Day 4 - Southbound Express to Hot Springs

Some people can pick up their pack, whistle a happy tune, and stroll along without a care until they get where they're going.

For better or worse, I'm not one of them.

Planning my daily hike means calcuating miles and pace, and annotating my AT guide so I can check my progress along the way. 

My AT guide, with notes

Rain showers overnight and into the morning pushed back my planned start time. Let's just say that a yoga pose has not yet been developed that replicates packing all your gear while in a one-man tent. But the rain stopped, and I dug in to put in the miles to Hot Springs.

Walk, walk, walk. Downhill, earwiging the Scherzo from Beethoven's 7th. Cranking an uphill, the Marche Funebre from the Eroica Symphony. Checking off a section at a time and plowing ahead. 

Quick lunch stop at a creepy AT shelter

Nearly 19 miles later, I'm in Hot Springs, NC, on lovely French Broad River. A weird combo of AT hikers, river rats, bikers, and weekend redneck vacationers.

And my lodgings for the night, Elmer's Sunnybank Inn - a post on that and Hot Springs tomorrow!

1840s Victorian meets 2016 hiker trash.