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[at-l] GSMNP AT & Miscellany



Hi, I'm a newbie to this list and to the AT as well, so I was wondering if
anyone can answer a few questions I have.

A friend and I are looking to do a 70 mile loop in the Smokies.  The loop
starts and ends at Fontana Dam.  It starts on the Appalachian Trail,
then switches to the Forney Creek Trail and finally the Lakeshore Trail.
We're going to do it in 7 or hopefully 8 days, so we'll have time to
relax, and possibly even a day to set basecamp and do some dayhiking
(unless I'm told otherwise in some replies!)  We will be going around
August 4-13, including driving time.

I was wondering if anyone who has done this loop or hiked any portion of
it could offer any information, stuff they found interesting,
uninteresting, etc.  The terrain looks pretty rugged (especially a huge
descent off of Clingman's Dome) in areas, and I was wondering how much (if
at all) the terrain slows down the pace.  Any trip reports for this area
that anyone can point me to would be really great as well.

Also, having never hiked on the AT (my experience is all in Pennsylvania
and out in the Sierras in the John Muir Wilderness, etc), I'm a little
concerned about the shelters.  Will it be tough to get reservations for
the first week of August?  And what happens if you get slowed down
unexpectedly or make much better time than you planned for?  I know that
you can get fined for being in a shelter without reservations, and being a
poor college student, it's not a prospect I relish :)

Also, if the bears are a problem, then why are there not shelters on the
Forney Creek or Lakeshore trails?!?!  It seems to me that if shelters are
needed in one spot, then a spot a few miles away would require one as
well.  Plus, the fact that we'll have to lug a tent around that we won't
need for 1/3 of the trip isn't to pleasing either.

Any information at all is welcome!!

Thanks in advance!

Stephen Payne


"We sure liberated the hell out of this place."
        -- GI entering the rubble of St. Lo, France, 1944
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