2017 July - Day 1 - Laughing Heart Inn (Hot Springs) to Hemlock Hollow Inn (Log Cabin Dr)

July 15,  2017

Total Miles Hiked Today: 16.7

     We arrived at Laughing Heart Hostel after 11pm the night before. We decided to crash for the night and just start in the morning. This messed up our daily hiking plan, but we were just too tired to do the planned night hike. 

   Walking through town, we took the opportunity to grab a couple of breakfast sandwiches and cold drinks. On the far end of town, we walked across the bridge and started the AT along the river. 

Woohoo!...we're back on the AT. It felt great to be walking north out of Hot Springs, continuing where we left off last May. 

  Of course, the problem with town stops is that you descend down to the town..enjoy the visit..and then you have to climb back into the mountains. Phew....it wasn't a hard climb according to the map, but my lungs told me other wise. 

   We were presented with multiple nice views of town as we climbed. There was a musical festival going on, so a band could be clearly heard as we climbed away from town. 

  After our first 4 miles, it was time for a foot break. We sat down, took off our shoes, ate a snack, and let our feet dry out. Of course the air was so thick with humidity, I'm not sure we dried out much. But even moist air is better than leaving your feet in wet socks inside of wet shoes. 

      A couple miles down the trail, we climbed to a small pond in the woods, we pressed on, with the sound of thunder in the distance threatening a wet hike. I had a cell signal (unusual for Tmobile in the monntains), so I checked my weather radar Rain everywhere, some of it heavy. Except for right where we were hiking. Considering that it was upper 70s/ lower 80s and I was soaked through with sweat, a good rain sounded appealing. 

     We were about 3 miles away from Spring Mountain Shelter when the rain hit. It hit fast, and it hit hard. We got absolutely soaked. It felt wonderful. Shortly before the rain, cold wind gusts hit and cooled us down. Then, all the sweat was washed away. Sage broke out her rainjacket....I left mine in my pack, not wanting to waste a drop of the wonderful shower. There was no lightening nearby, so I wasn't worried at all about the storm. 

  The trail quickly grew very muddy, which slowed us down a little bit. We pressed on, not particularly comfortable, but at least I wasn't hot anymore. 

  Eventually, the rain stopped, but the humidity still hung in the air. It was a bit cooler than before the storm, so overall, the rain blowing in was definitely preferable to no rain. 

   Sage led the way up the climbs, I definitely felt out of shape compared to the last time I did these kind of climbs last may. I struggled to find a pace I could maintain up the climbs, it seemed like I was always running out of breath. Quite a contrast from the condition we were in by the time we hit Hot Springs last May. Last year, after about 14 days on the trail, we were hiking machines. This year...ouch...Section Hiking is hard. 

   Sage spotted a bright red salamander on the trail. She seems to be better at spotting things than I am...perhaps it is because I give her extra time to look around as she waits on me during the climbs.

   We arrived at Spring Mountain Shelter, the air was thick with humidity, there was no breeze, and a cloud of bugs surrounded the shelter and were crawling all over the picnic table.  We had already hiked 11 miles at this point, and if the shelter had been appealing, we would have been tempted to stop for the day. But after swatting flies and getting bit a few times, we quickly ate a meal, and hiked on down the trail. My hiking app (Guthook) meantioned "Mom's Store" at the next road crossing as a good place to grab a snack and a cold drink. With visions of a large fountain drink in my head, we pressed on to Allen Gap.  We walked up the road a bit, and found a store that looked like it hasn't been open for 30 years. Apparently it was open earlier this year, but it was closed when we showed up. With sadness...we turned around, no cold drink in hand, and went back to the trail.

     At this point we had two options. Press on to do a 20 mile hike, or get off the trail after 16.7 miles and spend the night in a hostel. It was late Saturday afternoon, we were soaked to the bone, and if we stay in the hostel we could get a ride back to our car so we could go to church Sunday.

     I rolled my eyes at the thought of staying in hostels 2 nights in a row...what kind of hikers are we? But....we were absurdly wet, and it would be good to get to church in the morning. So we got off the trail and walked down to the hostel. We met a  section hiker from Florida who was also walking down to the hostel, so we chatted as we walked.

   Hemlock Hollow has a nice stream that flows through the middle of the property. There was a good supply of food to heat and eat, as well as resupply options for the trail. We grabbed cold drinks, some food, and settled into our bunks. Even after a shower, and with a fan blowing on us, it took all night to fully dry out both our gear and our bodies from our very wet first day back on the trail.