Day 23: Shortest day yet

Hiked 500 feet, staying at Elmer's hostel in Hot Springs.

Man today's hike was tough.  We walked about two blocks to a different hostel.  Since the AT goes right through town we still made forward progress though!

We really enjoyed the Laughing Heart yesterday but we really wanted to experience the AT famous dinners that Elmer puts on.  He is a retired chef and makes strictly vegetarian meals, we have heard that they are fantastic.

Delicious diner breakfast

We grabbed breakfast this morning after we were up at a diner in town.  Everyone got the hiker special which is a skillet piled high with potato wedges, veggies, cheese, mushrooms and more and comes with a side of eggs and a biscuit.  What a feast for 8 bucks!  We ran into Little Sass and Pathfinder there and invited then to join us.

Main street in Hot Springs

Walking down Main Street

AT symbol in the sidewalk

We checked into Elmers after breakfast and man what a unique place.  Everything inside has an almost Victorian feel and it is really more of an old house than  standard hostel.  Elmer has decorated some of it with an Asian feel in some respects and the whole house is fun to explore.  He has an enormous collection of books in the library.  He only takes 8-10 hikers each night and at this time of year it is very difficult to get a spot there, we are very lucky.  Elmer himself is a very interesting man,  he served in the peace corps all over the world, then opened his own vegetarian restaurant.  After hiking the AT in '76 he decided to give up his restaurant and bought the house here in Hot Springs.  The house was built in the 1840s and apparently it has been a guest house for travelers since the 1890s and he has continued this tradition.  In the spring it is primarily a haven for thru hikers, but during the rest of the year it is a B&B and I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to spend a weekend in this area.

Our room at Elmer's

Upstairs at Elmer's

Living room at Elmer's

Music Room

We spent the day relaxing, getting to the post office and library, and paused in the middle of the day to get some ice cream.  There is a place here that sells homemade ice cream and I have to say that the strawberry ice cream I ate had to be close to the best I've ever had.

We hit up the tavern for a beer before dinner.  Why Not has a friend who wants to contribute to our hike and has decided that the best way to do so is to buy a round of beers for us in every state.  Guess we'll have to hike with Why Not a little longer.  We will definitely make friends at border crossings!  Seriously though if you are reading this David thanks so much for the beer it was delicious!  I've been making sure to drink almost exclusively local beers and tonight I had a beer from the Asheville Brewing Co. called Mama's Little Pils.  So today we had our round in North Carolina.

Red Specs showing us his banjo skills

Dining room when there are a lot of people

Elmer and Banyon making dinner

Dining room for small groups

Red Specs in front of Elmer's

Dinner all laid out

Red Specs is also staying at Elmer's tonight and during the afternoon he entertained us with his kazoo playing.  Srocket got a great video, if you all are lucky she will post it. He also tried picking up the banjo in the music room here.  Shortly after, Srocket brought us all back a decade or so when she broke out the Titanic song on the piano.  Yeah, that happened and yes, we had to sing it for Red Specs as he didn't know it and no, you are not lucky enough for that to be caught on film.

One of my favorite parts of zero days is getting to hang out and watch all the hikers coming into town and seeing people that we haven't seen in a while.  This is especially true in Hot Springs where the AT goes right down the main street.  We could just sit outside on the patio of the tavern and watch groups pass by and say hello to friends we met earlier on the trail.  With the hiker festival happening this weekend here, Hot Springs is getting packed and tons of people are strolling into town.  We saw Dip'n'sip on the list for Elmer's tomorrow night, if we are lucky we will see him before heading out tomorrow.

Dinner was exquisite.  One of the guests here, Banyon, is a chef for a big restaurant (I think it was in Minnesota) and he made the soup.  We also had a salad with all fresh greens and Elmer's famous salad dressing.  For the main course Elmer made an Indian curry served over rice and there was Pecan Pie and Peppermint tea for desert.  Elmer allows you to have as many helpings of each course but once you move on to the next one you can't go back.  Everything was so delicious it was hard to decide how many helpings to have because you definitely didn't want to fill up too early.  Dinner was only a few of the guests as a couple forgot to sign up for it.  Besides Why Not and Srocket and myself we had Banyon, Bonzai and Red Specs.

After dinner we went back down to the tavern and hung out with the large group of thru hikers there.  We spent a bunch of time catching up with Moose and Caboose.  They have been hiking with another guy named Uncle Buck for a while and Srocket, Why Not, Red Specs and I had a great time before finally retiring to bed.