Day 25-Happy Easter Everyone!

April 12-7.6 miles-AT mile marker 279.1

I’m sitting here in my tent at a campsite about 4.something miles from Hot Springs, NC. It’s raining, and the wind is blowing, but it’s okay. The hatches are battened down (and I, fortunately, don’t have to pee just now).

We did the 3.2 miles to Hot Springs this Easter morning, arriving about 9:30. The town was very quiet (it was raining a bit, and it’s Easter, and there’s that stay at home thing, so...expected). However, the Dollar General was open for business. 

That’s the town down there. 

I went in first while Sure Foot watched the packs. I had a list, but this being Dollar General, I had to make some substitutions. Since we were getting a resupply for the next 9 days, we needed light weight, but calorie dense food. They didn’t have any ramen, so I substituted microwave Rice-a-Roni cups (split into two meals with mashed potatoes...I think we’ll call these concoctions “Roni Bombs”). They did not have tortillas. A package of Triscuits will do (still have salami and cheese, then when that’s gone, a jar of peanut butter and grape jelly...that’ll taste good on a Triscuit...right?). No Clif bars, but King Size Paydays. No fruit pies, but plenty of Honey Buns (which, by the way, are a whopping 710 calories...starting the day with a wallop, and maybe the slamming shut of a few arteries).

We loaded everything into the packs, getting rid of as much extra packaging as possible. Then hefted them onto our backs. We followed the AT through town, and crossed the French Broad River. 


The trail went along the river (after the bridge) for about a half mile. Then we started climbing...and climbing. With the heavy packs, it was rather sweatifying work. Having the rain gear on didn’t help. 

Partway up the climb we came to “Lover’s Leap Rock”.



Flat will wanted to jump, but I held him back. 

LB thought it was pretty cool. 

A little further along, we could see the bridge we had walked across. 

See the bridge waaaay down there?

The climb continued. We stopped for some lunch at this spot. Fortunately, it wasn’t raining. 

It was quite the drop off. 

We made it to a campsite (not a shelter) in time to get our tents set up before the rain started again. Our tents are very close together, so we can talk to each other. 

Could be a long night in the tents...








Comments

  1. UnknownApril 13, 2020 at 11:05 AM

    You and Sure Foot seem to have a good plan for dealing with the virus situation and to continue on the trail, bravo for your tenacity! Glad to hear things are otherwise going well! You'll have a heck of a story when you are done, completing the AT despite the virus. Matt

    ReplyDelete

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