In the Fire Tower

That's my buddy Doug. We are on our way down to Fontana Dam. The water you can see is upstream from the dam.

The 11 mile hike down is not as rough as going up, but still strenuous. It gets you in the quad muscles, and slams your toes into the front of your hiking boots. 11 miles in 8 and a half hours, which included an hour side trip into this fire tower.

Our motel guy said that some people considered this the BEST view in the Smokies. I wouldn't argue. A 360 degree panorama. The only problem?

We had to look at the Fontana Dam, which was our destination for the afternoon...and...IT WAS STILL 3.5 MILES AWAY!!!

By the time 4:30 rolled around...we were NEVER so happy to see a stretch of pavement in our lives. (I would have kissed it, but was afraid I couldn't get up!)

We were out of the woods. Our driver picked us up, and returned us to our car. The hotel bed and Chinese dinner were fabulous.

A couple more pictures are on my FLICKR PAGE.