Our hiking in North Carolina intersected with the Appalachian Trail in a couple of different locations. In Hot Springs, NC we started a hike to Lover’s Leap by walking on the AT along the French Broad River. The southeast is suffering from a drought; the river is popular with white water rafters, but there is not enough water to float anybody’s boat right now.
In the Great Smoky Mountains we also wandered onto the AT unintentionally. We started to hike a ridge trail away from Clingman’s Dome, but missed a the trail turn-off. Along the way we met a most interesting hiker. As we chatted he mentioned that he had hiked all the trails in the park. I remembered reading that there were several hundred miles of trails, so I asked him about that. Yes, it’s true, but he had hiked over 1400 miles because of the need to hike out to some of the trails he hadn’t done before. But, I’ve done one thing he hasn’t—summit Mt. Whitney. He made it to Trail Camp earlier this summer and felt ill, so didn’t go on to the summit. (A fluke, I think. He looked in excellent physical condition.) In this location, the AT runs along the ridgeline, which also is the boundary between North Carolina and Tennessee.
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