Day 30 - Saturday, April 20, 1974 - Deer Park Mountain Leanto to Hot Springs, NC

3.1 miles - 235.6 cumulative miles

Not taken in 1974, but sunrise from Deer Park Shelter taken in 1981.

We slept in the tent last night, mostly by choice and then by necessity.  Only 3 of the bunks in the shelter were useable and we had Leo with us and another guy from Boston (Tye).  He's the friend of the girl we met yesterday and has just completed his PhD.  38 years old.  Said he was visited by a couple of huge wild boars last night on the other side of Hot Springs.  Two other people showed up later.  They're a couple we met at Rocky Knob Shelter at the end of our 20 mile day back in Georgia: Rick and Louise.  They took a few days off since then, too, and we passed them somewhere.  They used their tent, too.  They set their alarm for 5AM and left early for breakfast in Hot Springs.  I got up and watched the sunrise.  Really beautiful.  I really wished I still had film.

We had breakfast and packed up and got going around 9.  Only 3 miles to town.  It was really quite hard to take all the noise of lawn mowers and cars and motorcycles as we came down the mountain into Hot Springs.  We've been out for 6 days and nights away from any civilized noise, except for the highway just out of the Smokies.  It took a while to get used to it all again.  We hit the post office after an hour and a half of hiking and got a pile of mail.  My 135mm lens also came.  But no money.  Found out why when we read our letter from home.  They have been gone since Tuesday.  No chance that they got our letter.

We checked in to the Alpine Motel where Rick and Louise are staying, and Barry and Joe in the room next door.  We packed up stuff to send home and checked out the stores and had lunch at Henderson's.  Showered, did our laundry, shopped and went broke.  Leo is staying in our room tonight and helping us out financially.  It's really appreciated.  He bought us a few drinks tonight.  We are in a dry county.  No beer.  But lots of hard liquor.  Strange.

Not many people around town.  Two grocery stores, one restaurant.  Lots of hikers.  4 others from Connecticut in town today.  Dogs all over the streets.  Trains rumbling through.  A river.  Nice scenery.  Nice weather.  Not too bad overall.