s only a few phases in life where you end up splitting a room with some people you just met… I think college was really the last time we were in this type of situation… quickly getting to know and get close to a group of new people through a shared experience.
It really is amazing how fast people can become familiar with one another. Just a few weeks ago we had never met any of these people, and today in Hot Springs we’re all sharing rooms, drinking beers, and chatting it up like old friends. As enjoyable as just being outdoors all day is, and the amazing sights we’ve seen, I think what I’m enjoying the most so far is the camaraderie of the hikers. It doesn’t matter what anyone’s background is, whether people have come with the best and most expensive gear, or with second-hand stuff they grabbed from a hiker box… we’re all just hikers out here, and we’ve all got that one thing in common. It’s really pretty cool.
The rest of the day was spent showering, and doing laundry, followed by relaxing in the tavern all evening chatting with the hikers coming and going. Many will be headed out tomorrow, skipping over the currently closed section of trail, so I’m not sure we’ll catch them after our week off. In fact, we may find a whole new bubble of hikers by the time we get back. Only time will tell.
