We woke up in the comfort of Elmer’s Inn and had breakfast with Elmer, Jesse (Elmer’s employee), and another thru-hiker named Firefox (or maybe Foxfire). Breakfast and the conversation was great. We headed back on the trail around 10am. The trail ascended out of Hot Springs pretty quickly.
The day was hot and summery. With our packs full of many snacks and treats, the going was a bit slower than our normal pace. We didn’t climb any crazy mountains today, but had some interesting scenery as we hiked back towards the TN/NC border. The trail wound around a cool old pond.
We also trekked on some dirt roads for a bit.
We saw another couple of black snakessssssss…
We hiked some hot dogs and baked beans out of town and made them over a campfire for dinner. I can check a major item off of my bucket list after tonight…I successfully ate 5 hot dogs in one meal (plus the baked beans and Snickers), including the one that fell off my skewer into the fire and was covered in ashes and dirt…mmm…dirty food. We called it a day after around 15 miles because of the later start, heat, and extra packweight. Tomorrow we plan to ramp back up to 20+ mile days.
Vital stats :
Mood – hotttttt dogging
Physical state – good other than eating 4 clean hot dogs and 1 dirty dog
Smell – kinda like a hot dog
Song stuck in my head – On The Road Again by Willie Nelson (I think?), as covered by the Blue Tones
Hot dog – that was a good post! I particularly like the song stuck in your head – On the Road Again – (which is now stuck in my head) and the reference to the Bluetones! 🙂 You should have seen Dad’s face! Too funny! Stay safe and healthy. Happy hiking. Sending all good thoughts, prayers and lots of love.
Should I (packy) pack some dirty dogs for the next mail drop??? That was nice of the snake to stop and pose on the poles while you took a pic of him! I hope you used your body as a shield from the snake for Katie’s safety!! ….very cool pics.
Found myself feeling nostalgic for green, (and a bit jealous too) looking at the leafed out trees, wonderful pics true to form. Still have mostly bare branches here. Wish you could have been a fly on the wall on a recent family ride to W-B riffing on what I call camp names. Been dealing with them for 20 plus years w/ camp staff. Fun stuff!!! Always liked the Foxfire books series. Enjoy those clean and dirty dogs. Writing of which, Pat says yip yip and on into infinity.
Very funny. Did you score free hiking poles?