We conquered the Smokies on the Appalachian Trail!

The last time I did a blog update we were in Fontana Dam about to enter the Smoky Mountains. The night before we left Fontana, by an enormous coincidence we ran into Joan and Colleen from REI!

The next morning they became trail angels by giving us a ride back to the trail!

The trail in Fontana goes directly over the Dam, which Mac was very excited to hear that part of the movie “The Fugitive” was filmed.

After going over the Dam we officially entered the Smokies.

The Smokies are logistically different than the rest of the trail because we are required to camp at shelters. This means that some days we have to choose between hiking 7 miles or 16. Mac and I being the daredevils we are went for the big days.

That’s the morning after the first time we hiked 16 miles. Very sore.

There was some bad weather but in general the days were amazing and the scenery was awesome.

After exiting the park we headed to a Hostel known as Standing Bear Farm. I believe that this is the closest thing to a hippie community that I will ever see.

That’s a CHICKEN in that tree. They were everywhere.

Because of some severe storms instead of heading back onto the trail, we got a ride into the town of Newport, Tennessee to relax and refresh for a few days. Our first stop was Cracker Barrel.

We considered staying for lunch as well.

While in the Smokies we hit the 200 mile mark. We are over a tenth of the way to Maine!