Day 33 and 34 – Hot Springs Part 1 and 2

I finally poked my head out of my hammock at 930 am and was shocked to see there were still two other hikers at the tent site. Everyone else who had been there the night before had left while I was blissfully sleeping with my earplugs and sleep mask.

I took my time stretching and eating, preparing to feel the pain from my 20 mile day yesterday. As I got started down the trail, I felt pretty good! The trail yesterday was no where near the elevation change as the previous few weeks, which made the mileage possible.

I was again alone on the trail today, but I expected to run into a few people who had camped at Max Patch or at the shelter eventually simply because I was starting so late in the morning.

Eventually, I did! I ran into Reroute and Fail just a few miles from town, and while Reroute continued on at his own pace, Fail and I ended up hiking into town together. This was very good luck for me, since I had no plans for where I would be staying, just hoping to get to town, find wifi, and go from there. As it turned out, Fail knew a guy who knew a guy, and that guy had a place for us to stay.

So we traipsed down the mountain, ignoring the cries of pain from our knees while we talked about the pros and cons of DnD. The AT goes straight through the town of Hot Springs, and it was a very short walk from the trail to our place for the night, then another very short walk “into town”. Hot Springs was already a small town, but it seems to have been shrunk further by the hurricane damage.

Word on the trail was that the only resupply option was the Dollar General in town. I am morally opposed to shopping at Dollar General when there are other options, so I am happy to report that the gas station/convenience store and neighboring market are open and ready for business. They had everything a hiker could need for resupply and are locally owned and operated. My mindset entering Hot Springs was to spend money, and spend money I did. The next town to resupply on the trail is Erwin, about a 70 mile stretch down the trail, making this next hike about 5 days for us. That’s quite a bit of food to carry, and quite a lot of food to buy, too.

I was happy to resupply at Sara Jo’s convenience store and neighboring Hillbilly Market, both of which had everything a hiker could want and more. I spent more than I usually would, not caring about price tags and just happy to support the local business. The market and gas station also had fresh made food and supplies for dinner for the night, so I picked up some bread and chicken salad for sandwiches, and some frozen locally made empanadas! After the main resupply, we went on down the road to the local outfitter for a few freeze dried meals. I couldn’t help myself and also bought a new hat at the outfitter that features bigfoot being abducted by a UFO, one of my favorite combinations of urban legends for outdoor merch. I put my “LoveOly” hat in the hiker box in case someone else needed a (slightly grimy) hiking hat. My hat has served me well and is still in great condition, but the UFO hat was calling to me.

We didn’t see any physical damage from the hurricane in our short tour of the block of town, but the owner of the convenience store and the signs around town asking for donations made it clear the town is still rebuilding. They definitely need our help and any money we can spare, and I would strongly encourage any hikers coming through to purchase food from the locally owned convenience store and Hillbilly Market instead of the Dollar General. This helps the money stay in town and help the locals who need it, rather than getting siphoned away to the corporate overlords.

Fail and I plan to spend more money in town at the local diner for breakfast in the morning and will be joined by a few other hikers in town we met, including Stoker, who is camping just up the hill until tomorrow for her town day.

The place we’re at for the night is by the generous gift of a hiker who rented a house for his family. He and his daughter hiked from Max Patch to Hot Springs over the last few days, and the rest of the family will be joining them here tomorrow. In the meantime, he invited us to stay on the couches and in the second bedroom of the house for free. It was nice to use an oven for the first time in a month to make some delicious garlic bread and the empanadas for dinner. Even better, the house has a hot tub, so I spent a good hour uploading YouTube videos and soaking my legs in the delightfully warm water.

The father and daughter love Disney movies, so we rounded off the night by watching Moana 2. It’s now way past hiker midnight, but time is different in towns anyway, plus I needed to catch up on the blog writing. It’s almost real midnight now, so I’m hoping everyone sleeps in a little in the morning and we have a nice relaxed day with the diner for breakfast followed by only 10 miles to hike to our next resting place.

The Next Day

The morning started slowly. I was the first one up, groggy from the later sleep schedule than normal. Seeing that I had finally received the bill for the ambulance ride from a few weeks ago, I started my morning by calling Garmin to figure out how to start a claim. How fun.

Supposedly the SAR insurance I bought through Garmin will cover the ambulance ride, but only time will tell. 

Speaking of insurance, the town of Hot Springs has really been screwed by insurance companies, and has not received the support from government that it needs either. It’s really sad to see.

As the hiking season is in full swing now, we are definitely bringing in the needed money for the town to have an economic boost. The town is population 530 and some change, and purportedly has 50+ businesses, but looking at Google maps you can see most are closed while they recover from hurricane damage.

We’ve basically visited all 4 of the open businesses in town to spend money, but if you can’t visit yourself, you can donate here: https://rebuildhotsprings.org/

After a hearty breakfast at the diner, we were joined by Stoker and went up the hill to the coffee shop, Artisun. This was a coffee shop I would totally spend a lot of time at if I was a local. They sold jewelry, art, shirts, bags, and pins along with coffee and ice cream.

Since the plan was still to hike out today and I was feeling pretty low energy, I did what I never do and got a (decaf) coffee. An iced Americano with lavender syrup and a healthy splash of milk, to be specific. This drink was a favorite of mine before I admitted that any caffeine was too much (even decaf), and stopped drinking any amount of caffeinated coffee or tea several years ago.

Unfortunately for me, I am super sensitive to caffeine, and it pretty much only makes me more tired. I don’t know why I thought today would be different, but I went for it. The coffee was delicious, and I did buy a necklace and a pin to go with it as souvenirs from hot springs. I really do love having a great reason to spend money at local shops in small town. Support local economies !!

After killing time at the coffee shop, it was about 11am and we still needed to return to the market and the outfitters Fail could finish his resupply. Hanging out on the porch of the outfitter in the sun, I saw more and more hikers that I recognized rolling into town. It was already noon and we were just hanging out. I had a feeling today was going to turn into a zero after all. 😅

We finally decided to just keep bumming around town for the day and start fresh in the morning. We toured Stoker’s hostel which is in a building from the 1840s, got lunch sandwiches at the Hillbilly Market, and I bought a bucket of strawberries to share with the hiker crew in town. Then, we headed down to the river to hang out in the sun some more.

This bucket of strawberries was awesome. It was huge, and every strawberry was huge and juicy and sweet. They almost didn’t taste like strawberries they were so sweet. I carried the bucket down to the river and gave strawberries to every person we passed on the street, most of whom were hikers, and a couple locals.

The day turned out to be simply awesome. One of the best days in a town yet, with great memories and souvenirs to keep for the road. Tonight we will finish our camp chores, soak in the hot tub some more, make dinner in the kitchen again, and hopefully get to sleep before midnight tonight so we can start fresh in the morning on our 5 day stretch to Erwin.