[at-l] 9/27/03 Hot Springs, NC

[spurhiker at pocketmail.com (spurhiker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)]

Around 7 AM we wake up in our tent for the first time on this hike. We usually stay in our tent every night we're on the trail, even when we camp near a shelter, but since tent camping was not allowed in the Smokies, we were inside a shelter for the first 4 nights of the hike, then at Standing Bear Hostel on the 5th night.

It was a mild night, and the morning is warm also. We resume the climb up Walnut Mtn begun yesterday evening, stopping just beyond the summit at the old Walnut Mtn Shelter to read the register, which is full of fantastic stories, none of them apparently true.

In another mile we've descended to Kale Gap, where we begin the thousand-foot ascent up Bluff Mtn. Partway up we enter a clearing with a view into a nearby upland pasture. Ready spies what looks like a dog lying out in the pasture. She walks over there, and it is indeed a dog, a black hound dog wearing a hunter's radio transmitter collar.

The dog is friendly, but seems to be ill or injured, for he cannot get up on his feet, and doesn't really even try. Being a dog lover, with a special place in her heart for animals lost, strayed or otherwise forlorn, Ready wants to help this dog. She offers it some of her trailmix to eat, and the dog gobbles it down. She then gives him the leftover rice from the huge meal we 
had last night, and that's gone in an instant. I open the can of Vienna sausages we were planning to have for lunch and the dog appreciates these also.

I pour some water into a ziploc bag and give that to him, but he turns his head away and drinks none of it. By now Ready has gotten a name and phone number off the dog's collar so we can call and report the dog's location. Before we leave him, we slide him onto our tent's groundcloth and carry him into the shade near the trail.

We finish the climb up Bluff Mtn, and at 4600-foot elevation I get a signal on our cellphone and speak with the dog's owner. He says the dog, whose  name is Diesel, has been missing for a week. He thinks the dog is just exhausted from running around so long lost in the woods. He lives at the foot of Bluff Mtn, and after hearing my description of the dog's location, says he'll set out now to retrieve Diesel.

Relieved to hear the dog will be taken care of, we head out with 10 miles left to reach Hot Springs. The next 4 miles are a fast downhill to Garenflo Gap, then the trail rolls up and down for another 4 miles. We're making good time, so decide to skip lunch for now and hike all the way in.

We both have on our minds completing this hike, Ready especially, since it's the end of her 2170-mile Long Cruise of the AT. We're walking well-built trail today through pleasant forest, but somehow we're more focused today on the end of the 
journey than the journey itself.

It's not like the climactic assault on Katahdin which ends a typical thruhiker's northbound quest, yet there is still a compelling sense of completion in the air. Every step today draws us tangibly closer to the goal which Ready began pursuing back in June of 2001.

Yesterday she crossed the 30-miles-to-go milestone, then the 20. Today the number is down to 10, then 5, now 2, and we're cruising down the ridge towards the French Broad River, connecting her final dots from Georgia to Maine.

We're both feeling the fatigue which comes from walking a hundred miles, zero to a hundred in 7 days. While it seemed like today would be almost all downhill, there have been big climbs and little climbs mixed in. We could of course simply stop and rest, but the end just ahead keeps drawing us forward.

So we keep strolling along, really all downhill now, and the village of Hot Springs becomes visible through the trees down below to the left of the trail. We pass 2 ladies who are out for a walk up the ridge. It can't be far now. A little more downhill and we come to the trailhead next to the Jesuit monastery which used to house a hiker hostel, though it no longer does. Down a stone stairway, through another row of trees, past the backyard of a mobile home, and we're on Lance Avenue, main street in Hot Springs.

Walking along the sidewalk, we pass Elmer's, where would-be Buddhists are meditating this weekend, then the Smoky Mtn Diner, where hikers congregate for breakfast during thruhiker season. Near the PO we spot Wayne, proprietor of Bluff Mtn Outfitters, who recogizes us and gives us a wave. He watches as Ready poses for a "summit photo" at the stone memorial which was erected in 1998 commemorating 50 years of thruhiking .

When we reach the doorway of the outfitter store, which marks the exact spot where Ready connects the last dot, Wayne is waiting with a bottle of chilled champagne, a serendipitous moment of celebration which adds a fitting sense of climax to the occasion. Ready has now hiked the entire Appalachian Trail!

We thought we'd complete the celebration in one of the springfed hot tubs at the resort nearby, but alas, they're all booked for the rest of the day. Instead, we check into Wayne's little guesthouse, retrieve our car from the trailhead, then have a late lunch at the Smoky Mtn Diner, followed by ice cream at the new little shop near the outfitter.

It's time for a nap, then some rest, then some more rest. Tomorrow we'll drive back to Atlanta where we'll spend a week putting the finishing touches on our 16,000-trail-mile slideshow, then head for NH by car where we'll present it along with music by Takoma Tedd as the opening night's program at the big ALDHA Gathering at Dartmouth College.

We're looking forward to seeing many of our hiker friends there. For more info about it, go to http://www.aldha.org .

Right now however, we're still back in our cabin in pursuit of some serious rest. And hey, three cheers for the latest AT end-to-end hiker, Ready!!!

(Ready's email address is:
readyhiker (at) yahoo.com )

(More journal entries for this hike are at:
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/spursjournal and http://www.spursjournal.com )

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