Farewell Smokies

Sunday we hiked back in from our night in town. We were planning on going 15 miles but after 10 hard miles we decided to call it a short day. Austin wasn't feeling the best so we cut the day short. The next day we planned on hiking 13 miles but when we all stopped for our midmorning snack (a must on the trail) we all got to talking and the boys decided it would be fun to try to push on past our original goal and make it a 20 mile day. Our biggest day up to that point was 14 and change and that was a hard day. I didn't want to at all at first but I was convinced to give it a shot. It was mostly downhill coming down out of the smokies, but it was a hard day. It turned out being a wonderful idea because the shelter we plane on going to was going to be full for the night and the one we ended up at had room to spare.
We got in late but still had daylight to cook and relax. Right at dusk one of the guys that was staying with us came over the hill and said there was a bear. The bear was across the ravine so we all went to go look. It took awhile to see it cause it was getting dark but we did see the shadow of a pretty big bear when smaller cubs. Once it started moving we all went and got in the shelter which conveniently had a bear cage on it. One guy wanted to sleep in his tent out of the sheeter but ended up moving into the shelter at about 10 after everyone had gone to bed and he woke up with the bears right outside his tent.
Today we only plan on going 10.5 total but there was a wonderful hostel off the trail called standing bear. We decided to stop there and buy some snack/lunch. But before me and austin made it out of the smokies we had to have one more bit of excitement. We were less then a tenth of a mile from the gap that ended the smokies when a black bear ran out of the woods and across the trail about 30 feet in front of us. As soon as austin saw it he started yelling "hey bear" to scare it off. It was a smaller bear, maybe 100 lbs, we were thinking a cub. So of course made us more nervous and we looked around for momma bear. We walked very slow and when we didn't see anything we hurried on through.
Now we are resting at standing bear farm eating our fill of food in the most beautiful relaxing place. (See pictures) we should be able to make it to our next town by the weekend!

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