hot springs, nc to spring mountain shelter

wow was it hot in the bunk room laat night. i just lay on my bunk with my sleeping bag shoved in the corner by the wall wishing it wasn’t there. unfortunately the bunk i was in creaked terrifically every time i shifted my weight. i felt bad for the other folks im the room, but what was i to do?

i got up very late by my standards, but i also went to bed pretty late due to watching the movie. i spent thr morning trying to get caught up on the blog. i made some progress, but i’m still a week behind.

quick went to the store to buy ingredients for crepes and made them for anyone in the hostel that was interested.

eventually i packed up and then kept at the blog until everyone else was ready. quick, rocket, bugs, and i walked to the hillbilly market to get some fresh stuff for our resupply before getting the rest at the outfitters. i also asked for a few bread bags for my feet in case the predicted snow were to manifest.

we walked around the corner and while bugs made some phone calls, the rest of us went to the iron horse for burgers and beers before hopping next door for another ice cream. the trail actually ran the length of the main street.

from there, we saddled up and got hiking. somewhere around 14:00 we crossed the river on the road, and then walked upstream for a while before abruptly beginning a series of switchbacks up what was essentially a cliff face. our extra full packs weighed on us heavily.

eventually we got to the top and from there the trail was pretty reasonable. we had about 11 miles to go. as we hiked we spread out considerably. i was feeling pretty good today and ended up about 20 minutes ahead of the others.

there was a brief dirt road walk.

and then through a parking lot where i spied the mysterious orange scooter. today it had some socks on the handlebars.

toward the end of the afternoon i reached rich mountain fire tower and took the .2 mile blue blaze to the actual tower. i stopped briefly at the bottom to throw on a layer and grab a banana and an apple before heading up.

the tower seemed newer than most. it had nice aluminum grates. i noticed a cell tower only 10s of feet away, so decided to call magz. while i was on the phone, quick arrived and had a snack looking at the view.

we got back on trail for the last 3 miles and were at the shelter by perhaps 17:30, pretty late for us. the shelter was tiny. it only held about 6 people, and definitely not someone tall like me- the sleeping shelf was probably a foot too short!

i was hoping to tent anyway, and thankfully there were still some sites available a littlr bit up the trail.

dinner was a ‘ramen bomb’. i had found 4 ramen noodles in the hiker box and i got some dehydrated 4 cheese potatoes. i made it all in a rinsed out backpackers pantry pouch. it was pretty salty, but ultimately it worked out well, and i was actually full.

some additional images from today.

you shall not pass!