A Snake and a French Broad

Day 20 - 4/30/10
That's what I saw today. I passed over the French Broad to get back on
the trail. That's the name of the river that runs through Hot Springs.
I had you going for a minute there, didn't I?

I slept farely well, but woke up later than usual, I'd say
8:00-8:30ish. I had some breakfast and while doing so I asked Marcus
if he ever watched the Simpsons over in Germany. He said yes, but not
recently. I ended up telling him about the one where the German
businessmen buy the power plant from Mr. Burns (season 3). He liked
that.

I packed up my stuff then walked to town. Marcus is taking a zero but
wanted to mail some things from the PO so he came along too. We also
stopped at the library to do some e-mailing and the outfitter to pick
up some things. I bought a pack cover for $20. I thought it was
pricey, and that was their cheapest one! After that Marcus and I said
farewell and I headed off. Hope to see him again soon, he was very cool.

Within 15 minutes of hiking I saw a snake right in the middle of the
trail. It was black, at least 4 ft. long, but not as thick as a
rattler would be. I thought it might have been fake since I was still
so close to town, but it looked very real. I tried making it move by
throwing some rocks near it, but it wouldn't budge, so I decided to
just walk far around it. That's when it decided to wriggle away down
the hillside in the opposite direction. I then knew it was real. I
also saw about 3-4 lizards and jumped every time.

As far as the hiking today it wasn't the inclines that got me, but the
heat! Man was it a scorcher. I heard it even made it into the 90's
here. I only did 11 miles, but with the heat it felt like such a long
day. Plus the flies were terrible. I think the heat really brought
them out, and they wouldn't leave me alone for one second. If you sat
still your head would be swarming. So it was a little rough today, but
I made it to Spring Mountain Shelter at 4:30. I got here right at the
same time as Not Worthy, so we set up camp in the same area. I quickly
did up some food, had coffee and mashed potatoes with bacon bits. Oh
yeah. It's about 7:30 now and the bugs are still terrible. I'm hoping
tomorrow they lighten up, and I've heard there will be afternoon
showers so that may get rid of them.

I haven't decided where I'll go tomorrow, I may try for 20+, but with
the rain who knows. At the very least I'll do 15.

Random things that I've been thinking about nonstop (aside from the
obvious ones, i.e. Jen, family, etc.) Volume 1:

-Lord of the Rings (movies)
-Tenacious D songs
-Beer
-Bridgton House of Pizza

Total miles: 282.8