Today I have an easy day, a real easy day, just 2 miles. Yep. That's it. Of course it will be followed by a two day drive home consisting of well over a 1000 miles, but I don't have to hike those miles. Besides, over the course of the last 3 years, I already did. Lynn dropped me off at Fontana Lake Marina. She then drove to the north end of the dam two miles away and began to hike toward me. The first mile was in the woods. Off I went.
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Coming out of the woods.
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Nearing Fontana Dam
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There's Lynn. She loves when the A.T. follows a road.
So do I, it means I get to hike with her.
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Here I am in front of Fontana Lake.
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I'm glad the weather cleared so we could enjoy this beautiful spot.
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Time to take the Appalachian Trail across the dam.
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The Little Tennessee River
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Looking way, way down to the generators.
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Beautiful Fontana Lake
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View from the north end of the dam
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Well, that's it. I don't have to go back into the Smokies,
although maybe I should, it looks like I would get a view today.
I hiked 70 miles through the Smokies and really didn't get clear view from the trail. That's OK, I had beautiful views from Hump, Little Hump, Big Bald, Max Patch, Fontana Dam and many, many other places during this two week trip. As we finished, we met one last hiker. This was Roadtrip. He was doing half the trail (up to Harpers Ferry). We gave him a fresh piece of fruit to help him on his way.
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From here Lynn and I drove back across the dam. We decided to check out the dam visitors center.
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Here are a few dam facts.
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One of the dam volunteers took our picture.
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After watching a dam video, we went outside to check out the dam spillway.
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Out of all my dam pictures, this was the best dam picture I took.
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We had a long drive ahead. Fortunately, we would be able to stop in Virginia to see our friends Jim and Sue again. We wanted to show them our appreciation for putting us up, so we got them a couple gifts from the dam gift shop.
