Day Twenty-nine

On the trail. Today I climbed roughly 4,110 feet with ups and downs and back packed 11.3 miles. Yes, I’m impressed too. It took me 11 hours.

At Shuck Stack I climbed the fire tower. After missing 2 of them, I had to, and I’m glad I did. I took pics of Fontana Dam and the Little Tennessee River. I saw a bunch of men on the trail today, all heading south. The first two told me Zigfoot was sitting by the tower eating granola. The second two told me that, yes, that was the path to the fire tower and it was worth it. Zig must have spoken to everyone because they all had something to say about him to me. The last four people all told me Zigfoot left me a sign showing me where the water was. I took a pic.

Which way to the water?

What I didn’t see today; bears. 1600 bears in the Smokies and I didn’t see one. I did see bear scat on the trail. I saw a tree as big around as three men holding hands. I saw tiny little plants that reminded me of “Baby Tears.” Daddy had it growing in his greenhouse as ground cover but this was smaller. (Editor: YES! I remember that, so pretty!). There was this other plant, where the leaves look like rosa casha, but not the stems. I saw Mountain Spiderwort, Toothwort and Fire Pink.