Goodbye Great Smokies, Hello Hot Springs

Well we have finally left the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After a brief stint in Gatlinburg, and some home-sick tears by Rudy, we headed back into the national park. Highlights included our first thunder storm (luckily we were in a shelter when it struck), and making it to the Standing Bear Hostel - a bunch of log cabins on the edge of the park with a pantry stocked with oreos, pizzas, donnuts and pringles. A hikers' dream.

After a nights rest and filling up on junk food (it is impossible to describe how much we dream about food when we are on the trail), we headed back into the woods with the aim of making it to the town of Hot Springs in two days. To do this we put in the miles - 15 on the first and 18 on the next. The last six went much more quickly for having been accosted by a strange back-woodsman, who invited us back to his place for a drink...and offered us a ride in his car. Being mindful of never accepting rides from strangers, we hot-footed it back to the woods and must have set a land-speed record. We made it to Hot Springs just in time for 4th of July fireworks.

Hot Springs, much as the name suggests, is home to natural hot springs. A former Victorian resort town, its heydays were behind it, but it still retained some of the grandeur in the form of the Sunnybank Inn, a mansion from the 1840s that now provides accomodation and meals for hikers, complete with music room, library and period antiques. There is even rocking chairs on the porch to while away the long Southern afternoons. After a two night stay, a soak in the hot springs (which are now pumped into private spa tubs down by the river) and a replenish of our supplies, we are heading back into the woods for another 4 or 5 nights, hopefully bear and serial killer free.