Hot springs for the Cookie Lady of the South

After driving back from Trail Days to where we took our break for the event, our next goal was Hot Springs, North Carolina. I really like it when the trail is physically part of the town. I enjoyed seeing the trail go through Damascus on Trail Days, but on the NOBO mileage markers, I think Hot Springs, North Carolina is where this first occurs. The town has been a vacation spot since the 1800s. It is on the banks of the French Broad River. The French Broad River is a leading candidate for the title of the second oldest river in the world, geologically. The river is older than the Appalachian Mountains through which it flows. The title of second oldest river in the world is currently awarded to the New River in West Virginia, another Appalachian waterway. In case you were wondering, the Finke River in Australia is recognized as the oldest river system in the world. We camped on the banks of the French Broad, it was pretty cool. Much damage still remains from the 2024 flood that occurred during Hurricane Helene’s visit.

Pizza

As I’ve probably mentioned in previous posts, we spend time on both sides of the US when we’re not hiking, biking, or powder skiing. Each house has a brick-domed pizza oven. Both have been neighborhood party hangouts for the 20 or so years we’ve had them. The furnace in California was built over four weekends for children (at the time) to experience a civil engineering project. Two of the children (now adults) are civil engineers. We know about pizza. We follow the four rules of pizza: only four ingredients in the dough, kneaded by hand, made in a wood-fired oven and no more than 90 seconds to cook the pizza. I was at the Hot Springs Visitor Center, which is great by the way, and someone mentioned how great the pizza place in town was. I normally walked by but as I walked by I saw they had a brick domed oven and the item was old vinyl albums the size of pizza with old vintage 45’s as the smallest size. The pizza menu was named after songs from the early 80s, so I was intrigued. I ended up with a fantastic pizza that had pesto instead of red sauce and topped with Caesar salad. It was extraordinary. The taco place around the corner, the coffee shop around the corner, and the restaurant the next morning for breakfast were all equally good. It’s a great little trail town.

The long day with many guided and inspired decisions

I felt very strong on the Hot Springs climb. Everything was working fine. The floors were soft and fun to pick up the pace. In the middle of the day the trail passes through some rock piles that I was not expecting. The trail builders must have had a good time building this section, as it was the most challenging rock negotiation since the start in Georgia. It was a beautiful day and I stopped at a great overlook and played guitar for a while. The trail descended from the ridge and wound through several contours. I was still feeling very strong when I arrived at what I thought would be my stopping point for the night. There was still plenty of daylight and I decided to push on to see how much daylight I could make. Wow, I’m glad I did it.

The Southern Cookie Lady

I had stopped to prepare some dinner near a water source and a road junction. I decided to go up and cross the next ridge as the guide had comments about a good campsite up ahead. I reached a dirt road and was greeted by a sign on a tree inviting me to stop by the Southern Cookie Lady’s store to purchase a cookie. I went down the road and was greeted by a pan full of freshly baked cookies, water for refills, and a trash can. What a nice surprise. The Southern Cookie Lady came out of her kitchen and we had a great chat. She even offered me a slice of freshly baked strawberry cake. Her baking is her way of giving hikers some love. It is another embodiment of the goodness and goodness that is part of the fabric of the path. The Cookie Lady of the South was an unexpected surprise that makes the trip have the impact of the moment that restores faith that the world is full of wonderful, loving people. To top it all off, there is a hostel right down the street. She called me because my phone had no service and within a few minutes I was at the hostel for the night.

Sunset Jammin and the proof of the existence of God

There was still plenty of daylight left after the usual hostel shower. The lodge had a great acoustic guitar and the host set me up on the porch and I played until the sun went down. A long day with strong walks and a pleasant surprise to end the day. These are the moments and events that I call “proof of the existence of God,” as there was a guardian angel type guiding force that pushed me to make the decisions I made throughout the day and that allowed me to be in the right place at the right time to enjoy these gifts of the day. I am truly blessed.

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