After 1.7miles along the Appalachian trail from Newfound Gap, we reached the junction between the AT and the Sweat Heifer Creek Trail. Took a picture here, ate a granola bar, then hiked back to Newfound Gap where the car was parked. Got caught in the rain on the way back.

With this post, I end my Smokies adventure series.

I was all excited to hike the Appalachian trail. I realized later that the trail does go through Pennsylvania, the nearest point is like an hour to the north of Bethlehem, so I didn’t need to make the 10 hour drive down to Tennessee to hike it. But I think this stretch of the trail is almost the highest point along the whole Appalachian trail. The highest point is Clingmans Dome (6643 feet or 2025m).

This one room school house was built around 125 years ago. When the area became the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, people around this area had to move away so the school closed down. Now there are volunteers who sort of teach visitors here on certain days.

It was a cloudy, rainy and dreary day. Not a good time to take pictures with “lauyah” disposable camera. Anyway here is one view from the top.

I was telling Becky that lightning must have struck all those bare dead trees near the top of the mountains. It was only later that I learned that it was actually some bugs called adelgids, that was brought in from Europe, that killed all those fir trees.

Somehow this structure reminds me of the land of the Ewoks in the Return of the Jedi. Not that the ewoks would build that but it could be a lookout point build by the Empire. And the waterspots make the grainy photo even more authentic.

Well, here is the highest point in Tennessee. It’s actually a 0.5 mile hike up to this place. The steep trail is paved, sort of like the road up to Penang hill from the Botanical Garden.

Here is a rather poor picture that sort of shows why the smokies is called the smokies.