Appalachian Trail (day 14) - Roaring Fork Shelter to Elmer's Sunnybank Inn (Hot Springs) / mile 275

"I have a back cracker but it's cut half way hot dog wise and half way hamburger wise. It's basically a chode." Cold Case

Today I've descended to the town of Hot Springs and the vibe of it took me by surprise.

Hot Springs got hit really bad by the hurricane Helene six months ago. The town got almost completely destroyed but recovered extraordinarily well in such a short period of time. The diner, outfitters, pub and Dollar General are up and running there's a pizza place that re-opened literally today and got swarmed by local people and of course hikers alike. Hot Springs gives me vibes of Christ Church in New Zealand I've visited last year which got destroyed by an earthquake in 2011 and people are still rebuilding it. There's an unique energy here, it brings people together and makes them creative because supplies are limited. There's for example a food truck called "Hunt and Gather" here, which serves food that it's owners are able to.. well you guessed it right: hunt or gather, menu changes very often.

I've stayed in an old Victorian house, and in fact the oldest building in Hot Springs, that survived the catastrophe called Elmer's Sunnybank Inn, the first person to ever hike Appalachian Trail: Earl Victor Shafer stayed here during his thru hike in 1948 and has a room named after him. The house has so much flavour and character, it might be the most interesting place I've stayed at during any of my hikes. I've met Elmer late at night as one of the last occupants of the house (he has volunteers running the place for him), everyone else was asleep and he was in the kitchen making himself a sandwich, an old, kind looking gentleman. He asked me what's my name and where I'm from. Apparently I was the first Polish person visiting this year, he asked me to shut the kitchen door behind as the draft was bothering him.

Because I was late with my booking, Chris aka "Cold Case" put me in a spare room (which was still amazing), I had a tour around the house and took (way too) many pictures of it, and I still can't fathom how it can be a hikers hostel! "Cold Case" got his trail name because he was a law student and hiked the trail in the winter last year.

I've had a lunch consisting of Trail Burger and Coke at the Smokey Mountain Diner with two trail workers (not hikers) that were on their way to visit a sick friend but stayed at Elmer's for the night. Gemma was volunteering at the chimpanzee sanctuary in Georgia, only started two months ago and was telling me all about it. It was aming to be the biggest facility for un-realesable chimpanzees in US, mostly the ones that's been experimented on. Henry was working at the Mountain Crossings hiker hostel in Neel Gap I've passed next to last week.

As per the town day, I've also did my usual chores of resupplying, recharging the batteries, cleaning the clothes and showering, but I've spent most of the evening at the back porch listening to a guy called White Wolf who thru hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2023 playing handpan and telling stories from the trail, there was few other hikers hanging here as well, Papa Smurf from England with his daughter, a woman called Blue Moon (who just changed her trail name from Intel), and few others names of which I can't remember.

The hostel could accommodate 11 people at the time and it was full every day. They've actually put me in a spare, staff room for the night but I wasnt complaining as it was still comfortable and clean. It costed $35, cash only. I had few beers and shifted my sleeping schedule in favour of the social side for the day but I'm planning to start hiking again tomorrow morning.