With 100% chance of rain in the forecast and needing to resupply anyway, we took a zero day and stayed at the Fontana Lodge.

[Sorry, no pictures on this update, the wifi is pretty slow and there is little to no signal here at the lodge. ]

It turned out to be a good move, as a front blew over, bringing winds up to 45mph, rain and fog. It looked even worse up in the mountains
We got a ride into town, somehow fitting the whole trail family, and groceries into one car. We had to pack heavy, as the Smokies will take at least 5 days to hike through, with no towns in between.

On that note,  I am expecting little to no signal throughout the Smokies over the next week, so there may not be an update for a while.

I am going to type up an entry each day though, they just may not get posted until a few days later. To make things less confusing, I have started to put dates along with the day number on each post.

We are all excited to get into the Smokies tomorrow, it will bring some challenging terrain, new vegetation/wildlife and take us to the highest elevations over the trail.

Thanks for following our epic journey stay tuned for more!