Woke up to rain, so we took the hostel’s shuttle into to town for breakfast and ate at Huddle house.

By the time we finished eating, the rain had lifted and the sun was trying to poke through.

We packed up at the Hostel and headed back to the trail.  As we were getting ready to leave, we saw a Bald Eagle sitting on a tree branch across the river (unfortunately too far for a picture)

The trail took us across the Nolichucky river, then over some railroad tracks before going back into woods.

Normally the climb out of a town is a steep one, but today seemed to be the exception.  For the most part it was a decent grade that followed a nice stream for most of the day.

After crossing the stream several times and walking along side of it for an hour or so, the vegetation cleared enough to see some Brook trout swimming.  I took out my fly rod and tried my luck. I got one to rise and chase a dry fly a couple times, but in the end came up empty.

At one point a set of power lines cut through the forest, and we were able to look out into the distance.

We saw a small rainstorm out in the distance and were grateful to be out of its path.

Towards the end of the day, we reached the top and came out at Beauty Spot Gap. We met section hiker, Vagabond, who offered to take any trash we had on us. Being the first day back from town, we didn’t have much but appreciated the gesture.
From there it was only a 5 minute walk to find our campsite for the evening. The site was out of the wind and had a decent spring, what more can you ask for? It is so nice to be out of the Smokies and not bound to shelters anymore!