I left Fontana Village on my next section after a nice rest day, crossing over Fontana Dam…
.. and entering (finally!) Smoky Mountain National Park (SMNP).
And saw this guy leaving Fontana Village….
This section (and the next) are entirely in the park and while the trail was pretty good (better than south of here), there were a lot of blow-downs (trees fallen over the trail).
As in the first week I was lucky with the weather – no rain and lots of sunshine. This was a five day section but the same distance as my 6 day first section so a few more miles per day.
Being in the park this part of the trail seems to have more maintenance. There were a lot of river wades but also these cool tree-bridges.
In the park you must camp in designated camp sites and some of them even have picnic benches!
And I saw more wildlife in this section…. Several deer…
And this weird guy, who never moved while I walked past.
And, unlike the first week where I did not see anyone for 4 days, I saw several groups of section/day hikers and my first Benton MacKaye thru-hiker..
On the fifth day I hit US441 and hitched the 8 miles to Cherokee, NC to resupply and take a rest day. I got picked up by the first car that passed, which was nice.
I especially like the Cherokee tribal billboard on the same street as a giant Confederate flag. Ahhhh… the South!
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