In Hot Springs NC.

Currently in hot Springs. No Cell phone or Internet at the hotel so sending this from the restaurant. All is well. 14 Apr, Day 27, 10.6 mile, Standing Bear Hostel at AT mm 241.0. Last day in the Smokeys was excellent! Mainly downhill and a  beautiful sunny day so was a great way to say goodbye. The last mile I was high-fiving the Leaves and trees saying thanks for such a great week...perhaps I have been in the woods too long. The hostel we stayed at was great fun. Food and some beer, campfire and good company. It was Walk-n-Eats birthday so we had something to celebrate. I gave him a rock for his bday present in the morning...not sure if he still has it. So it was a good evening. Thanks Curtis for your hospitality...if you are still googling the wolf pack. :). Lida brought Mojo and Skye in around 6pm so they, and all of us, were very excited to see each other. It was nice having them in the tent with me again. I think they slept on top of me most of the night but that was ok with me...we were very cozy indeed. 15 Apr, Day 28, 9.6 miles, Brown Gap at AT mm 250.6. Up pretty early today but had to organize the boys packs again so it took awhile to Break camp. I love having them with me but they are a bit extra work to say the least. It is worth it though so anyone wanting to hike the AT with their dog..Do it. We are only 30 miles from Hot Springs so we only did just under 10 today...but it was hard. The first 4.2 and last 2.5 miles were uphill. The boys did great and seemed very happy to be back on the trail, but it was a long 10 miles for me. We are going to take our second zero day in hot springs and I think I need it. All is going great but never hurts to give the body a rest day. By the way, For those in the "pool", I started the AT weighing around 245 pounds. According to a fairly dodgy scale at the Hostel, I have lost around 15 pounds so am now hovering around the 230  pound mark...Not bad for 27 days. I will update as I progress and get a better scale. :) 16 Apr, Day 29, 12.6 miles, unnamed camp site near the summit of Bluff Mountain at AT mm 263.2. While we were in the Smokeys we were required to stay at the shelters. We discovered with our big group we prefer staying at campsites when we can. We are going to try to rename this one the Wolf Pack Gap campsite as it really is in the guide book as "unnamed campsite"...that's not very original so we thought we tried to help out the AT conservancy. We actually have most of the wolf pack here tonight. With the exception of VW and two others, we have 16 at the campsite.  Today's hike was great. Still beautiful weather and fairly easy terrain. We actually passed some farm land and walked through a field which was a bit different after spending 28 days in mountains and Forrest. I forgot what it was like to walk on grass...it was a nice change of scenery. Tomorrow we head into Hot Springs which is suppose to be a great trail town do we are looking forward to that. Only 10 miles down hill so we hope to get an early start and get in by lunch.  We shall see...although we do get up around 7 every morning, early starts are not normally the thing. :)