5/10 and 11, Days 25 and 26 -- Hot Springs, Sunnybank and Hemlock Hollow

May 10, 2013

Day 25—Max Patch Summit to Hot Springs, NC
19.8 miles, 273.9 total
 

Today, I woke up to the sunrise right outside of my tent door.   So I woke up, had breakfast in my tent while watching the sunrise from the summit of Max Patch.  Stuff like that makes me realize why I’m doing this and why I should press on.

The hike today wasn’t too interesting, lots of ups and downs, but I’ve noticed that whenever I reach about 16 miles, I start to get grumpy and mad at the trail and the uphills and such, just because it’s taking so long to get to my daily destination.  (Today’s destination was Hot Springs since the trail goes straight through the middle of town.   On the sidewalk there, you even find little plaques denoting the trail.)

Once I arrived in Hot Springs, I got a room at a hostel, Elmer’s Sunnybank Inn.  This building as it stands today has been here since 1875, and in some form since 1840.  It has been a summer home, a boardinghouse, and now an Inn.  In 1980, it was placed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Pretty cool.

After I settled in, I went to do my laundry, got some internet time at the library, and then went to Spring Creek Tavern for dinner.  I had a Guinness, fried pickle spears and fried cheese sticks which had salami wrapped in with the cheese.  Amazing.   Afterward, I just went to get some snacks and soda at Dollar General and then returned to my room – it was a really relaxing night.

 

May 11, 2013

Day 26 – Hot Springs, NC to Log Cabin Drive (Hemlock Hollow Inn)16.3 miles, 290.2 total

 

So this morning, I started off with a wonderful homemade breakfast by Elmer Hall, the owner of Sunnybank Inn.   It was a veggie omelet, toast, granola and cantaloupe.  Lots of food and delicious.

After, I resupplied a Dollar General (for real! – lots of cheap pasta and other food) and called the fam and Lauren.  I stopped in at the local outfitter for a bit just to check it out, but got distracted and eventually left around noon.   Quite a late start if you want to go 16 miles.  Oh well.

The trek out of Hot Springs was a killer.  Pretty much eight miles uphill, and it did not feel good on my feet.  They really ached today for some reason.   After the final eight miles dragged on for what felt like forever, I reached a gravel road, and 0.7 miles down the road was a hostel!  Suh-weet!

This hostel is another honor system, pay at the end type thing, and they have a restaurant/café.  And WiFi!  But no public computer.  So I ate dinner (fried catfish, cole slaw, hushpuppies, fries), got some internet time, took a shower, and hit the hay.  All in all, a pretty good day.

I’m still meeting an awful lot of people, but we don’t tend to stay together so I haven’t really found a group hiking the same pace as me.  Oh well, I guess you gotta hike your own hike!