Hot Springs

Another hard day to get up. After each particularly long day it is so hard to get myself up out of bed. As part of the hiker fest happening here in Hot Springs there's a pancake breakfast in town so I had to go! It was a $5 charge but it was a lot of food too! I ran into Buzokie at the restaurant! From there I went across to the outfitters store to pick up some needed gear like sock liners, I'm hoping that those will be the solution to my foot trouble at this point. I also got a new food bag because the strap on my second one melted awhile back. I got a better one this time. I picked up a T-shirt and some snacks and other small supplise too. Also my drop box with food and gear, I was able to pick that up. There was a scale at the store. I lost 10lbs since starting a month ago.

Not the shirt I bought but I found it funny.

Scout and Pots made it in to the hostel after I got back, we went back to town to split a load of laundry. While the laundry was going I walked over to the art gallery and café. I got some delicious berry swirl ice cream in a fresh waffle cone then a smoothie. Technically 2 smoothies since she didn't measure anything and it filled up my glass and filled it up a second time after I finished. Malibou was there with her chihuahua, Roo. She's planning on going to the pound tomorrow to adopt another dog to join her on the trail. She's more of a big dog person anyways but if she does get a larger dog she could have Roo ride in one of the dog back pack pouches.

Where thru hiker belong

The town of hot springs didn't get it's name from cold water. There's a natural hot spring here. There aren't many on this side of the country. I walked over to the resort and spa and got an hour in the spring. You get your own private hot tub essentially that looks out onto the nearby river which was flooding since it's still raining and has been for days. They fill up the hot tub fresh for each person and drain and clean the tub after so it's all natural water and natural temperature . Plus the jets on the tub work as well. It was so relaxing and nice. Towards the end a few layers of skin started pealing away from the back of my large toenails. Ick!

I was able to get their last massage appointment for the day too. It was a 30 min slot, someone had a cancellation so I was able to get in. Otherwise they were fully booked for days. I'm glad I got in! The massage was great and she was used to getting hikers and gave me a few stretches for me to do to help with the parts of my body that are particularly tight which can lead to injuries like shin splints for example if I don't stretch out these areas. I've run into a few people who gave up on the trail from shin splints.

After the spa I was just crazy hungry. I wanted to check out the dinner in town because everyone had such great things to say about it but it closed at 2pm. There are only 3 places to eat in town, 4 if you consider the art gallery which had smoothies and a few pasteries in the afternoon. And I didn't want to go to the place I went last night that put mushrooms instead of chicken on my pizza so to the Iron horse Station it was! The only person I knew there was Grey Eagle so I joined him at the bar. He's a solo hiker, I think that he's in his 70's. While I was waiting for a massage earlier he was also waiting for one too. I joked that I was stalking him because we keep running into each other for the past 2 weeks. I got a locally caught rainbow trout meal which was fantastic and a chocolate peanut butter pie. When the bills came around he took my check and said he'd pay for it. That was so nice of him!

I saw am opossum on the tail

I might do another zero tomorrow depending on how I feel. Most people here are taking 2-3 zeros. Anther vortex town that sucks you in. It's a really charming town though.